More

"This time Ill get it right," Jarvis Cocker sings on More, an album that appeared nearly a quarter-century after the bands presumed swan song We Love Life. Though that albums brooding acoustic panoramas were gripping, as a final statement they were anticlimactic. Cocker and company give fans more of what they want on More, but they choose what they revisit wisely. Theyd already figured out on We Love Life that a reflective tone and slower pace was what suited them best post-Britpop, and that remains true as they contemplate the difference between aging and maturity. The band broached this topic on This Is Hardcores "Help the Aged" (which Cocker wrote at the ripe old age of 33), but the passage of time has only imbued their thoughts with more humor and pathos. And while Mores sound leans into influences that suggest the autumn of ones years -- We Love Life producer Scott Walker, Serge Gainsbourg, even Frank Sinatra -- its songs were road-tested on Pulps electrifying 2023 and 2024 tour dates and recorded in three weeks, so things never get too sedate. On This Is Hardcore and We Love Life, Pulp attempted to put as much distance between themselves and Britpop as they could; on More, they bridge that gap with integrity. Named for the venue of a 1990 Stone Roses concert, the celebratory "Spike Island" begins the album with a burst of nostalgia, albeit tempered by Cockers chronic self-awareness ("I was born to perform, its a calling/I exist to do this, shouting and pointing"). When they confront Mores midlife crises, Pulp come into their own. Cockers magnetism as a storyteller is at a peak -- hes still revealing the sleaze in posh surroundings and the romance within the mundane with unerring aim, and if his characters are a little different two decades later, theyre still true to form. On "Grown Ups," he finds out just how strange it is when were all fully grown (people "stress about wrinkles instead of acne" and move near the motorway for commuting). While "Tina"s lonely fantasies and novelistic details feel directly descended from His n Hers, theres a newfound tenderness around the songs edges. Pulps wit is still razor-sharp (particularly on the irony-drenched finale, "A Sunset"), but their heart is the biggest its been since Different Class. "Farmers Market" suggests that the dream-spinning magic of love at first sight can be even sweeter later in life; conversely, the ordinariness of fading love on "Background Noise" makes it all the more gutting. More might be Pulps most impassioned album, with an urgency that courses through "My Sex" and the zealous disco centerpiece "Got to Have Love," where Cocker urges his audience to "wake up and face the consequences." He and the rest of the band may be older, but they never sound as weary as they did on This Is Hardcore and We Love Life. This time, they do indeed get it right -- More is classic Pulp, aged to near perfection. ~ Heather Phares

年頭の〈ロキソニ〉での来日も大きな話題となったなか、英国シーンのレジェンドが約24年ぶりのニュー・アルバムをいよいよ完成!登場! 当然ながら90年代のひねくれた姿などを期待しすぎる必要はまるでないとして、重鎮のジェイムズ・フォードがプロデュースを任せられた仕上がりは、適度な枯れや衰えも臆することなくフィーチャーし、ファミリー感を意図したグループ全体の作風をゆっくりとアップデートしている。ジャーヴィスの歌い口もいままでになくデヴィッド・ボウイを連想させる詩的な渋みと揺らぎを備えてストレートに進化し、"Space Oddity"のような瞬間も訪れるのが興味深い。
bounce (C)轟ひろみ