The first CD I ever bought was Pulp's Different Class. I'd held off on getting a CD player for years because it was the early 90s and they were expensive as hell, and because I had a sizable tape collection that would instantly be obsolete.
But then I came home pissed from the pub one night, and my usual wind-down activity after a night out would be watching the random music videos that played on a couple of TV channels overnight. And I saw the video for Disco 2000 and it was the coolest fucking thing I'd ever seen, and then I listened to the whole album on the listening post at Echo Records, and made the decision to upgrade right there.
I got a free tee-shirt with the CD as well, and it was only a cheap thing with the shiny Pulp logo on it, but I treasured it. I spent the next few years listening to Different Class and This Is Hardcore and all the rest, and while it was immeasurably sad to see the band fade away in the early 21st century, it still felt like a good time to go.
And now they have a new album out, and I bought the CD because I like to have the thing, and to play it on the old stereo in our car, and now I'm driving around town singing badly to Pulp songs like it's 1996 all over again.
It's easy to do because it does feel like a classic Pulp album in the way it's paced - a few rockers, a couple of meandering tunes, and finishing on a high - I think the last song has some of the best lyrics Jarvis has ever done.
It sounds wanky, but I do think they are missing something with Steve not around anymore, just the crunchy bite he could bring to things. And writing songs about an imaginary relationship with a girl who doesn't know you exist was awkward when Jarvis was in his 20s, but now seems very creepy coming from a guy in his 60s.
So not the greatest of their albums, but not a nostalgic cash-in either, because they're still putting it all out there, and I'll gladly take it all. I do have vague hopes they might do a world tour, and I'll see one the one great band I've always wanted to see. But I'll take a new record for now.
I've still got that first CD and that tee-shirt. And I've still got a lot of the cassette tapes I thought would be obsolete, all those years ago. And I still a have a fierce devotion to Cocker ad his crew, doing their best, and laying their hearts bare.