Jarvis Cocker spent much of his post-Pulp career doing his best not to directly embrace the legacy of his previous band, going so far as to record a collection of noisy guitar rock with Steve Albini. Beyond the Pale, his first album with his band JARV...IS, flips that notion on its head but Cocker isn't racing back to the anthemic realm of Different Class: he's returning to the death disco of Separations, the art-house-punk he essayed in the years just prior to His N Hers. While those early-'90s records were exploratory and elliptical, Beyond the Pale is focused; when the songs drift beyond the six-minute mark, which they often do, it's with a sense of purpose. No matter how often the sounds recall the past -- a situation Cocker will occasionally acknowledge in his lyrics, as when he name-drops DJ Frankie Knuckles on "Must I Evolve?" -- this revival of a future passed doesn't quite feel retro. Chalk that up to Cocker becoming reinvigorated with JARV...IS. He writes elongated verses, finding his sweet spot between the underground and mainstream, and the music plays to his enduring obsessions, bypassing pop singles in favor of melodramatic post-punk. The result is something of a quiet renaissance for him, proof that he can still weave a compelling, daring blend of trash and high art. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

1		Save the Whale
2		Must I Evolve?
3		Am I Missing Something?
4		House Music All Night Long
5		Sometimes I Am Pharoah
6		Swanky Modes
7		Children of the Echo

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