Let it be known to all who enter here: When your old pal Jojo finally shakes off this mortal coil, and the lawyers are screaming and the women are weeping and the dudes feel lost inside, I want two powered JBL speakers at the gravesite (you can rent them from Cue on 4th Street) hooked up to an iPod, and I want you all to take in, at the loudest possible volume, as they lower me down, “Black Magic” by Jarvis Cocker. It goes like this:

And it’s the true believers that crash and burn
But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna learn
Black magic
that blows your mind away
and takes you somewhere that you wanna stay
Oh, you only get to stay one day
Oh, that cold black magic
Ow

We can’t escape; we’re born to die
But I’m gonna give it a real good try
because nothing comes close and nothing can compare
to black magic
Yeah yeah yeah

Because for real: We hype a lot of stuff on this Philebrity Player thing, but I don’t know if we’ve ever had a record on this that I personally love more. Jarvis came out in the UK last fall, and many of you may have already heard it. So you know. It’s an instant classic, mellow gold from whence it was least suspected, post-Pulp, post-Britpop, where everyone expected Jarvis to retire to a lax Leonard Cohen fantasy from his flat in Paris. But that’s not how it goes: He serves the world an envelope full of paper cuts (“Running The World”), fesses up to what no one will (the aforementioned “Black Magic” and “I Will Kill Again”) and even nails the song he wrote for Nancy Sinatra (“Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time”). I literally cannot say enough about this record and its potential place in your life. I think we might just retire The Philebrity Player now and leave this one up ’til it’s time to go. So do yourself a favor and let Jarvis into your life today. You’ll thank me when I’m dead.
Click here to listen to Jarvis on The Philebrity Player!
BONUS MATERIALS: Jarvis Cocker: “Running The World” [mp3]
Jarvis Cocker: “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time” [YouTube]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 2:20 pm.