06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Pulp don't mess with winning formula with album that honours their past while not being enslaved by it
All are very much with us today, with a reformed Oasis set to play the most anticipated shows of the summer. Blur's The Ballad of Darren and subsequent tour showed they're far more than just a heritage act pushing nostalgia (a charge that can justly be levelled at Oasis.)
And, now, 24 years on from what many thought was their swan song, Pulp have returned with an album that rolls back the years in scintillating fashion.
Jarvis Cocker has released good solo material without ever reaching the highs that Pulp managed on a spectacular run of albums, from 1994's His 'N' Hers, 1995's Different Class to 1998's This is Hardcore. More, the Sheffield veterans' eighth studio album, may not quite be at that high-water mark, but it comes close enough. It's the sound of group honouring their own past while not being enslaved by it.
It showcases many appealing Pulp hallmarks, including an unerring pop sensibility, artful and engaging arrangements, witty and knowing lyrics and a spirited delivery from Cocker. He's one of the few frontmen who can get away with spoken-worded deliveries, a ploy that works beautifully on the lush, tender Farmers Market.
It should also be noted that anyone who was allergic to Pulp back in the day — and there were several — will find little here to convert them. For the rest of us, More is a delight from start to finish.
And what a start: Spike Island is inspired by the legendary 1990 gig (in the north-west of England, and not the prison island off the Cork coast) headlined by the Stone Roses in their pomp. It's not the first Pulp song to be written in its honour: Sorted for E's & Wizz was inspired by the phrase that an acquaintance of Cocker's recalled from that Spike Island show. Ultimately, it's a song about Cocker's own need to perform. 'I was born to perform/ It's a calling/ I еxist to do this/ Shouting and pointing.'
Relationships have been at the heart of many of Pulp's most enduring songs and so it is with Background Noise, a touching appraisal of what happens when love disappears. It may be a commentary on Cocker's divorce. He has subsequently remarried.
The marvellous Tina — as quintessential a Pulp song as you can get — laments missed opportunities, especially that with the titular woman, an old flame from decades ago.
On their last studio album, 2001's We Love Life, they called on the legendary Scott Walker as producer. This time, it's the turn of James Ford, one of the most in-demand studio alchemists of his generation, best known for his work with another big Sheffield export, Arctic Monkeys.
Ford doesn't mess with Pulp's winning formula and the result is a comeback album that burnishes, rather than detracts from the band's legacy. It's dedicated to Pulp bassist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023 just as these new songs were starting to take shape.
