Search - Pulp :: Separations

Jarvis rocks my socks off

jaina okun | MA USA | 10/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I adore this album, though i always skip the track "my legendary girlfriend". I love the violin solos on "don't you want me anymore" and "separations" because they are very haunting, and i enjoy this album for this specific reason. "Death II" makes me feel utterly happy inside, and want to break out and dance. I usually feel like I need to like all songs on an album in order for it to be my favourite from that group, but in this case, these three song do it for me."

A hidden gem. Humorous, catchy and wonderful.

Kasper Michelsen | Copenhagen, Denmark. | 12/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's funny, people keep discussing wether Common People, This Is Hardcore or We Love Life is the best PULP album, but never did I hear anyone mention Seperations, until I came along it by accidence in the record collection of a friend of mine. Not that I think this is PULP's best album, because I think all three mentioned above, AND Seperations, are equally brilliant, but each in it's own special way.This album features an unique combination of heavy disco sounds and a very dark theme. Take the opener, Love Is Blind, which is probably PULP's best track before The Fear - it starts out as a nice and qiet piece, but ends with some strange, or rarther bizarre lyrics, and all along it features that unique PULP sound, with Jarvis' vocals as fantastic as ever. The second track goes on in a more funny theme, about a man who dumped his girlfriend and now wants her back, except that she's found someone else - which he had deffinitely not counted on. The rhythms are strange but compelling, and I can exactly imagine Jarvis doing strange moves on the scene while performing this...She's Dead is perhaps the bands most somber piece ever, and very lovely, even if it's a bit too long. Again, a fantastic vocal performance by Jarvis. The title track is another favorite - the violin intro sounds quite unlike any other thing they did later, but it's ... well, brilliant ... and the lyrics, about a seperated couple, is very deftly written, and the change of sound in the song, when it goes from the one person to the other, is excellently done. It would have wanted it longer, but ok, can't have it all... Down By The River sounds very pleasant, but the lyrics are really scary, about a girl drowning herself in the river. It's got strong similarities to the theme of 'Wickermen', though this track might not be as refined as that one.The second half of the album is devoted to pure disco tracks, and the quality is really surprising - at first I thought it sounded like so much else, but the slight differences does all the difference - and noone is a match for Jarvis' vocals - whispered, hysteric, desperate, cold, sarcastic; he has it all in his voice. The last track, This House Is Condemned, was really a shock to me - it sound like a song by Jean Michelle Jarre or Kraftwerk - but it's really ... brilliant. I've never heard anyone come so close to condensing the sound of panic onto a recorded track.Though the lyrics on Seperations might not be as refined as what PULP has done later, every track seems worked through to perfection, and every time you hear it never layers seem to appear. And instead of being just Jarvis backed by some musicians, the band as a unity comes to their full right here, showing excellent keaboradplaying by Candida, as well as superb violin sections, drumming and bass playing. So though it's not as innovative as some later work, once Seperations has come into your CD player, it seems very - very - reluctant to leave it! Simply ... brilliant."

If Pulp were a volcano

Aaron S. Chase | Seattle, WA | 06/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If Pulp were a band that the 80's had ignored, then this was the world's wake up call, in shall I say it? Small eruptions. It's a shame it wasn't released in 88 when it was finished, because their record company for some reason just sat on it for 3 years.



First a little history. Pulp just seemed to be the band that had been around, yet only managed to go in circles. Band members came and went, but after their album "Freaks", and it's close resemblance to The Fall or The Cure (well, as close as you can get), and a video for "They suffocate at night", it seemed like Pulp was finished. Or was it? Jarvis escaped to London to take his classes at St. Martin's College for film, and even at some point met the mysterious girl who would provide their mega hit 7-8 years later, but it's a good thing he didn't write "Common People" at that point, because if it was recorded for "Seperations", it would most certainly not have been a hit. Because nobody would hear it for 3 years!! Now, during this time, the rave scene in the UK was going on full swing, as well as the Madchester sound. And wouldn't you know it? Russel & Jarvis attended a few. They zeroed in on what Pulp might have been missing out on. Just music to dance to. Jarvis probably found a few bands to meet that were a bit ecclectic as them as well, such as Saint Ettiene, Pet Shop Boys, etc. Jarvis decided to give Pulp one more go, but he would need a new drummer and bass player. Yet find them he would, and the Pulp we all know was now ready to record!



Now, finally, the album. Seperations starts with "Love is Blind", and it stomps to a marching beat with paranoid screams of Jarvis. But now, he's got his confidence in the lyrics. "Give me the city, give me the sea, give me everything I need. The future is shining, like a bright metal beast, it shines so bright tonight, with it's legs open wide". But yet, still, Jarvis isn't quite as confident as he potrays himself, for he states that this love he has might not work out. "Don't you want me anymore?" also shines with confidence, as a cocky exit out of town, and a return to it as well, but once he's discovered his lover has moved on, this too has Jarvis unsure if he can move on when his former lover already has! "She's dead" is a melancholy song that wouldn't seem out of place as part of Freaks or Masters of the Universe, yet it's sad tale of a dead girl is for your ears. "Seperations" is a song that's a bit hard to describe. It starts with a almost eerie violin coda from Russel that almost might have came from Turkey with it's gypsyish playing, but then the song goes a bit wonky with it's cheap casio bassline from Candida, it plods along in a wobly way supported once again by Russel's violin. "Down by the river", is again, another sad melancholy song, and it's almost like Pulp haven't quite got themselves free from their past, but then again, they wouldn't go this dark until This is Hardcore. "Countdown" is a mediocre attempt at escaping their demons in a disco way, but the misery still shackles. "My Legendary Girlfriend" may seem long, and drawn out, yet it almost has a Jim Morrison quality about it. You can dance to it, and it's definately one of the strong points with the album if you have the patience for it. "Death2" is definately a song for anybody who'se been heartbroken, and it almost resembles Roxy Music's "Dance away", but is more miserable in the circumstances. Yet Jarvis won't let any woman shake him up so badly after this as the silver lining. "This house is condemed" is oddly Russel's only and last song in the Pulp Catalog (And he only had a few anyway), and it moves along nicely to a house beat, but doesn't do much for the listener.



Now, compared to the joyous madchester sound, and a few house/techno acts of this era, Pulp didn't quite fit in yet again, but they were trying. And fans were starting to notice this skinny odd man in thrift store clothing, who was oozing sex in his songs with his shrieks and howls, and even "Legendary girlfriend" got noticed by the NME and went to #36 in the charts! Pulp were definately on the right track, if anything. Too bad their record label Fire didn't care, and left this album in limbo until 1992, when fed up, they left for Gift records to do their 3 ep's that gets collected in "Intro", and eventually their signing to Island, and for greener pastures in "His n Hers". It begs to question, if released when it was susposed to come out, would it have been the right time for Pulp? Or would the Happy Mondays, EMF, Stone Roses, and other dance acts would have just buried them in the UK charts. (Jarvis still wasn't a celebrity in the UK press just yet mind you). Maybe Fire records did Pulp a favor by letting hype build up for them before it was time to capitalise 3 years later. We'll never have those answers, but if you're a casual Pulp fan, or a Ultimate Pulp fan, then get ready for Pulp's cracks in the volcano. For in just a moment, they were to explode. But this album is where the rumbles occur.



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