I think we all would have guessed that any new Pulp album would likely come out on Rough Trade. As the news/press release says, they've already managed them since 1993. Also, Jarvis/Jarv Is... albums have come out through their label.
But this news is extra-exciting because there's no doubt now that a brand new album is coming and Mark's "Yeah, we've written shit loads of songs but I don't know if anything will happen with them" can be ignored! They must have recorded a fair bit of it already or at least demo'd with a producer in mind to bother putting out this news. Otherwise it just creates pressure on them to get it all done and we know they dont like that. I can't see them spending months on a hot-shot producer like Mark wants. I bet they're doing it themselves or working with Jason Buckle at Ant Genn and Martin Slattery's studio like for "Beyond The Pale".
Regarding reissues of Island/Universal albums, could someone please ask Mark at the the TIH playback event this weekend (bet he's annoyed he has to be more direct with questions about the future now!) whether the rights to Pulp's recorded output from 1992-2002 will ever revert to the group? If not, I'm not sure this deal makes a difference. Unless RT make Universal an offer for them which I doubt they'd have the budget for unless the band members put up some of the money? Not sure how these things work. Maybe it just needs Rough Trade's expertise in the area where they put together an offer to Universal and promise them a percentage share of the revenue with RT/Pulp taking the risk of absorbing all the costs involved while the music is licensed by Universal.
They might be open to that as Universal are a massive company and without individual champions of an old legacy group, these things are way down on their priority list. And I doubt there's anyone left from the old Island days who championed Pulp like Nigel Coxon (?) - the guy Sturdy got a really good insight from in Truth And Beauty as to Pulp's relationship with their corporate overlords back in the day.
Soft Cell are comparable in some ways to Pulp, both in style and size. They have had a reissue campaign over the last few years through Universal, beginning with a 6 disc anthology set and a best-of followed by a superdeluxe reissue of their most famous album, the debut, and the band's management and archivists have already mapped-out the contents of superdeluxes for their final two records. However they mentioned this year that staff-downsizing at Universal has delayed these projects. In the meantime, they released a comeback album a couple of years ago on a different label.
-- Edited by Eamonn on Thursday 12th of December 2024 01:51:00 PM
Right, let's play a game. What could be the most disappointing possible outcome of this news?
Shed Seven had a number one LP this year with orchestral versions of their greatest hits.
James did that as well in 2023. Peaked at #3. Most disappointing would be the original LPs reordered/reimagined with tracks removed and B-sides added like The Gouster and Waiting In The Sky by Bowie. Like sticking Babies and Razzmatazz on His n Hers.
Its Friday the 13th here... I just had to explain to my partner the interesting arrangement because he was like werent they on Island... something is brewing!!!
I'm pretty certain that there will be a new album now. Even if it's just a one album deal, it may boost their popularity enough for Island to finally release a "We Love Life" deluxe. Best of both worlds.
In defence of Shed Seven, they released a brand new album earlier in the year and the compilation of re-recordings was an attempt to stop their previous record company from releasing another "Greatest Hits" style compilation.