Over a month after everyone else's thoughts...take a deep breath...

 You're Not Blind: This took a few listens for its delicate presence to be felt and even then it wasn't as effective as I'd have liked. The nasty, quite spiteful lyrics towards a rival suitor to JC's love(r) hint at something that was too personal to continue with (like 'The Boss' and 'Live On' before it and 'Catcliffe Shakedown', 'Don't Lose It' and 'Modern Marriage' afterwards perhaps). The song's main strength to me is the 'middle eighth' change (''There's no need for tears cos this has been happening for years'' is deliciously cruel) where the song is really carried by the throbbing bass sound. Indeed, if it weren't for Mackey's Jazzmaster being turned up on this, the fancy guitar one-string fret-work would sound quite lame. Strange that most reviews on here seem to have a completely different view of this song. I mean it's far from bad but it's Pulp by numbers, a notch above 'Watching Nicky' and quite easy to see how it remained collecting dust all these years.

Frightened: Much more like it. A pity that its lyrical ideas were largely replicated in 'His'n'Hers' but this is a great tune in its own right. Whereas a professional organist, or Anne Dudley perhaps was possibly employed to give 'The Fear' that horror-Hammond sound 4 or 5 years later, this scary-soundtrack served up on synths from Candida (and very possibly Mark or Jarvis) is just as authentic (minus the big 'Hardcore' budget). The coda of the song in particular is quite brilliant. You can tell that the group really enjoyed 'jamming' this part - guitar-noodling that sounds a lot more impressive than on 'You're Not Blind' and a quite scary spoken-word voiceover from Jarvis, who when he growls ''Frightened of...'' almost sounds like a flashback to the freak of 'Fairgrounds'. The only downside lyrically is the ''give you all my love, just to put it on the shelf'' line which is just lazy word finding to fit a rhyme. It particularly stands out after the quite brilliant ''I cut your head off cos I've always loved your mind'' line which preceeds it. The song would also have been better off finishing without the final vocal line (which more than anything gives its demo status away), but all-roud a really enjoyable slice of 1993-stylee Pulp.

The Boss: Truly 'the' lost single - even more-so than the more vaunted likes of 'Live On' and 'We Can Dance Again'. 'OU' may be lyrically sharper and more distinctive all-round, but it's not half as fun as this bouncy, frenzied two and a half minutes. Possibly the most entertaining song ever written by Pulp I would venture. The words may be a hotch-botch of other songs written from the same era ('Live On', 'She's A Lady' etc.) but none of these had been released at the time, rendering retrospective criticism of the lyrics quite unfair. The guitar, synth and drum playing is quite astonishingly intricate and integrated, particularly for a demo. This would have been my first choice as debut single on 'Gift' .

Paula: How I laughed on the first couple of plays. And despite its daftness, complete with the corniest of guitar-solos, it really is a joy to listen to. Its closest contemporary (certainly in sleazy-lyrical content) would probably have been the superior Pencil Skirt or PTA perhaps (all the P's eh?!), but despite its throwaway content there are some nice little ideas going on here - especially the keyboard parps which herald the chorus. Alongside The Boss, the easiest of all the demo to listen to, such is its flimsy nature but I'm quite fond of this.

Catcliffe Shakedown: The most disappointing 'first listen' of all the new stuff (probably from reading all the rave reviews beforehand), this has (predictably enough) become my favourite demo (after 'Dirty World'). At first, it gradually began to piss me off and I was convinced that a tape recorded had been switched on at the end of rehearsals in the pottery room one hot day in June '95 (especially when hearing Jarvis' impressions of vox-pops from the disaffected youth of Catclidffe). Second time round it clicked. There's so much going on - much of which has already been discussed on these pages last month, but Nick Banks' assertion in Sturdy's book that it was ''too silly to ever see the light of day'' (I gave a wry smile to his other comment on the song ''Come the box-set it will be the last cd at the very bottom'') and Jarvis' own sleevenotes, decreeing the music ''frankly ridiculous'' (what, and the lyrics aren't?!) are a little disingenuous. The 'rainbow' chorus bits are rather lovely, nice subtle guitar licks in the background too, and the tour-de-force as the song reaches its climax, from ''Catcliffe - you don't intimidate me..'' onwards, is quite impressive (though I'm not keen on the 'one lyrical line in the left channel-speaker, the next in the right' trick - it's a little hard to make out some of the words here which is a shame given the strength of these particular lyrics).

