Take a walk on the wild side (We Love Life - Pulp)

Member Name: nicksmartuk

Product:	We Love Life - Pulp
Date:	02/11/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They're positive again!, Help the environment

Disadvantages: It took 4 years in the making

Four years ago, Pulp released their ‘This is Hardcore’ about the miserable existence of celebritydom, following the unprecedented success of ‘Different Class.’ Today, Jarvis Cocker and gang are back to their usual chirpy (yet still sardonic) selves, proudly screaming out to the world that they are alive and kicking with their new release ‘We love live.’

Produced by the sometime musical legend Scott Walker, ‘We love life’ is something of a concept album, with Jarvis explaining that it comes from the heart of someone who doesn’t have a garden, imagining what it must be like to have one. The band have donned their green fingers in penning this record, and a brief glance at the track listing gives us an all-round horticultural introduction to the work. ‘Weeds;’ ‘Weeds II (the origin of the species);’ ‘The Trees;’ and ‘The Birds in Your Garden’ being four such examples of this.

By creating this album based on such a concept, Pulp could quite easily have fallen into the trap of transforming themselves into that old dead Blue Peter gardener (you know – the one who received his gold badge about a month before he popped his clogs) of the music world. But there’s a lot more than luscious pastures and big orchestral Walker-esque sounds to this album. One of the quirky delights of this band is that they’re not afraid to combat head-on some of the less appealing aspects of life, especially those of Jarvis’ to-and-fro relationship with, erm, well a bit of too-and-fro. Fortunately for those of us with voyeuristic leanings, this album’s the Alan Titchmarch of music, with the emphasis soundly on ‘tit’ with the wildlife coming in more than one form, as is evident in ‘The Birds in Your Garden’ “come on and give it to her…she’s been waiting all night.”

‘This is Hardcore
’ mourned the dull life of a bachelor being stuck indoors with nothing to do but watch poor-quality daytime TV and wash-up, and it’s a relief to know that Jarvis has found happiness by moving away from the confines of ‘sex city’ Sheffield, where he had previously had to resort to ‘helping the aged’ in a way which only he could pass of credibly, and is now toying with his new-found youth in the open air. Grandiose string samples in ‘The Trees,’ the overall exuberance of ‘I Love Life’ and the behemoth that is the album’s final track ‘Sunrise’ makes you think that something’s improved in Jarvis’ life since the grey old days of 1997, where he was plagued by muses warning him to ‘beware of 33.’

Yet, for all the cheerfulness, the album still retains that ‘I-will-get-you-back’ that make Pulp who they are, as they chew up their spite and spit it into the faces of those who treated them as warped geeks in a previous life. With a wealth of Christmassy bells and choral harmonies, the band make ‘Bad Cover Version’ sound very similar to (a good cover version of ) Blur’s ‘To The End’ and you half expect Jarvis to launch into some twisted S&M tale, in his very best Franglaise. Incidentally, the content of the song deals with the protagonist measuring up against his replacement with the affections of a love lost “Cos every touch reminds you of just how sweet it could have been/ and every time he kisses you it leaves behind the bitter taste of saccharine” he mourns. Meanwhile, one of the other more ‘jolly-sounding’ tracks on the album is entitled ‘The Night that Minnie Timperley Died’ which again, is ironic, but only in a way that would work with Pulp.
For fans of ‘David’s Last Summer’ from the groundbreaking ‘His ‘n’ Hers’ album, there’s a
protracted tour through Sheffield rivers and children’s horse rides that play ‘ridiculously tragic tunes’ in ‘Wickerman’ whilst more sombre moments are reserved for our failures in ‘Bob Lind’ and ‘Roadkill.’ And for all those who thought Jarvis had lost his sense of humour, look no further than ‘Weeds II (the origin of the species)’ where, commenting on the theme of the song’s title, Mr Cocker suggests how to make a million, as he quips “So natural, so wild, so unrefined/ and someone’s gonna make a fortune one day/ if only they can market this stuff right.”

As excellent as this album is, the band are never going to replicate the miracle that was ‘Different Class.’ Nevertheless, it’s worth 4 ½ stars, and as dooyoo don’t allow for halves, I’m giving it 5, due to the good-heartedness of the band. For if you’re still unconvinced as to whether or not to buy this album, take a look at the back of the inlay booklet to discover that 1p from every CD sold in the UK goes towards planting trees to reabsorb the carbon dioxide emissions emitted through their production. Aah bless…if only we could all have the heart of Jarvis Cocker.

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