Beyond the Pale
Studio album by
Jarv Is
Released17 July 2020
RecordedApril 2018 – September 2019[lower-alpha 1]
Venue
StudioNarcissus (London, UK)[lower-alpha 1]
Genre
Length40:12
LabelRough Trade
Producer
Jarvis Cocker chronology
Room 29
(2017)		 Beyond the Pale
(2020)		 Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top
(2021)
Singles from Beyond the Pale
  1. "Must I Evolve?"
    Released: 15 May 2019
  2. "House Music All Night Long"
    Released: 2 March 2020
  3. "Save the Whale"
    Released: 11 June 2020

Beyond the Pale is the debut studio album by British rock band Jarv Is, led by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.[5] The studio album incorporates live recordings, and was defined by the group as an "alive album".[6] It was released by Rough Trade Records on 17 July 2020, having been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and received widespread acclaim upon release, with multiple critics characterising it as Cocker's best work since Pulp.

Background and recording

Jarv Is (stylised as JARV IS...) were formed in late 2017, to perform at Sigur Ros' Norður og Niður festival in Iceland. The group was "conceived as a way of writing songs in collaboration with an audience". They began recording their performances to assist their songwriting, until Geoff Barrow suggested the recordings could be used as the foundations of an album.[7][8]

"Must I Evolve?" and "Sometimes I Am Pharaoh" were recorded during a performance in Peak Cavern, Derbyshire on 7 April 2018, while "Children of the Echo" was recorded during the band's performance at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona on 1 June 2019. The rest of the album, including vocals and overdubs for all tracks, was recorded at Narcissus Studios in Neasden, London in June and September 2019, with the exception the piano and bass parts of "Swanky Modes", which had been recorded at Paris' Red Bull Studios on 5 March 2015.

Release

"Must I Evolve?" was released on 15 May 2019, as the band's debut single.[9] On 2 March 2020, the band released "House Music All Night Long", and announced the album on Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 6 show. It was originally scheduled to be released by Rough Trade Records on 1 May 2020,[10] but was pushed back to 4 September due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[11] before eventually being brought forward to 17 July. In June, the band shared a music video for opening track "Save the Whale".[12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.0/10[13]
Metacritic86/100[14]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
The Daily Telegraph[15]
DIY[16]
Exclaim!7/10[1]
NME[17]
The Observer[18]
Pitchfork6.7/10[6]
Q[2]
Uncut9/10[19]
Under the Radar7.5/10[4]

Beyond the Pale received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a score of 86, based on 15 critics, signifying "universal acclaim".[14] For The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick described the album as Cocker's "resounding comeback", writing that it is "the best thing [he] has done since Pulp, and that is very good indeed".[15] Tom Pinnock for Uncut and Andrew Trendell for NME similarly suggested that the album is Cocker's best since Pulp's This is Hardcore (1998).[19][17] Reviewing the album for DIY, Lisa Wright praised the album for standing on its own, writing, "It would be easy, given his illustrious catalogue, to judge Jarvis Cocker against his past, but that would unfair to what Jarv Is have achieved together".[16] In his review for AllMusic, editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine compared the album favourably to Pulp's early work, such as Separations (1992), describing it as "something of a quiet renaissance for [Cocker], proof that he can still weave a compelling, daring blend of trash and high art".[3] Ryan Leas of Stereogum characterised it as "a haggard and meditative late-career album", praising Cocker's lyrics and maturation, and writing, "It’s heartening to hear Cocker singing something adjacent to pop music again".[20] For The Observer, Kitty Empire wrote, "This is a great record: the first utterance, hopefully, of a new set of echoes".[18]

In a more mixed review, Exclaim!'s Alex Whetham praised Cocker's lyrics but found the album's music to be inconsistent.[1] Ben Cardew of Pitchfork similarly praised Cocker's songwriting, but criticised the album's lack of cohesion, writing, "The hybrid stage/studio setup captures the sprawl of a live gig without the excitement and possibility, and the sheen of a studio recording without the cohesion and refinement".[6]

