I’m a huge Britpop fan – I’m as excited as a kid about the Oasis reunion and I worship Damon Albarn – but I was just talking to some music journalist friends recently about how I used to find it hard to get into Pulp. Maybe it’s because I’ve often struggled with knowingly humorous, overly clever pop music, preferring instead the raw directness of the Gallagher brothers. But these days, of course, I think Pulp’s genre-defining classics are brilliant: His ’n’ Hers (1994), Different Class (1995), This Is Hardcore (1998). Absolutely outstanding.
More – the new comeback album from Pulp – is their first in 24 years, and that alone makes it a big deal. The title itself says a lot about the approach the British band have taken: the record is quite simply more Pulp, sounding exactly like you’d expect a Pulp album to sound. It’s the right move for a returning band of this calibre; fans don’t want reinvention, they want to be reminded of the brilliance of earlier periods. From the pounding synth-pop of the opener »Spike Island« to elegant crooner moments that recall Bryan Ferry, every facet of the group is represented here. It’s extremely British, every second of it, with the staccato quarter notes on »Grown Ups« evoking The Kinks – the most British of all Britpop predecessors.
Jarvis Cocker also delivers the kind of original themes that make you wonder how he manages to weave them into pop songs without ever sounding preachy. The excellent single »Got to Have Love« is clever but ultimately a simple ode to love; »Tina« offers an unembarrassed take on the digitalisation of dating; while the wonderful closer »A Sunset« can be read as a statement about how the most beautiful things in the world end up being used to make money. At the same time, Cocker suggests that the end of the world might just be a sunset. It’s just something that happens. Then life goes on. With more living, more music, more Pulp.
Age suits the 61-year-old Jarvis Cocker ( You stress about wrinkles instead of acne ), and he’s still singing about his favourite topic: My Sex is the title of one track, while the best line on »Got to Have Love« goes Without love, you’re just jerking off inside someone else. Elsewhere, it’s about being single. The line Everybody wants to grow up eventually becomes Nobody wants to grow up – and if you don’t want to grow up, well, then don’t.
More Black Vinyl Edition
