“Screwing in a charity shop/ On top of black bin bags/ Full of donations”, traces of lipstick on coffee cups, car park meet-cutes – prepare for all this and More on Pulp’s first album in 24 years.
Ahead of More’s release, Jarvis Cocker announced: “No AI was involved during the process. This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey. This is the best that we can do.”
Mackey, their debonair bassist, passed away in 2023 and Pulp’s original guitarist, Russell Senior, is also no longer with us.
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“I was born to perform/ It’s a calling/ I exist to do this/ Shouting and pointing” – opening track Spike Island refers to The Stone Roses’ chaotic gig in northwest England in the early ’90s. Sorted For E’s & Wizz, one of Pulp’s signature songs, was actually inspired by an overheard phrase from this event, which was deemed the “Woodstock of the Baggy era”.
Jarvis has never sounded more like Bowie than he does on Tina – a perfect song. Contemplating an imagined future with a stranger-crush you first clapped eyes on 14 years ago, but are yet to pursue? It’s classic-era Pulp.
“Please stay in touch with me in this contactless society”, “Searching for clues with this fading glow stick”, “I haven’t got an agenda/ I haven’t even got a gender” – Jarvis has a dazzling way with words. “Why am I telling this story?” he wonders aloud during Grown Ups, pausing, before whispering, “I can’t remember” – nice touch.
Not just for listeners who “stress about wrinkles instead of acne”, turns out the best these posterboys for misfits and weirdos can do is proper reyt.
LABEL: ROGUE TRADE
RELEASE: OUT NOW
