Latest news with #HymnoftheNorth
Scoop
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Pulp Release New Album 'More' Today Via Rough Trade
It is time for More... Pulp have released their first album in nearly 24 years today. Recorded late in 2024 with producer James Ford, ' More ' is Pulp's eighth studio album and features the singles 'Spike Island' and 'Got to Have Love'. The album has been universally acclaimed by critics prior to release and is now available to buy and stream worldwide. ' More ' is Pulp's first album since 2001's 'We Love Life' and came about after the band made their live return two years ago after an extended break. 'When we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called 'Hymn of the North' during soundchecks & eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena,' recalls Jarvis Cocker. 'This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones & played by the Elysian Collective. The album was recorded over 3 weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18th, 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to are the facts. We hope you enjoy the music. It was written & performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process. This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey. This is the best that we can do. Thanks for listening."
The Independent
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Pulp announce their first album in 24 years: ‘We hope you enjoy the music'
Pulp have announced the forthcoming release of their first album in almost 24 years, and shared the lead single 'Spike Island'. Frontman Jarvis Cocker said that ideas for the new record, titled More, began back in 2023, when the band embarked on a reunion tour of a number of arenas around the UK. He explained that they started with a new song, 'Hymn of the North', during soundchecks before debuting it live at the end of their second night at Sheffield Arena. 'This seemed to open the floodgates,' he said, '[and] we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. 'A couple are revivals of ideas from the last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones and played by the Elysian Collective.' Meanwhile, the idea for 'Spike Island' apparently came from co-writer Jason Buckle, who attended the Stone Roses' infamous Spike Island gig and was irked by a DJ who kept shouting, 'Spike Island, come alive!' More was recorded over a period of three weeks by James Ford [ Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines DC ] at Orbb Studio in Walthamstow, London, starting on 18 November 2024. 'This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record,' Cocker said. 'It was obviously ready to happen. A new press shot of the group s hows that they are now a nine-piece, featuring Cocker, guitarist Mark Webber, keys player Candida Doyle and drummer Nick Banks alongside newer touring members. Cocker used the announcement to take a swipe at the looming threat of artificial intelligence (AI) for British musicians, who have been fighting against government proposals to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without the artist's permission. 'We hope you enjoy the music,' he said. 'It was written and performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided and abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No AI was involved during the process.' The accompanying music video for 'Spike Island' did, however, use AI in order to animate images made of the band for their 1995 Britpop classic Different Class. Cocker said that 'all the moving images featured in the video are the result of me feeding in a still image and then typing in a prompt'. 'The weekend I began work on the video was a strange time,' he said. 'I went out of the house and kept expecting weird transformations of the surrounding environment due to the images the computer had been generating. The experience had marked me. I don't know whether I've recovered yet…' More is dedicated to Steve Mackey, Pulp's bassist who died aged 56 in March 2023. The album's full tracklist is as follows: 1. 'Spike Island' 2. 'Tina' 3. 'Grown Ups' 4. 'Slow Jam' 5. 'Farmers Market' 6. 'My Sex' 7. 'Got To Have Love' 8. 'Background Noise' 9. 'Partial Eclipse' 10. 'The Hymn of the North' 11. 'A Sunset' Pulp will support the album with a UK and Ireland arena tour taking place from 7 June, kicking off at the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow before heading to Dublin, London, Birmingham and Manchester, before concluding in their hometown of Sheffield at Tramlines Festival on 25 July.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pulp announce ‘More', their first album in 24 years and share lead single ‘Spike Island'
Pulp have announced More, their first album in 24 years, as well as sharing the anthemic lead single 'Spike Island'. The eighth album from the Sheffield Britpop icons is produced by James Ford and will arrive on June 6, 2025 via Rough Trade Records. It was recorded and mixed at Orbb Studio in Walthamstow, London late last year. 'When we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called 'Hymn of the North' during soundchecks & eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena,' said Jarvis Cocker of the album. 'This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones & played by the Elysian Collective. He added: 'These are the facts. We hope you enjoy the music. It was written & performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process.' Of the lead single, the band explained that the idea came from Jason Buckle (Relaxed Muscle) who co-wrote the song and went to Stone Roses' infamous Spike Island gig. Buckle explained that a DJ there shouted, 'Spike Island, come alive!', with the phrase getting into Cocker's mind, despite not going to the gig. Cocker added that the album is dedicated to Steve Mackey, the band's longtime bassist who died in March 2023. Limited editions of the album will be available on vinyl. Along with a double LP cut at 45 rpm, which will be exclusive to Pulp's online shop and Rough Trade Records' webstore, there will also be four single-disc colour vinyl pressings that have been both handpicked and named by Jarvis Cocker personally. You can check out the track-list in full below. 1. 'Spike Island'2. 'Tina'3. 'Grown Ups'4. 'Slow Jam'5. 'Farmers Market'6. 'My Sex'7. 'Got To Have Love'8. 'Background Noise'9. 'Partial Eclipse'10. 'The Hymn of the North'11. 'A Sunset' This summer will also see Pulp head out on a 2025 UK and Ireland arena tour.