Also, the splendid Uncut re-issue review which asked ''Were Pulp taking holidays in ohter peoples misery?'' - citing the ''All the nicotine and beer bellies in this programme were real'' line is a valid point. Yes Jarvis, you don't particulary want to be associated with supposed middle class values, we know. More disturbingly, the song is notable for Jarvis coming dangerously close to rapping (the ''to the re-se-voir'' bit)! As he says in the sleevenotes, its 'snidey' nature was a little too close in style to 'I Spy' as well as being a little too off-the-wall to be put on Different Class. Still, hard to believe that this genius spent over a decade in hiding. I just wonder how many Catcliffe inhabitants, past or present, have heard it...

We Can Dance Again: Interesting...Initially I was in agreement with those expressing disappointment at how the holy grail of the 90's sounded in studio-recorded form. But the more I've listened to this, the more I've loved it. With Different Class being difficult to improve as it is, I do agree that it was wise to leave it off. The 'Abba-Eurovision' comparison is not far off but that's not a bad thing in this case - and not all-that surprising considering Jarvis and Steve were thinking of getting either Bjorn or Benny in to produce the album (the premise being that it should be a dozen pop songs any of which could be a single) around the time it was written (late 1994). The other main criticism - the teetering-on-pastiche nature of the lyrics, wouldn't have been such a problem had the song been released around the time of its live outings at Theatre Royale and The Prince's Trust just before Christmas '94. In fact I'm convinced that it would have made a perfect interim single between 'Babies' and 'Common People'.

I was quite fond of the original, opening lyrics (''We've been waiting for this moment to arrive since late September 1985''), but the demo's direct opening lyrical gambit probably works better - especially in relation to the rest of the words...although the catchy as hell chorus does lose a little of its effect with the slightly-puzzling ''We can make it outdoors'' line. The bridge is carefully dealt with too - I particularly liked the ''It's ok, it's not the end of the world, It's just some boys and some girls making fools of themselves'' bit on the scratchy live recording (which we've all spent far too much time straining or ears to over the years), and though the vocal isn't as strong in the demo, the little keyboard phrases work very well. I do admit to sniggering at the electric piano classic 'descending swoosh' before the final chorus kicks in though! It's at that moment that the 'Eurovision' tag is possibly justified. Again though, I think it's a thing that Pulp could have got away with at the tail end of '94/beginning of '95. It's only with hindsight that we can cringe at the slight parody of the song. My Italian girlfriend loves it which must mean something...('Deep Fried In Kelvin' nearly sent her asleep though...).

Don't Lose It: The DC re-issue was the one I was most disapponted by on first listen, here especially. The primitive, bass-clef piano of the verse struck me as lazy and uninspired - more-so when I'd conjured up a 'Something Changed'-like ballad in my mind beforehand. But the chiming electronic-keys of the pre-chorus and chorus itself (which sounds very familiar) on subsequent listenings quickly won me over. The lyrics seem to be of a real-life situation (what rock-cock was trying to woo over a young maiden whom Jarvis was looking out for?) and the song's 3 verse-chorus parts suggest that this was still a work-in-progress. An interesting 3 minutes all the same, and nicely impassioned vocals from Cocker towards the end. Would have done no harm as a b-side.

