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WE LOVE LIFE
Pulp
(Universal)
On the surface, there's plenty of reason to approach Pulp's seventh album with caution. Their previous outing, 1998's This Is Hardcore, was a harrowing, sometimes brilliant bit of commercial suicide. And, just in case anyone was wondering what happened to the Britpop tag the band wore in the mid '90s, word that the group recently took up with iconic pop experimentalist Scott Walker must have been a clear indication of weirdness to come. Well, not so fast.
We Love Life sounds as Scott Walker producing Pulp should: Lush, spooky orchestration, solid song structures, with Jarvis Cocker's deep, narrative croon at the centre.
Although somewhat alienating at first, the disc reveals its heart over a few listens, and it's fairly straight-up Pulp fare. Walker and the band converge in brilliant orch-pop fashion on lead single The Trees. His writing singular and strong, the 40-ish Cocker still sounds like a man coming to terms with his slipping youth as he packs his pop cultural parables and nature walks -- Wickerman, Bad Cover Version, The Birds In Your Garden -- with personal reflection.
Consistently huge-sounding, We Love Life is as much a production exercise as a musical one. This is one of those cases when the two work in each other's favour. (More on: Pulp).
Track Listing
1. Hope
2. Suzanne
3. Butterfly Morning
4. On The Low
5. Baby Let Me Go
6. Felling Of Gaze
7. Charlotte
8. Clear Day
9. Bavarian Fruit Bread
10. Around My Smile
11. Lose Me On The Way