Pulp - Different Class
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Free Music Notes for Different Class
Free Music Review: A Slice of Fried Gold
Hit: 5 Stars
In 1995 Pulp managed to do three great things. First off, they gave a fantastic performance at Glastonbury that put the other acts to shame. Secondly, they released Different Class and thirdly, Jarvis Cocker invaded a Michael Jackson performance at the Brits. Well, ok, maybe two great things.
In the mid-nineties the media, and thousands of 'sheep' trying to be cool by following everyone else, were hyping the battle for best album between Blur and Oasis. Unfortunately, both bands failed to deliver anything thought provoking or different. What's The Story (Morning Glory) was a good album, filled with anthems for a generation, but lacked any real depth to it and was weaker than Oasis' debut effort. The Great Escape by Blur again was weaker than its predecessor Of course, those thousands rushed out and bought them and raved about them in all the `cool' music magazines.
However, 1995 produced at least two better albums. One was Stanley Road by Paul Weller and this one.
The first thing that makes this album stand out is the lyrics. Cocker is a master of writing witty lyrics that make you laugh and smile and are also a brilliant observation on everyday life. He writes about anxiety, struggles, frustrations, excitement, love and bewilderment and his singing pushes this to an extra level where you can feel all of this emotion in his performance. A clear contrast to when he is talking in a near-monotone voice. The songs and Cocker's singing contain so much energy where needed and the quality of the vocals can be surprising sometimes.
All the songs are truly fantastic, over ten years on and they still sound just as good. It was a breath of fresh air when it was released and maybe it is because it doesn't sound like the rest of the `Brit-pop' that it doesn't sound dated.
Pulp go to show that it is ok to look nerdy and to be different than what is considered cool. Cocker is a vast contrast to Liam Gallagher and yet he displays a presence whilst performing on stage that Liam could never achieve, with a voice that can portray more emotion than most of the `cool' bands around at that time. Different Class? Yes. Better Class? Definitely.
Track listing:
1. Mis-Shapes: A catchy anthem for people who look `different' saying how it's ok to look geeky and not as cool as the rest of the crowd, and how these people are going to take over someday.
2. Pencil Skirt: A pleasant little tune about Jarvis, a girl and the problems of young love.
3. Common People: This tune was the anthem in Britain during the summer of 1995. Common People quickly became the `anthem' of the year, and rightly so. It was more infectious than anything Blur or Oasis had to offer that year. Awesome lyrics, fantastic vocals and brilliant melodies. Even the amount of times this was over played on the radio couldn't kill its effectiveness and brilliance.
4. I Spy: More great lyrics, haunting undertones and another excellent example of Cocker's vocal prowess, his low tones give this song its edge.
5. Disco 2000: Very catchy disco tune that you can't get out of your head, more great humorous lyrics.
6. Live Bed Show: A song that grows on you, tells an interesting story.
7. Something Changed: A run of the mill love song that sounds a bit out of place but still a nice little tune.
8. Sorted For E's & Whizz: A song about going to raves and the morning after, lovely tune and interesting images left in the mind.
9. F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E: An odd song that isn't without its good points, takes a while to get going though.
10. Underwear: The angst of teenage love is expressed in this great song. Great lyrics and stunning vocals.
11. Monday Morning: Catchy upbeat tune, lyrics are top notch.
12. Bar Italia: This one really grew on me, a nice end to a fantastic album.
Free Music Review: Simply one of the finest albums you'll ever encounter
Hit: 5 Stars
It is almost impossible for any album on Amazon to receive nearly a hundred reviews and still get an overall 5 star rating, yet DIFFERENT CLASS has managed to do just that. Although Pulp has several really good albums, this is their best in my opinion. It isn't just that the songs are musically compelling; lyrically the songs are frequently and unexpectedly complex. When this album was first released in England it was one of the rare times when an album achieved simultaneously intense critical and popular acclamation. Critics declared it a masterpiece, and fans bought it in astonishing numbers. The album also is deceptively political, in that it features class difference in a large number of songs.
