Naughty thread title. But good work on collating it all.

Ian kindly ripped the Glasto 2022 Jarv Is... live performance last week for his website and I also asked him to extract the audio of "Slow Jam" from a Bristol November 2021 show - a far better performance than the Newcastle gig from the same week (not sure which one you've included) - all of the songs from Newcastle are on the FEELING CALLED LIVE site.

I need to listen more to the new Pulp songs performed live but my sense is that Jarv Is... were really growing as a band in 2022 with each member contributing important parts. I was therefore really surprised when Jarvis decided to reform Pulp that summer.

"Proceed To The Route" is such a fun track. Great lyrics and a fine top-line vocal, it also has a nifty little riff and momentum in parts both fluid and sputtering, presumably to mimick the frustrating experience of getting lost in your car with a sat nav.

I also really like how the other new/unreleased Jarv Is... tracks - both "Slow Jam" and "Locked Down"; make the most of their bare-bones musical structure (there can't be many chords in either song), thanks to the band locking into a groove and Jarvis' superior narrative skills.

In terms of the new material we all excitingly heard in 2023 and this year from Pulp - I must admit that some of the recent crop are yet to make as strong an impression on me although I have only heard them a handful of times. So these albums you've put together will help get a better sense of them.

Of the Pulp reunion songs lived with for longer - "Hymn Of The North" is a winning ballad that just ticks all the right boxes - heartfelt lyrics that aren't too corny, simple but effective choruses, a bold middle-eighth that has a bit of dissonance to even-out the soft nature of the song and then a wonderful coda section. It may not have been born as a Pulp song but hopefully it can become one - the live versions suggests so. As an album-closer on a final Pulp record, I'd be more than happy with it.

"Background Noise" is direct and pretty immediate but to my ears needs a killer bridge and interesting dynamics in the production to take it from good to great.

Onto what we've heard since August this year - from least impressive to most:

"A Sunset" is quite charming and pretty but I dunno, a little weak if hooks are your bag. I do hope Jarvis & Hawley do a joint-album one day, I think this could go on there with "Happy New Year Baby" and whatever else they have or can cook-up together.

"Farmers Market" reminds me of "Slush" the song and slush the substance from the couple of times I've heard it.
Jarvis is generally pretty adept at ballads so if they perseve with this, I hope it gets some interesting treatment to stop it being too maudlin and clichéd.
The repeated exclamatory bit at the end ("Ain't it time we started living?") feels a bit forced and we've already had something similar at the very end of Pulp's initial closing chapter ("Let's get it on!" from "Last Day of the Miner's Strike").

"Got To Have Love" feels like it will deliver on its promise - but I don't think the new arrangement has added anything mind-blowing that wasn't hinted at by the demo.
"My Sex" has some nice backing bits but doesn't tend to stray too far musically from a basic structure and it feels like it is an open invitation for Jarvis to get on his soap box about identity, sexuality and whatever else.

For me, so far, the only new Pulp song that sounds as if the group are all locked-in and contributing interesting parts - particularly Mark, is "Spike Island". His playing on the other ones is quite restrained as if it's predominantly serving the vocal melody line rather than driving the song. Contrast with the aforementioned "Proceed To The Route" by Jarv Is... which has the hallmarks of being jammed as a collective by the band from the outset.

Webber's slides and riffs on "Spike Island", though quite simple, are the anchor of the song and all the better for it. I hope if we hear more stuff, Mark and Candida (or even Emma if she's going to be involved) can emerge more from the shadows and provide the highlights on some of the material.

Last point I'll make is that while I was too young to hear the new material performed by Pulp in 1999/2000, I do remember being really excited listening to the songs from the "Further Complications" era being previewed the year before they came out - specifically "Girls Like It Too", "I Never Said I Was Deep" and "Leftovers". They all sounded incredible. And then they were all recorded in such a mannered way in the studio, I couldn't believe it. Making an off-the-cuff record with Albini made sense given the garagey-rock leanings of the material, but to me the whole thing was neutered on tape.

