Pulp formed in Sheffield at the peak of the synthpop trend and for a few
years attempted to rise above the fray with an obsolete glam-rock that
nonetheless had its merit in the claustrophobic and angsty feeling it
conveyed.
The Low Flying Aircraft single (Red Rhino, 1982), the It
mini-album (Red Rhino, 1983), containing My Lighthouse,
the album Freaks (Fire, 1986),
containing They Suffocate at Night and Master of the Universe
,
and the following appalling singles Everybody's Problem, Little
Girl and Dogs are Everywhere - later collected on Masters of
the Universe (Fire, 1995) -, were
disposable products for decadent discos, spineless
compositions with anachronistic lyrics sung in Jarvis Cocker's out of
fashion dandy style.
After a four-year hiatus the band released Separations (Fire, 1991),
which included My Legendary Girlfriend and Countdown. This
album was no better than the previous ones, but it came out at the right
time and rekindled public interest for the group. All releases previous to
this one were later to be collected in the anthology titled Countdown
1992-1983 (Velvet, 1996).
Cocker's fortunes took a definite turn for the better with the singles later
re-released on Pulpintro (Island, 1993): O.U. (Gift records
1992), which also included Space, Babies (Gift records 1992),
with the b-sides Styloroc and Sheffield Sex City , and
Razzmatazz (Gift records 1993), featuring the b-side Inside
Susan.
With his cynical and elegant ability in blending together elements such as
sexuality, glam, romanticism, electronica and dance grooves, Cocker invented
a "kitsch" style which was very retro but also very personal.
The erotic concept of His 'N' Hers (Island, 1994) limited itself to
aggrandizing those elements, especially the melodic side (Lipgloss,
Do You Remember The First Time) and symphonic character (She's a
Lady, stealing its riff from I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor),
finally fulfilling the band's dreams of glory. The melodies are twisted
around sensual keyboards and carried by irresistible beats. The lyrics are
steeped in the obsessions of teenage sexuality.
Cocker indulged in psychoanalytic frescoes such as David's Last Summer (seven minutes).
Even bigger commercial success came with Different Class, (ISland,
1995), with its stand-out tracks Common People (their biggest hit)
and Disco 2000 (a tribute of sorts to Umberto Tozzi's Gloria).
The breezy Misshapes, the threatening I Spy, the
seductive Underwear and the romantic Something Changed can
perhaps better account for the band's longevity.
(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)
Pulp's progression towards a mature form of expression led to the complex
and sinister interior analysis of This Is Hardcore (Island, 1998).
The album's introverted feeling, tormented lyrics and tortous melodies
(see the lengthy and melodramatic This Is Hardcore) could point
towards grand art, but the band continuously retreats into catchy ditties like
Help The Aged and frigid disco-music like Party Hard.
Lacking the courage to be the "auteur" he dreams of being, Cocker ends up with
only a bunch of half-baked ideas like The Fear and Glory Days.
We Love Life (Island, 2002)
boasts the same lush/sexy production of the previous two albums
(with choir and orchestra), and hardly adds anything to the formula
(Weeds, Minnie Temperley Died, The Birds In Your Garden).
Pulp's guitarist Richard Hawley released the solo album Late Night Final (Setanta, 2001), a collection of carefully-crafted and gently crooned: pop songs the delicate serenade Love of My Life, the orchestral Burt Bacharach-ian ballad Something Is,
the nostalgic and only hummed Light at the End of the Tunnel,
the languid and almost neoclassic Baby You're My Light.
It was followed by the humbler
Lowedges (Setanta, 2003), with the solemn country-esque Run From Me and the anemic and melancholic The Only Road,
Coles Corner (Mute, 2005), a surgical strike at 1950s pop revival, a parade of somnolent dejavu elegies like the sparkling
Born Under A Bad Sign, the
orchestral Cole's Corner and
the waltzing Hotel Room,
and its more varied follow-up Lady's Bridge (Mute, 2007),
with
the orchestral Valentine, the unusual rockabilly fever of Serious,
the gentle Lady's Bridge,
the John Cash-esque Dark Road and
the Phil Spector-esque Tonight the Streets Are Ours.
Hawley revived the ghosts of
Roy Orbison
and after-rock Elvis Presley.
Jarvis Cocker is also Relaxed Muscle, whose
A Heavy Night With (Rough Trade, 2003) is a little confused and naive,
but far more inventive than any Pulp album.
Jarvis Cocker's Jarvis (Rough Trade, 2007) sounds familiar because
it is a parade of familiar refrains, arrangements and vocal impersonations,
notably Scott Walker and
Phil Spector.
The best tunes
(Don't Let Him Waste Your Time, written for Nancy Sinatra,
I Will Kill Again,
Black Magic,
Baby's Coming Back To Me,
Running the World)
are a varied batch that spans at least 35 years of rock music, from
Leonard Cohen to
Joni Mitchell to
Belle And Sebastian via bubblegum,
hard-rock and synth-pop.
Cocker's second solo album
Further Complications (Rough Trade, 2009) changed course, veering towards
glam-infected hard-rock (Angela).
Dispensing with the lush and kitschy orchestration, and adopting a "stream of
consciousness" approach,
Richard Hawley delivered his best album yet, Truelove's Gutter (2009).
This album abandoned his trademark old-fashioned balladry and veered towards
something like a prog-rock version of Roy Orbison,
notably in the lengthy Remorse Code, a stately meditation,
and the even lengthier Don't You Cry, almost an impressionist fresco
with oneiric overtones.
Soldier On is almost funereal until it erupts halfway to become his noisiest song yet.
His chamber-pop dirges
(For Your Lover Give Some Time)
and his gentle ballads (Ashes on the Fire)
have never sounded so philosophical and lethal.
Hawley surprisingly embraced distorted electric guitars and psychedelic melodies
on Standing at the Sky's Edge (2012).
If the single Leave Your Body Behind You is rather lame, there are small gems: the shoegazing anthem She Brings the Sunlight, replete with rocking guitar solo, the pounding garage rave-up Down in the Woods,
the mostly instrumental space-rock jam Before,
and Standing at the Sky's Edge, in the vein of
Neil Young's "acid" neurosis,
At the same time he indulges in the
ghostly whispered The Wood Collier's Grave.
Seek It is the only song that gets crooned in the old manner.
Hawley's skills as a storyteller further increased on the rocking
equation was restrained to the point of making the album more similar to
a collection of novellas than to a collection of actual songs.
Hawley released other laid-back old-fashioned songs:
Hollow Meadows (2015), which contains Heart of Oak, a duet with Norma Waterson,
Further (2019) and
In This City They Call You Love (2024), which contains Prism in Jeans.
Jarvis Cocker released an album of French pop songs, Chansons d'Ennui (2021), under the moniker Tip-Top.
