We Love Life
Studio album by
Pulp
Released22 October 2001
Recorded2001
StudioMetropolis, London
GenreAlternative rock
Length53:55
LabelIsland
Producer
Pulp chronology
Freshly Squeezed... the Early Years
(1998)		 We Love Life
(2001)		 Hits
(2002)
Singles from We Love Life
  1. "Sunrise / The Trees"
    Released: 8 October 2001
  2. "Bad Cover Version"
    Released: 15 April 2002

We Love Life is the seventh and most recent studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 22 October 2001 by Island Records. It reached number six on the UK Albums Chart, with a total chart stay of only three weeks. Written and recorded after the tumultuous sessions for This Is Hardcore, We Love Life saw the band move toward a more relaxed and natural sound, shepherded by producer and famed singer-songwriter Scott Walker. Walker had replaced original producer Chris Thomas, whom the band had worked with on previous albums.

We Love Life saw positive critical reception and charted at number 6 on the UK album charts.

Background

We Love Life was intended to be a departure from the disillusionment of the band's previous album, This Is Hardcore, in that it featured a more organic sound and an emphasis on nature, which Cocker found interest in "because it is dangerous in some ways". Cocker explained, "I never took any notice of nature when I was a kid. I thought we'd all be living on space stations or floating metropolises by now. But after This Is Hardcore, which was a very alienated record, it was time to go back to simpler things, like this, the natural world."[1] At the same time, Cocker stated, "This isn't Pulp's pastoral album. I was very aware of avoiding hippy dippy stuff."

The band had initially begun recording with Chris Thomas, who had produced their past two albums. However, his more rigid style of recording conflicted with the band's desire for looser sessions, resulting in the recordings being shelved.[1] The final album was produced by Scott Walker. Keyboardist Candida Doyle recalled, "I certainly thought about leaving [after shelving the Thomas sessions] but I realised that I'd still feel shit even if I did. If Scott Walker hadn't come about, I don't think we'd have bothered to finish this LP." The band, who had met Walker at the 2000 Meltdown Festival run by Walker, had been longtime fans of Walker.[1]

Walker's own album 'Til the Band Comes In is mocked in the lyrics of the We Love Life single "Bad Cover Version". Cocker claims the lyric was written long before Walker became involved in the album's production and recalled the moment of recording the song as "embarrassing".[2]

Title and artwork

The album's title was originally to be Pulp Love Life, but this was vetoed as Cocker felt that the title looked confusing on an album cover—he explained, "It always looked like the name of the band's Pulp and the album's called Love Life." The album was then renamed Pulp, reflecting the "uncluttered" nature of the album. With the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, the album was renamed to the more universal We Love Life. Cocker recalled, "To be honest, I was really freaked out when that World Trade Center thing happened. ... So in the aftermath of that, I thought, actually this Love Life business isn't a bad sentiment at this particular time."[2]

The minimal cover art (by Peter Saville) shows a set of initial capitals held in the collection of St. Bride Printing Library in London.[3][4][5] They were engraved in wood by or for Louis Pouchée around the 1820s.[6][7][8]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic84/100[9]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
Blender[11]
Entertainment WeeklyB[12]
The Guardian[13]
NME7/10[14]
Pitchfork8.2/10[15]
Q[16]
Rolling Stone[17]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[18]
Spin9/10[19]
Uncut[20]

Initial critical response to We Love Life was very positive. The album received an average score of 84 at Metacritic, based on 20 reviews.[9] The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed We Love Life at number 194 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.[21]

Steve Hobbs of Q Magazine wrote of the album, "Cocker's lyrics are still sharp and beautifully observed, just a little less personal. But in many ways, it's a more familiar Pulp record than This Is Hardcore."[1] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album "an emotional and musical breakthrough, finding the band leaping beyond the claustrophobic Hardcore and consolidating their previous obsessions, creating a textured, reflective record that in its own measured way is as impassioned as Different Class."[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey and Mark Webber, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Weeds" 3:42
2."Weeds II (The Origin of the Species)" 3:58
3."The Night That Minnie Timperley Died" 4:38
4."The Trees" (samples "Tell Her You Love Her" written by Stanley Myers and Hal Shaper) 4:49
5."Wickerman" (samples "Willow's Song" composed by Paul Giovanni, from the British Lion film The Wicker Man) 8:17
6."I Love Life" 5:31
7."The Birds in Your Garden" 4:11
8."Bob Lind (The Only Way Is Down)" 4:16
9."Bad Cover Version" 4:16
10."Roadkill" 4:16
11."Sunrise"Cocker, Banks, Doyle, Mackey, Webber, Peter Mansell6:02
Total length:53:55
United States CD bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Yesterday"3:52
13."Forever in My Dreams"4:23
Total length:62:10

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

Charts

Chart (2001) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[22] 46
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[23] 36
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[24] 38
French Albums (SNEP)[25] 41
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[26] 25
Irish Albums (IRMA)[27] 38
Scottish Albums (OCC)[28] 11
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[29] 46
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[30] 78
UK Albums (OCC)[31] 6

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[32] Silver 60,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hobbs, Steve (November 2001). "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lad?". Q. Retrieved 23 July 2020 – via Acrylic Afternoons.
  2. 1 2 Sturdy, Mark (2009). Truth And Beauty: The Story of Pulp. London, England: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-103-5.
  3. ↑ Barnes, Paul. "James Mosley: a life in objects". Eye magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  4. ↑ Kinross, Robin. "Temple of Type". Eye. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Emily King, "Everyday Exotics" in Frieze Magazine, issue 68, 2002
  6. ↑ "Ornamented types: a prospectus" (PDF). imimprimit. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Daines, Mike. "Pouchee's lost alphabets". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Coles, Stephen. "We Love Life by Pulp". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Reviews for We Love Life by Pulp". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  10. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "We Love Life – Pulp". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  11. ↑ Petridis, Alexis. "Pulp: We Love Life". Blender. Archived from the original on 20 August 2004. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Raftery, Brian M. (23 August 2002). "We Love Life". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  13. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (12 October 2001). "Back to suburbia". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Oldham, James (16 October 2001). "Pulp : We Love Life". NME. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  15. ↑ Tangari, Joe (13 December 2001). "Pulp: We Love Life". