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Ian


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I've been thinking of doing a poll for my website to find out what peoples' least favourite Pulp songs are (when I finally get round to it!). I remember the old official website did it but I was wondering what Pulp songs people like the least and why.

For me, it's got to be "Everybody's Problem". After a promising debut with the "It" album and "My Lighthouse" single, it sounds like they went back a few years, it sounds very schoolboy-ish and as for it supposedly sounding like Wham, I can't think of a single Wham song that sounds anything like it.

Another one I don't like is "Repressive Forkout". Even though I'm assuming that the live version from the Leadmill is an unfinished song, I could never imagine a proper recorded version sounding much better; it's just a load of shouting really.



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Mike


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I've always found "Never-Ending Story" to be a really unpleasant listen.

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ArrGee


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Ian wrote:

I've been thinking of doing a poll for my website to find out what peoples' least favourite Pulp songs are (when I finally get round to it!). I remember the old official website did it but I was wondering what Pulp songs people like the least and why.

 

I remember Someone Like The Moon been particularly unpopular.  However, in recent years I have grown to quite like it.

For me, Disco 2000 is my least favorite.  I can't decide whether it is the fact it nicks it's guitar riff from Gloria, or the puerile lyrics, but I fully groan (sic) when I hear it. I harbour similar feelings for Mis-shapes, but I think that has a certain charm that Disco 2000 lacks.

I'm sure far worse songs lurk on It and Freaks, along with some ropey B-sides and demos, but I don't have to listen to them as much as Disco 2000 which has a habit of popping up on XFM from time to time.



-- Edited by ArrGee on Tuesday 5th of April 2011 09:34:51 AM

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Ian


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ArrGee wrote:
Ian wrote:

I've been thinking of doing a poll for my website to find out what peoples' least favourite Pulp songs are (when I finally get round to it!). I remember the old official website did it but I was wondering what Pulp songs people like the least and why.

 

I remember Someone Like The Moon been particularly unpopular.  However, in recent years I have grown to quite like it.

 I remember now. I don't know why though, for me it's one of the better songs on "His 'n' Hers" and is better than some of the slow songs from the later albums ("TV Movie", "Roadkill"...). 



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Eamonn


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Everybody's Problem is too inoffensive to have any strong feelings about either way.
Agreed with Mike on The Never Ending Story.
But Silence wins hands down for me although the lyrics are hilarious. A few of the mid-80s b-sides are very hard work to listen to (Aborigine, Simultaneous, Goodnight) and I rarely bother. Tuneless, dank, poorly recorded, macabre or depressing lyrics...suffering for your art I suppose...

Post-1990 the ones I like least usually have production/arrangement I have issues with rather than the song itself being crap. Pulp are my favourite group for a reason though, their shit-rate is fairly low. The most average songs of the Island years for me were Someone Like The Moon, I'm A Man and Minnie Timperley.

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SarahAWilson


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Have to say "Love Love" has to be a really awful Pulp song. It's so fucking twee.

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Eamonn


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I have a soft spot for it. Nice melody and fifth-form lyrics. Expect Belle And Sebastian to knock out a cover of it very soon.

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pulped


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TUNNEL



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Ste


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There's a huge amount of songs I can take or leave from the early albums; I don't like Dogs Are Everywhere or Fairground much, or Never Ending Story... But from the "new" albums

Party Hard. I find it terribly terribly... plain. I can't find anything to like in it at all. It always bewilders me when people talk about it being the most obvious choice of single from TIH (Then again, I'd be hard pushed to think of alternatives, but I still don't like it)

TV Movie. I get it, it's all tender and fragile and vulnerable, but Roadkill is these, and still manages to make a good song, I reckon.

Pencil Skirt & Underwear... Again, I find these just... boring.

Worst of them, I think - Joyriders - Jesus Christ, I dislike that song. And just when you think it's going to end, it doesn't end. Again, and again, and again.

I guess these should all be viewed through a sensible lense - I wouldn't complain if they were on the radio, say. But amongst the other interesting, exciting or heartfelt things on the albums, these few stand out as comparative dross - at least to me anyway.

...

To add to the above, hearing Someone Like The Moon as I fell asleep made me realise how brilliant it is! The same worked wonders for Seductive Barry, too. It's just so damned atmospheric and cosy to hear these as you fall asleep!



-- Edited by Ste on Friday 1st of April 2011 12:41:23 AM



-- Edited by Ste on Friday 1st of April 2011 12:41:59 AM

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Minnie Timperley is an embarrassment.

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ArrGee


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Eamonn wrote:

Pulp are my favourite group for a reason though, their shit-rate is fairly low. 

I pretty much agree with this regarding anything recorded 1990 onwards.  Post 1990, Disco 2000 is the worst but in the big scheme of things still a decent enough song. Even songs I don't really love have plenty of interest in them.

