lipglossed wrote:

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I think the tracklisting is great how it is to be honest. It flows really nicely for me. The second half of the album already has several 'slow ones' so I think adding 'Farmers Market' to it just makes the record unbalanced.

(I also don't see why they'd need to bring back/redo 'After You', a single from 12 years ago! It's not one of the More songs, and if people don't like the official version can't they just listen to the demo?)

 

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Just because i dont like standalone songs/session. I'm an album man, same with Born to Cry. and a few others. 

I dont know, standalone single always felt like throaways for me, i like a journey, getting immersed in a universe for 30 mins to an hour, and an album offers that. A single does not. 

anyone dissect those numbers in My Sex, yet?

lipglossed wrote:

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That's very fair. Pulp albums are so richly immersive.

I still can't believe More is as good as it is.

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Yeah right ? I put TIH on yesterday coz i got some new good headphones, and i was stuck for 1+ hour, not doing anything, rediscovering the album. Same for More, same for all their albums. They all have this very singular universe, and you step in it, cant step out until its over. 

 

weej wrote:

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My challenging opinion today is - I don't know if Spike Island should be the first track. Not that it's bad, of course, just doesn't feel like the start of an album, either in terms of theme or sound, it feels much more like a classic Side B, track 1.

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 I agree, but I guess they did not really have an "opener", so this one is the closest. 

-- Edited by andy on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 05:06:36 PM

robbroncs wrote:

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anyone dissect those numbers in My Sex, yet?

---

Yes: i had a very beautiful theory based in the verses: "I haven't got an agenda / I haven't ven got a gender"  which explained the "X" and "Y" on the chanting, as in the cromosomes, and numbers belonged to the phone numbers of lovers in the agenda, but then Eamonn shared this:

https://baritalia.activeboard.com/t71958958/favourite-song-from-more/?sort=oldestFirst&page=1#comment-71959334

and my beautiful theory was blown away by the cold, impersonnal, cruel science facts.

EDIT: Oh! Ive just checked Eamonn answered secs ago! The science, again! XD

 

-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 06:15:04 PM

-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 06:15:26 PM

I've taken a few days of listens with the record, a couple of deep listens with a glass of nice red wine involved also - which I am about to do again now for this review 

First and foremost it's just incredible that we're here now after all the speculation, not least when a while back we thought we'd never hear new Pulp music again. I myself was resigned to the fact that the Encore stuff was just going to be a tour.

There's always that trepidation with a band releasing new music after so long, it doesn't always work well, my first thoughts on the album were that I was amazing that they managed to quickly get so many ****ing amazing tracks done, given they only recorded 12(?) and wrote a few more - it could have been a rush job with some filler stuff, but instead it sounds like an album that's had a massive amount of care poured into every detail which I think is absolutely astounding in the short time it took to make. They must have really hammered it in rehearsals to craft these songs to such a high degree.

Spike Island - One I wasn't swayed with from the live videos originally but the studio version hits good as a comeback for Pulp 2025. The production is top notch and it just takes flight as it goes - even my dad who didn't think much of it on first listen mentioned to me the other week that he loves hearing it now. It's a great album opener for where the band are right now, the lyrics are spot on and I hope Jarvis is going to keep shouting and pointing for a long time to come. The middle lyrics with "So Swivel" are just pure Pulp and a highlight straight out the door.

Tina - This one I loved from hearing it on the live BBC broadcast we heard - it's one of my favourites simply for the lyrical journey. The sound is so full with the band sounding great and the orchestral flourishes complementing it perfectly (something that will be recurring throughout the review obviously). Another lyrical highlight "Screwing in a charity shop, on top of black bin bags, full of donations, the smell of digestive biscuits in the air" - His & Hers level stuff going on here. Instrumentally we're on post-WLL vibes with added orchestra, produced so well.

Grown Ups - Not what I thought it would sound like based off reviews, but taking into mind that the instrumental roots of the track date back to TIH-days, it is one of the more stronger upbeat tracks from the record. Really cool that there are lyrical callbacks to 'The Night They Let Me Out Of The Home' by Jarvis, it seems that those words took this long to find their home. I also love the referencial lyrical mention of 'Tina' and the daring reprise of "Are You Sure?" is a brilliant callback to Common People. The "some more food" thing keeps me wondering surely there could have been a better lyric, but never mind - the "I am not ageing, I am just ripening" stuff later on is another lyrical highlight. I'm glad this track finally found its home so many years later.

Slow Jam - I never heard the Jarv Is version of this, so this version was a surprise - I heard the BBC live one which was great, and the studio version is also great. I feel like it does sound like a Jarvis solo song, but it's enhanced here, with the rest of the band and of course the strings. At first I thought it would be one that I'd skip, but once it hits 3:20 it spreads its wings and has another lyrical gem "Come on, let's have a threesome, baby, You, me and my imagination" - they really managed to Pulp this song up.

