Confessions of a Fanboy

There are some songs and albums that are good as doorways to the new day and others that aren’t.  It’s not easy to have a good day if you begin it with Elliott Smith or Alice in Chains.  I love them both, but neither are likely to set you off on the right path at 7:30 a.m.

So we enter today with Pulp’s We Love Life.  That’s better, isn’t it?  It’s certainly a fantastic record- one that too few know.  Like a lot of the so-called BritPop bands that sparked the Cool Britannia revolution of the ’90s, the turn of the century wasn’t kind to Pulp from a commercial standpoint.  As we all know, though, an album’s commercial fortunes have zero to do with the quality of the music.  We Love Life is a damn good album and would be Pulp’s last.If you never checked them out, We Love Life would be an interesting record to check out.  Produced by Scott Walker, there’s a lovely feel to the album that sets it apart from their others.  It’s not a sunny pop record, but the gloom of This is Hardcore has lightened just a bit.  I’m still a huge fan of the Hardcore record, but even I can’t always hold up under the weight of it’s oppressive dreariness. 

Even now having listened to a great many of their records and bought the expensive deluxe editions, I’m not sure where I’d start new listeners.  Pulp were a band that changed it up a bit and their albums really do seem to have different personalities.  His ‘N’ Hers and Common People probably share the most in common and are the band’s commercial peak.  This is Hardcore is a brutally dark record with goth overtones without being fuckin’ emo.  We Love Life is something different altogether. 

If this site had started a month or two before it did, you would have all been treated to many dissertations on the greatness of Pulp and Jarvis Cocker.  I was just “re”-discovering them as Fanboy was being conceived and organized (to the extent anything ’round this fuckin’ place is organized).  I regret that some of those obsessions didn’t get written and posted ’round here because Pulp didn’t get the same acclaim in the States that, say, Oasis did and they clearly deserved it.  That’s not a swipe at Oasis- love them.  It’s a belief that Pulp was an equal.

Filed under: Tags: Jarvis Cocker, Pulp