Pulp changed the way they work to make the recording of their new album “less stressful”.
The Brit pop icons are preparing to release ‘More’ – their first new record since 2001’s ‘We Love Life’ – on June 6 and frontman Jarvis Cocker, 61, has revealed the band did things differently for this album because they had all the lyrics finished before they hit the studio.
In an interview on BBC Radio 6 Music, Jarvis explained: “We [recorded] it quite quickly, and we were trying to not think about it too much, because that’s what kind of made the last couple of Pulp albums a bit of a pain.
“It was mainly my fault because I’d never got the lyrics together, so I was always changing them and messing around.
“This time, they were all written before we went into the studio, and I realised it was a lot less stressful.”
The band is hitting the road for a summer tour which kicks off in Glasgow on June 7 and finishes in Manchester on June 21 before a headline set at the Tramlines festival in Sheffield on July 25.
The dates leave a gap in their schedule for a potential performance at Glastonbury Festival – which runs from June 25 until June 29 – but Jarvis is adamant the band currently has “no plans” to add the iconic event to their tour dates, adding: “Glastonbury has a very important place in our heart”.
Jarvis previously gave more details about the album in a message posted on Instagram.
He explained: “This is the first Pulp album since ‘We Love Life’ in 2001. Yes: the first Pulp album for almost 24 years. How did that happen?
“Well: when we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called ‘Hymn of the North’ during soundchecks and eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena.
“This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024.
“A couple are revivals of ideas from the last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle.
“The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones and played by the Elysian Collective.
“The album was recorded over three weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18, 2024.
“This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record in the modern era. It was obviously ready to happen. These are the facts. ”We hope you enjoy the music.
“It was written and performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided and abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process.
”This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey. This is the best that we can do. Thanks for listening.” (sic)