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Review |
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With the jokily titled ‘Gay Pirates’,
Cosmo Jarvis opens his sophomore album, but sounding
like a cross between the upbeat folk nursery rhymes
of Frank Turner and the twisted lyricism of Bright
Eyes he ensures you aren’t laughing at him.
At least this is how the American born, British
raised singer/songwriter starts his album, sadly
it’s all sort of downhill from here to use
an overused phrase. This innocent happy-go-lucky
approach isn’t seen again as Cosmo Jarvis
tries his utmost to cram as many different styles
as he can into an hour and eleven songs, to what
avail remains unknown.
Six minute title track ‘Is The world Strange’
is an epic slow rap with Mike Skinner story-telling.
Quirky retro-fit noises litter the chorus of dull
down-tempo singing while the verses are witty and
flow as smoothly as the River Nile, it’s a
perfect cross over pop song, making the start a
force to be reckoned with. This courageous start
makes the majority of the record that much more
disappointing.
‘The Talking Song’ is a song that starts
of exactly as it promises, with talking. It’s
a shame then when anything other than this tries
to live up to the ‘Song’ part of the
title. This sort of indie ditty is something we
have to live with these days and it’s always
got some sort of political agenda, but Cosmo Jarvis
doesn’t really know where to start with this
and instead goes for the all-encompassing approach:
“I can see myself in all of you and all of
you in me, but a frightened little planet, most
of all, is what I see.” It’s not exactly
the marching rallying tunes of The King Blues now
is it?
If you like electro than you’re in luck as
Jarvis has gone and hooked you up with that too
while he gives us all a vicarious look into the
adolescent goings on at ‘Dave’s House’.
The flamenco guitar here is slightly out of place
and though the instrumentation of the last 30 seconds
or so is interesting it isn’t in keeping with
the tone of the song. This track really encapsulates
the problem with the record. It could have easily
been fabulous but instead of making great pop-songs
the 22 year old musician has tried to write and
compose in as quirky a way as possible and everybody
hates a try-hard.
‘She Doesn’t Mind’ and ‘My
Day’ are both decent enough, but they sound
like they are made by a collection of other artists
and for some reason stick the same reggae beat in
the background. The latter is an aggressive punk
montage on the state of the nation in our mindless
generation, lyrics are spit and even screamed over
daunting guitars, but it’s over five minutes
when it should have been a fast and furious, dip
your toe in the waters sort of thing.
Lyrically Cosmo Jarvis and Is The World Strange
Or Am I Strange?is packed with nuggets that you
could happily get on board with, even think about,
but as a whole this is a sloppily packaged record
that tries too hard to be too many thing and in
doing so loses its identity.
2/5
Review by Lauren Mullineaux |
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| Band
Members |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Gay Pirates
2. Sure As Hell Not Jesus
3. Blame It On Me
4. Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?
5. Dave's House
6. Let Me Out Of My Head
7. The Talking Song
8. The Wave That Made Them Happy
9. She Doesn't Mind
10. My Day
11. Betty |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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