This Is Hardcore - Pulp

This is a difficult Pulp album. After Different Class, Pulp could have written another album full of chart toppers, but they didn't. This Is Hardcore deals with depression, parenthood gone wrong, existential crises, old age and decay. Great! It is dark and brooding and sets the pace as it means to go on - with the stunning The Fear, in which the musical backdrop seems to develop aches and pains all of its own as the song progresses. Help The Aged, deals with growing old and Dying The track, This Is Hardcore, is arguably Pulp's masterpiece, with a musical and lyrical complexity which is almost incomprehensible It ...  Read the complete review

The Fear 8/10 ‘ A horror soundtrack from a stagnant waterbed ‘ Bleak lyrics that anyone who has suffered depression can all too clearly identify. Certainly lacks the poptastic verve of previous released. But I still like this song as I feel that this shows that even indie gods can be vulnerable. Dramatic background vocals and some great little keyboard noises. ‘ If you ever get that chip off your back’. Jarvis sings of lack of sex in a completely different way, perhaps it is because I have seen this song live a few times but it is a dark epic that is vastly under rated. The chaos of the closing drums says it all. Dishes ...  Read the complete review

As rock megastars go, the Human Stick Insect just doesn't figure - "standing there, dressed in his underwear', like the biggest outsider and picked upon kid you have ever seen or are likely to, Jarvis Branson Cocker cuts a fairly peculiar jib. This is a character for whom the words gangling, inelegant, ungainly and geek could have been invented, but undoubtedly the man oozes class and that magic ingredient: CHARISMA. For one so unclassically rockist looking, Cocker is a 100% STAR, and one who ain't lost touch with his roots or his humour. The drab Sheffield drawl, the patently unfashionable NHS specs, the lank flop of hair and the far ...  Read the complete review

The album that followed up the near impossible, how could it hope to match the standard set by ‘Different Class’. It didn’t match it, nor surpass it in my opinion, though that means nothing. This album is still incredible and is wonderful in it’s own way. The Fear ======== This is the song that starts the album off. A tale that speaks of having panic attacks. I would consider this album to be quite autobiographical, as indeed I would consider most of Pulps other albums. Jarvis is singing about himself on this one and about how he felt for sometime whilst doing this album. He had felt like Different Class had said all ...  Read the complete review

This is probably the most overlooked album of 1999. This is a stunning follow up to 'Different Class' and has that elusive quality of being a 'grower' of an album. Anybody who bought the album expecting the instant pop of Common People and Disco 2000 may be disappointed, but it is a more accomplished album. If Different Class deserved the Mercury Music Prize several years ago, this should surely have won last year. The album demonstrates how Jarvis Cocker's voice can be married to a wide range of styles. Party Hard is probably the closest you will get to a Disco 2000, Little Soul and Help the Aged impress in their quirky ballard mode, This is ...  Read the complete review