There are many musical highlights on the album, but what I find most remarkable is that there are several songs so good it makes the other songs seem bad in comparison, while one song in particular makes even the other great songs suffer in contrast. Fans will always differ on their favorites, but few will question that the album starts off strongly with "Mis-Shapes." "I Spy" is one of my favorites on the album along with "Disco 2000," which follows it. "Sorted for E's and Wizz" is another stunner. But seriously, all the songs on the disc are at least good, most are very good, and two or three are great. But the best of the bunch is unquestionably "Common People."
"Common People" is simply a great song on multiple levels. Musically it is incredibly compelling, one of those tunes that once you hear it you can't get it out of your head, with an upbeat tempo that makes you want to get up and dance around. But this would merely make it a good song; what makes it great is the story the song tells. An art school student is noticed by a fellow student, a rich girl from Greece, who declares to him that she wants to learn about what it is like to live as one of the common people. There is a definite sexual come on, as she says that she wants "to sleep with common people, like you." At this point you think you know where the song is going, to a nice if somewhat standard narrative of two people from different classes who have a romance despite it all. But the song instantly takes you in a different tangent. What follows is as extraordinary as it is unexpected. Our hero takes the girl to a supermarket and asks her to imagine being there with no money, a notion she laughs at. At this point the song turns very serious and dark, as he tears into her for her calloused desire to slum and make a game out of taking on a mode of life that is for others a fairly desperate affair. He tells her that if she is laying in a bed watching roaches on the wall she can just call her dad and her problems would be over, but to truly find out what it would be like to live like "common people" would mean learning what it means to have no choices, no outs, no control. He sings:
You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
So instead of the song of romance and love that we think we are getting at the beginning, we get an impassioned condemnation of anyone who would make light of the struggles of those who are less well off. I know of no other song like it. Pulp has done a number of really fine albums and a host of great songs, but this song has to go down as one of my all time favorites. It definitely goes onto my all time Top 40.
There are four Pulp albums that I think any serious music fan should own: HIS 'N' HERS, DIFFERENT CLASS, THIS IS HARDCORE, and WE LOVE LIFE. If one were bound and determined to own only one Pulp album, one might go with HITS, but this DIFFERENT CLASS is so good that I just can't imagine anyone not wanting this and others as well. Trust me: if you don't own this album you need to get it today. Your ears will thank you.
Free Music Review: This is what would happen if Paul Heaton got a decent band.
Hit: 5 Stars
Jarvis Cocker as probably the best living, breathing English lyricist next to Morrissey, and the best lyricist in the UK next to Stuart Murdoch. Like alot of songwriters, most of Cocker's lyrics are based on autobiographical experiences. But since Jarvis has lived a constantly amusing and eccentric life - pulling stunts like falling two-stories out of a window while trying to impress a girl; interrupting Michael Jackson's ostentatious display at the '96 Brit awards - his songs make for a fascinating read. Quite simply, Cocker is a guy who's been through some frustrating, rough and embarrassing times and come out the other end with a highly-developed, self-effacing wit. Jarvis's lyrics have some of the wittiest stanzas since Paul Westerberg penned, "You wish up a star/That turns into a plane." Here's a sample of some of Cocker's clever-clever songwriting that you can expect to hear on "Different Class": "This bed has seen it all, from the first time to the last/The silences of now and the good times of the past."
"Do you believe that there's someone up above?/Does he have a timetable directing acts of love?/Why did I write this song on that day?/Why did you touch my hand and softly say, 'Stop asking questions that don't matter anyway'"?
"And this hollow feeling grows and grows and grows and grows/And you want to phone your mother and say, 'Mother I can never come home again, 'cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire.'"
