Rough Trade レコード& CD

Review: From struggling 1980s underdog to darling of the 1990s Britpop scene, Jarvis Cocker's legacy will always be as a role model for the dejected, bespectacled poets hidden in and among Britain's hardest drinking pubs and weirdest countercultural clubs. Originally released as his second solo album of the post-Pulp years, in 2009 to be exact, while this end of his oeuvre doesn't hold the same mythicism as earlier work, there's plenty here deserving of this fresh pressing.

In many ways there's not a great deal here to distinguish between lone wolf and the band he fronted, but this is more a sign of creative force than running out of ideas. Here we have intelligent, rousing indie anthems ('I Never Said I Was Deep'), easy listening balladry with wry wit ('Hold Still') and barroom ballsiness ('Angela'), wrapped around a self-deprecating look at a break-up, and it's further evidence of Cocker's genius.