Farmers Market - one of my favourites from the live videos we saw on YouTube before the album was done, one I was spellbound with on Jools Holland show. It's truly majestic in its studio form - a beautiful melody and wonderfully touching lyrics. One of my favourites from the album - and I usually struggle to do anything but praise albums from bands I like, but I do feel that they ****ed up with the arrangement. Things get really rousing towards the 1:50 mark, but then the song never really picks up after that, and I really wish it would. For an album with a lot more slow material, they kinda fade this tune out into an ambient style outro which is great, but I feel like they could have done another good instrumental build up towards the end with the "Ain't it time we started living" stuff, rather than just having strings and instruments without drums. Especially when Jarvis starts shouting that refrain - they should have brought it back for a huge crescendo. But still one of my go-to tracks, and possibly up there with some of the best of Pulp for me.

My Sex - A track I wasn't convinced of with the live version, this album one is one of my favourites on the album simply because of the instrumental textures. There's some really nice guitar going on in the background and some droney sounds coming in and out. Another all time lyric for me as well "A lover's tiff, or a lover, stiff" - some of Jarvis' best wordplay. It builds really well and what I thought would be a skip track is one that I keep coming back to.

Got To Have Love - So glad to hear this one finally, it's just an all round banger. It's not one of my favourites but it's one of the upbeat ones and has the L.O.V.E callback - I do a local Indie night in my town and I know this will be a big one when I play it. It makes me happy knowing it was an old demo they never finished and now it has it's time. It's a welcome shot in the arm after the last few slower tunes.

Background Noise - My absolute favourite. I don't know if it's slower on record that it was live (someone help me on this) but it's just such a wonderfully crafted tune. Everything about it to me is perfect, there's these droning sounds coming in and out during the verses, and when the chorus hits it just ascends. I can confidently say it stands up there with some of the bands best in my eyes - especially when that second chorus hits and the orchestra come in properly. My only complaint is that it isn't longer. I get some Happy Endings vibes from it. I knew I'd love this song when I heard the first YouTube video of it live, and it more than lived up to the hype for me.

Partial Eclipse - A beautiful melody from the get-go. This one was on the BBC broadcast and although I wanted to save it for the album, I am glad I heard it early. It's just effortlessly pretty and again features of of my album lyrical higlights - "Standing with my hands on your hips, you're giving me a partial eclipse" - there's been no shortage of these this album. The track goes on and the spoken word bit is brilliant. The way the track just floats away at the end is masterful, definitely an album highlight for me.

Hymn Of The North - One that I enjoyed seeing live videos of, the tune gets in my head but the middle bit with the weird orchestral minor bit and the autotune from 3:12 just throws me off everything, it gets back on track after that though. Not my favourite and probably the one I skip the most.

Sunset - A nice little tune, when I'm listening to the album in full it ends the album perfectly, if I'm listening to random album tracks I skip it. I love what they did with the track though, and the way it builds up throughout. I am also loving how the album before ended in 'Sunrise' and this one ends with 'Sunset'.

I loved the lyrics, the references to previous songs, the ****-hot musicianship and the orchestral flourishes, this is a solid set of tunes and I would love to see where they go next, should they choose to.

Overall, my expectations were exceeded. I did not expect this quality of album (maybe I underestimated the band) and there are many songs and moments on this album that are up there with some of the best. My only complaint is that the pacing of the tracklist, it definitely starts off strong then dips, then gets going a bit then just slows down for a long time until the end. I'd have thrown in another feistier number before the end, but there was the angrier song that was shelved (maybe we can have it one day on a future album if we're lucky), it definitely doesn't benefit from a slowed down final 4 songs. But other than that I am still absolutely over the moon that we have a new Pulp album against all odds, and I can't wait to see them in Manchester in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading my semi-pissed on red wine Pulp review.

 

-- Edited by legohairjordan on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 10:07:18 PM

srhelvetica wrote:

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robbroncs wrote:

---

anyone dissect those numbers in My Sex, yet?

---

Yes: i had a very beautiful theory based in the verses: "I haven't got an agenda / I haven't ven got a gender"  which explained the "X" and "Y" on the chanting, as in the cromosomes, and numbers belonged to the phone numbers of lovers in the agenda, but then Eamonn shared this:

https://baritalia.activeboard.com/t71958958/favourite-song-from-more/?sort=oldestFirst&page=1#comment-71959334

and my beautiful theory was blown away by the cold, impersonnal, cruel science facts.

EDIT: Oh! Ive just checked Eamonn answered secs ago! The science, again! XD

 

-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 06:15:04 PM

-- Edited by srhelvetica on Tuesday 10th of June 2025 06:15:26 PM

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 Aw as someone who works in genetics its not cold! Genetics is beautiful lol. I was thrilled to see that explanation. But I understand all the same

Yeah, talk about not spoiling your ears. It's growing on me massively since I finally got to buy a physical copy of it. I had mostly avoided the live YouTube vids over the past year. The only 'music' shop within an hour of me didn't have More so I ended up waiting till I was in Dublin on Tuesday and since I got to listen yesterday I have played it over and over and I'm hearing the instruments so much more clearly e.g. the violin on Tina. I couldn't hear that listening via a JBL speaker connected to my phone.
So good to hear it properly at long last.
Isn't that really clever re My Sex. I love that. You know I love the chanting on that song. I absolutely love the outro.

Just been to HMV and was pleasantly surprised to discover they were playing Pulp Hits in the store. Never thought I'd ever hear The Last Day of the Minors Strike being played in public!