wed 27/11/2024

CD: Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29 | reviews, news & interviews

CD: Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29

CD: Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29

An atmospheric song-cycle about decadent Old Hollywood from the Pulp frontman and his buddies

A room at the Marmont - 'a comfortable venue for a nervous breakdown'

Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales’ first collaborative album is a song-cycle centred around the piano in the titular room of the Château Marmont in West Hollywood – a hotel with a reputation as something of a den of iniquity during the Roaring

Twenties. Featuring cameo appearances from the likes of Jean Harlow, Howard Hughes and Clara Bow, Room 29 comes across like a stripped-down riff on Lou Reed’s classically grubby Berlin album with splashes of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and even Noel Coward to tell the tale of the ghosts of times past in “a comfortable venue for a nervous breakdown”.

Jarvis has always been one for a bon mot or two and Room 29 has clearly spurred his infamous wit. “Life could be a bed of roses/If it wasn’t filled with so many pricks” complains “Belle Boy”, while “Tearjerker” is dispatched with “You don’t need a girlfriend/You need a social worker”. However, it’s not all catty one-liners and “Clara” and “Salomé” have something of Lou Reed’s heartbreaking concept album, even if there is more than a sniff of Joel Grey’s arch turn as the Emcee in Cabaret in Jarvis’ delivery. The musical accompaniment is largely provided by Chilly Gonzales’ sparse and understated piano with occasional tasteful strings courtesy of the Kaiser Quartet. Downbeat and mournful, it perfectly fits the atmosphere of faded decadence that colours Jarvis’ tales.

Jarvis and Chilly have form in working together, having previously covered Stephen Soundheim’s “I’m Still Here” for a short film by Todd Haynes. It is to be hoped that they can similarly develop an accompanying film for Room 29or put together a show around these musical tales and take it on the road. After all, it is full of stories of bad behaviour and insanity with a dash of voyeurism – which all sounds like a cracking night out by any measure.

Jarvis has always been one for a bon mot or two and 'Room 29' has clearly spurred his infamous wit

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters