To an impressionable, mid-20s mind, the fear of ageing heard on Help the Aged is horrifying. Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker had entered his 30s and was writing as though he were ready for the retirement home. It’s a beautiful twist of fate to hear his more recent works with the band on More sound as youthful and spirited as he perhaps should have been following Different Class. But this is a different world, and a sense of growing out of the party lifestyle is what the This is Hardcore rip offers. It’s not necessarily a shot at literally getting older, but maturing mentally. One week you’re throwing yourself around to Parklife in a club where the walls are soaked in sweat, the next you’re reading Alfred Doblin and piecing together a publishing schedule for next year. Life comes at you fast. That is what Help the Aged warns of.
Sniffing glue and smoking cigarettes is a past luxury for the protagonist of this song. It’s what we can learn from those who made the mistakes we are set to take on, that is what Help the Aged highlights. It’s a brilliant track on This is Hardcore, a contrast to the roaring, paranoia-driven Party Hard. Take on maturity, not yourself, but through some vessel, a different person to relapse into. There’s a criticism of such an action, but at the time, the context of those partied-out days and the excess which comes with fame makes it a sweet option. It’s a halfway point for studying the monkey on their back, as mentioned in Party Hard or the bachelor’s den breakdown on The Fear. What Pulp gauges here is what they would always provide in their songs, compassion. They were always on the fringes of that feeling, with His ‘n’ Hers and Different Class both taking up arms as a counterculture piece. All the best do, and compassion is key to that.
Those counterculture tones continue with Help the Aged, a track which reduces the sound Pulp had at the time. Different Class is just a memory for the band at this point, the after effects affecting Help the Aged more than most of the songs featured on their 1998 album. A song which prompted Russell Senior to leave the band. Artistic differences. But the difference is in what to pursue. Musicians can only write what they see in front of them, and at the achingly old age of thirty-four, Cocker found the end of the line. He writes as much on Help the Aged, and in doing so tries to pull himself away from recognisable pop sensation. Reducing his image is the aim, and being backed by a solid instrumental bed is crucial to that.
More excellent percussion from Nick Banks, some brilliant keystrokes from Candida Doyle, and a harsher, electrified sound which comes about because of Steve Mackey’s interest in sampling. You can hear it on deep cuts like That Boy’s Evil. That intensity and experimental flavour makes its way onto Help the Aged, which sounds like both a cry for help and a jab at those lending a hand. It’s a song which questions the mortality of listeners who, just a few years ago, were throwing themselves around to a musical movement. Help the Aged still offers such reflections, be it when listening to the album or hearing it performed on the More tour. It all falls away, and it is whatever you make of those lived-in moments of life. Help the Aged is one of Pulp’s very best tracks because its mortality and commentary on age is as truthful then as it is now.
