Jarvis Cocker — Jarvis

Leave it to Jarvis Cocker to move to Paris and not only escape the trappings of the city’s romanticism, but somehow grow even more sardonically bitter. The former Pulp frontman’s solo debut drips with his acerbic wit as he addresses the disillusionment in human existence. He implores girls to find someone who appreciates them in his trademark disaffected deadpan on “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time.” The more palpable vitriol surfaces in the stripped-down, punk guitar-infused “Fat Children,” where Cocker blithely intones “Fat children took my life” over and over again. It’s all part of a brilliant and masterfully paced record of Cocker’s wry lyricism and assured pop compositions. According to Cocker, the world is fucked, so why not be happy? It seems the bookish man from Sheffield has finally done it — without all the E’s and Whizz, to boot.

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