Pulp: C.L.A.S.S.I.C.O.R.D.U.D?

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See, further proof! I don't remember that line at all!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 August 2003 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

I love it in "Party Hard" when the bassline goes all Duran.

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 8 August 2003 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

DURAN! Spencer, I never even thought of that comparison before. Wow.

Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 8 August 2003 19:51 (twenty years ago) link

That IS good. Spencer you genius man, write more music thoughts for FT and everything.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 August 2003 19:58 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...
i bought different class in hawaii along with a judy garland and mickey rooney box set

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 02:05 (nineteen years ago) link

i listened to it while driving through the crater-like landscapes of the big island

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I bought Max Romeo's "Wet Dream" on CD (on a various artists compilation" at a "Scotch House" tartan/kilts shop on the Eng/Scot border. Most unlikely purchase?

mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 06:51 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...
"we love life" just isn't very good, is it? or amn't i trying hard enough?

m. (mitchlnw), Saturday, 27 November 2004 12:43 (nineteen years ago) link

no, you're right. it's pish.

i think.

*damn*, i'm going to have to dig it out and listen again now, just to make sure.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 November 2004 14:49 (nineteen years ago) link

actually, it's not bad so far. it's playing away in the background while i do stuff around the flat (make soup, hang up washing, try to find somewhere to keep all my CDs because my sister-in-law wants her - ahem - "antique" chest of drawers back). indeed, the fourth track, "trees", is rather wonderful.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 November 2004 15:24 (nineteen years ago) link

wow. it's much, much better than i remembered. three stand-out tracks ("the birds in your garden", "bob lind", the aforementioned "trees") and a whole heap of bloody-hell-this-is-good-isn't-it? pulpy angst.

am gonna listen to "hardcore" next. haven't heard that since 1997.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 November 2004 16:02 (nineteen years ago) link

maybe i'll leave it alone for a while and return some years later.

m. (mitchlnw), Saturday, 27 November 2004 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link

am gonna listen to "hardcore" next. haven't heard that since 1997.

It didn't even come out till 1998 - this is impressive!

Alba (Alba), Saturday, 27 November 2004 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link

legs

LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Saturday, 27 November 2004 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post

good point. i think "1997" has become shorthand for about four years of podding around when i first moved to glasgow. i can no longer differentiate between any of the memories. if it happened when i was living on kent road, my mind has it filed as 1997.

anyway. "hardcore" is disappointing. the first, title and closing tracks are great; the rest has left little impression.

but it's still "trees" i'm humming to myself as i liquidise my soup. (and no, that's not a euphemism.)

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 November 2004 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

anyway. "hardcore" is disappointing. the first, title and closing tracks are great; the rest has left little impression.

My feelings exactly, still, except I think only the first and title songs are great and I think they're really great, like perhaps the best two songs they ever did. 'Help The Aged' is good too. The rest is meh.

Alba (Alba), Saturday, 27 November 2004 18:08 (nineteen years ago) link

"This Is Hardcore" is a rare breed -- a "pressures of fame" album which is actually good.

"We Love Life" was a bit of a letdown, but its best tracks (the two-part "Weeds", "Birds in Your Garden", "Sunrise") rank with the band's best.

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 27 November 2004 18:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I bought F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.I.V.E. today on video (how quaint, eh?) at a jumble sale for 50p. I was very pleased with myself.

ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 27 November 2004 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

(classic, by the way)

ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 27 November 2004 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

can somebody give me an album order that i should hear for these guys? start from _Different Class_('coz it's the only one i've heard) and go...

kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 2 December 2004 02:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Other than DC and "His N Hers" (i.e. the "famous" albums), Pulp are a fairly dark, twisted band. This other material contrasts very strongly with their more well-known stuff, so be prepared for that.

So after those two (and the EP collection "Intro"), I'd say listen to "This is Hardcore", then "We Love Life", and if you're still with them, jump into the older stuff. "Freaks" is a personal fave of mine -- a disturbing, even gruesome near-classic record. Then grab "Masters of the Universe" (a collection of EPs from around the same time as "Freaks"), then "Separations".

I haven't heard their first album, "It".

