Different Class - Pulp

...of the hooks are very different from the verses. Even the slow tracks work up to a great crescendo. They tend to build up gradually and dramatically and then explode with some 'la-la-la's that are fun to sing along to. I was going to wimp out and make some ROLLER COASTER metaphor, but, since lead singer Jarvis Cocker is so sex-obsessed (most of the songs on this and all Pulp albums relate to sex) I think it is appropriate to say that most of these ...
...his life would be 'very different then' and we are finally back to the old Jarvis when he says, 'Would I be singing this song to someone else instead?' So, maybe this person isn't that special after all... [Or perhaps, I am just cynical...]

8. Sorted for E's and Wizz

Ironically, this song is an anti-drugs song, but it was controversial due to the drug references and photo on the single. Jarvis and his mates 'Got the ... more

Well, I've been a member of Ciao for about five days, so it's about time that I write about something that I love with a passion. That something is Pulp. I can't discuss which orange juice to buy with my housemates because I can't bring myself to say the words, 'I don't like Pulp.' Since I love Pulp so much, it might be hard for me to get any coherent thoughts on this album, but let's give it a try.

Pulp had been around for several years before finally becoming huge stars with this brilliant 1995 album. It features several hits that you have probably heard on the radio or pub juke boxes. But every track is profound and gorgeous in its own way.

'Different Class' is an epic and dramatic masterpiece. The album is very eclectic and seems musically sophisticated. Each song has key changes and tempo changes-- most of the hooks are very different from the verses. Even the slow tracks work up to a great crescendo. They tend to build up gradually and dramatically and then explode with some 'la-la-la's that are fun to sing along to. I was going to wimp out and make some ROLLER COASTER metaphor, but, since lead singer Jarvis Cocker is so sex-obsessed (most of the songs on this and all Pulp albums relate to sex) I think it is appropriate to say that most of these songs are... ORGASMIC.

1. 'Mis-Shapes'

This song is about fighting back if you are bullied for being different. It has a triumphant, grand feel to it, as Jarvis encourages people to rebel.

'We're making a move
We're making it now
We're coming out of the sidelines
Just put your hands up, it's a raid, yeah
We want your homes
We want your lives
We want the things you won't allow us
We won't use guns
We won't use bombs
We'll use the one thing we've got more of
And that's our minds'

It's an optimistic start to this album. I didn't used to like this song that much since it sounds a bit like a show-tune, but it has really grown on me.

2. 'Pencil Skirt'

The one word I could use to describe this song is "sleezy." It's one of two songs on the album where Jarvis is a relationship-wrecker. On this one, he is sleeping with a woman who is engaged but he says, 'I'll be around when he's not in town (oh)/I'll show you how you're doing it wrong (oh).' A lot of people have told me that they don't like Pulp because Jarvis is so 'weird.' But that's exactly why I do like them. Who wants to listen to something 'normal?' The best bit of this song is:

'Now you can tell some lies about the good times that you've had
But I've kissed your mother twice
And now I'm working on your dad...
Oh baby'

It makes me laugh every time. And I love the way he says 'mother' with his lovely Sheffield accent.

3. Common People

This song is certainly the crowning acheivement of this album and one of the best songs of the last 10 years. I would even put it on my TOP 10 OF ALL TIME. In case you haven't heard it (and, if you haven't, you are really missing out!) it is the story of a girl from Greece who comes to London to study art. She's rich, but she says that she wants 'to live like common people.' Jarvis explains in that song why it is impossible for her to realize her dream. If things go wrong, her dad will bail her out. He takes a serious subject and turns it into an entertaining, catchy, dramatic song that I listen to almost every day. I could go on and on about this song's brilliance.

'Rent a flat about the shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
Cuz when you lay in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you're cold your daddy can stop it all yeah'

This song builds up tension and drama until the final, dramatic release during the "la la la la" bit at the end. And, appropriately, this epic ends with "Oh yeah..."

4. 'I Spy'

This is another 'Jarvis is so creepy!!' song involving breaking up marriages and voyeurism. The character in this song sleeps with rich housewives. It's sort of hard to understand what he's saying sometimes as he mutters. It is worth looking up the lyrics since a lot of them are quite amusing. For instance:

'You see, you should take me seriously.
Very seriously indeed.
'Cos I've been sleeping your wife for the past sixteen weeks
Smoking your cigarettes
Drinking your brandy
Messing up the bed that you chose together...'
and:
'Grass is something you smoke
Birds are something you shag
Take your "Year in Provence" and shove it up your arse'

My friend Ethan and I know it all by heart and walk around singing/speaking it in a Jarvis voice. People around here must think we're insane... Again, this song speeds up and builds up drama. I don't usually like songs that involve strings, but this one is done well. And it has one of the best 'la la la la la' bits on the whole album! 'La la, la la la la la la la la/In the midnight hour/La la, la la la la la la la la/I will come to you...'

