brent johnson digs up another lost treasure, this week from Pulp …
Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the famous stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York will be graced by Pulp, the great 1990s British band who recently reunited.
To indie rockers, it’s thrilling.
But if you’re American and not an music snob, that likely means nothing to you.
See: In the mid-’90s, England was awash in a musical movement called Britpop. Bands sporting moppy hair and preppie clothes stormed the charts with catchy rock songs that namechecked British roadways, British culture and British humor. It was all very British. And it was all very good.
Oasis and Blur were the leaders of it all. And if those two were the Beatles and Stones of Britpop, then Pulp was The Who.
Led by frontman Jarvis Cocker — a tall, lanky mix of David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and a Brooks Brothers salesman — Pulp was the most fashionable and intelligent of the Britpoppers. Cocker was fond of well-cut suits and often delivered his literate lyrics with a cool sense of disenchantment.
Pulp toiled in obscurity for years until 1994, when they released His ‘n’ Hers, an album of filled with synth-sprinkled hooks and decadent, often sexual stories. It quickly became a massive hit in their home country.
A year later, Pulp released one of Britpop’s defining albums: Different Class, one of those rare records where every cut is fantastic. A string of singles from the disc hit the British Top 10: the lilting ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz,’ the danceable ‘Disco 2000,’ the exhilarating ‘Mis-Shapes,’ the sad ‘Something Changed’ and the anthemic ‘Common People’ (later covered by William Shatner).
But alas, Oasis was the only Britpop band to make a major spalsh in the States. Blur is mostly known here for ‘Song 2’ — i.e., the one that goes, “Woooo hooooo!” And Pulp? They barely made a blip across the Atlantic. Which, of course, is a shame.
The band parted ways in the early 2000s. Cocker went onto a mildly successful solo career in England, writing a song for Nancy Sinatra — Frank’s daughter — a few years ago.
Now Pulp is back, and at the very least, it gives you an excuse to check out their music. We suggest you start with ‘Babies,’ their 1994 breakthrough hit in Britain — and maybe the only pop song in the world about hiding in the closet of your girlfriend’s sister and winding up in bed with her.
