In June, Pulp released their new album, More, their first original record in almost 24 years, via Rough Trade Records. Frontman Jarvis Cocker and company soon embark on their biggest North American tour in decades — a tour that includes a date at The Anthem in DC on Saturday, Sept. 6.
Pulp returned with anthemic earworm “Spike Island,” a combination of synths, violin and slide guitar, amplified by producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines DC), who also produced More.
Lyrically, the idea for “Spike Island” came from Jason Buckle (Relaxed Muscle) who co-wrote the song and went to Stone Roses’ infamous Spike Island gig. A DJ there shouted, “Spike Island, come alive!” all day, getting on everybody’s nerves. That stuck in Jarvis Cocker’s mind, inspiring him to write a second song about Spike Island despite not going to the gig.
Watch the official music video for “Spike Island” by Pulp on YouTube:
Jarvis gave some insights on how the new album came to be.
“This is the first Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Yes: the first Pulp album for 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 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 18th, 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen.
“These are the facts.
“We hope you enjoy the music. It was written & performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No AI was involved during the process.
“This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey.
“This is the best that we can do.
“Thanks for listening.”
Pulp
The Anthem
Saturday, Sept. 6
Doors @ 6:30pm
$85.45
All ages
