The set is strangely top-heavy with the kind of midpaced, almost-middle-aged whimsy of their most recent folksy album. It’s not exactly exciting - more an update of their 1983 debut “It”.
Tonight Pulp are defined by what they don’t do as much as they are what they do play - a string of brilliant songs seem to have been forgotten : “Countdown”, “My Legendary Girlfriend“, “OU“, “Razzamatazz“, “Do You Remember The First Time?”, “Lip-gloss“, “Common People”, “Disco 2000”, “Mis-shapes“, “Help The Aged“, “Party Hard”, “Glory Days” / “Cocaine Socialism”, (all of which are a virtual greatest hits on their own) show that moments of effortless brilliance are still possible, they seem to have lost their way a little recently.
To say that Pulp are less relevant now is probably accurate. It’s as if they fed off the interaction with their audience and without a foil to work with, they are stuck in an oddly sterile vacuum. The shortcomings of the newer material are brutally exposed in the live arena - it doesn’t matter how many back projections there are, a song such as “Wickerman” will always remain a dirge.
Somewhere along the route to here, they lost the spark that made them great. The bile of the disaffected - that informs their greatest work such as “I Spy”, “ and “Common People” - has somehow been lost. Along with things like melody, choruses, and tempo. Even the sense of exhausted dissatisfaction that made “This Is Hardcore” compelling listening has gone, replaced with well - a void really.
Though I must admit Jarvis would make a great stand up comedian - its the spaces between the songs that are almost the most enjoyable parts of the evenings.
Far be it from me to criticise unthinkingly Pulp. Like an own-brand box of cornflakes, it just seems that these days they have become little more than a bad cover version of who they used to be. They should go back, away from the complacency that success inevitably brings, and try to remember what made them great in the first place. The hunger.
Set: Weeds / Minnie Timperley / Birds In Your Garden / Something Changed / Joyriders / Live Bed Show / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. / Bad Cover Version / The Trees / I Love Life / This Is Hardcore / Sunrise / Sorted / Babies / A Little Soul / Wickerman / Underwear
Just thought I point out, where the hell is “Common People”? It’s a simply a great song. I’m not sure what point they are trying to prove by not playing it, unless they know that its much better than their current crop of songs and don’t want to show up their most recent, lacking efforts? I don’t care even if they play the “vocoder” version of it, or the 2000-model German Krautrock take, most bands would *kill* (and Robert Johnson sold his soul) for a song that good. And for however much tickets were, surely its reasonable to expect them to play it?
