ADRIAN THRILLS reviews Pulp: More (Rough Trade): Britpop for grown-ups...it's a perfect Pulp album for 2025
Fronted by a witty English eccentric in Jarvis Cocker, the Sheffield group secured their first Top Ten album with 1994's His 'n' Hers, and became front-page news two years later when Cocker wiggled his backside onstage during a Michael Jackson performance at the BRITs.
Like their 90s contemporaries Oasis and Blur, they are returning to find themselves as big as in their Cool Britannia heyday.
Their 2023 tour, This Is What We Do For An Encore, included headline shows at Finsbury Park and Latitude – and they've now come up with their first new album in 24 years.
With Jarvis, 61, joined by a trio of fellow Pulp veterans – keyboardist Candida Doyle, guitarist Mark Webber and drummer Nick Banks all excel here – More is a perfect Pulp album for 2025.
Out in a week's time, it revisits the disco-infused, keyboard-driven pop of yesteryear while adding more assured musicianship and age-appropriate lyrics: Britpop played by grown-ups.
It's a record front-loaded with its catchiest anthems. It opens with Spike Island, a track inspired by a Stone Roses gig on the Mersey estuary in 1990, but in reality a song that examines why Cocker put Pulp on hold in 2001 and then got them back together in 2011 and 2023.
'I was born to perform, it's a calling,' he sings.
'I exist to do this: shouting and pointing.'
He delivers lyrical zingers as the LP progresses.
The orchestral Tina is a stalker-ish song about unrequited desire for a woman he sees on his morning commute; Farmers Market, a pithy portrayal of middle-aged love.
He addresses ageing again on the stomping, Madness-like Grown Ups: 'So you move from Camden out to Hackney, and you stress about wrinkles instead of acne.'
The quality dips on ballads Slow Jam and Partial Eclipse, but More otherwise finishes strongly.
The swirling disco-pop of Got To Have Love is bound to be a highlight of next month's UK arena shows.
There's also, on The Hymn Of The North, a celebration of Sheffield's resilience despite the decline of its manufacturing industries.
'Northern lights will guide you home,' sings Jarvis, capping a warm, rewarding comeback with a hometown homage.
He insists that 'no AI' was involved in making the album, and that feels right.
Artificial intelligence would struggle to replicate the quirky genius of Pulp.
More is out on June 6. Pulp start a UK tour on June 7 at OVO Hydro, Glasgow (ticketmaster.co.uk).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Roy Keane set to become a grandad AGAIN - as Man United icon's daughter announces pregnancy alongside England star in emotional snaps
Roy Keane 's family dynasty is set to grow further after his daughter Leah announced her pregnancy alongside an England international. The Manchester United legend already has three grandchildren and welcomed his latest in April with a nod at one of his classic punditry lines: 'My new grandson, big baby.' And he is due to be celebrating again when his daughter Leah welcomes her child into the world alongside Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Leah shared black and white photos of her positive pregnancy tests, baby bump, and scans of the foetus with Harwood-Bellis in their car. Harwood-Bellis, fans may remember, scored on his England debut last November in a 5-0 win over the Republic of Ireland - risking upsetting Keane. He and Leah are engaged and looked over the moon as they shared their news with the world with a touching video, captioned: 'Half of me, half of you.' In a touching video, she also revealed the positive pregnancy test to her followers Keane first became a grandfather in 2021 and often shares sweet snaps of his grandchildren on social media. He also has the names of each of his five children tattooed on his right arm. The former Manchester United captain was a pundit for ITV when Harwood-Bellis scored his header against Ireland and quipped 'It's (the wedding) not done and dusted yet. 'Things can change very quickly in the Keane household. 'Over the last few months he's definitely got a goal threat for Southampton, it's nice for him. 'It's great for him to make his debut. He's a nice kid, his family has done a great job.' Leah is the fourth of five children that Keane has with Theresa. Their four other children are three other children are Carragh, Shannon, Aidan, and Alanna. The couple married in his native Mayfield in Cork back in 1997. They first met while he was playing with Nottingham Forest in 1992.
