Pulp – This is Hardcore Review

What could a band from Sheffield showcase about Hollywood and the grim, sexless notions of hardcore entertainment? Quite a bit, it turns out. The darker edge to Pulp and their experience on the road in the glitz and glam of the spotlight is clear. This is Hardcore signalled a shift in tone for the bands which made up the Britpop label. More would follow but none of it can be used as an expression of hate for a term or time than This is Hardcore. Pulp fights back against a caricature of weedy nerds singing of sex. Their outsider approach takes on a wildly different image and the reinvention of the band starts with the loss of their violinist. It did not shape Pulp into a new beast, but it did turn them into indifferent, annoyed musicians who were hitting back at their newfound fame.  

That story is clear to hear on This is Hardcore and the rarities to follow do much of the heavy lifting. Do yourself a favour and pair the End of the Line mix with This is Hardcore. Those instrumentals leading into the steady breakdown of percussion and piano on the title track are an opportunity to hear the calm before the storm. Pulp has made this addition themselves in recent performances thanks to the Elysian Collective, but piece it together with the album materials and endure the horrors. Jarvis Cocker remains frightfully open and self-deprecating on this release. This is Hardcore is filled with the static back-and-forth of sex without passion, those final bars of that going in there. It sounds robotic and machine-like, as it must have felt when penning the same topics for years to come. It made them popular, but it brought on the fall.  

This is Hardcore and gets to the root of those troubles. How a band so smartly performed songs of lust and love in the heady days of disco and bright sparks, and how they turned against it. This is Hardcore still sounds as sharp and impressionable as it did when it was released amid a wave of Cool Brittania bile. Follow-ups like Ladies’ Man and The Professional poke fun at the public image of Cocker at the time and do so while holding no punches. He is here to give his listeners what they have come to expect, as The Professional so cooly lays out. But what a listener wants to hear and what a listener will enjoy is rarely an overlap. Pulp pushed the fold and split its audience with this release.  

A career car crash at the time which later turned into their most endearing and heartbreaking song. This is Hardcore does more for the band than their rallying cries for the working class did previously. Those songs can be adapted and mangled to the view of others, while This is Hardcore remains pure in its impurity. It is a challenging song which wades through the darker waters of writing glitzy pop songs. Pulp challenges the image they had at the time and brings on sincere, raging changes. Steve Mackey mucking around with synthesizers and electronic manipulation on Ladies’ Man lasts as one of the more explorative options Pulp offered listeners. The bulk of their work here is to toe the line between advancing their previous sound and remaining unafraid of those steady progressions towards tech reliance. They would swerve the other way on follow-up songs and We Love Life, but it makes no difference. This is Hardcore is Pulp’s most important release.