Pulp Album: “We Love Life”

It seemed appropriate that Pulp should one day be produced by legendary pop recluse Scott Walker. Jarvis has always cited Walker as an important precursor, and Pulp's mix of catchy pop, big choruses, rich settings and dark lyrical content connects with the singer's late-60s, Jacques Brel-inspired output. The result is Pulp's most 60s-sounding album to date, a move away from the disco-John Barry melange that made them famous. This is not the hackneyed 60s of Beatles/Stones/Hendrix/Dylan that has become so wearyingly familiar, but the 60s of Phil Spector (the brittle, Wall of Sound production; the ringing bells of 'Bad Cover Version'), Brian Wilson, Nancy and Lee, Ennio Morricone (especially those ethereal backing vocals against a Western soundscape), the garage snarl of early Velvet Underground, the orchestral flourishes of Walker himself.

But it is the later, more intractable and experimental Walker that seems to govern the album. On initial listens especially, 'We Love Life' has an ugly, claustrophobic feel, short on the epic melodies and accumulative euphoria that made even Jarvis' more misanthropic outpourings so exhilarating. There are songs which sound like old Pulp - the long autobiographical narrative monologue 'Wickerman', the pop jangles of 'I Love Life' and 'Bob Lind'; but these have a tendency to collapse into listener-hostile noise: 'I Love Life' ends in an anguished Gothic scream; the double-bass pleasantly underlaying 'Bob Lind' soon swamps the song in dissonance; the spaghetti western epiphany of the bleak urban history 'Wickerman' is darkened by storm rumbles.

Subsequent exposure doesn't make 'We Love Life' any prettier or more accessible, but it does reveal it as one of the most remarkable albums in years (since 'This is Hardcore', probably). It is a concept album: like the Beach Boys' 'Sunflower', its theme is nature. Far from ecology or pastoral, however, Jarvis is obsessed with weeds, fungus, sprawling overgrowth covering the marks of neglected human activity, rivers dried up or running into sewers, as sterile and unrefrreshing as forgottin lives: 'You're in the land of the living, but there are so few signs of life'. Inevitably, the personal and private become political, but Jarvis' anger is never pompous or posturing, always focused and rooted. The distorted-Spector triptych of the lovely, theremin-humming 'Birds in your garden', 'Bob Lind' and 'Bad Cover Version' count as some of the finest music Pulp have ever written. I can think of no other artist - with the exception of Scott Walker - who have responded to popular acclaim with a genuine artistic adventurousness liable to alienate it. Welcome back Pulp. We missed you.

Beginning with a dash of introspective, pretentious and introvert albums

(It, Freaks, Separations), delivering the explosion of their pure

Pop soul on His'n'Hers and the brilliant Different Class,

passing through sofisticated, pompous and dark-decadent expressionism of This is Hardcore,

'Jarvis Cocker and his guys' have recently bloomed into their ripening opera: We Love Life.

This 12 songs collection is a clear demonstration of the great pop music

writing and playing ability of the band from Sheffield: a simply outlined instrumental carpet

and the direct words of Cockers

perfectly capture a mood of consciousness about their new vision of life.

No more twisted between the research of an astonishing arrangement of sounds and breathtaking

lyric sceneries, which absolutely made their effect and mean in the past years,

We Love Life represents the culmination of PULP's excellent Pop career: caught, as usual,

between their 'sex painted' souls (always recalled by Cocker's wry and marvellous lyrics)

and the agening process of their music sensibility.

The Album starts with Weeds, a modern and for more sensitive and careful listener

Maybe the album never take off, but once you've listened you've acquired

I disliked 'We Love Life' the first time I listened to the album. I missed the old Pulp. I really hated "The Trees." The album was relegated to collecting dust. On a whim, I popped the album in a few months later and was blown away. We Love Life is a sublime listening experience - and easily worth 5 stars (and not many albums are...). Jarvis's lyrics are subtle and just as clever as before - but you have to listen. The high point of the album is the spralling and beautiful "Wickerman." This album is the best of 2001 and 2002. Treat yourself to what may be the last Pulp album.

Pulp is one of the best pop/rock bands around, no doubt, and I would buy everything they have, especially His N Hers, which is their best. This latest effort doesn't have a bad song on it, but it also doesn't have any songs/lyrics that are truly memorable. Previous Pulp records have had such delicious songs, which showcased Jarvis Cocker as a British version of Prince, or a 90s version of Morrisey. Listen to the lyrics on His N Hers and you hear fascinating short stories. It is about character development there. Musically, His N Hers is stronger as well, more dense and accomplished. Hardcore and D. Class aare uneven, but at their best are musically and lyrically superior to this one. In sum, We Love Life is a good Pulp record, sincere, dark, musically appealing (I hear R. Stones, World Party and P. Weller)and if you like Pulp, buy it. If you don't know Pulp, get His N Hers, a true classic of crazed dark pop.

This takes a little longer to get into than previous albums, but once you're in, your whole heart's in there. Start with Birds in your garden, it's a sinister-sexy love song like other Pulp classics Underwear, Pencil Skirt, Have you seen her lately. Someone said to me that what makes Pulp special is their songs climax. The tracks on this album are phenomenal live.