Pulp

At a time when the world is in a big panic, you'd think that a band like Pulp, with their stylish, suave attitude, would keep their cool and create another album with tales of promiscuous sex and peeping through a neighbour's window. However, it's quite the opposite with their seventh album, We Love Life. What Pulp has chosen to do is poop on the party and make a record about going back to nature and savouring life. The first track, "Weeds," is without a doubt the band's worst moment since their 1994 breakthrough album His 'N' Hers. Taking the lyrical perspective of a weed with a marching band in the background, you'll think Jarvis Cocker is out of his mind. Second track, "Weeds 2: Origin of the Species" is just as bad. It's not until the lush "Trees" that the album begins to improve and Scott Walker's extravagant production takes effect. From there on in it's still not a party, but things begin to pick up. "Bob Lind" shows the band at its finest instrumental form, with complex guitar picking, warm strings, and up-tempo drumbeats. When the closing "Sunrise" appears, it is enough to make you forget about those damn weeds. The song's production is signature Walker, and even wanders into David Axelrod's territory of orchestration and choirs towards its ending. Overall, it's not such a bad album, but it comes nowhere near making up for the last album that disappointed so many.