Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Jane Savidge
33 1⁄3 Series Bloomsbury Academic
The 33 1⁄3 Series of booklets began 21 years ago with Warren Zane's book about Dusty Springfield's classic 'Dusty in Memphis' album and now numbers well over 200 pocket sized volumes covering records by everybody from Milton Nascimento, to ABBA, to Little Richard and Kendrick Lamar. Some are written by fans, some by noted music writers, and some by people who were involved with the bands but not actually involved in the actual recording of the music.
One of the more recent volumes is about the recording of Pulp's post Different Class (Common People, Disco 2000, Sorted For E's and Wizz) album, This Is Hardcore and is written by Jane Savidge who was Pulps publicity person for much of their most commercially successful period in the mid-1990s.
I have to be honest and admit that my involvement with Pulp goes backwards.
In 2001 Pulp released their final album, the Scott Walker produced 'We Love Life' — the sound of a band that had finally thrown off the shackles and was luxuriating in the freedom to do as it pleased. It is a stone cold classic and worthy of gracing any collection. However, as is so often the way of these things, it sold abysmally and within a year Pulp had split up though they have sporadically reconvened over the years since.
Their album preceding 'We Love Life' was This Is Hardcore which is a bridge between Pulp's Common People pop chart era and We Love Life... It's the sound of a band falling to bits, trying to please everybody but really pleasing nobody including themselves.There are some great tracks on the record, the title track with its great Film Noir sample, The Fear, etc, but it wasn't until the 2006 release of a deluxe double CD version which features songs that were left off the original album, Cocaine Socialism, It's A Dirty World, and Tomorrow Never Lies that you realise just how much of a compromise This Is Hardcore was and just how good it could've been. So... Buy/download the deluxe release and compile your own prefered version of it.
As for the book... Jane Savidge, for all of her inside knowledge from her time working with the band, gives us scant insight into what went into This Is Hardcore other than Jarvis Cocker was disillusioned with the fame that Pulp had craved for nigh on 20 years and you don't need to spend £9.99 on her book to realise that, even if you know very little about the band or its history.
So Two Stars for the book
Three Stars for the original album
Four Stars for the deluxe version
Five stars for your own personal compilation of the latter two.
essential information
main image Pulp performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2023 by Raph_PH