I also felt a wee bit disappointed on how "Swanky Modes" and "House Music All Night Long" turned-out on "Beyond The Pale" after seeing their live debuts. Modes was a classic Cocker vignette but again on record, his vocals were soft and the backing sparse. Clearly a stylistic choice but I felt it came alive a lot more, well, live. I was happy with the production of House Music, it was more the length of the track - the breakdown and extended outro doesn't have enough of interest on the recorded version for repeated full listenings. This is a tricky problem that Jarvis has had before - epics with peaks and troughs that work live but on record never survive the DJ's fade-out - see "Sunrise". House Music even had a radio edit but I remember when it was playlisted on 6 Music, it would always be interrupted. Minor gripe, I guess, it's still a killer track.

That's all a roundabout way of saying that I'm glad that I haven't been blown-away by the new Pulp live songs. Because I'd probably end-up slagging off the final versions whereas now, they're only likely to improve in the studio!

Agree with a lot of that. I think I'd leave After You as stand-alone, the mix from Murphy is very particular and unlikely to fit with the new material.

"Happy New Year" also emerged on Jarvis' radio show in studio version a few years ago. Youtube link:

https://youtu.be/tBpSB-TsmK4?si=AnHywNsjMcfp4Ofs

HoltbyCity wrote:

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As per forum rules, I've deleted the half-dozen commercially-available tracks from the second album, but these can easily be reinserted.  Links will work for a couple of weeks.

 Studio 25: https://filetransfer.io/data-package/4lF8eDCW#link

We Love Life (Deluxe) - CD2: https://filetransfer.io/data-package/7808bIj1#link

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 Thanks for this.  As an aside, what tracks are missing?

HoltbyCity wrote:

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I took out (from the version I did for myself):

01 Born To Cry

02 My Body May Die

03 Grandfather's Nursery

06b Cuckoo Song (Solo)

08a After You

10 Last Day Of The Miners' Strike

 

I'll give it a few days and see if anyone objects re the rule, and if not will put the full version up.  

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A prize for anyone who has Grandfathers Nursery on CD   (a poor offer given the obsessive nature of Pulp fans)

I got it via Amazon.  Lurking somewhere on my hard drives. 

FWIW my thoughts on commercially available nowadays is if it isnt on spotify, it isnt. So My Body May Die is not commercially available.  Its not like people sharing it denies Pulp income.

PS these songs are on You Tube and dont look licenced

hawalius1 wrote:

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Yep, I have it on CD (natch). It's not CD quality on the disc, though, and the first second is cut off - so I made an edit to add the first second from the Amazon download. Here you go.

For what it's worth, the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) soundtrack is available on CD from Amazon. The 100% Sinnamon compilation appears to have fallen out of print/distribution, though second hand copies are available from Discogs.

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Mmm, heres your prize  (was going to be a trophy, but it didnt appear!)

I vaguely remember an interview with Nick Banks in Pulp People where he pretty much told people if they dont want to buy Hits to just rip Last Days of the Miners Strike!

Given Grandfathers Nursery and My Body May Die are on You Tube along with every commercially available track on all the albums, the "first rule" is pretty obsolete as anyone can search on You Tube.

All that written, I need to pay a bit more attention to soundtracks and other compilations at my local charity shop. Probably passed over Notting Hill for 33p on countless occasions.

https://pulpwiki.net/Pulp/VariousArtistsCompilations

HoltbyCity wrote:

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andy wrote:

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Thanx for that i'm giving it a listen. I didnt know the Jarv Is tracks so that's new material for me;

First impression is that those tracks dont really sound like Pulp, so it would be weird to have them included on a pulp record;

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But Pulp and Jarv Is have effectively been merged, so the new record will presumably sound more in-between the two, rather than circa 2001 Pulp (the last time those 4 individuals were writing together)?

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 For me, the new Pulp phase consists of the original band & the Jarv Is band. It's going to result in an epic record.