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Jun 11, 2020 By Christopher Roberts JARV IS…

Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker has a newish band JARV IS… and their debut album, Beyond the Pale, is due out July 17 via Rough Trade. Now they have shared another song from the album, album opener “Save the Whale,” via a video for it featuring live photos of the band taken by fans. Cocker made the video at home while under lockdown. Watch it below.

Cocker had this to say about “Save the Whale” in a press release: “The title popped into my head as I was leaving the cinema after having seen Nick Broomfield’s Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love documentary. The ‘Smooth World, Wrinkly World’ section came from a childhood memory of being ill: I would hear the murmuring of a large crowd accompanied by a visual image of a line-drawing (rather like a Patrick Caulfield painting, I’ve since realized) in which all the objects switched rapidly between being smooth and bulbous and then thin and wrinkly. It used to absolutely terrify me. Weirdly enough, Jason (our electronics wizard) said he had a similar childhood experience except he used to see a teapot surrounded by psychedelic outlines of itself. Emma (our violinist and backing vocalist) found herself singing ‘Smooth World, Wrinkly World’ as a lullaby to her 18 month-old daughter the other night. Pass it on.”

Beyond the Pale was initially due out May 1, but was pushed back to September 4 due to the pandemic, but has since been moved forward to July 17.

Beyond the Pale includes “Must I Evolve?,” the group’s first single, shared May 2019 (it was #1 on our Songs of the Week list). When the album was announced, JARV IS… shared another new song from it, “House Music All Night Long,” via a video for the track (which was #2 on our Songs of the Week list).

JARV IS… features Cocker (vocals, guitar, percussion), Serafina Steer (harp, keyboards, vocals), Emma Smith (violin, guitar vocals), Andrew McKinney (bass, vocals), Jason Buckle (synthesizer and electronic treatments), and Adam Betts (drums, percussion, vocals). The project started as a live band in 2017 and they began recording their shows. Then they took the live recordings to Narcissus Studios in Neasden, London, where overdubs and vocals were added. Additional post-production work was done at Jason Buckle’s Place du Big Boss studio in Raynes Park, London. Craig Silvey mixed the album at Toast Studios in West London.

A previous press release said: “JARV IS… an ongoing live experience because life is an ongoing live experience. Or, to put it another way: THIS IS NOT A LIVE ALBUM – it’s an ALIVE ALBUM.”

It’s been 11 years since 2009’s Further Complications, Cocker’s last solo album (which followed Jarvis, his 2006 solo debut). Although in 2017 he teamed up with Chilly Gonzales for a collaborative concept album, Room 29, inspired by room 29 in the iconic Hollywood hotel Château Marmont, which has had many famous guests (the hotel opened in 1929). In 2017 Cocker also guested on “Century,” the standout track on Feist’s last album, Pleasure, and teamed up with Iggy Pop to cover the Nick Cave classic “Red Right Hand” for the TV show Peaky Blinders.

Read our 2017 print magazine article on Cocker and Gonzales’ Room 29.

Read our 2017 extended Q&A with Cocker on Room 29.

Read our 2009 cover story interview with Cocker on Further Complications.

Read our 2007 interview with Cocker on Jarvis.

JARV IS… Tour Dates:

Sun-Nov-22 – Birmingham, O2 Institute
Mon-Nov-23 – Manchester, Albert Hall
Wed-Nov-25 – Glasgow, Barrowlands
Fri-Nov-27 – Liverpool, Invisible Wind Factory
Sat-Nov-28 – Bristol, Marble Factory
Mon-Nov-30 – London, The Roundhouse

As a bonus, a couple of weeks ago JARV IS… shared a great extended version of “House Music All Night Long” that we somehow missed and just discovered. It’s about three minutes longer than the original and features Chilly Gonzales.

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