Jarvis Cocker
spent much of his post-
Pulp
career doing his best not to directly embrace the legacy of his previous band, going so far as to record a collection of noisy guitar rock with
Steve Albini
.
Beyond the Pale
, his first album with his band
JARV...IS
, flips that notion on its head but
Cocker
isn't racing back to the anthemic realm of
Different Class
: he's returning to the death disco of
Separations
, the art-house-punk he essayed in the years just prior to
His N Hers
. While those early-'90s records were exploratory and elliptical,
is focused; when the songs drift beyond the six-minute mark, which they often do, it's with a sense of purpose. No matter how often the sounds recall the past -- a situation
will occasionally acknowledge in his lyrics, as when he name-drops DJ
Frankie Knuckles
on "Must I Evolve?" -- this revival of a future passed doesn't quite feel retro. Chalk that up to
becoming reinvigorated with
. He writes elongated verses, finding his sweet spot between the underground and mainstream, and the music plays to his enduring obsessions, bypassing pop singles in favor of melodramatic post-punk. The result is something of a quiet renaissance for him, proof that he can still weave a compelling, daring blend of trash and high art. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine