868. Pulp - This is Hardcore (1998)

Track Listing

1. The Fear
2. Dishes
3. Party Hard
4. Help The Aged
5. This Is Hardcore
6. TV Movie
7. A Little Soul
8. I'm A Man
9. Seductive Barry
10. Sylvia
11. Glory Days
12. The Day After The Revolution

Review

Pulp react to the success of Different Class with this album. This is an album with no easy to love songs like Disco 2000 or Common People, in fact it seems completely tailored to be more difficult. This being said it does not mean that the album is unlikeable.

In fact there are plenty of pretty nifty tracks here, they are just not tailored to be played on mainstream radio. In fact this stuff is all pretty grim sounding while still being quite beautiful and I like that.

The album is just a lot more self-involved than Different Class, the social commentary is substituted by musings on fame and Jarvis Cocker's own evolution as an artist and a singer. This makes the album lose the quality of identification with the listener that is so present in Different Class, self-involvement is not always great but it is often interesting, just like this album.

Track Highlights

1. This is Hardcore
2. Help The Aged
3. Seductive Barry
4. The Fear

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The cover art was directed by the American painter John Currin who is known for his figurative paintings of exaggerated female forms. Currin was also the art director for the "Help the Aged" video, based on his painting "The Never Ending Story." Advertising posters showing the album's cover that appeared on the London Underground system were defaced by graffiti artists with slogans like "This Offends Women" and "This is Sexist" or "This is Demeaning".

This Is Hardcore: