Pulp 2025. Photo by Tom Jackson

PULP – Let’s all meet up in the year 2000 … and 25

Before we start, let me take you back to January 2001, when Pulp released their last studio album, We Love Life. The phenomenal cultural movement of the ‘90s had come and gone, Tony Blair was in his fourth year at Number 10, music streaming was still a pipe dream; the iPod was still nine months away. And I wasn’t even born.

It was this that really resonated with me throughout More. While other journalists will reflect on Pulp’s past and the influence it had on Britain, I can’t, I simply wasn’t there. My view and my experience with this album, is shaped by a fresh perspective; one of someone listening on repeat decades later, not living through it.

So how does More sound to someone who has only ever known Pulp through headphones?

At times it can be quite personal and confusing. On ‘Grown Ups’ a now 61-year-old Jarvis Cocker reflects not only on his past, but on his present, he explores the weird space between having to mature and “trying so, so hard to act just like a grown up” whilst deep down he still feels the same man who once pranced around on Michael Jackson’s stage at the Brits.

It’s about halfway through the track that Cocker somewhat switches tone, he has come to terms with his age, he knows maturing and growing up are part of life, and whilst it may hurt, he speaks about a metaphorical dream where he visits another planet that looks to be “having a really good time” as you can imagine in his classic Sheffield cadence, and in the reflection he looks back at where he came from, It’s Cocker’s way of saying you only get one shot at life, enjoy it whilst you can.

It is on tracks like ‘Tina’ and ‘My Sex’ that the classic Pulp comes through, it just screams Pulp, it’s what we know and it’s what we love, the provocative undertones and the flirtatious lyrics that would make your gran gasp. It’s all still there. And even if the dreaded wrinkles have started to appear, the cheek that made the band is alive and kicking; dare I say, better than ever.

‘Spike Island’ is another standout, marking the band’s first new music since 2013, and what a return it is. It’s almost cinematic, with imagery that’s second to none. “I was born to perform … I was born to do this” Cocker bellows whilst the band hold back, creating something subtle yet powerful. Just like The Stone Roses’ famous gig that inspired the track, it doesn’t need to be a flashy spectacle; it’s the importance and significance that takes charge.

Don’t be fooled by the name of this album; it isn’t just More, it takes the classic Pulp formula that has been in place for over 40 years and improves on it in almost every way. This is the story of a band that has seemingly done it all, now coming back for a well-earned victory lap, and to quote Jarvis Cocker himself “this is the best we can do.”

Throughout the album there is a quiet and powerful reflection to one of their own, the late Steve Mackey, whose basslines were the backbones of the Pulp catalogue, though he doesn’t feature on the record, his influence is undeniable. And More serves as a tribute to his legacy and the enduring spirit of the band he helped shape.

Pulp: More – Out 6 June 2025 (Rough Trade)

– Got to Have Love (Official Video)