Noteworthy Notions - Pulp : 'Dogs Are Everywhere'

NOTEWORTHY NOTIONS

'Dogs Are Everywhere'
PULP - 1986

The second of Pulp's all-original, non album track EP releases and by far the most consistant of the two.

Once again, the band had not wanted the title track to be the A-Side of this single, and believe it would have sold better if the EP's second track 'Mark of the Devil' had been the selling point. Though I don't really believe that anything Pulp did through Fire Records could have been commercially successful, no matter how perfect it was. Still, 'Mark of the Devil' shares the A-Side with the main track on this EP so, in effect, it reached 'Double A-Side' status.

Either way, 'Dogs Are Everywhere' is a masterful song. This is as close as Pulp had come in the past couple of years to releasing something that could be classified as a pop song. It is a very melodic and tuneful listen and had shown some development in the way Pulp were composing their music. Candida, once again, features on backing vocals along with Peter Mansell and their voices along with Jarvis' in the chorus sound very good together and give more of a sense of the band being together as a whole, and not just Jarvis on his own, relentlessly singing about all the things that are wrong with his life. As pretty a song as it is, there is, of course, a healthy dose of trademark weirdness. Let's face it. The song is about dogs! This saves them from slipping too near the mainstream.

The second track on Side A is just as good as the first. 'Mark of the Devil' begins as an uptempo pounding track with a powerful beat and a macabre violin and organ in the background. It is actually a very 'cool' track and would not sound too out of place amongst Pulp's more contemporary offerings. Once again, the song is prevented from being straightforward pop by it's slow, cynical chorus, but it showed that, deep down, Pulp had a desire to create songs that were a genuine pleasure to listen to.

As with the Little Girl EP, side B is a darker and more epic affair. Both 97 Lovers and Aborigine are 5 minute long droners which, although sound quite bland and tedious at the start, build up in tempo as they progress and are very rewarding if you stick with them. 'Goodnight' is a concept piece about falling asleep. It's a very experimental and odd piece, but is still a very decent track. This EP, as a whole, showed that Pulp were beginning to find effective ways of manifesting their apparent frustration and misery in their music.

Review by Leo Van Krinks

Release Details

Tracklisting

Dogs Are Everywhere
The Mark Of The Devil
97 Lovers
Aborigine
Goodnight

KNOWN UK RELEASES
BLAZE10 - 1986 Fire Records (12" Single)
Tracks now available on CD on "Pulp - Masters Of The Universe" : FIRECD36 - 1994 Fire Records (CD)

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