This is the first Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Yes: the first Pulp album for 24 years.
How did that happen?
Well: when we started touring again in 2023 we practiced a new song called Hymn of the North during soundchecks & eventually played it at the end of our second night at Hammersmith Odeon. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones & played by the Elysian Collective.
The album was recorded over 3 weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18th 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen.
These are the facts.
We hope you enjoy the music. It was written & performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process.
This is the best that we can do.
Thanks for listening.
-- Edited by Ian on Tuesday 3rd of June 2025 07:04:49 PM
-- Edited by Ian on Tuesday 3rd of June 2025 07:15:20 PM
Woooohooooo ! How the heck did you spot that?! Release date and tracklisting, hurry up! And I hope this means that Hymn has made the cut....
18th of November was also the date Hits came out. I remember cos it was a day after my 18th. And recording on this album started a day after my 40th. Half a lifetime Pulped....
-- Edited by Eamonn on Monday 7th of April 2025 04:22:13 PM
I don't think it's down, the page has been deleted.
Either way, this is great news. If they recorded it in November, then it has been over 4 months so the finished product could very well tie in with the UK dates. Single in the next couple of weeks.
Brian Eno and family on BVs is a little...unexpected isn't it?!
If the Hawley song is "A Sunset", I hope its been given some magic dust in the studio as personally, I find it the weakest of the new songs heard live.
James Ford is the man in demand when it comes to production these days. Probably more versatile (ie with strings and synths) than Mark's choice, Antonoff.
He's done the last albums by Pet Shop Boys, Blur, Arctic Monkeys, Beth Gibbons (Portishead), Fontaine DC and Black Countrtly New Road in the last two or three years alone!
I really admire how so many people involved in such a big project manage to keep it secret despite everyone knowing each other's business online these days.
Oh, and not that I would ever want to correct Jarv, but Hymn of the North actually made its live debut at the end of the second Sheffield Arena gig, not at the Hammersmith Odeon.
James Ford may be the most obvious choice of anyone, but I suspect the band were taking notes seeing Blur getting their shit together quickly over their last album. If Pulp have wrapped the new one up in just three weeks (as they themselves may be astonished to admit, considering how the previous two dragged on) and Ford has anything significant to do with that, then he can't have been too bad a choice.
This line "A couple are revivals of ideas from last century" implies more than just Got To Have Love will feature from the WLL demos.
Imagine if Medieval Owl turns up in the tracklisting! Mark seemed to rate Last Song In The World highly. Or perhaps a full band version of Cuckoo Song?
Ah, this is really exciting! Brilliant!
I'd bloody love to hear a studio full band Cuckoo.
What about My Mistake or Grandfather's Nursery? And hoping Hymn of the North and Got to Have Love are there. Looking forward to hearing studio versions of the new songs! What a year.
I think that when Jarvis did that track for the Bird album whatever it was - I think that was when I got most excited about a potential new album. To dust off Cuckoo was so random. Why not use Birds In Your Garden? That just had to mean we were going to get down the line either a We Love Life deluxe, or a new album. This is where I think that Mark wasnt joking about Cuckoo being recorded for the album - as Jarvis had just used it.
This line "A couple are revivals of ideas from last century" implies more than just Got To Have Love will feature from the WLL demos.
Imagine if Medieval Owl turns up in the tracklisting! Mark seemed to rate Last Song In The World highly. Or perhaps a full band version of Cuckoo Song?
Very excited to hear anything though!
Oh Id kill for a full version of Cuckoo Song
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The trees, those useless trees, produce the air that I am breathing
This is really exciting. This will be my 2nd Pulp-release. I was there for WLL - I was in Year 12 and it took about 3 weeks for me to get a copy of WLL. I hope this means a tour of Australia and New Zealand. Sureeeely the Sydney Opera House has approached them... New Order just played and every other band of their sort of 'status' has played / is playing.
It looks like the record deal with Rough Trade was announced immediately after the album was finished recording in December. The next public appearance by a member was Mark at the TIH playback in King's Cross. The last appearance before recording began, was, I think, Jarvis interviewing Lawrence at a promo event for his book in mid-November. I wanted to ask both of them in the Q&A which was their favourite song of each other's but got shy at the last moment.
But Jarvis has got better at finishing albums since Pulp last made one. His solo records were also made in a similar timeframe - ie January 2009 in Chicago with Albini.