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 2 December 2004 02:58 (nineteen years ago) link

five months pass...
In honor of today:

I thought that you were joking / When you said "I want to see you
To discuss your contribution / To the future of our nation's heart and soul
Six o'clock, my place, Whitehall" / Well I arrived just after seven
But you said "It doesn't matter" / "I understand your situation
And your image, and I'm flattered / Oh and I'd just like to tell you
That I love all of your albums / Could you sign this for my daughter?
She's in hospital, her name is Miriam / Now get down to the gist:
Do you want a line of this? / Are you a (sniff) / socialist?"
"Doin' fine, yeah! / Buzzin' all the time / Just one hit / And I feel great
And I support / The welfare state / Oh, you must be socialist
'Cos you're always off out on the piss / In your private member's bar
Oh yes you are / Yer superstar / Well you sing about common people
And the mis-shapes and the misfits / So can you bring them to my party
And get them all to sniff this? / And all I'm really saying
Is come on and rock the vote for me / All I'm really saying
Is come on roll up that note for me / The gist of all of this is
Do you want hits or d'you want misses? / Are you a socialist, yeah
Socialist, yeah / Socialist, yeah / Oh yeah"
"Yeah, you can be just what you want to be
Just as long as you don't try to compete with me
And we've waited such a long time
For the chance to help our own kind, so now
Please come on and tow the party line / Oh you owe it to yourself
Don't think of anybody else / And we promise we won't tell
Oh we won't tell, and we won't sell" / No we won't / No we won't
No we won't

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Meanwhile, proof that Nicole is an extremely astute critic, part 254151445, quoted again from upthread:

The things that some people have been criticizing them for, like the ott factor, are part of what makes their music so good. They're not afraid to go over the top; something they have in common with great pop music. Indie bands tend to try for the "tastefully restrained" approach far too often.

:-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:14 (eighteen years ago) link

I want to marry a posh stylist and move to France and make babies (while also soundtracking Harry Potter films).

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

And appearing in them, even.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
How essential is this upcoming DVD? Oh, I'd say pretty goddamn fucking essential:

Originally released on VHS in 1996 as F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.I.V.E and 1998 as The Park Is Mine. Two live shows on DVD for the first time.

Features 2 concerts recorded in London (Brixton Academy 1995) and Finsbury Park (1998) plus additional tour documentary from London to Japan. Directed by Rob Hurse and previously only avaialble on a Japanese laser disc. 5.1 Surround sound and dolby stereo.

Region 0, anyone can play it. You have no excuse.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 May 2005 13:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Awesome find Ned! I could have sworn when I originally saw this it was coded for Europe only. Great news.

D. Bachyrycz, Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh - I was at that Finsbury Park concert. Someone undid my trousers.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

And may I recommend the Pulp HIts DVD to all? It's great; Pulp put some effort into what could have been your typical, boring video collection cash-in and made it a really nice thing to have. Home movies, live version of "59 Lyndhurst Grove"!, etc. Being a Pulp fanatic, I would have liked even more, but very good stuff nonetheless.

D. Bachyrycz, Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Mind you that was seven years ago, and things were very different then.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Does it only cost ten pounds from a shop just down the road?

James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Sunday, 22 May 2005 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I have "The Park Is Mine" on VHS. After I saw that vid, my appreciation for "This Is Hardcore" skyrocketed.

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 22 May 2005 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

DOGS ARE EVERYWHERE

Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Sunday, 22 May 2005 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link

eight months pass...
Nothing new from Pulp, but this is still something I'd like to have:

JARVIS COCKER & STEVE MACKEY The Trip (2006 UK 2-CD album set featuring a
35-track collection compiled by the founder members of Pulp and DJs /
record collectors / music lovers extraordinaire with an amazing journey
through power pop, expansive soundtracks, blues, alternative cover
versions, junk shop breaks and genuinely unexpected musical nuggets!). **
released 06 March 2006 **

CD One:
1. Carl Orff - Gassenhauer
2. The Birthday Party - Release The Bats
3. Porter Wagoner - The Rubber Room
4. Psychic TV - Just Drifting
5. Dory Previn - The Lady With The Braid
6. Bob Lind - Cool Summer
7. Gene Pitney - 24 Sycamore
8. Animated Egg - Sock It My Way
9. The Beach Boys - Feel Flows
10. Bonnie Dobson - Winter's Going
11. Arlo Guthrie - I'm Going Home
12. Bobbie Bare - Don't Think Twice
13. Alan Vega - Jukebox Babe
14. OMD - Waiting For The Man
15. The Human League - Rock N Roll
16. Lieutenant Pigeon - The Villain
17. Add N To (X) - King Wasp
18. The Fall - Lost In Music
19. Moondog - Pastoral

CD Two:
1. Elton Motello - Jet Boy Jet Girl
2. The Polecats - John I'm Only Dancing
3. Electronicat - Wop Do Wop
4. Johnny Wakelin - In Zaire
5. Quixotic - Mortal Mirror
6. Jonathan Richman - Egyptian Reggae
7. Lee Hazelwood - Pour Man
8. Screaming Lord Sutch - Flashing Light
9. John Cooper Clark - Beasley Street
10. David Essex - Rock On
11. Georges De La Rue - Les Visiteurs
12. Sonny Bono - Pammies On A Bummer
13. The Everly Brothers - I Wonder If I Care As Much
14. Dion - Purple Haze
15. Neil Sedaka - Going Nowhere
16. Ronald Binge - Sailing By

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 January 2006 02:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Pulp as of today at.. 9:28pm and at least for the last ten years... CLASSIC!

elgolfo (elgolfo), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Pammies on a Bummer?? Oh, Jesus.

