The first time I heard of Pulp was early 1992 in an issue of Volume (remember that? Friggin' great magazine/CD idea). The only problem was that in the main photo Jarvis just looked so wrong, not even Oxfam chic, just ugly, and that the song, "She's Dead," was pleasant but didn't set my world on fire. So I didn't know what to think of them for a while. But then all these various reports started surfacing about said band had gotten really really good, and then this album came out. So I found it used in Rhino Records in LA, bought it, played it, and this is the first thing I hear, accompanied by an arrangement that is never overpowering but is still absolutely vicious and fierce:
"We like driving on a Saturday night
Past the Leisure Centre, left at the lights.
We don't look for trouble but if it comes we don't run
Looking out for trouble is what we call fun
Hey you, you in the Jesus sandals!…"
Pulp are one of those bands you could just endlessly read and still enjoy without ever hearing a note. I've stated my severe indifference or sometimes downright loathing for lyrics from time to time, and I really don't care about whether or not they're good or banal if the music is at least damn good. There are exceptions, and le Jarv is one of them. Getting away with putting a note in the booklet saying "Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings" is something that I would have figured more appropriate for, say, a Jon Anderson solo album, but it works here, oh yes.
But without music, it is all just poetry or spoken word. With music, dear lord, do the heavens open or what? The way things just ever so slowly edge along in "Acrylic Afternoons" as Russell Senior's violin loops in the background just softly enough before it cracks in with the music right at the chorus, the way Candida Doyle's shimmering keyboards just seem to fill out the sound just right, or carry the main riffs just so, everything all sparkly and bedazzling and very very right, or how Nick Banks and Steve Mackey are quite the underrated rhythm section and make everything groove or relax or snap to attention or this or that… The comparisons were so manifold to attempted traces back to other bands or sounds that clearly they had found something on their own and made it such. Fairground organ music, neoclassical hoohah, post-lounge pre-lounge craze, something very European, kitchen sink drama -- stop, stop, stop! To hell with it all! I just hear the chorus of "Have You Seen Her Lately?" and that killer croon and deep regrets and the way "Do You Remember the First Time?" sounds like the biggest tune in the universe and "She's a Lady" and "Pink Glove" and "Happy Endings" and "Babies" and…perfection! Absolution! Lying in the gutter and looking at the stars? Damned if that old scenester Wilde was finally right about rock and roll, at least this band!
So what I'm saying is that this is a brilliant album. And including "Razzmatazz" as a bonus track is very welcome.
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