More is the first Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Yes: the first Pulp album for almost 24 years. How did that happen?

The band explain: “Well: when we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called “Hymn of the North” during soundchecks and eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones and played by the Elysian Collective.

The album was recorded over 3 weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18th, 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen. These are the facts. We hope you enjoy the music. It was written and performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided and abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process. This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey.”

The band returns with the catchy anthem Spike Island, a combination of synth, violin and slide guitar.Lyrically, the idea for the song came from Jason Buckle (Relaxed Muscle), co-writer of the song, who attended the infamous Stone Roses concert at Spike Island. A DJ kept shouting ‘Spike Island, come alive!’ throughout the day, irritating everyone present. That phrase stuck in Jarvis Cocker’s mind and he felt inspired to write a second song about Spike Island, even though he never attended the concert.

This Is Pop? today’s song of the day is here for you.