Oh dear. Each single I heard from this album made me despair. And the
album is simply the sum of those singles and more. This is a mere shadow
of the exceptional "Different Class" album which was scarcely
off my system a couple of years ago. That album showed Jarvis Cocker as a
witty, biting songwriter, capable of bouncy and epic songs.
This is a mere shadow of that
album. At times the lyrics degenerate into schoolboy humour and many of
the lines are plainly embarrassing rather than sharp and incisive. Cocker
is trying to be too grown-up, too clever and too worldly-wise. What we
have is pastiche of the worst kind. It is one of the biggest
disappointments for many years.
