Jarvis Cocker, the British singer-songwriter who fronted Pulp in the 80s and 90s, has returned with a triumphant new solo album, Further Complications. The album, released on Rough Trade, is the sequel to Cocker’s 2007 solo debut, Jarvis. Recorded in Chicago with Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies) it features the single “I Never Said I Was Deep,” which harnesses the energy and righteous anger of Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan. “I never said I was deep, but I am profoundly shallow, my lack of knowledge is vast, and my horizons are narrow,” howls Cocker.
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In an interview with Billboard, the Sheffield native discussed his latest approach to songwriting.
Billboard: “Further Complications” explicitly plays with different rock styles. Was that calculated during the writing process?
Jarvis Cocker: With me having started making music around the punk time, the rock orthodoxy was the establishment you rejected. Obviously there is a lot of bad rock music, but there’s also really good rock music, and I got an education. I thought, ‘This band can play that kind of music — would I be able to write a record that would be able to use that but also not be a joke?’ I haven’t started wearing leather trousers, a sleeveless T-shirt and a bandana.
Cocker recently teamed with director Wes Anderson to write music for the upcoming animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, in which the former Pulp leader voices the character of Petey, a mandolin-strumming puppet.
Check out a unique live performance of “I Never Said I was Deep” below.
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