Noteworthy Notions - Pulp : 'It'

NOTEWORTHY NOTIONS

Sleeve for 'It' by Pulp

'It'
PULP - 1983

Jarvis Cocker would begin his long and tortured career through the world of mottled 'indie' music with this collection of, by today's standards, uncharacteristic and almost acoustic offerings for his debut 7 track mini LP.

The album carries an innocence which would not really ever be recognised again by the band until around 12 years on with the song 'Something Changed' which, incidentally, was written for this album but eventually showed up on their breakthrough LP 'Different Class'.

Despite his young age (he was only 20 when this was recorded), Jarvis' voice is very well developed as he deeply croons his way through songs such as the folky strumalong 'Joking Aside' and the catchy, upbeat 'My Lighthouse' which, incidentally, was their first ever 45 and the only single to be plucked from the LP.

Despite the relative success of this album songwise, it remains laden with missed opportunities. For a start, I think the band, who had already been together for 5 years, were nervous about how their first full commercial outing should sound and so there is a slight aural insecurity present. Particularly seeing as some of their older songs had been redesigned to fit in with the album. An example of this is the second track 'Wishful Thinking', which exists in a far more 'electric' form in a session they recorded for John Peel in '81, but appears here in a much more laid back tone, complete with backing from a pan pipe. Another interpretation is that they considered there to already be enough electronic bands around (remember this is the mid-80's) and so wanted to offer a more 'back-to-basics' alternative. Jarvis openly admits that he was very 'anti-rock' at this stage.

The missed opportunities consist of songs which exist in demo form but never made it onto the album such as the delightful 'Sickly Grin' which could quite easily have featured and not seemed too out of place, but was dumped in favour of the short, undeveloped 'Boats and Trains'.

Not that this album is totally carefree lyricwise. Turn over to side two and the first track you hear is the thoughtful piano epic 'Blue Girls' which, although not being hard on the ears, leaves the listener slightly ill at ease (the door slamming at the end still makes me jump to this day). Any bad feeling is quickly quenched by the deliriously cheerful, and dare I say slightly cringeworthy, 'Love Love', complete with trumpets and lyrics such as "We went down to the park / to feed the ducks some bread" and "While my mother cooked the meal / she was under the table with me". Deary, deary me.

By no means earth shattering suff, though still a nice introduction to the band. But fans of the later material will miss the tales of sleaze and voyeurism which riddle the more contemporary efforts. However, whatever this album lacks in darkness was thoroughly made up for in their follow-up.

Review by Leo Van Krinks

Release Details

Tracklisting

My Lighthouse
Wishful Thinking
Joking Aside
Boats and Trains
Blue Girls
Love Love
In Many Ways
Looking For Life
Everybody's Problem
There Was...

KNOWN UK RELEASES
REDLP29 - 1983 Red Rhino Records (LP)
Only 2000 copies pressed.
CDMRED101 - 1994 Cherry Red Records (CD)
This CD release contained three extra tracks, indicated in italics. It also used the 7" mix of 'My Lighthouse'. Only 1000 copies exist.
REFIRECD15 - 1994 Fire Records (CD)
This CD release only contains 1 extra track : 'Looking For Life'
SFIRE004CD - 2002 Fire Records (CD)
Same tracks as REFIRECD15.

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