Was brilliant.
***Setlist spoilers below***




Pick of the new songs 'Swanky Mode', (the lyrics at his tragic character-studying with double entendre best),'Must I Evolve' and 'Am I Missing Something'. 'Elvis Has Left The Building' has been written for a film that's coming out later this year.
The guitarist/violinist was great, she really gave some welly to Fat Children and Further Comps.
Encore finished with His'n'Hers, great synth work from Serafina, Jarvis even did the old shtick of asking a few audience members what made them frightened. Panther of this parish wanted to say "Wasps" but we were too far back.
Just at St Pancras now, ugh, do I have to go to work tomorrow? Yes yes yes, must I evolve? Yes yes yes...(you'll geddit eventually).

Really was brilliant.

Probably closest to reunion Pulp, when Leo Abrahams helped give a fuller sound but it's different too, maybe the most talented set-up he's had. The drummer was strong, some sophisticated drumming patterns at times, the bassist adds some backing vox to the mix that Mackey doesn't, Serafina is very capable obviously - though her harp needed to be louder in the mix to hear it (she alternated between that and keys and also sat-out a couple of the heavier songs like Further Comps); and the guitarist/violinist is seriously talented. The two ladies provided plenty of vocal harmonies/call and response type vocals as well as playing two instruments.

They also did an extra encore cos we were so nice, think it was called Chilled Ibiza.

can only really echo the above.

Hearing the new material has given me extremely high hopes for the (potential) new album, although I'm not sure how close on the horizon that'd be, there were 6 new songs (not including the Elvis one for the film - and the last of which was suggested was very new and raw, not that it sounded it), so they'd need a few more, and to my eye the guitarist/violinist looked fairly far gone with a creature of love so at some point in the nearish future recording is (quite rightly) not going to be a priority.

You really got a sense of band forming rather than a solo artist which I think can only be a good thing.

As for the older stuff I thought "Running the World" also worked really well, and can confirm Jarvis looks like he's just popped out from a time machine he entered 20 years ago.

No cheese tonight wrote:

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Hearing the new material has given me extremely high hopes for the (potential) new album, although I'm not sure how close on the horizon that'd be, there were 6 new songs (not including the Elvis one for the film - and the last of which was suggested was very new and raw, not that it sounded it), so they'd need a few more, and to my eye the guitarist/violinist looked fairly far gone with a creature of love so at some point in the nearish future recording is (quite rightly) not going to be a priority.

 

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Well if he is doing a small warm up tour, the album is probably close to be finished i think, he would not book rehearsals / spend money etc just to test songs for a recording sessions. May at the earliest, but probably more like fall for an album release i think. He'll probably do festivals in the summer too. 

Couple of other observations - I think the genesis of the theme/lyrics for 'Children of the Echo' is in the review he did of that book of John Lennon letters from a couple of years back where he was basically saying not to be tied to the past. Hope this doesn't mean further Pulp reissues are less likely!

One song started with lyrics about his partner saying he doesn't know how to communicate. Reminded me of Jarvis saying that's what his ex-missus used to tell him.

'Must I Evolve' reminded me a little in places of a Libertines song, 'Road To Ruin' I think , kind of crossed with 'MOR' by Blur (which heavily borrowed from Bowie's 'Boys Keep Swinging').

A lot of the lyrical themes on the new songs had an existential flavour so the character-study of the lady in 'Swanky Mode', classic Cocker territory, did stand out. Some real zingers in there and he seemed to be singing a bit more on this than some of the others. The music also augmented the story. I think that might be the jewel in the crown when these all get recorded and released.

No cheese tonight wrote:

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...and to my eye the guitarist/violinist looked fairly far gone with a creature of love so at some point in the nearish future recording is (quite rightly) not going to be a priority.

 

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 Sorry, I don't understand what you mean here, can you clarify?