Can I Have My Balls Back Please?: This is probably viewed (like 'Paula' and 'Watching Nicky' before it) as the throw-away of the Hardcore demos but I have quite a soft spot for it. It's a lot closer to the quality of songs that did make it onto TIH than the latter two were to getting onto HnH and DC, with the, as Steve put it, 'placeholder' lyrics the main slight on its credentials. I was quite excited on reading the sleeve-notes that it had been written on a mellotron - an instrument that I've often wanted to take centre-stage in a Pulp song (something to occupy the middle-ground of 'High Rising' by Suede and The Strokes' 'Ask Me Anything') and though it's only used in the background it is very much a driving-force and thus easy to see that the song was written on it. The humour and simultaneous seriousness of the title question means that Jarvis gets away with singing the same thing so many times in one song, but with a bit of work I reckon this could have made it onto the lp. I'd have it over 'I'm A Man' anyway. Real pretty instrumental parts that are arranged very well for a demo too.

It's A Dirty World: And here it finally is. A so-far so-impressive bunch of hitherto unreleased demos, but this simply blows everything else out of the water. Written at a late stage of the recording process Jarvis writes, are we to take the fact it is a 'session outtake' as opposed to a mere 'demo'; as a fully realised track (with bells on), that it was ready to become a key part of the album before someone decided to banish it completely? For in its breath-taking sonic and lyrical texture, it is as key to understanding 'This Is Hardcore' as the equally puzzling discarding of b-side 'His'n'Hers' was to its parent, same-titled album. And maybe thats why it was left off. The only reason I can think for its omission is that such musical scope and breadth and lyrical ideas are covered in TIH's title track and centre piece. Having dealt with faded glamour and female fuck-ups (perhaps the themes of 'Sylvia' were also too similar - see ''She had a proper job by day...I wanna dance that's all'' of 'Dirty World' and ''She's living in the country now, oh she's trying to get better'' of the former...or maybe that's too tenuous a link?) Jarvis decided it was covered ground?

Like Catcliffe before it, though the songs are polar opposites musically(!), there is so much to take in on this song. The brilliant dissection of male self-loathing - ''The guys at the front have seen your act one million times before, And you're making them all feel so useless and dumb Cos they've seen it all and they still can't come'', the sharp as ever eye for detail ''period features, original dust and china everywhere'' set to thumping electric piano motifs, rumbling bass, fantastically measured Fender distortion (in both its use and volume) and above all pounding percussion that sounds like it's raining chick peas onto a corrugated warehouse from where they're recording. The 'Everybody in the house say 'Waay'....'' 's work a treat amidst all this bombast, more-so given the sleazy, strip-joint location of the descriptive narration.

The most ringing endorsement of the song I can give is that after dozens of listens I still can't believe it's a 5 minute song - whereas 'Sylvia' and 'I'm A Man's  ideas are stretched to 'boring' point over the same duration. Even 'A Little Soul' is only 3 or so minutes long yet feels a lifetime on certain occassions. From the stark synth-led intro to the song kicking-in to when the key-change comes at ''Now I've seen it's not so hard...'' already 4 minutes have almost elapsed and I'm thinking ''Bollocks, it's not finishing already is it?!'' The almost-oriental sounding backing-singer swoons as the song fades (courtesy of The Swingles?) crowns it all, as the song departs in a blaze of glory.

Sheer brilliance and without doubt up there with the finest songs Pulp ever created.

Modern Marriage: Quite arrestingspoken lyrics and a chorus that takes a few goes before making an impression, this is pretty interesting. It's quite a clever idea for a song (a re-writing of wedding vows) but given that it was recorded during Jarv's engagement (to Chloe Sevigny? I never knew...) and sung pissed, I get the feeling that it's only now, nearly 10 years later, settled down with a family, that Jarvis is comfortable relasing it sans embarassment. Like 'Don't Lose It', it's static ABABAB structure suggests that maybe there could have been more tweaking done to it. Thematically it would certainly have been a suitable addition to the self-loathing and male, mid-life disillusionment covered on Hardcore, but musically it's lacking (very little accompaniement to the spoken bits save a keyboard line) in imagination. Like any demo it would have made a welcome appearance as a b-side, particularly if pointless remix filler was the alternative.

