Pulp – His 'n' Hers [2× 180g Vinyl LP]

Pulp – His 'n' Hers [2× 180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Album, 25th Anniversary Edition, Gatefold, Remastered, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: 7722674
• Barcode: 602577226748
• Genre: Indie Rock / Britpop / Synth-Pop
• Label: Island Records / UMC / Universal Music
• Originally Released: 18 April 1994
• Reissue Released: 25 October 2019
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

His 'n' Hers is the fourth studio album by Pulp and the record on which, as Jarvis Cocker himself has said, "the modern-day Pulp was born." Released on 18 April 1994 on Island Records — their first release on a major label after over a decade of false starts and critical near-misses — it became their first charting album, reaching number nine on the UK Albums Chart and earning a Mercury Music Prize nomination (losing, famously by a single vote, to M People's Elegant Slumming). The album was certified Gold by the BPI and spent 36 weeks on the chart. It was the foundation on which everything that followed was built: the headline Glastonbury slot in 1995, the commercial breakthrough of Different Class, and Cocker's emergence as one of the most distinctive and culturally perceptive voices in British pop.

Produced by Ed Buller and recorded at The Townhouse Studios in London, the album distils a very specific set of influences — old glam rock, post-punk electronics, orchestral pop, and the deadpan literary tradition of groups like The Auteurs and Saint Etienne — into something simultaneously witty and unsettling. Cocker's lyrical subject matter is voyeurism, desire, class, and the particular texture of working-class life in Sheffield, rendered with an acuity that recalls early Morrissey but consistently undermines sentimentality with uncomfortable honesty. The band — Cocker, Candida Doyle (keyboards), Russell Senior (violin/guitar), Steve Mackey (bass), Nick Banks (drums) and Mark Webber (guitar) — play throughout with the tight, detailed precision of a group that had spent over a decade rehearsing and performing, and the arrangements are among the most richly textured of the Britpop era.

The singles are justly celebrated. "Lipgloss" — the album's opener and first single — establishes the template: a kinetic, glam-inflected guitar riff, a driving beat, and a lyric that transforms a specific observed moment into something universal. "Do You Remember the First Time?" — Pulp's first UK Top 40 hit, reaching number 33 — is one of the most precisely observed pop songs about sexual initiation ever recorded, accompanied by a short film in which celebrities were asked on camera whether they remembered the first time they had sex. "Babies" — originally released as a single in 1992 as part of The Sisters EP and restored here after being controversially omitted from the original 1994 vinyl pressing — is the album's most nakedly autobiographical track, built on a feverish, ascending riff and a lyric about teenage voyeurism that many regard as the finest thing Cocker ever wrote. The album closes with "David's Last Summer" — a sprawling, spoken-word narrative over an uptempo track that is one of Pulp's most remarkable achievements: a complete short story, delivered with the precision and wit of a novelist.

This 25th Anniversary Edition has been remastered by Steve Mackey — Pulp's own bassist, who subsequently produced records by M.I.A., Arcade Fire and Florence + The Machine — and cut at Abbey Road Studios, pressed on 2× 180 gram black vinyl across four sides, presented in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags bearing reproductions of the original Lipgloss and Do You Remember the First Time? 12" single artwork. Notably this edition restores "Babies" to the vinyl tracklist — the track was absent from the original 1994 LP — making this the most complete and definitive vinyl edition of the record. A download card is included.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Joyriders
2. Lipgloss
3. Acrylic Afternoons

Side B

1. Have You Seen Her Lately?
2. Babies
3. She's A Lady

Side C

1. Happy Endings
2. Do You Remember the First Time?
3. Pink Glove

Side D

1. Someone Like the Moon
2. David's Last Summer

Credits

• Jarvis Cocker – Vocals, Guitar
• Candida Doyle – Keyboards
• Russell Senior – Violin, Guitar
• Steve Mackey – Bass, Remastering (2019)
• Nick Banks – Drums, Percussion
• Mark Webber – Guitar
• Ed Buller – Producer
• Label – Island Records / UMC / Universal Music