FFWD Weekly
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| CD REVIEW PULP · Jarvis Cocker and co.'s fourth full-length recording. · Neneh Cherry lends vocal help on the The The/Shriek-back-inspired "Seductive Barry." If you want to know what Pulp sound like, this isn't a great place to start. If, on the other hand, you want to know what The The, David Bowie, Shriekback and The Boomtown Rats were doing over a decade ago, you know where to turn. More content now than ever to repeat pop history and reap its rewards after the fact, the English music machine has still managed to hatch some interesting albeit derivative acts. And up until now Pulp have been one of them. Their last album, Different Class, with its effective single "Common People," was hardly the stuff from which new movements are launched, but it was damn catchy. That's why This Is Hardcore is so frustrating; offering cheekily clever pop one moment while courting lawsuits from retired and knighted rock stars the next, it takes dangerous liberties with the term "original songwriting." Frontman Jarvis Cocker has penned some sexy, wonderfully arrogant and flamboyantly thoughtful lyrics ("I am not Jesus though I have the same initials... I'd like to make this water wine but it's impossible. I've got these dishes to dry"), yet is he really writing them for himself or for those whose voices he borrows? True, there are some solid moments when you can hear Pulp above the din their influences made so long ago, and there are no real bad tracks amongst the bunch, but for the most part Hardcore sounds like the point of departure and not a satellite all its own. More of a step back than forward, Pulp's latest should keep them firmly entrenched in the fourth best Brit pop band position behind Oasis, Radiohead and Blur. 3/5 Mike Bell |