My Erection: I like this quite a lot indeed. 'Ladies Man' is its natural cousin but this is more uptempo and more fun really, if a little shorter on quality as well as being less-polished (hardly surprising for a demo though). The vocoder effects work well with the incessant dance-beat and the whole electronic style (and that of 'Ladies Man' for that matter) is more impressinve to my ears than Relazed Muscle's similar 'electroclash' leanings a few years later. Had an album of RM type material been written in '97 I think it would have pissed over 'A Heavy Nite With...' (then again,the, thankfully missing from the reissue, abomination of 'That Boy's Evil' also stemmed from this time of un-Pulp sounding experimentation). Whether this is down to Jarvis' muse or Webbo's influence I don't know. Great track for the car prior to a night out as Fuss Free has said.

 Street Operator: A real let-down, especially after such eulogising of its quality on here. To me it sounds like the band came up with a moderately decent (if not especially memorable) chorus and tried to fit something around it. That 'something' is a flaccid verse, or rather verses, with lacklustre lyrics about some big cheese scoring drugs and picking up women but ultimately achieving sweet fa.The way that the final word in each verse is strained and stretched out as build-up for the chorus grates very quickly and the whole shoddy exercise is mired in mid-tempo mediocrity.The harmony from the 'second Jarvis voice' on the final chorus is its one saving grace. For me this is the weakest thing on the TIH reissue (apart from 'Tomorrow Never Lies' and perhaps 'We Are The Boyz' - though at least this has no pretensions, being throwaway in nature). It's full of bluster just like the song's protagonist with nothing much of substance at all (unless you count his copious amount of coke-hoovering ). ''Salsa at the South Bank'' my arse.

You Are The One: While I don't quite agree with some of the reviews (mainly from the music press) citing the likeness in sound of this and 'Street Operator' to that on Different Class, Jarvis does have a point in suggesting that an album of similar-sounding stuff to this might have made the great 'Hardcore' cross-over that bit easier. But as has already been mentioned on here (again - that's what I get for being 6 weeks later than everyone else's reviews), eschewing a previous pop sensibility for something more consistently weighty was the right decision. Especially if the 'pop' sound had metamorphosed into something less...good, really. Like 'You Are The One'. At first I thought the slight guitar-picks of the verses were out of synch with the words (and consequently briefly wondering, 'How the hell are the other TIH demos of such a high standard?) but it's jilting sparseness works well as an initial attention-grabber and also as a counter-point to the full-sounding chorus. It's a pretty tune - and I'm with the 60's vibe people are getting from it (maybe it would work better with Jarvis' solo debut considering the fixation he seems to be having with that era currently - going on reviews, I've yet to hear the album), but it's very much a black-sheep in the Pulp back-catalogue - caught in a middle-ground, unsure of itself. It's also got a couple of lyrical clunkers - ''a bell will ring and our hearts will go boom'' is pretty poor by Jarvis' standards and the bridge instrumental is similarly unimaginative.

Probably the saddest thing about this song is how Cocker's observational eye for detail, formed whilst traipsing through Athercliffe and Shalesmoor or glimpsing the coolers of Catcliffe in the bad old days, had now resorted to spying a lovely lady in a shop on the bloody King's Road. Deep Fried In Kelvin? Loved-Up (and Living It Up) in London more like. That, and the staccato-violin sample used to give the chorus that extra catchiness. With all the efficiency and none of the character of Mr Senior. Something changed alright. 

Steve Devereux wrote:

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So. I'm in the process of getting the site ready for upload, a mere four(?) years after it was supposed to be done, and it's all but finished (stop sniggering at the back there, it is, IT IS, shut up)... but then I remembered I wanted to use all these reviews from this post, and had to find it and dig it out a year and a half later. And then spent the day reading them. So, er, are you guys all happy for me to plonk these thoughts on the various individual song/album pages?

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