Ok, We Love Life -- Classic or Dud?

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I'll be honest: when I first got this record I thought it was fucking boring as hell. I was more a Scott Walker fan than Pulp and it didn't satisfy on any level.

8 months later, however, I completely changed my mind. Somehow, the themes all came together (and it wasn't that easy). "Weeds II" ("Do your...funny little dance") is amazing, as are "Trees," "Wickerman" and "Sunrise." And the end of the title track? GRIM AS SHIT.

I understand that in the Pulp canon, it may seem a long way from their earlier work, but standing on its own, it seems to hold up pretty well.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 6 December 2002 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

What sets We Love Life apart from its predecessors is the lack of tension between lyrics and music (though not absent, it has ceased to be the point). I think this is why I never warmed to it; it was too far from everything I had loved about Pulp (the $25 import price didn't help either). But I still put it on to hear "Birds In Your Garden", an unimpeachable classic.

― ciaran, Friday, 6 December 2002 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

What sets We Love Life apart from its predecessors is the lack of tension between lyrics and music.

I thought "Weeds II" had some serious tension going on. "Wickerman" too...

Unless you mean less hooks, since "Birds In Your Garden" is kind of catchy pop. Because with Yoshimi, this seems like the Year of the Hooks that Take 100 Listens to Appreciate. But they're there.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 6 December 2002 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I just wish they'd abandoned the big chorus-heavy rock songs altogether and kept all the atmospheric stuff - "The Weeds II", "The Trees", "Wickerman" and "Sunrise" are all brilliant, and I wish there was more like them.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 6 December 2002 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought "Weeds II" had some serious tension going on. "Wickerman" too...

"Wickerman" describes the narrator's loss(es) in a straightforward way, like most songs on WLL. Compare this to TIH, where the overwrought music exposes a fakeness or shallowness behind the lyrics. Of the We Love Life tracks, "Weeds II" and "The Trees" come closest to this tension, but Cocker still sounds more sincere than he ever did before.

I'm sure the album has hooks, but "Birds" is the only song where they are able to distract me from the lyrics.

― ciaran, Saturday, 7 December 2002 00:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Total utter classic...I mean, it's Pulp. And SCOTT WALKER.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 7 December 2002 01:08 (twenty-two years ago)

There is! "Roadkill."

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Saturday, 7 December 2002 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

TWICE
did i try to love pulp's ...love life
first when having to review it
then again after reading all the wondrous words the sagacious Simon'd found 'ppropriate to honour it with
both times the results were so50-so50
i.e. half of of the times me 4eyes dropped on the 'pulp' on the cover, 'phiction' was the very next word to bother the mind
fell briefly in love with 2sunrise", tho

― t\'\'t (t''t), Saturday, 7 December 2002 01:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i've only had it since the US release, and at first the production really put me off...compared to the previous records, Jarvis sounds like he's back in a tunnel somewhere behind the band, or at least not nearly as far up front as usual. when his words aren't way up in my face, i don't feel the whole Pulp experience.

but it's grown on me quite a lot. "Weeds" is a great opener, "Sunrise" is a great closer, the title track has some great tension and works for me as both sincere and sarcastic (usually the former). everything else i don't think particularly highly of, but then the next day i end up with "Tree" and "Minnie Timperley" and hell the whole thing stuck in my head. although last week it was the last thing i heard before getting really really sick, so those songs kept ringing in my head as i leaned over the toilet heaving, which has left it an odd emotional association.

― Al (sitcom), Saturday, 7 December 2002 01:55 (twenty-two years ago)

ditto to Daniel_Rf!

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 7 December 2002 04:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I love this record. There's a part of me that knows it's not their best, but I can see myself listening to it the most of all their records in the future. Scott Walker's production is brilliant - I wish he'd produce more bands.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 7 December 2002 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Very, very cool. I'm too tired to say more. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 7 December 2002 07:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's a masterpiece. And I love that it's the first Pulp album that doesn't sound as though it's being sung from beginning to end with one eyebrow raised.

― Michael White, Saturday, 7 December 2002 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow -- I'd never think of Different Class being sung in that way. "I Spy" is pure bile, "Underwear" completely sad...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 December 2002 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"Disco 2000" is as wistful as anything on We Love Life. It's the best 'ohmigod I'm thirty' song ever!

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 8 December 2002 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

We Love Life: tempted to say classic despite Scott Walker, but can't fault his work here. Love how Jarvis sticks his neck out with "Trees". Wish he'd stop obsessing about doomed lowlifes, 'cause dim highlifes provide better jokes. Can't wait for someone to try a bad cover version of "Bad Cover Version".

Different Class: different class.

― B.Rad (Brad), Sunday, 8 December 2002 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

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