Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications

Recognizing that la vie Parisienne might jeopardize his reign as the gray, existential conscience of modern Blighty, our beloved Jarvis Cocker has negotiated his new geography by journeying into Anglo-Teutonic territory.

Produced by sonic skull-crusher Steve Albini, the brilliantly blustery Further Complications is magnificent in its unflagging homage to ’70s Bowie: the spiky title track is almost dead-on “Watch That Man,” while the frenzied “Homewrecker!” is the best (not) “Suffragette City” cover ever—torrid sax and all. And even though the thin white bloke’s lyrical observations eschew some of the visceral minutiae for snark, somehow it’s all unmistakably Jarvis.