5. Disco 2000

This is the second biggest hit from this album, so you have probably heard it, as well. The protagonist in this song is still hung up on a childhood pal of his named Deborah who turned into quite a babe when she hit puberty. The lyrics are rather sad, but the tune is so much fun! I put this song on and dance around my room sometimes. Jarvis admitted that he put the 'Let's all meet up in the year 2000' bit in so that he might sell more albums around the turn of the century. He nicked the 'Deborah' rhythm from an '80s classic called 'Gloria' by Laura Branigan.

'I never knew that you'd get married
And I would be living down here on my own'

More dramatics and fantastic hooks. And you can't help but sing along with the 'Ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh' parts at the end. And I love the way he says, 'Brother!'

6. Live Bed Show

This is a lovely, sad song about a relationship that is falling apart. Of course, Jarvis adds a sleezy, voyeuristic slant to an ordinary situation by talking about how the neighbours used to be subjected to 'the headboard banging in the night' and comparing their relationship to a television programme. But this song is pretty and moving and features some nice 'lalala's, as well.

7. Something Changed

This is actually a fairly straightforward love song about fate and meeting people, etc. Jarvis sings 'I wrote this song two hours before we met' and wonders what his life would be like if he had decided to stay home or the object of his affection had gone and seen a friend. However, he doesn't specify exactly how his life would be 'very different then' and we are finally back to the old Jarvis when he says, 'Would I be singing this song to someone else instead?' So, maybe this person isn't that special after all... [Or perhaps, I am just cynical...]

8. Sorted for E's and Wizz

Ironically, this song is an anti-drugs song, but it was controversial due to the drug references and photo on the single. Jarvis and his mates 'Got the tickets from some f*cked up bloke in Camden Town'. Yes, there are a lot of those types right outside the Tube station. Then, he and his mates don't even know where the show is 'but that's ok 'cause we're all sorted out for e's and wizz.' It's about rave culture.

'In the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Ooh, Ooh, then you come down'

And, of course, my favourite part:

'And you want to call your mother
And say: "Mother! I can never come home again!
Cos I seem to have left an important part of my brain
Somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire." alright.'

9. F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D. L.O.V.E.

This song is extremely dramatic, even comically so at times. Jarvis starts out talking, like a creepy narrator, but eventually it builds up to the catchy chorus involving the spelling of words. Although the tune of the hook sounds cheerful at times, this is not the type of love that one is happy about. It is one of those 'I-don't-want-to-feel-like-this-but-I-do!' situations.

'What
is
this
feeling called love?
Why me?
Why you?
Why here?
And why now?
Oh!
It doesn't make no sense, no
It's not convenient, no
It doesn't fit my plans
But I've got that taste in my mouth again, oh!'

...'L.O.V.E. What is this thing that is happening to me. oh yeah! oh yeah!'

Everyone has felt like this at some point or another, wishing that you weren't in love. But the happy-sounding tune of the chorus doesn't match with the hopeless, heartbroken sentiment of the lyrics.

10. Underwear

My friend Marisa is afraid of this song because it scares her when Jarvis sings, 'Why don't you give yourself to him, oh JESUS!' But, I love it because, for once, Jarvis gets a taste of his own medicine as he catches a girl he's in love with 'semi-naked in someone else's room.' This is a very pretty song and Jarvis sings the desperation and heart-ache very well. It's Ethan's favourite Pulp song.

11. Monday Morning

This song is about the cycles of drug use and the emptiness of life, but has a rather lively tune at times.

'Going out late from Monday
To ch-chuck up in the street on Sunday
You don't wanna live 'til Monday
You're gonna do it all over again'

Very heavy lyrics but there are some fun 'lalala's and 'ah-ah-ah's that save it from being too depressing.

12. Bar Italia

This album starts on an optimistic note, but ends with a depressing one as this song is about hangovers and cycles (similar to the previous track). Still drunk and/or on drugs, Jarvis' character heads to a cafe in Soho which is the only thing that's open at
that hour. 'Round the corner in Soho,' there actually IS a little bar with a neon sign that reads 'Bar Italia!' It's on Frith St. if you want to make a pilgrimage there. I went in hoping to find a photo of Jarvis or something, but, alas, there was nothing Pulp-related.

'You can't go home and go to bed
Because it hasn't worn off yet
And now it's morning
There's only one place we can go
It's round the corner, in Soho
Where other broken people go

He says that he'll be back 'next week, same place, same time.' Despite the first track's hints at a revolution, it seems that Jarvis has resigned himself to the mentality of 'Common People' that you 'dance and drink and screw because there's nothing else to do.'  

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