We Love Life

Pulp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 20, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B00006419M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,971 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

We Love Life­-produced by Scott Walker--is best thought of as the calm after the storm. Pulp's previous album, 1997's This Is Hardcore, was the kind of record often made by intelligent and sensitive people who become famous after a lifetime assuming that being famous was what they wanted. Like Radiohead's The Bends, Elvis Costello's This Year's Model , Nirvana's In Utero, or most of the solo albums of Scott Walker, Hardcore is twitchy, disgusted, nauseous, and distinctly uneasy listening. In contrast, We Love Life is the most musically benign album Pulp have been responsible for, emphasizing a fondness for string arrangements and gently building melodies that have only been intermittently discernible before. There is no blunting of the edge in Jarvis Cocker's voice or words, even if he seems less concerned with himself than previously; indeed, the opening track "Weeds" seems a touching and courageous hymn of admiration to asylum seekers. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic album whose recording will go down in history!, August 24, 2002

By 

30-year old wallflower "Eric N Andrews" (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Love Life (Audio CD)

In England, Pulp is known as the little band that could. After more than a decade of hard work & obscurity, they finally caught the public's attention with 1992's SEPARATIONS, coming at the start of the Britpop explosion Pulp helped gave birth to. Their subsequent albums were shining examples of the trend, but with leader Jarvis Cocker's highly original & biting lyrics to counter the infectious melodies. While bands like Oasis & the Verve relished in the excess that success brought them (and subsequently imploded), Jarvis wasn't impressed by it all, as albums like 1998's extremely dark THIS IS HARDCORE proved.

That album was an all-around stunner & one that following up would seem like a challenge. It sure turned out to be, for WE LOVE LIFE had originally been recorded (and almost completed) with producer Chris Thomas, famous for his work with artists like Elton John. At the last minute, Jarvis wasn't happy with the result & immediately returned to the studio to start from scratch. This time, the man in the producer's chair would be American-born British cult icon Scott Walker. As it turned out, Jarvis' change of heart was warranted, as WE LOVE LIFE manages to overtake even HARDCORE's genius & with a much lighter mood.

At first, the marriage between Jarvis' literate lyrics & Scott's Phil Spector-inspired production techniques would seem like an odd one, but as I kept hearing in the year after WE LOVE LIFE's European release, it worked surprisingly well. As songs like the 8-minute epic "Wickerman" prove, it sure did. The near-whispered vocals & alternately lush & dissonant music make for a spellbinding listening experience. I can just imagine Scott Walker's distinctive baritone singing a song like this.

But a title like WE LOVE LIFE indicates a much brighter affair than THIS IS HARDCORE & in some ways it is, with Scott's expansive production giving the songs room to move & definitely easier to listen to. The near-title track "I Love Life" is one that could have been released back in Britpop's heyday & easily become a hit & is the most obvious example of Jarvis' mellowing out without dulling his edge. "Bob Lind" (remember him from "Elusive Butterfly"?) has Jarvis regaining his dark humor for a song that looks at a musician long after his heyday has passed. Hopefully, Jarvis isn't prediciting his own fate, for I believe he still has a lot to say. On the other hand, songs like "Bad Cover Version" (which even features a subtle dig at Scott Walker himself!), "The Night That Minnie Temperley Died" & "Roadkill" are some of the most downbeat & shocking lyrics Jarvis has ever written, proving that the production may be bright, but the words can still darken.

While Jarvis still has some bones to pick in his lyrics, WE LOVE LIFE has hints of him finding some sense of peace, as evidenced by the nature theme of some songs. "Weeds", "Weeds II", "The Trees", "The Birds In Your Garden" (an actual love song!) & "Sunrise" have Jarvis seeing both the comfort & uncertainty nature & civilization bring. Again, Scott Walker's production is enough to warrant equal billing on the cover, but it doesn't result in Pulp simply singing on a Scott Walker album.

WE LOVE LIFE's recording history is certainly a twisted one, but that doesn't compare to its releasing. It came out in Europe in October of 2001, but nothing planned for an American release. I first heard in April of 2002, but then it kept being pushed back a month (distribution problems, I believe) & I wondered if it would ever come out in the U.S. at all. Well, it's here finally & I must say it's every bit of a tour de force. For a band that's been around for as long as Pulp has (more than 2 decades), such a classic would seem unlikely that late in their career. Yet it's worked for both Pulp & Scott Walker, who really ought to come out of the darkness & record more often. Scott has had an influence on singers like David Bowie, Nick Cave & even Jarvis Cocker himself, so let's hope an album like WE LOVE LIFE will help alert people not just to Pulp's talents, but Scott's as well & maybe even result in some recognition in his own right. There's no better time for it than now.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulp love life - here's a cry against its shabbiness., December 5, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Love Life (Audio CD)

It seemed appropriate that Pulp should one day be produced by legendary pop recluse Scott Walker. Jarvis has always cited Walker as an important precursor, and Pulp's mix of catchy pop, big choruses, rich settings and dark lyrical content connects with the singer's late-60s, Jacques Brel-inspired output. The result is Pulp's most 60s-sounding album to date, a move away from the disco-John Barry melange that made them famous. This is not the hackneyed 60s of Beatles/Stones/Hendrix/Dylan that has become so wearyingly familiar, but the 60s of Phil Spector (the brittle, Wall of Sound production; the ringing bells of 'Bad Cover Version'), Brian Wilson, Nancy and Lee, Ennio Morricone (especially those ethereal backing vocals against a Western soundscape), the garage snarl of early Velvet Underground, the orchestral flourishes of Walker himself.