Track listing

Beyond the Pale track listing[5]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Save the Whale"
4:30
2."Must I Evolve?"
  • Cocker
  • Steer
6:41
3."Am I Missing Something?"
6:46
4."House Music All Night Long"
  • Cocker
  • Steer
  • Chris Vatalaro
5:53
5."Sometimes I Am Pharaoh"
  • Cocker
  • Steer
  • Mackey
5:18
6."Swanky Modes"
  • Cocker
  • Jason Domnarski
  • Smith
  • Steer
4:36
7."Children of the Echo"
  • Cocker
  • Steer
  • Buckle
6:32
Total length:40:12
Bonus CD
No.TitleLength
1."Suite for Ian & Jane" (composed for the filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard for the television series Likely Stories, and "The Dali & The Cooper", an episode of the television series Urban Myths)25:24

Personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Beyond the Pale
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[21] 28
French Albums (SNEP)[22] 136
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[23] 85
Scottish Albums (OCC)[24] 6
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[25] 99
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[26] 55
UK Albums (OCC)[27] 11

Notes

  1. 1 2 Except piano and bass of "Swanky Modes", recorded at Red Bull (Paris, France) on 5 March 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Whetham, Alex (14 July 2020). "Jarvis Cocker's New Band JARV IS... Are Witty but Inconsistent on 'Beyond the Pale'". Exclaim!. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 Segal, Victoria (June 2020). "I Spy". Q. London. p. 92.
  3. 1 2 3 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Beyond The Pale - Jarv Is..." AllMusic. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  4. 1 2 Hill, Marty (16 July 2020). "JARV IS…: – Beyond the Pale (Rough Trade) Review". Under the Radar. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 "JARV IS... Beyond The Pale". Rough Trade Records. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Cardew, Ben (17 July 2020). "JARV IS...: Beyond the Pale Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  7. ↑ "JARV IS...Jarvis Cocker Beyond the Pale". Boomkat. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  8. ↑ "JARV IS...-Beyond the Pale-LP+". Rough Trade. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  9. ↑ Monroe, Jazz (15 May 2020). "Jarvis Cocker Returns With New Song "Must I Evolve?": Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  10. ↑ "BBC Radio 6 Music - Steve Lamacq, Jarvis Cocker Exclusive and Record Collection Roulette". BBC. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  11. ↑ Murphy, Sarah (24 March 2020). "Jarvis Cocker's New Band JARV IS… Delay Release of Debut Album 'Beyond the Pale'". Exclaim!. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  12. ↑ Breihan, Tom (11 June 2020). "JARV IS… – "Save The Whales"". Stereogum. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  13. ↑ "Beyond the Pale by JARV IS reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  14. 1 2 "Beyond the Pale by Jarv Is... Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  15. 1 2 McCormick, Neil (16 July 2020). "This week's best albums: The Chicks, Jarv Is, Ellie Goulding, The Pretenders and Liane La Havas". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  16. 1 2 Wright, Lisa (16 July 2020). "JARV... IS - Beyond The Pale". DIY. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  17. 1 2 Trendell, Andrew (16 July 2020). "JARV IS… – 'Beyond The Pale' review: geek-pop icon Jarvis Cocker remains in a different class". NME. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  18. 1 2 Empire, Kitty (18 July 2020). "Jarv Is… Beyond the Pale review – caveman Cocker rolls back the years". The Observer. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  19. 1 2 Pinnock, Tom (August 2020). "Jarv Is...: Beyond the Pale". Uncut. London. p. 26.
  20. ↑ Leas, Ryan (14 July 2020). "Album Of The Week: JARV IS… Beyond The Pale". Stereogum. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  21. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Jarv Is – Beyond the Pale" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  22. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Jarv Is – Beyond the Pale". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  23. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Jarv Is – Beyond the Pale" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  24. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  25. ↑ "Top 100 Albumes – Semana 30: del 17.7.2020 al 23.7.2020" (in Spanish). Productores de Música de España. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  26. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Jarv Is – Beyond the Pale". Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  27. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
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