Not only are Pulp playing Tramlines this year, but after nearly a quarter of a century, the Sheff legends have officially confirmed they’re back with a brand-new album. Titled More, the record will land via Rough Trade Records on June 6th, marking the band’s first studio release since We Love Life in 2001.
Recorded and mixed at Orbb Studio in Walthamstow over just three weeks, More is a sharp, unexpected jolt from a band many thought had said all they needed to. Jarvis Cocker, ever the understated frontman, put it simply: “This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen.”
Produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.), the album brings together old ideas and new spark. There’s a track co-written by Richard Hawley, another by Jason Buckle (Relaxed Muscle), string arrangements from Richard Jones played by the Elysian Collective, and even the Eno family dropping in for backing vocals. Cocker adds, “These are the facts. We hope you enjoy the music. It was written and performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process. This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey.”
First single Spike Island offers a swirling, cinematic taste of what’s to come. Buckle, who attended the Stone Roses’ infamous Spike Island gig, planted the seed for the track. “A DJ there shouted ‘Spike Island, come alive!’ all day, getting on everybody’s nerves,” Jarvis recalls. That line stuck and became the unlikely muse for a song about a gig he didn’t even attend. Packed with synths, violins and a dreamy slide guitar, it’s both classic Pulp and something entirely new.
The video for Spike Island dives headfirst into the uncanny world of AI, animated using stills from Different Class‘s original photoshoot. Jarvis explained: “I was told that someone was interested in investigating A.I. and did I have any ideas? The first idea I had was to animate the photographs that Rankin & Donald took… as soon as I fed the first shot into the A.I. app I realised that wasn’t going to happen. So I decided to ‘go with the flow’ & see where the computer led me.”
The result is surreal and strangely beautiful, with sliding coaches, frozen figures and flickering memories, all guided by cryptic prompts and digital guesswork. “The weekend I began work on the video was a strange time,” he adds. “I kept expecting weird transformations of the surrounding environment due to the images the computer had been generating. The experience had marked me. I don’t know whether I’ve recovered yet…”
On the physical front, Pulp fans are in for a treat. More will be available in several limited vinyl formats, including a black LP and four coloured pressings personally named by Jarvis. There’s a “Theresa” green version across all retailers, a “Blue Sky Thinking” marble exclusive to indie shops, a “South Yorkshire Sunset” marble only available in Sheffield, and “Isha Kriya”, an ink spot edition from Pulp and Rough Trade’s online stores. There’s also a double LP cut at 45rpm, exclusive to their webstores for the true vinyl heads.
It’s been a long wait. But they’re back. And it sounds like they’ve still got plenty more to say.
