Pulp - More (2025)

Can you ever recapture lightning in a bottle? Pulp's eighth album—the band's first in 24 years—makes a strong case for it. Though they split up in 2002, there have been more than a few reunion shows, and staying out of the spotlight, it seems, was never really an option. "I was born to perform/ It's a calling/ I еxist to do this/ Shouting and pointing," frontman Jar vis Cocker sings on "Spike Island" (while name-checking a Mott the Hoople album, no less). Packed with punchy disco bass and comet-streak guitar—not to mention Cocker's signature yelps and exaggerated sighs, meeting at some Venn diagram of sexy, world-weary and awkward—it draws inspiration from British legend: the Stone Roses' infamous outdoor 1990 gig of the same name. That concert's taken on mythical status over the years, but in reality, Pulp guitarist Mark Webber has admitted, "it didn't sound very good, it was windy and the vibe wasn't there."

The clash of memory and reality is used as metaphor for Pulp's own reformation, with Cocker looking back on his band's pinnacle and admitting, "I was playing to type." The Spike Island story is a familiar one, as it also inspired the band's classic "Sorted for E's and Wizz." Indeed, Cocker & Co. are in a recycling mood for More. With its trembling strings and reference to Jesus, "Slow Jam" feels like a This Is Hardcore outtake. Terrific "Grown Ups" actually started as a demo for that 1998 album—and includes a ticklish Easter-egg callback to "Common People," as Cocker intones, "Are you sure?" The 61-year-old singer is still grappling with aging: "Life is too short to drink bad wine … " he sings. "And nobody wants to grow up." But the whole band sounds great, even as there is the poignant absence of longtime bassist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023. Webber's slide guitar is blinding on "Got to Have Love," a galloping bit of ABBA-esque histrionics that reminds you producer James Ford worked with Arctic Monkeys. It's about how, Cocker has said, ​​"'Love' is a word I was unable to say until I was approaching 40 … I have now learnt how to say it whilst keeping a straight face." In fact, the song, which includes a characteristically great build and explosion, finds him spelling out "L-O-V-E" like the world's most louche cheerleader.

Powered by Burt Bacharach-style piano and a swinging jazz beat from drummer Nick Banks, "Farmers Market" is a real-time culmination of "Help the Aged"—but with the aging helping each other ("That's when I saw you there/ In the car park of the farmer's market … I stammered some pleasantries as I walked back to the car/ And then I thought, 'Hold on/ Are these groceries really that important?'"). There are swooning ballads ("Partial Eclipse"), funky soul ("My Sex") and a Richard Hawley co-write, "A Sunset," that interpolates the lyrics of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and features Brian Eno and his family singing back-up. ("The first rule of economics/ Unhappy people, they spend more," Cocker memorably explains.) "Background Noise" is pure Pulp high drama. And "The Hymn of the North" offers sweeping halcyon comfort and a plea from Cocker not to forget him (as if): "Please stay in touch with me in this contact-less society … the Northern star leads back to me."

TRACKLIST

1. Pulp - Spike Island
2. Pulp - Tina
3. Pulp - Grown Ups
4. Pulp - Slow Jam
5. Pulp - Farmers Market
6. Pulp - My Sex
7. Pulp - Got to Have Love
8. Pulp - Background Noise
9. Pulp - Partial Eclipse
10. Pulp - The Hymn of the North
11. Pulp - A Sunset