Running parallel to the PulpWars, here's a nice, straightforward poll.
Some freaky space-paradox has warped time and all traces of Pulp are about to vanish from existence. Inexplicably, you have found a space-time-envelope (of the brown manila variety) that can hold one album only and transport it safely to the other side of the rift.
Alas nobody, not even you, not even Pulp themselves, will have any recollection of the whats and whys. On the bright side, the world will have the pleasure of discovering whatever lies inside, anew.
Which LP would you slip inside? Do you favour your own sentimentality, or present the band to the brave new world as history would favour them? Do you weight the presence of individual songs, or preserve an album as an artistic whole? What do Pulp, in the end, mean?
I've included two major compilations in there but omitted 'Countdown: 1992-1983' because it was a touch too inclusive.
-- Edited by superchob on Thursday 28th of January 2016 05:21:28 PM
I have His 'n' Hers, but it is the Deluxe Edition, is that OK?
(I don't suppose I can slip the 12" Razzmatazz in for good measure)
Yeah, I suppose we'll count the deluxes but alas, slipping in a crafty extra would risk the integrity of the whole envelope - the slightest tear would expose all contents to the Black Hole, so sorry, we just can't take that chance!
I'm enjoying the current love for Intro, because I tend to agree. There's just something about their sound on that record (I guess it's the grubby stylophones and Candida's prominence), and it's here that Jarvis' softly spoken commentaries seem at their most socially cutting. It seems to embody a quote Jarvis made that compared the difference between those who hang three ducks on the wall above their kitchen table as a kitsch statement and those who do it because they simply love them... less embody the quote than steer it into a manifesto.
I adore the final sequence of songs too, because it reminds me of how Jarvis liked to weave the songs on their set list into a narrative - the story of a night out, for instance.
The album also has a strange place in their oeuvre, floating between two poles of their history, somehow existing outside the canon. That imparts a little pixie dust, makes it feel special - almost like a bootleg.
And of course, the whole thing kicks, which helps!
-- Edited by superchob on Friday 29th of January 2016 10:07:53 PM
I have His 'n' Hers, but it is the Deluxe Edition, is that OK?
(I don't suppose I can slip the 12" Razzmatazz in for good measure)
Yeah, I suppose we'll count the deluxes but alas, slipping in a crafty extra would risk the integrity of the whole envelope - the slightest tear would expose all contents to the Black Hole, so sorry, we just can't take that chance!
I'm enjoying the current love for Intro, because I tend to agree. There's just something about their sound on that record (I guess it's the grubby stylophones and Candida's prominence), and it's here that Jarvis' softly spoken commentaries seem at their most socially cutting. It seems to embody a quote Jarvis made that compared the difference between those who hang three ducks on the wall above their kitchen table as a kitsch statement and those who do it because they simply love them... less embody the quote than steer it into a manifesto.
I adore the final sequence of songs too, because it reminds me of how Jarvis liked to weave the songs on their set list into a narrative - the story of a night out, for instance.
The album also has a strange place in their oeuvre, floating between two poles of their history, somehow existing outside the canon. That imparts a little pixie dust, makes it feel special - almost like a bootleg.
And of course, the whole thing kicks, which helps!
Intro is great, but given the choice of a deluxe, I had to plump for either His n Hers or Hardcore. The Razzmatazz 12" plus Babies on His n Hers would have given me most of it Though then again the US version of His n Hers had Razzmatazz on anyway.
OK, off-topic here, but are there any Sonic Youth fans in the house? I was just listening to Washing Machine for the first time in ages... There's something about the sunlight today that makes colours run. And the air is so very cold, and shadows cast are long and beguiling... The music seems to fit it all so perfectly. That and I have nothing to do and nowhere to be, and this album is in no hurry to get anywhere. I wonder why it is so poorly rated by fans? If there was one album I could crawl inside and inhabit it's this one. For today at least.
-- Edited by superchob on Wednesday 17th of February 2016 11:24:47 AM
Though then again the US version of His n Hers had Razzmatazz on anyway.