The Guardian
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pulp announce More, their first album since 2001
Pulp have announced their first album since 2001's We Love Life, entitled More, trailed by a new single, Spike Island. 'I was born to perform, it's a calling / I exist to do this, shouting and pointing', frontman Jarvis Cocker sings on the anthemic song, ushering one of the most successful British bands of the 1990s into a new phase. A new picture of the group shows they have swelled to a nine-piece, featuring longstanding members – Cocker, guitarist Mark Webber, keyboardist Candida Doyle and drummer Nick Banks – alongside newer touring members. The album is dedicated to Steve Mackay, their bassist who died aged 56 in March 2023. Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music, Cocker said More had been 'done for a while' and that Pulp's 2023 reunion tour was 'a big influence … the songs came back to life'. Spike Island, meanwhile, is named after the famous venue for an open-air Stone Roses concert in 1990, which was attended by Webber. He told Laverne it was 'a slight anticlimax to be honest … there was a lot of anticipation, but it didn't sound very good, it was windy and the vibe wasn't there.' The song's music was written by former Cocker collaborator Jason Buckle, who was also at Spike Island. Cocker said that 'all [Buckle] could remember was a DJ who said: 'Spike Island, come alive.' That phrase stuck in my mind.' Driven by that chorus line, Spike Island is an anthemic, swaggering track, filled out with a large arrangement and Cocker's typically wry yet heartfelt lyrics: 'I was conforming to a cosmic design, I was playing to type / until I walked back to the garden of earthly delights', he sings. Cocker used AI to create the song's video, explaining 'all the moving images featured in the video are the result of me feeding in a still image and then typing in a prompt', but he clarified that 'no AI was involved during the process' of making More itself. The album was recorded with producer James Ford – known for his work with Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and more – and completed in three weeks in a studio in Walthamstow, east London. 'It wanted to come out, in some way – that was a good feeling,' Cocker said. In a longer written statement, he added: 'When we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called Hymn of the North during soundchecks and eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century.' A fellow Sheffield star, Richard Hawley, co-wrote one of its songs, while 'the Eno family' – presumably Brian Eno and more – sing backing vocals on another. The new album extends an already epic career, with the earliest form of Pulp dating back to 1978 when Cocker was still at school in Sheffield – after some lineup changes the group released their debut album It in 1983. Playing a rather mournful style of indie pop, Pulp struggled to achieve much momentum during the rest of the decade, but started to break through after a turn towards a more commercial, disco-influenced sound on 1992 album Separations. They jumped to a major label for follow-up His'n'Hers which reached the UK Top 10 and contained classics such as Babies, Lipgloss and Do You Remember the First Time?, all great showcases of Cocker's vivid storytelling as he explored the thrill and awkwardness of desire. 1995 brought their biggest hit, Different Class, which topped the album chart and featured one of the defining anthems of the Britpop era in Common People. Another chart-topper followed in 1998 – the considerably more jaded and moody This is Hardcore – and the band wound down with 2001's We Love Life, co-produced by the late Scott Walker. Since then, the only new music they've released is a song from the We Love Life sessions, entitled After You, which was completed and released in 2013. Pulp also reformed for tours in 2011 and 2023. Around the reunions, Cocker released two solo albums followed by a full-length collaboration with Chilly Gonzales. He then formed a new band somewhat under his own name, Jarv Is, who put out their debut album Beyond the Pale in 2020. They also recorded the soundtrack to BBC drama series This Is Going To Hurt. Cocker has also collaborated numerous times with filmmaker Wes Anderson. He voiced a Cockeresque character called Petey in Anderson's stop-motion retelling of Fantastic Mr Fox, and appeared in another Roald Dahl adaptation by Anderson, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Cocker's most recent solo album is Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top, performed in character as French pop singer Tip-Top who features in Anderson's 2021 film The French Dispatch. Cocker then played a musical cowboy in 2023 ensemble drama Asteroid City. Pulp are also looking towards summer tour dates across UK arenas, European festivals and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Cocker said the concerts would be 'mental, in a good way … they are big, but hopefully it won't feel big, we're going to try to do something where the audience feels they're sat there with us'. He alluded to filmmaker Garth Jennings potentially filming the tour. But he ruled out Glastonbury this year, saying the festival 'has a very important place in our hearts, but there's no plans to play there'.
