Why is We Love Life so much worse than This Is Hardcore? What a huge drop in quality!

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I can see from searching that many ILM-ers have love for We Love Life and that confuses me. I love Hardcore, and it was a tragedy for me to download the 'sequel' and slowly realize that Pulp had somehow completely lost it.

How does a band go from 3 great albums to a total dud?

― Richard K (Richard K), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

What is this band you talk about?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think there are enough Pulp threads on this board.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like they were big somewhere.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It isn't. As a matter of fact it is better. I kind of abandonded is soon after listening. Then I recently started listening til "We Love Life", and discovered what a revelation it was. IMO it is possibly the best Pulp album of all. More "difficult" than the ones that were before it, but really great and sophisticated stuff when you get into it.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought you dead.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The 5 Pulp threads revived. It's like Candyman.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir, can you go more in depth into answering the 'why' part of the question?

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

But it isn't. :-)

I think the production is one of the key elements. Scott Walker did a really great job, adding more room and more detail.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Marcello's extremely moving review is still the best review of We Love Life I've read. It's a marvellous album.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i agree. i think it's great!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

marcello's review is great, but i found the album to be a bit dull. it lacked glamour.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a great album. and i think the production will age very well..

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

They are my two favorite Pulp albums.

― Joules Antenna (Andy K), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I really hated We Love Life when I first listened, and almost sold it back. Every time I listen to it I like it a little more, but it still has a long way to go in order to overcome the slow, spoken word tracks that make me want to pull my hair out.

― yarjax14, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

yarjax OTM, but I will have to listen again, I didn't realize it had been so well received.

― Richard K (Richard K), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

First and foremost, We Love Life reminds me how utterly stark the difference is between British and American artists — from the music and the lyrics to the influences and vulnerabilities expressed. Never in a million years would any American band succeed in putting out a record like this — and if they did, I can safely say it would either be terrible or end up as something else entirely.

All that said, the record—on its own merits, apart from the trappings of Pulp's own history—is deep as hell. It's musically rich (and diverse), melodically nuanced (which is to say, engaging but not particularly poppy) and lyrically well-meaning — which is to say, remarkable at times ("Wickerman", "Roadkill"), a bit clunky at others ("Minnie Timperly"), but always ambitious and never out-and-out boring. That it seems fairly devoid of singles along the lines of, say, Hardcore's "Help the Aged" is radio's loss, not ours. It's not always easy to love, but I find it pretty fascinating nonetheless. I love it.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

then there's the simon reynolds review in uncut
(it was his album of the year above DISCOVERY!!).

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not really a Pulp fan, but my dad bought me "We Love Life" for Christmas one year (he'd read a glowing review of in the Guardian), and to my surprise I found that I really liked it. I wasn't previously aware that they were capable of such depth and richness - I'd written them off as being a band who just produced clever, slightly gimmicky pop songs.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Interestingly, my opinion of this record has changed very little. Love, love, LOVE the spoken-word stuff.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 12 June 2006 03:43 (twenty years ago)

It's flawed to be sure, but any record including "Wickerman" can never, ever be considered a total dud.

― David Bachyrycz (David Bachyrycz), Monday, 12 June 2006 05:02 (twenty years ago)

It's as uneven as This is Hardcore. I find that I skip around both records. "The Trees" might be my favorite Pulp song.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 12 June 2006 12:27 (twenty years ago)

Suely This Is Hardcore has some better songs, but is INCREDIBLY inconsistent, to the point where half of it is utterly limp- whereas We Love Life has less highpoints, but is very consistent--- and even the lesser songs SOUND great (thanks Scott...)

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Monday, 12 June 2006 12:32 (twenty years ago)

Most of TIH's problem is sequencing.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 12 June 2006 13:41 (twenty years ago)

I'd say I stand by pretty much everything I said about We Love Life on Freaky Trigger at the time of release...now I look at it as the brighter flipside to The Drift, or is that too overly fanciful a notion?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 12 June 2006 13:51 (twenty years ago)

It's more fun than The Drift.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 12 June 2006 13:56 (twenty years ago)

I just think the lyrics on TIH are the weakest of the post-His'n'Hers Pulp - TIH is miles better for me

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 12 June 2006 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Well, exactly. It's the light that The Drift, for its own reasons, shields out.

(xpost)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 12 June 2006 13:58 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

we love life > his'n'hers > different class > this is hardcore

TIH would rise dramatically were it to be shorn thusly:

1) The Fear
2) Dishes
3) Help The Aged
4) This Is Hardcore
5) TV Movie
6) A Little Soul
7) Seductive Barry
8) The Day After The Revolution

8 songs, 50 minutes, perfect. We can even keep the 10-minute single-note outro (which had previously been one act of largesse too many).

Anyway, the main reason I'm posting is to express my utter and continuing joy at how good We Love Life is. It's a phenomenal album, with 3 of Pulp's 4 best songs (Wickerman, I Love Life and Sunrise, the other being David's Last Summer).

― to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 01:51 (nineteen years ago)

Wickerman is probably their best song. Not a total loss.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

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