But it is the later, more intractable and experimental Walker that seems to govern the album. On initial listens especially, 'We Love Life' has an ugly, claustrophobic feel, short on the epic melodies and accumulative euphoria that made even Jarvis' more misanthropic outpourings so exhilarating. There are songs which sound like old Pulp - the long autobiographical narrative monologue 'Wickerman', the pop jangles of 'I Love Life' and 'Bob Lind'; but these have a tendency to collapse into listener-hostile noise: 'I Love Life' ends in an anguished Gothic scream; the double-bass pleasantly underlaying 'Bob Lind' soon swamps the song in dissonance; the spaghetti western epiphany of the bleak urban history 'Wickerman' is darkened by storm rumbles.

Subsequent exposure doesn't make 'We Love Life' any prettier or more accessible, but it does reveal it as one of the most remarkable albums in years (since 'This is Hardcore', probably). It is a concept album: like the Beach Boys' 'Sunflower', its theme is nature. Far from ecology or pastoral, however, Jarvis is obsessed with weeds, fungus, sprawling overgrowth covering the marks of neglected human activity, rivers dried up or running into sewers, as sterile and unrefrreshing as forgottin lives: 'You're in the land of the living, but there are so few signs of life'. Inevitably, the personal and private become political, but Jarvis' anger is never pompous or posturing, always focused and rooted. The distorted-Spector triptych of the lovely, theremin-humming 'Birds in your garden', 'Bob Lind' and 'Bad Cover Version' count as some of the finest music Pulp have ever written. I can think of no other artist - with the exception of Scott Walker - who have responded to popular acclaim with a genuine artistic adventurousness liable to alienate it. Welcome back Pulp. We missed you.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars they love life, we love Pulp, November 17, 2001

By 

sask - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Love Life (Audio CD)

After their 1995 album Different Class practically defined the sound of mid-nineties Britpop, Pulp returned three years later with the grim, uneven, yet excellent This Is Hardcore, on which they branched out their sound a lot more. It can be seen as a transition album, but upon listening to it, it sounds like they didn't know which direction to take. In 2000, Pulp had the follow-up in the can, but decided ultimately to scrap it. There seemed to be so little focus that their future really looked seriously in doubt. However, their decision to collaborate with reclusive producer Scott Walker this year finally pointed them in the right direction, and 3 1/2 years after This Is Hardcore, Pulp has put out their true defining album. Sort of a combination of the themes explored on their two previous albums, We Love Life tackles both the social satire of Different Class and the introspection of This Is Hardcore, but this time around, the satire is less bitter, and their overall view of things is considerably more optimistic.

Pulp's sound is, and will always be, centred around the lyrics of singer Jarvis Cocker. One of the most talented lyricists in pop music today, Cocker's imagery and self-deprecating humour make each Pulp album more of an experience, like a Mike Leigh film or an Irvine Welsh novel, than a mere collection of tunes. From the music to the lyrics to the artwork, Pulp remain leaders in the the album as an art form, which, sadly, is a dying art.

'Weeds' and 'Weeds II' continue the sharp social satire where 'Mis-Shapes' and 'Common People' left off ("we are weeds, vegetation, dense undergrowth"), while 'The Night Minnie Timperley Died' and 'Bob Lind' are effective character sketches, and the gorgeous and funny 'The Trees' ("those useless trees, they never said that you were leaving") as well as the lush 'Birds In Your Garden' are love songs that only Cocker is able to write. The album's penultimate song, 'Roadkill', is the darkest song before the album closes with the soaring strings and choirs of 'Sunrise'.

By far the best song on We Love Life is the eight-minute masterpiece 'Wickerman', a spoken-word tale of Cocker's earlier life in Sheffield, centred around the river that runs through the city, "beneath the old Trebor factory that burned down in the early seventites...beneath pudgy fifteen year-olds addicted to coffee whitener". This is Cocker at his virtuosic best. 'Wickerman' also has one of the best samples I've heard used in a long time, a subtle acoustic guitar sample from the film The Wicker Man that, unless you've seen the movie, you'll hardly notice is a sample.

Holding the entire album together is the great work done by Walker. This Is Hardcore was all over the place in its musical styles, but here Walker reins everything in, creating a full, warm sound, with lovely orchestral touches, but never overdone.

One could argue how much better Different Class is than We Love Life, but a good part of the success of that album was its lightning-in-a-bottle timing. We Love Life won't generate five hit singles like Different Class did, but it's a more mature album, more optimistic, hence the title. If you're still doubtful, dear reader, read this classic Cocker line from 'Bad Cover Version', and try to spot the hilarious Scott Walker joke: "It's like a later 'Tom & Jerry' when the two of them could talk, like the Stones since the Eighties, like the last days of Southfork. Like 'Planet Of The Apes' on TV, the second side of 'Til The Band Comes In', like an own-brand box of cornflakes: he's going to let you down my friend." This album won't let you down, though. It's one of the very best of the year.