Maybe JC was the one holding things up "you're the only one who's holding you down" all those years
If they decide to play the chart game, they might drop a deluxe edition mid-week of launch week, with a handful of extra tracks (the bsides, in old money).
But i doubt they will have recorded more than 12 in that time frame - so 10/11 for the album and 1/2 rejected on quality grounds
-- Edited by HoltbyCity on Tuesday 8th of April 2025 11:44:53 AM
Well, that's assuming that the three weeks it took to make it were consecutive...
Also - "the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record"? What about Freaks, eh?!
As they say about football, records set pre-Premier League era don't seem to count these days. 1992 appears to be recognised as year zero both for British football and British Pulp! Balloons released to mark OU Day to a couple of dozen half-interested people and press on Devonshire Green. Funny how it all falls away.
Well, that's assuming that the three weeks it took to make it were consecutive...
Also - "the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record"? What about Freaks, eh?!
As they say about football, records set pre-Premier League era don't seem to count these days. 1992 appears to be recognised as year zero both for British football and British Pulp! Balloons released to mark OU Day to a couple of dozen half-interested people and press on Devonshire Green. Funny how it all falls away.
That's history eh. Same for humans, you're forgotten after the 3 or 4th generation after you. Once you accept that, everything is fine
For pre-90s football i suppose it makes sense, before that it was not "modern" football. Even the 90s football seem a bit prehistoric now, but it was more fun to watch for sure
Was at Mark's Q&A in Glasgow and someone asked him if we can expect new music and he kind of downplayed it ("We signed a record deal... but it was the label of our existing management"). But you could tell what he was doing.
So excited!!!
-- Edited by lipglossed on Tuesday 8th of April 2025 01:30:20 PM
I thought it was obvious I meant the alleged leak was real, and that the text was written by Jarvis and not a fake, as seen in the link to Roughtrade's (still unavailable) page. Sorry for the confusion. I guess I'll stay on my thread, as you suggest, without causing any inconvenience. :/
-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 8th of April 2025 03:40:52 PM
To be fair, "Love At 120bpm" sounds like a Jarvis title. Like a final version of Slow Jam/Bad Friday. Apart from the Jason Buckle song, there's no mention of using Jarv Is... material in the press release.
srhelvetica wrote:
I thought it was obvious I meant the alleged leak was real, and that the text was written by Jarvis and not a fake, as seen in the link to Roughtrade's (still unavailable) page. Sorry for the confusion. I guess I'll stay on my thread, as you suggest, without causing any inconvenience. :/
-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 8th of April 2025 03:40:52 PM
No need to stay with the cover versions, it was just a joke
-- Edited by Eamonn on Tuesday 8th of April 2025 03:52:25 PM
To be fair, "Love At 120bpm" sounds like a Jarvis title. Like a final version of Slow Jam/Bad Friday. Apart from the Jason Buckle song, there's no mention of using Jarv Is... material in the press release.
Mark said in his long interview though that some of the new songs they were rehearsing were unfinished Jarv Is pieces
Well, that's assuming that the three weeks it took to make it were consecutive...
Also - "the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record"? What about Freaks, eh?!
That was my initial reaction. Unless they are referring to the "modern" Pulp (Russell and Steve notwithstanding).
I think a 12 track album is possible considering that some of the songs are recycled oldies. It's true that albums seem to be shorter nowadays but Pulp clearly have a lot of source material so it could be longer.
The Divine Comedy have announced an album due for release in September and it sounds like it's going to be a dark one.
I remember when JARV IS ... started up - someone on here looked them up on a website where artists registered song titles for copyright etc reasons. I can't remember it now but essentially it had the songs from the album listed under the band name.
Can anyone remember what the hell I'm talking about and if so, is there anything new under Pulp?
Oh yeah, good point. Was it ASCAP? Just had a quick scan on there and there are a couple of possibilities, although anything with an unfamiliar title also had Steve credited.
Probably a red herring, but the BMI Songview database has the following unfamiliar titles:
Algo Cambio (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Senior/Webber)
Died (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Webber)
Get Up (Steve Mackey / William George Sinclair)
It Stinks (Cocker / Mackey)
Please (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Webber)
Time (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Senior)
You Are the Only One (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Webber) (seems to be a different song from You Are The One, which is listed separately)
Most likely is that these are all working titles for other things, but who knows...