I have to confess to not liking much pre-Separations.  Some of it is OK, but having heard It, Freaks and the MOTU compilation once or twice, they aren't records I go back to very often.   Probably a number of far worse songs lurking in the pre-1990 vaults. IMHO the deluxe edition bonus discs are more coherent albums.

 



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Sleeve


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Controversially, all of We Love Life apart from Weeds/ Origin, Love Love is fearful, and I never play This Is Hardcore- it just depresses me- those outtakes from His 'N' Hers were so disappointing too. Apart from this, I like everything. Hurray!

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shotoki


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Fairground, Love Love, PTA, Cocaine Socialism, I Love Life, Stacks, 59 Lyndhurst Grove, Born To Cry, That Boy's Evil, and Le Roi des Fourmis



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Disco Bible


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Sleeve wrote:

 those outtakes from His 'N' Hers were so disappointing too. 

 

 

each to their own obviously :) i respectfully disagree though, I thought that disc had the best of the lot, This Is Hardcore had a whole bunch i thought were better than the actual ALBUM haha.

Different Class had the worst outtakes by a mile in my opinion :( great B-sides off that album but the outtakes were the worst of the lot. its not like they were disappointing or just BAD....i just didn't find most of them interesting at all which was a shame



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Ian


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Disco Bible wrote:
Different Class had the worst outtakes by a mile in my opinion :( great B-sides off that album but the outtakes were the worst of the lot. its not like they were disappointing or just BAD....i just didn't find most of them interesting at all which was a shame

 

I agree with you there.

I listen to the "This is Hardcore" deluxe disc more than the others, whilst I don't think it's anywhere near as good as the album, I think it's definitely the best of the three.



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ArrGee


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With demos and songs like Grandfather's Nursery, I think you have to think of them as a bonus if you do like them as they were probably never meant to be released. 

I have always been amazed at how much good stuff never got released, though it is understandable that Pulp will probably have to demo about 30 songs to come up with a dozen good ones. 

Being very honest there aren't any offcuts that should have been on any of the albums. Cocaine Socialist should have been a single but that aside  I can't really think of any that would have improved any album.



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Sleeve


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That's it. The Different Class ones were terrible- Paula? And I thought Catcliffe Shakedown had a strange sense of hostility to a working class area and its residents which was very much at odds with the image Jarvis generally projected. It's lyrics are just pure snobbery.

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Eamonn


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In fairness Jarvis accepts that in the liner notes, apart from the music being silly the lyrics are very ''snidey''. I think Russell mentioned in the Common People docu that when they used to rehearse in the pottery warehouse in Catcliffe kids would be throwing stones off the corrugated walls outside shouting ''You're shit'' etc. so it was probably a harmless bit of revenge.

I love it though, the song bounces all over the place. A perfect example of the left-over snippets of a Pulp recording session grafted together to make something interesting.

Paula is throwaway in nature, but again fun to listen to. Don't Lose It and We Can Dance Again are far more accomplished, I don't know how you could call them terrible.

Of all the demos on the reissues, It's A Dirty World sticks out like a sore thumb. It would have been one of the best three songs on This Is Hardcore.

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Sleeve


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.Just my two pence. I think with hindsight (which is unfair on my part really) they just sound like pastiches of Pulp songs, y'know? I still haven't heard the Hardcore tracks but they sound promising.

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James


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Just want to quickly stick up for Aboriginie & Minnie, two of my best (:

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Mike


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Yes, I have never quite understood why people seem to dislike Minnie so much.

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Sleeve


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Aboriginie I've always liked. Minnie- the vocals are just so strained but I just don't like the album.

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Rachel


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Ive never liked Help the aged. Cant put my finger on why either, its my most likely 'skip' song.

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Ian


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One I've just thought of - "Weeds II"! It's so pointless, not even good enough to be a b-side in my opinion.



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ArrGee


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Rachel wrote:

Ive never liked Help the aged. Cant put my finger on why either, its my most likely 'skip' song.

IMHO the problem with Help The Aged was the subject matter and that it seemed to be somewhere between Different Class and Hardcore in a no man's land.  

Given it was released about six months ahead of Hardcore to a less than enthusiatic response I was surprised it appeared on the album.  It sounds like it was recorded long before the other tracks (though so was Common People/Underwear), and does jar a bit on the album.

A bit like Mis-shapes for me, maybe not the greatest Pulp moment, but it has many redeeming features.  Still can't believe it was a single.  

The Island executives must have hated Hardcore as an album, as there were no proper singles on it.  It's odd that from Babies to Something's Changed, Pulp released very commercial singles, even if they weren't all successful at the time, and then didn't have one after that.  You are more likely to hear Lip Gloss and DYRTFT? on the radio than Help The Aged, and they didn't even dent the top thirty in the UK.

 



-- Edited by ArrGee on Tuesday 5th of April 2011 09:28:05 AM

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