Pulp: A Different Class?

Still, their new album is not as well-mannered as this request lets on. The black sheep of the British music family, Pulp sing fatalistically about relationships and lives suffocated by predetermined, puny goals. Their pessimism has resuscitated glam pop from its blissful stupor; their freakishness and grandiosity have even made them (especially singer/songwriter Jarvis Cocker) sort of sex symbols in England. For a decade now Pulp have lived in musical obscurity; with this, their second US release, they feel entitled to a little revenge on a music world that for so long has declined to pay them any notice. And suddenly, they're becoming stars. "In the British music scene, we still are misfits even though we're popular," says Mackey. "In the '80s, people weren't interested in what we were interested in -- we went in the opposite direction of pop culture."

Actually, Pulp are re-creating pop-music culture with vindictiveness and sarcasm intended to document, says Mackey, "what life is like now in England so that people will be able to look back in 20 years and be able to understand what we experienced." Currently England is experiencing their sarcastic hit "Common People," which takes a swipe at upper-class condescensions. Its soaring choruses and Cocker's Bowie-esque delivery make class warfare more fun than ever, delivering a small victory to the doleful English masses, affording them at least a little catharsis through climactic phaser noises and sullen dramatic monologuing.

The recipe for Pulp's music is disco, lounge, and futuristic glam that doesn't exactly evince broad emotions but is surprisingly honest. "It's important to be modern and move on, to look towards the future," says Mackey. "That's what separates us from other English bands. We don't sound like English bands of the past like a lot of other English bands do now. We try to be modernists, not mods."

Although Mackey says being a pop band is "about making music for the moment," Pulp's main concern is longevity, because "longevity is what signals if it's a good work of art." To that end the band have reservations about solidifying their success on the American circuit, remarking that American listeners might consider their songs "too colloquial, too local." Their music is certainly idiomatic, but with renewed confidence in their music and themselves Mackey says, "We always said we'd go to America if we knew people wanted to see us, and now we know that."

Of course, the popularity question was primarily qualified by Cocker's actions at the Brit Awards this year, where he climbed on stage during a performance by none other than Michael Jackson. His stunt generated tons of press at home and abroad, but Pulp don't believe that was the source of their popularity. "We had already sold 900,000 copies in England," Mackey contests. "Now people know we exist in America because of it, though I wish they knew us for our music, which is romantically transcendent in content."

-- Michael McKenzie