__________________
"Yes I saw her in the chip shop / so I said get yer top off"
Algo Cambió means "Something Changed" in Spanish. Its just a cover version by a band called Astrud that was probably shared around these parts back in the day.
I did think "It Stinks" was an early draft of Trumps Are Still Running The World.
I'm checking the site, the linktree, the social media, the pulpofficial.co.uk... every few minutes. Still nothing new. I'll probably post it here if something happens. BTW, i wonder why there's a trumpet on the pulp more logo
Its true but only available on the mobile version. To access it create an account then reduce the brower to minimum like a smartphone format and the music appear. After that you can Make the Browser Great AGAIN. (well its now on desktop also !)
Someone is gonna get yelled at
Didnt see any extra tracks
I can post screen grabs if you want ?
-- Edited by andy on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 05:11:52 PM
-- Edited by andy on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 05:15:35 PM
-- Edited by andy on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 05:17:07 PM
That is very good. And speaking of lost legends, I wonder if 'Tina' is going to reflect on Tina Turner, who also died in 2023. Jarvis covered 'Private Dancer' with Chilly Gonzalez last autumn, so it would make sense if her music was in his thoughts.
Blurb from French retailer https://groundzero.fr/produit/pulp-more-exclu-indes-vinyle-marbre-bleu-lp.
All sounds so wonderfully...French :) :
Comprised in part of tracks created and tested during their 2023 European tour across Europe, the UK, and North America, "More" is an invitation to life. For the first time, Jarvis Cocker writes not about ideas and concepts but from his feelings, his instincts, his resentments. Produced by James Ford (Arctic Monleys, Fontaines DC, Black Country, New Road) and recorded in three weeks, the album features some of the band's best songs, incredibly fresh yet immensely familiar. "More" is an album about the passage of time, about growing up, understanding one's place in the world, and continuing to create while one can.
-- Edited by Eamonn on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 07:01:15 PM
Very happy all the new songs have got studio treatments, including Slow Jam
Also great that it will be out before the tour - hopefully 4 or 5 will make the setlist
Yes, two Jarv Is... songs from 2022 didn't make the cut (Locked Down & Proceed To The Route). I hope we get to hear them at a later point. The latter especially had great energy, live. I'm glad he stuck with Slow Jam - it's really moving. Maybe the saddest song about relationships he's ever written. I told him it was effing brilliant when I saw him at one of his promo book events/screening of the DYRTFT film a couple of years ago.
So Tina, Partial Eclipse and Grown-Ups are the only songs on More not previously performed live. I guess they had the others quite well-honed from playing them live so that 3 weeks in the studio was enough. If they hadn't hit the ground running with that material, maybe the album would never have happened so I'm happy to sacrifice a few more completely unheard songs for the sake of a new Pulp album actually existing in the 2020s!
Brilliant news so album will be out a few days before the tour starts. Dublin is Jun 10th, think Glasgow is before Dublin. Haven't looked at the dates for a while. All we need now is the Villa to win now tonight. That'd make my week
-- Edited by Jean on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 09:39:18 PM
Hate to be that guy, but does anyone know if there is going to be an MP3 release? I don't have any physical music players anymore and because of what happened 10 years ago, I pretty much don't have any physical music either. Everything is downloaded to my phone/pc/cloud.
-- Edited by SarahAWilson on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 09:08:54 PM
Hate to be that guy, but does anyone know if there is going to be an MP3 release? I don't have any physical music players anymore and because of what happened 10 years ago, I pretty much don't have any physical music either. Everything is downloaded to my phone/pc/cloud.
-- Edited by SarahAWilson on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 09:08:54 PM
Im willing to bet there will be!
__________________
The trees, those useless trees, produce the air that I am breathing
I like how it's 'a' sunset, rather than just "Sunset", so I'm choosing to believe that's an important distinction, however misguided.
Beyond excited for this album, this forum was the first place I came running to when I saw the first More hints, and it's amazing to see everyone here.
Just got to work. Have to be here for 8 hrs. How can I concentrate when this is about to happen!
Earphones in, volume up, and tantalise yourself with the live versions on loop (https://archive.org/details/pulp-studio25/). It's what I've been doing all evening.
From weener's report the cover art is a photo Jarvis took in Iceland. Gosh thats sad if its Iceland. Its giving me Moebius and Jodorowsky feels. I hope its their climate change / environmental issues album.
-- Edited by cutcopy on Thursday 10th of April 2025 06:26:24 AM