Pulp's first new song in 24 years might give Oasis a wake-up call

Telegraph

10-04-2025

'Something stopped me dead in my tracks, I was headed for disaster and then I turned back.' So sings Jarvis Cocker in the opening line of Pulp's first new song for 24 years, Spike Island. And thank goodness he did turn back. Because Spike Island is a sunny, festival-ready anthem that instantly reminds you how much you've missed the idiosyncratic Sheffield band.
Can it really be nearly a quarter of a century since their last new music? Pulp's Britpop-era rivals Oasis may be reforming to play to a gazillion people this summer but, on the strength of this song, Cocker and co have made a case for re-winning our hearts before Liam and Noel have even started rehearsals.
Cocker, 61, was recently told by someone in this record company's office that Spike Island and June's forthcoming album (called More) are 'age appropriate' for Pulp. That's spot on. This isn't a banger in the vein of Pulp's most lauded songs Common People or Babies. Rather it's a mid-tempo track that opens with disco bass, a steady drum groove and a sliding guitar line that brings to mind David Bowie's Heroes.
Cocker's vocals are delivered in that South Yorkshire half-sung-half spoken twang that's so familiar to us all. The track builds steadily as the verse becomes a singalong bridge before exploding into a soaring earworm chorus carried aloft by strings, a neat cowbell rattle and a couple of Cocker's trademark yelps and 'uhs'. You can almost see his velvet-clad silhouette pointing at you as he sings. The whole thing is impeccably produced by James Ford, the man behind Blur's 2023 comeback album and the last six Arctic Monkeys albums.
Spike Island refers to 'Madchester' band The Stone Roses' famous 1990 outdoor gig on a waterlocked tongue of industrial wasteland outside Widnes. Mythical in the retelling, the concert was a huge disappointment to all who were there. Pulp's sardonic 1995 single Sorted for E's & Wizz was named after the incessant cry of the drug dealers present. Likewise, the new song's title comes from a Spike Island DJ who kept shouting 'Spike Island, Come alive!'. It's a bit of a red herring as the song's not really about the event. But it's a neat line, and the Stone Roses' Ian Brown et al will be rubbing their hands that the myth-making continues.
Technically, Pulp released a single in 2013 but it was a rehash of an old demo so doesn't count. It's heartening to think that their first new music since 2001's We Love Life could bring in a new generation of fans who weren't even born when they were in their pomp. 'I was born to perform, It's a calling,' sings Cocker. 'I exist to do this, Shouting and pointing.' Too right.