MP3: Pulp Discography - Part Seven: His 'N' Hers (1994)
So here it is, one of the big ones. Following their three singles for the Gift label, Pulp were signed in late 1993 to Island, and the following year they released this, their first truly successful album, and one of the most loved by fans. At this point the band weren't quite at the stage of fame they would achieve with the genre-defining and beating Different Class a few years later, but they were certainly going somewhere, and fast. The album was a runner up for the 1994 Mercury Music Prize, unbelievably beaten by the horrific M People with their monstrosity Elegant Slumming. There's no justice people.
The album opens with Joyriders, a tremendous start for an album, featuring such choice lyrics as: 'Hey you, you in the Jesus sandals/Wouldn't you like to/Come over and watch some vandals/Smashing up someones home?' and the lovely 'Oh, the papers say it's a tragedy/But don't you want to come and see?' The second song is one of the singles, Lipgloss, and it's another fantastic one. By this point there wasn't a bad Pulp single right up until their split, it was just stone cold classic after classic.
That single was backed by the great You're A Nightmare, which I really think should have been on the album, and another really good Jarvis monologue track called Deep Fried In Kelvin. The lyrics for that one include the lines: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and I will tend their adventure playground splinters and cigarette burns, and feed them fizzy orange and chips, that they may grow up straight and tall...Oh yeah, we can have ghettos too, only we use air rifles instead of machine guns. Stitch that. And we drink Diamond White. In the end, the question you have to ask yourself is: are you talking to me, or are you chewing a brick?' Mark E. Smith would be proud. I would have put this song up as an mp3 but it's about 9 minutes long. Suffice to say it's a single well worth seeking on Ebay. To return to the album, the next song is Acrylic Afternoons, one of my personal all-time favourites. To me it's just sheer perfection, and the mp3 is available below. Have You Seen Her Lately is a really affecting ballad, and the next track She's A Lady is basically Jarvis doing I Will Survive. It's tremendous and has to be heard to be believed, so i've also stuck up an mp3 of that. 
After the slightly maudlin Happy Endings, the next single, Do You Remember The First Time? is up. You're probably getting sick of the deluge of superlatives, but suffice to say it's another classic. Classic in the way Smiths singles are classic. Great video too. The bsides for the Do You single were The Babysitter and Street Lites, both of which are as nice and pervy as you'd expect. I have to say the next two songs on the album aren't really favourites of mine, and I think His N Hers suffers from the same problem as This Is Hardcore, which is bogging down the second half of the album with the longer, slower songs, which in this case are the unwhelming Pink Glove and Someone Like The Moon. Thankfully the album ends on a very high note with perhaps the zenith of Jarvis' monologues, the lovely David's Last Summer, a big fan favourite and deservedly so.Suffice to say, this album is unmissable. If you don't own it, improve your life a bit by buying it right now, you won't regret it. More info on the album at Bar Italia. Enjoy.
Download: Pulp - Acrylic Afternoons - MP3 2.86mb
Discography: (click to buy @ amazon.co.uk)
posted by Jamie Summers at 1:17 pm
8 Comments:
His'N'Hers is one of the best albums in the music history, and probably my favourite of all times. I've been reading all your posts on Pulp and I think you've done a great job. Most people just know them by Common people or Disco 2000, which is a big shame in my opinion.
Just one question: why didn't you mention Babies in this post? Wasn't it in the UK version of the album? 'Cause in the Spanish one, it is. Anyway, I know you talked about it in the post about Intro and I agree with you: it's one of the best singles ever published. Also, it is the only Pulp single I own, it wasn't easy to find them in Spanish shops.
Also I agree with you about Razzmatazz, it's a great song which could have easily been in His'N'Hers.
Thanks a lot for your job.
cheers, glad you've liked the posts. i'm really hoping more people will get into them, because i think a lot of yanks especially didn't take much notice and just heard the crap oasis records and a few of the good blur ones.
no babies wasn't on the UK his N hers, but they did re-release it on the Sisters EP soon after His N Hers came out, and i'll be doing my next post on that, because the bsides are incredible.
thanks again.
Great post about a great album.
How M People could have have beaten this record is a mystery that ill never be solved.
Another fantastic Pulp post. Thank you so much for doing this.
In Los Angeles, Pulp managed to mainatin a fairly large following and many of the band's songs became club staples. Naturally, the biggies were "Common People" and "Disco 2000," but "Do You Remember the First Time?" and "Babies" were also extremely popular, along with a host of others that were, to a slightly lesser extent, dancefloor packers.
Thanks for the excellent Pulp series. I've got all the albums anyway, but the B-sides are always welcome and it's good fun to read them. Nice to know someone else appreciates 'Joyriders'.
BTW, I've got the British CD of His 'N' Hers, and it has got 'Babies' on it, but I think it was omitted from the vinyl album. Nerdish note: this is a different mix from the ones on Pulpintro and the Sisters EP, but the same one that was eventually used on Pulp Hits.
no, what, not know pulp? love pulp- all my "mates"(as you say in the uk) love pulp. pulp is why i'm looking at this blog right now.
Enjoyed a lot! adderall capsule color Cdw com hard drives Still a citezen after divorce Online about zyban
While His N hers might be the definition of Pulp's struggle to break out into the scene, "This is hardcore" was still a shocker. But what can we do? The folk wanted to keep things real. I think they did just fine keeping their feet on the ground.
Thanks for keeping the quality and good research! Mp3 player reviews here.
Post a Comment
<< Home