Jarvis and the gang are back. Sheffield’s indie icons Pulp fly out the gate with their new single “Spike Island” and the announcement of their new album, “More.”
After a sell-out comeback tour, “This is what we do for an encore,” the sexy, glamorous, and all-too-perfect live shows sent a shiver down any well-meaning music fan’s spine. If you caught them live, you know the feeling.
Given enough time to ramble about my love for Pulp, you’d be reading a dissertation, so let’s get stuck in. “Spike Island” is a funky, backbeat-heavy joy to listen to. A simple bass key line bobs your head from the get-go, courtesy of Candida Doyle adding an extra layer of sparkly synth in her classically cool fashion. The sound is modern but connotes all that was tastefully smooth in 80s synthpop goodness.
Drums take centre stage in the mix, infused with a hi-hat bomb of style from Nick Banks. Slide guitar populates the intro with a simple spattering of chords, boosting the rest of the track’s intricate soundscape.
You can see the festival crowds already. I might have to put on my bucket hat to finish the rest of this review.
You can almost hear Jarvis swagger up to the microphone, ready to serve his newest hyper literate stream of consciousness brilliance poetically. “Something stopped me dead in my tracks I was heading for disaster and then I turned back I was wrestling with a coat hanger, can you guess who won?” A classically self-deprecating line from one of the indie’s finest songwriters, pronounced in that well-known South Yorkshire drawl, kicks off the song with infinite style.
You can hear a single chorus line that will achieve a call and response from crowds for the length of the country this summer. “And by the way, Spike Island came alive. This time I’ll get it right, oh”, a reference to the Stone Roses’ legendary 1989 gig on the industrial banks of the Mersey. There’s a brief instrumental with whirring synth and the familiar hi-hat groove.
The tune takes an introspective look at the frontman’s life from his hindsight perspective on time spent as a cult hero. “Not a shaman, or a showman, ashamed I was selling the rights I took a breather, and decided not to ruin my life I was conforming to a cosmic design I was playing to type Until I walked back to the garden of earthly dеlight” Which feels like a mature analysis on his own career battles, with the excess of the Britpop era and ultimately a return to the shinning light at the source of why we love Jarvis.
The song’s instrumentation leaves space to let the lyrics breathe, and the constant rhythm section drones you into focus. With that ever-so-recognisable charm and punky shove it! attitude, Jarvis appears to resolve his personal reflection in a way only a Yorkshireman can: “No-one can ever understand it, and no-one will ever have the last word because it’s not something you could ever say, so swivel.”
Just as the band reaches a joyous peak, with all members laying into the groove of it all, Pulp sounds like they are genuinely having fun here, far into maturity and coming up smelling of roses and roll-ups. The last chorus kicks in with the breathy and iconic Jarvis “Ah ahs” and “Ooh oohs” before the tune finishes with one last blast of synthy goodness.
Pulp are back, the world feels a little bit better under the neon glow and glittery suit trousers of one of England’s most iconic acts. Can you tell I’m a bit excited?
“More” is set to be released on June 6th. Get it on Vinyl. Jarvis would respect that.
Pulp head out on tour across the UK and Ireland in June with a special set of Gigs at LA’s Hollywood Bowl with LCD Soundsystem.
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