Now, some people here in the US have accused Cocker's lyrics and the Pulp of being "too British" and "too eighties," which I think is grossly unfair. After all, Ricky Martin was never criticized for being "too Puerto Rican," or Busta Rhymes's music as being "too Stone Age." There are many universals that Cocker's lyrics address on "Different Class," that encapsulate the way large segments of society feel. A segment that didn't know how to react when first confronted with the inevitable humiliation and confusion that springs up unexpectedly along the way in in life. Cocker didn't either. And whether he likes it or not, "Different Class" established him as the sarcastic spokesman for that segment.
Free Music Review: the defining album of the britpop era? maybe...
Hit: 5 Stars
three or four albums, in my opinion, stand out heads and shoulders above the rest of the britpop pack: suede's 'dog man star,' blur's 'parklife,' oasis' 'definitely maybe' and the verve's 'urban hymns. sure you could throw 'the bends' in there, maybe some supergrass. but 'different class' seemed so far ahead of its time, yet strangely captured 1990s working class/underdogs London ethos (not that i'm british or anything).
jarvis cocker was the perfect anti-hero: the nerdy recluse with the coke bottle glasses. the perfect antidote to liam's audacity and damon's pretty boy antics. after years of slugging it out in obscurity, and prefaced by a super-promising 'his 'n hers,' pulp hit music gold with 'different class' and perhaps *the* anthem of the 1990s -- 'common people.' it was everything right about a pop song -- driving rhythm section, clever lyrics, spot-on delivery, and a rallying cry to the common kid all the while skewering the pretension of the rich trying their hand at poverty. no wonder it was the huge hit is was.
thankfully pulp were no one-hit-wonders. top to bottom, 'different class' could pretty much be a collection of greatest hits and no one would be the wiser. the opener, 'mis-shapes,' signals the call: 'mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits...' as if jarvo himself personally dedicates the album to his loyal fanbase. tracks like 'something changed,' 'pencil skirt,' 'sorted for e's and wizz,' the CLASSIC 'disco 2000' (and it's laura branigan 'gloria' inspired riff) carved jarvis cocker's face on the mount rushmore of the britpop scene. and while jarvis cocker gets much of the credit, pulp was very much a collaborative group. pulp was a group of extremely gifted musicians who pefected their craft over a 15 year period, climaxing with back-to-back classic albums: 'a different class,' 'this is hardcore,' and 'we love life.'
it's a shame they didn't reach the same level of popularity here in the states. perhaps they're just too good and too clever for average american listener to appreciate and understand. and it's too bad. pulp consistently put of the most refreshing, exciting, dangerous and infectiously good music of the era. check it out.
Free Music Review: Jarvis the walking aphrodisiac
Hit: 5 Stars
Jarvis Cocker is certainly a ... bugger. This album oozes with ... references galore. Then he decides to follow this with an album entitled "This is hardcore". The man is a walking Viagra. This album has so many hooks you'd think you were at an annual pirate convention. This is one of the few albums I've bought where I've loved it on the first listen. It usually takes me at least three listens to start appreciating an album. Sometimes when I love an album so early on, I get worried that I'm going to get sick of it a lot quicker. I'll admit there was a time when I was a bit sick of this album. So I took a break from it. Then I listened to it again, and wondered why I ever stopped listening to it.
Every song on this is a potential hit single. Of course, this album contains the pop anthems "Common people" and "Disco 2000". But this is only the start. We have the marvellous opener "Mis-shapes", which sets the scene for the whole "everyday people doing everyday things" tone of the album. Obviously Jarvis' idea of "everyday people" are the people living in the ... mansion, because practically all the songs on this album have an S classification for sex references.
All songs are stories "narrated" by Jarvis. "I spy" talks about a man who makes a living trying to catch people "at it". "Live bed show" talks about all the action that a double bed gets to see over its years. "Underwear" talks about well...underwear.
And of course "Pencil skirt" contains the classic line "I've kissed your mother twice, now I'm working on your Dad".
Need I say more?