Look to the Cosmos

Most would suspect someone in their early 20s to be stuck to the floor of a bathroom stall, puking out last night’s and that night’s beer pong losses, but there are a couple of exceptions: athletes and talented young artists. Luckily, Cosmo Jarvis finds himself of those two categories. Also a filmmaker, Jarvis’ music reflects his sense of storytelling with simple, but infectious and catchy pop reminiscent of Nicke Lowe and Elvis Costello. His latest effort, Think Bigger, is sort of a love note to late 70’s and early 80’s power pop.

“Love This” kicks off the album with light, dance-in-your-underwear style guitar strumming. It’s the kind of mellow, coffeeshop pop guitar that makes for great cell phone commercials. Jarvis proves he has a keen ear for light sentiment, without being too “cutesy.”

Tracks like “Train Downtown” and “Tell Me Who To Be” could have easily been penned by Rick Springfield or Badfinger. Jarvis’ songs become more-and-more laced with string accompaniments—violins ablaze in the more dramatic parts of the chorus of “Tell me Who To Be.” This definitely gives each track the feeling it should be dropped into a scene from a Farrelly Brothers movie. Cameron Diaz would totally love Ben Stiller swooning to Jarvis’ deliciously sap-ified tunes.

We also find Jarvis covering the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil.” Whether you’re a Deadhead or not, you’ve heard this song in some sort of 70’s-set, drug-related movie scene. Jarvis’ take is definitely more playful, but it’s mostly due to his youthful voice not yet affected by whatever the Dead had put themselves through over the years. Jarvis is getting close, though.

Think Bigger is a fresh take on the singer-songwriter side of indie pop. Usually artists would pull from their favorites like Dylan, Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, but Jarvis obviously had a different childhood. His childhood probably consisted of the pop most associated with feathered hairstyles, but it makes for some seriously catchy tunes. Plus, the only interesting person, so far, with the name Cosmo is Cosmo Kramer. Maybe Jarvis has a head start on joining his ranks.