Many of the songs are about confrontations between upper and working classes. The character Cocker talks about belongs to the working class and he is envious of the upper classes, but at the same time he points out how ridiculous some of their habits and views are. There is some great irony in the songs and even though there's a superficial admiration of the upper classes, it becomes clear that the album is in reality making fun of them. The topics on this album have gotten even more depth after I moved to London where I've experienced the themes of the album much closer. It's difficult to see all of the brilliance while living in a semi-equal society like Finland.
Pulp was never that popular in the US and I think it's sometimes really strange when people don't know songs like Common People or Disco 2000. These were massive hits across Europe. If there's one album I think deserves to be recognise globally, it's this one.
The album starts with Mis-Shapes, which grooves beautifully and reveals right from the first notes the amazing charisma Jarvis Cocker has in his vocals. The song grows beautifully bigger and bigger and the melody is just phenomenal. Pencil Skirt has a seductive slow tempo and it's the first song on the album that reveals Cocker's highly sexual, whispering album character that appears in many songs on the album. Next up is Pulp's biggest ever hit, Common People. It's a song about a high-class Greek art student who wants to act like common people but completely misses the reality of the poor. It has been hinted that this woman is the wife of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. Cocker went to school with her. I Spy is my absolutely favourite song from the album and one of my all time favourite songs from anyone. It portrays the main character of the song as a voyeur who spies the rich people of Ladbroke Grove and fantasises of their lives. There are amazing lyrics in the song, such as "My favourite parks are car parks, grass is something you smoke, bird is something you shag, take your year in Provence and shove it up your arse!". Disco 2000 is another massive hit song that gets everyone of my generation to the dance floor. I've played it many times as one of the last songs of a disco night at the uni. It was a guaranteed song to get everyone wild. It's about childhood friends who imagined of getting married when they grew up but found themselves so different people that the whole idea seemed laughable. Live Bed Show has an amazing dark melody and saucy stories of sex. The big orchestration around the chorus especially is fantastic. Something Changed sounds a lot lighter than the other songs on this album. The melody is not as melancholic and there's a great effortless feel to the song. Sorted for E's & Wizz continues with slightly more upbeat sounds. There are some similarities to Blur in the chorus' melody. F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. is another dark and sexual song of the night that portray's Cocker's lusty character along with squeaky string instruments and seductive whispers. Underwear has been one of my favourite songs on the album for a long time. I love the melody and explosive drama of the song and the seductive lyrics make it all the better. Monday Morning has a nice rhythm that reminds me of the early 80's rock bands that took influences from ska and reggae. It's a great example of a song where the verse and chorus have very different type of intensity. The album ends with Bar Italia, which is a mellow slow song that calms things down after a great collection of hit songs.
I have to especially mention the song Mile End that was left out of this album, but that appears on the Trainspotting soundtrack and the double CD that came with some versions of this album. I think it's a travesty that this song was left out of the original album, because it's one of the best ones when it comes to lyrics. I lived really close to Mile End a few years ago and even though the place was not like it was back in the 90's, I can feel the sentiment in the song.
Pulp songs from this album were playing on MTV all the time when I was a pre-teen. We had MTV and I remember many of the videos very vividly. Especially the video for Common People is very memorable. It features the younger Jarvis Cocker, who looked so amazingly cool that I've thought of him as something of a style icon ever since. The video shows common people in their common surroundings while Cocker appears as a cut-out over the scenes. Part of the video is just of the band playing in disco-like environment.
The original album cover came with changeable photos into a frame. For later editions, the wedding picture became the primary photo. All of the photos are from actual normal situations. For example the wedding photo was taken at an actual wedding where the photographer agreed to take normal wedding photos if he could also snap a shot with life-sized cut-outs of the band. The wedding guests didn't even know it was going to end up in the album cover, but they were later on awarded for their inclusion in the iconic album cover.
There aren't many albums I would love more than this. It's definitely in my top-5 albums of all times. I could just go on forever talking about it, but the post has to end somewhere, so I'll just do it here.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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