Pulp – More ["Blue Sky Thinking" Blue & White Marble Vinyl LP]

Pulp – More ["Blue Sky Thinking" Blue & White Marble Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Limited Edition, Indie Exclusive, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: RT 0541LPE
• Barcode: 191402900118
• Genre: Indie Rock / Britpop / Art Pop
• Label: Rough Trade Records
• Released: 6 June 2025
• Vinyl Colour: "Blue Sky Thinking" Blue & White Marble
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

More is the seventh studio album by Pulp — Jarvis Cocker (vocals, guitar), Candida Doyle (keyboards), Nick Banks (drums) and Mark Webber (guitar) — released on 6 June 2025 on Rough Trade Records, and the band's first new studio album in 24 years, following We Love Life (2001). The album emerged directly from Pulp's 2023 reunion tour: during soundchecks for the run of dates, the band began rehearsing a new song called "The Hymn of the North", which they performed live for the first time at Sheffield Arena. That performance, Cocker has said, opened the floodgates — the remaining songs on the album were written during the first half of 2024, with a couple drawing on musical ideas that had been set aside in the previous century. Recorded over three weeks starting 18 November 2024 — the shortest recording period in Pulp's history — at a studio in Walthamstow, London, by producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Jessie Ware), the album was completed with a directness and economy that reflects both the band's experience and the urgency with which the material arrived.

The album was made by, in Cocker's own words, four human beings from the North of England aided and abetted by five others from various locations in the British Isles — a formulation that also serves as the sleeve's explicit statement that no artificial intelligence was involved at any stage of the creative process, a declaration that sits pointedly in the context of its moment. The guest contributions are substantial: Richard Hawley — the Sheffield guitarist and songwriter, whose working relationship with Pulp stretches back decades — wrote the music for one track. Jason Buckle — former member of All Seeing I and a longtime Cocker collaborator — wrote the music for another. The Eno family provide backing vocals on one song. String arrangements were written by Richard Jones and performed by the Elysian Collective. The album is dedicated, in its entirety, to Steve Mackey — the band's bassist from 1988 until their original split in 2002, who died on 2 March 2023 at the age of 56. Cocker's dedication reads: "This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey. This is the best that we can do. Thanks for listening."

The eleven tracks span the range of reference points that have always characterised Pulp at their best: the social observation and oblique autobiography of Cocker's lyrics, Ford's production drawing from the same post-punk and electronic vocabulary he has deployed across his work with Arctic Monkeys and Depeche Mode, and the band's long-established sense of melody and arrangement. "Spike Island" opens the record — the title referencing the legendary 1990 Stone Roses concert on the Mersey estuary, and by extension the entire mythology of a particular moment in British music that Pulp themselves were adjacent to but always slightly outside of. "The Hymn of the North", which closes Side B's penultimate track, is the song whose live debut catalysed the whole project. The album ends with **"A Sunset" — a closing track whose title alone suggests the elegiac register in which much of the album operates.

This indie exclusive limited edition is pressed on "Blue Sky Thinking" blue and white marble vinyl — available exclusively through independent record stores — housed in a picture sleeve with a booklet. Made in the UK / EU.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Spike Island
2. Tina
3. Grown Ups
4. Slow Jam
5. Farmers Market
6. My Sex

Side B

1. Got to Have Love
2. Background Noise
3. Partial Eclipse
4. The Hymn of the North
5. A Sunset

Credits

• Jarvis Cocker – Vocals, Guitar
• Candida Doyle – Keyboards
• Nick Banks – Drums
• Mark Webber – Guitar
• James Ford – Producer
• Richard Hawley – Composer (one track)
• Jason Buckle – Composer (one track)
• The Eno Family – Backing Vocals (one track)
• Richard Jones – String Arrangements
• Elysian Collective – Strings
• Label – Rough Trade Records