Pulp’s fifth album sounds to me like part Bowie revival and part something new, as if they were Bowie superfans who wanted to make a version of his music that doesn’t sound like it was written by astral aristocracy to be handed down to us common humans. It’s all the best parts of Britpop with a little bit of a class war feeling (not too aggressive, very British and polite) that I dig. And it’s got one of the better lines out there, from “Mis-Shapes”: “We won’t use guns, we won’t use bombs, we’ll use the one thing we’ve got more of, and that’s our minds.” That one is especially relevant in 2024, 3 weeks before the most terrifying election of the century as of this writing.

Class differences are the main topic of exploration in the lead single “Common People,” and pervade the album. I’m reminded of the (in my opinion absolutely unwatchable) show Schitt’s Creek, where a bunch of formerly wealthy people are forced to live in a tiny town with no money. (If I have to hear someone say “ew, David!” one more time I’m gonna lose my mind. David is a great name, but this freaking show has relegated it to the level of Siri or Alexa that have been ruined in the popular group-mind). The show is meant to be funny, but it’s too real for me to laugh at sometimes - “Common People” explores this very same belief among the rich that they’re rich purely because of their own merits, the ridiculousness of that idea, and the fact that nobody can seem to escape it. We’re programmed to take credit for our successes, but the reality is we’re all out here working hard, man.

Anyways, Pulp is among my favorite of the Britpoppers, and was somehow a band I overlooked up to this point. But not anymore!

From the roundup Jamwise #48 - Best Albums of 1995.