Pulp – More (Rough Trade) (13th Floor Album Review)
Almost a quarter of a decade after their last long player, Pulp returns with an album that sounds like they never left.
Some 24 years after We Love Life, and 47 years after a 15-year-old Jarvis Cocker formed “Arabicus Pulp”, at age 61, Jarvis is back in front of a band that also includes long-time members Candida Doyle, Nick Banks and Mark Webber…bassist Steve Mackey died in 2023 and guitarist Russell Senior has bowed out.
But, let’s face it, for all intents and purposes, Pulp was always Jarvis’ baby. And since becoming one of the biggest rock stars of the ‘90s with the success of His ‘n Her and Different Class, Jarvis chose to wind things down with This Is Hardcore and We Love Life.
During the intervening couple of decades, Cocker tested the solo waters, formed Jarv Is, tried his hand at poetry, acting and whatever else struck his fancy.
Pulp reformed for live shows and the reunion album was, I guess, inevitable.
So now, the man who sang Help The Aged is back, in his 60s and in the limelight, or what’s left of it.
The music business is a very different place from what it was in 2001. Back then, P Diddy and R Kelly topped the charts and now they are in chains.
These days Country and Pop rule the roost while rock has become a sub-genre…probably for the best.
In any case, Jarvis and his crew have fashioned 11 new tracks that sound fresh, poetic, dramatic and nostalgic.
Opening track, Spike Island finds our hero reminiscing about an old Stone Roses concert when “the universe shrugged, then moved on”.
“I was born to perform”, he croons, “it’s a calling”.
Perform he does.
This is an album of multiple highs and very few lows. Jarvis addressing the topic of aging on Grown Up with a bouncy, catchy melody and a spoken word break down. “Everybody’s got to grow up”.
The spoken word motifs are used for dramatic effect throughout the record and they work a treat.
We find Jarvis at the Farmers Market, stalking “the labyrinth of my own death” while posing profound questions such as, “are these groceries that important?”
If there is a centrepiece to the album, it must be, Got To Have Love, a swirling, sweeping banger of a dance track that will leave you reeling. Light all your candles, indeed!
Strong songs bring up the rear…a highlight is Partial Eclipse, a warm, ballad with another strong melody followed by the Floydian Hymn From The North, a symphonic love song that’s not afraid to get philosophical.
I’m not sure about the closing tune.
A Sunset quotes an old Coke jingle while noting that “unhappy people will spend more”.
Not exactly something to sing in the shower, but then, this is Jarvis’ show and that’s how it ends…for now.
I’ve lived with this album for a week now, and it holds up very well, thank you. With Oasis threatening to re-annoy us all with their childish antics and half-baked songs, I, for one, am happy to have Pulp back to help make sense of it all.
More…please.
Marty Duda
More is out June 6th via Rough Trade Records
