RELAXED MUSCLE A HEAVY NIGHT WITH... ALBUM ROUGH TRADE RELEASE: OCTOBER 17, 2003 REVIEW: DECEMBER 14, 2003

In the mid-80’s Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell and Roli Mosimann teamed up for the duo project Wiseblood. Their intention was apparently to create “sick macho music” (which they succeeded pretty well with). Similar ambitions must have been behind the formation of Relaxed Muscle, another duo, consisting of Jarvis Cocker, in corpse-paint and under the alias Darren Spooner, and Jason Buckle of Fat Truckers. At least their horror movie look and lyrics like “I’ll tell you one thing and I ain’t lyin’/I rule my woman with a rod of iron” could lead you to believe that.
Most of all it seems like this album must have been a liberating experience for Cocker. A goodbye to big budgets and big commercial expectations, and a hello to being able to do exactly what the fuck he wants. Which at this point apparently is to record scuzzy electro rock. The result isn’t too bad. The production has a nice trashy quality, with the songs seemingly programmed on equipment ready to fall apart, but injected with a healthy dose of strutty glam rock that makes these skeletal creations swing their bony parts in an obscene danse macabre. It works best in the sleazabilly of “Beastmaster”, the very Fat Truckers-sounding “Rod of Iron” (quoted above) and the omnisexual “Sexualized”. All in all, Cocker’s pop sensibilities can’t help shining through.
Which doesn’t mean the album is free from flaws. In “Let It Ride” Relaxed Muscle fall awfully short, although it’s amusing that the music sounds like a halfbaked Dr Dre production. And the closing ballad “Mary” looks back at Pulp, a gesture that seems unnecessary in this context.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN