By Daniel N. Alvarez
Part of a continuing series: Britpop Faves.
When Pulp, the perpetual Britpop outsiders, went into the studio to follow up their first taste of commercial success, the Gold-certified His ‘n’ Hers (Island, 1994), few would have guessed the unassuming quintet would craft a groundbreaking album that would transcend the Britpop scene, while also creating a recording that was quintessentially British.
While Different Class (PolyGram/Island, 1995) contains the same new wave/glam hybrid of His ‘n’ Hers, it surpasses their previous effort due to frontperson Jarvis Cocker’s development into the most compelling, perceptive figure in rock music at the time. The full-length sees Cocker, a cross between Robert Smith and Morrissey with a keen understanding of sociology, come into his own as a songwriter, weaving tales of sex, drugs, and the rigid, enduring class system that has afflicted England for centuries. Though many UK bands played with the class system (the Verve, the Happy Mondays), none of them investigated it – and rallied against it – like Cocker.
For the love of…: Pulp’s “Common People.”