The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Biddy Baxter was warm, funny and inspirational
Despite her reputation as a formidable, sometimes controlling, editor of Blue Peter, when I met Biddy Baxter (Obituary, 11 August) she exuded nothing but warmth and fun, entertaining us immensely with all her anecdotes. The occasion was a long, leisurely lunch in 2008, along with her original producers. This was to celebrate the awarding of a coveted gold Blue Peter badge to my then husband for a scientific breakthrough, which coincided with the inclusion of an aspirational childhood letter of his in a book marking Blue Peter's 50th anniversary. Biddy's encouraging response to it, he wrote to her, helped put him firmly on the path to becoming a LamontSt Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex Was the Biddy Baxter obituary one you 'prepared earlier'?John HinklyLittle Chalfont, Buckinghamshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Taylor Swift gets ultimate revenge on nemesis Kanye West with new album The Life of a Showgirl
Taylor Swift 's newly announced album The Life of a Showgirl hasn't even dropped yet, but social media users are convinced it contains a sly jab toward her longtime rival Kanye West. After announcing her latest project earlier this week, fans of the pop star, 35, couldn't help but notice the title's striking similarity to West's 2016 album The Life of Pablo. One TikTok user was quick to point out that when you start typing the title into Apple Music, Swift's record, now, appears before West's. Adding fuel to the theory, the record's cover art features orange tones, the same color palette as The Life of Pablo. 'Am I going crazy or did anyone else notice that??? and his album was orange … bye she's perfect,' the TikToker wrote. The comments section backed them up, with one fan declaring, 'MASTERMIND,' and another adding, 'She really is a mastermind and I love that about her lol.' The 14-time Grammy winner and rapper's infamous beef began at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West stormed the stage during her acceptance speech for Best Female Music Video to argue that Beyoncé deserved the trophy instead. West emerged on the stage and took the microphone from Swift, telling her, 'Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all-time! One of the best videos of all-time.' While the musical stars appeared to be on better terms in the years following - they were pictured at a number of events in the years after - things blew up after the release of Kanye's 2016 song Famous. West claimed at the time that Swift had given him her blessing to refer to her as a 'B****' in the lyrics of the song, in a reference to the VMAs incident. Swift said she never made such an agreement, leading to a public feud with West after he and his then-wife Kim Kardashian who publicly accused Swift of lying, before leaking a partial phone call between the two. Later, a leaked video appeared to have proven Taylor told the truth about her phone call with West over his controversial song. The new clip that surfaced on social media appears to show West didn't consult Swift about the 'b****' lyric, and only asked her about the other line in the song, which was previously mentioned by Kardashian While defending themselves in the past the former couple did not mention the 'b***' lyric, apparently because they knew the phone conversation with Taylor did not touch upon it. One TikTok user was quick to point out that when you start typing the title into Apple Music, Swift's record, now, appears before West's In the footage which was shared on X, West can be seen informing Swift he is writing a song about her and asked her if she could add hype to the song by tweeting it out. West tells her: 'It has a very controversial line at the beginning of the song about you.' West then told Swift she 'sounded sad', and the singer questioned if the lyrics were 'mean', to which he reassured her he didn't think they were. Explaining the context to the lyrics he explains: 'It says, uh... and the funny thing, when I first played it and my wife heard it, she was like, "Huh? What, that's too crazy," 'And then when Ninja from Die Atwoord hear it, he was like "Oh my god, this is the craziest s**t, this is why I love Kanye..." and now, it's like my wife's favourite f***ing line... I just wanted to give you some premise of that.' He then says the lyric: 'To all my Southside n***as that know me best / I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex.' Swift laughs and says: 'That's not mean.' 'OK, well this is the thing why I'm calling you, because you got an army, you own a country of motherf***ing 2bn people, basically,' West says. 'If you felt that it's funny and cool and hip hop, and felt like it's the College Dropout and Ye that you love, people would be way into it, and that's why I think it's super genius to have you be the one that says, 'Oh I like this song a lot... this is cool.' Swift then tells West she needs some time to think about it, adding: 'When you hear something for the first time you need to think about it, because it is absolutely crazy.' There is no mention West would call her a 'b***h' or suggest he 'made her famous' during the phone call. In a separate clip which is circulating on Twitter which appears to be from the same call, Swift tells him: 'I [sold] a full 7m of that album before you did that, which is what happened.' In 2019, Swift revealed to Vogue that she dealt with the high-profile scandal by channeling her pain and anger into her material. 'A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,' she said of the difficult time. 'You're sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, "Kill yourself."' As she navigated the scandal, which inspired the tracks This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things and Look What You Made Me Do, Swift explained she 'immediately' knew she had to 'make music.' 'I knew it was the only way I could survive it,' Swift told the outlet. 'It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it's like to go through something so humiliating.' In December 2023, Swift slammed Kardashian for 'taking her down psychologically' and forcing her into hiding. 'I moved to a foreign country. I didn't leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls,' she said during her interview for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year. During that period, she all but vanished from the public eye, something that she says came as a result of the Kardashian and West fallout. 'I pushed away most people in my life because I didn't trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.' 'I thought that moment of backlash was going to define me negatively for the rest of my life,' she explained. Yet, in the years that followed, Swift's career has only gone from strength to strength - while West has disgraced himself by making anti-Semitic remarks.