(I still want this though)

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 27 January 2006 04:42 (eighteen years ago) link

the title of this thread deserves some applause.

rajeev (rajeev), Friday, 27 January 2006 05:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Total classic. The band that made my 14 year old self realise the relative mediocrity of Blur and Oasis, and embrace my inner pop slut.
Saw them live twice. Once in the cold and rain of T In the Park 98, doing an awesome This Is Hardcore amidst sepulchral lights, and then at Gig on The Green in Glasgow in 2002, criminally billed below The Strokes (who to their credit acknowledged the injustice. "Jarvis Cocker is the coolest fuckin guy" etc). One of their last shows and a glorious affirmation of their greatness. Few things can be better than dancing to Babies.

stew!, Friday, 27 January 2006 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link

seven months pass...
ok today it hit me that if pulp lyrics were delivered with a more upbeat inflection they could totally be cali skate-punk pop.

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 28 August 2006 03:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Cause lord knows that's the first music I think of when I listen to "This is Hardcore"...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 28 August 2006 03:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I could see "This is Hardcore" being the unironic title of something punk produced.

Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 28 August 2006 05:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Obviously classic, but why is "His'n'Hers" mentioned so rarely these days? I still see it as one of their best albums.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 28 August 2006 09:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Classic but gathering a lot of dust.
That, of course, might change with all those re-issues.

clodia pulchra (emo by proxy), Monday, 28 August 2006 11:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd like to know more about this "Common People was nicked from a dodgy Spanish disco record" theory.

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 09:30 (seventeen years ago) link

His'N'Hers IS their best album, followed by We Love Life and then This Is Hardcore. Aside from the first four tracks I don't care much for Different Class. The other three are all far more imaginative, interesting albums IMO.

Classic: EVERY SINGLE SONG THEY DID over 5:30 in length (except Sylvia). Check it out, it works. It's how I'd do their Best Of (with Lipgloss and Dishes tacked on perhaps).

Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 13:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Spanish new romantic disco act Meccano: http://sheckley.tripod.com/Radcliffe/pulpblackmail.mp3

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

X-Post
Hey, "Sylvia" is fantastic! Easily the best song on the entire "This Is Hardcore" album.

But considering you don't like "Different Class" I can understand why you don't like it, as "Sylvia" sounds very much like a "Different Class" track.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Y'see, whereas you probably regard 'Seductive Barry' as a tuneless, overlong dirge, I absolutely adore it, and have even invented the term 'sexscape' to describe its sprawling, claustrophobic eroticism. Your stance is utterly fair enough, though.

Different Class is still a good album. 'I Spy' is the best song on it.

Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

LOL "I Spy" sounds like a "This Is Hardcore" track. You should investigate Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel unless you have already done. :)

They are of course all great, from "His'n'Hers" onwards, whereas what I've heard of their earlier material is not all that great (well, apart from "Razzmatazz", a fantastic single that for some reason was never included on "His'n'Hers")

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 14:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I usually hate when people are like "NOBODY MENTIONED THIS YET?!?!?!?!" but this thread is over 5 years old, so I guess it won't seem all that weird..

It would appear that "Underwear," which has yet to be mentioned here, is seen as one of their more forgettable tracks or something. It's one of my favorite 90's tracks, and possibly my favorite Pulp song. It is fucking perfect and beautiful, and anyone who thinks differently can eat dicks.

billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd love the Spotify presale code

Murgatroid, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 03:35 (one month ago) link

I don’t have a Spotify ex :/

she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 10:37 (one month ago) link

Extra shows announced for Toronto, Brooklyn and LA, presales today at 11 am local time.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 14:07 (one month ago) link

got tix for kings on 9/14

the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 15:40 (one month ago) link

got a ticket for 9/11 yeahhhhhhh

Murgatroid, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 16:39 (one month ago) link

two weeks pass...

One more show announced! Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Sat Sept 21, on sale Friday 10 am

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 April 2024 16:19 (two weeks ago) link


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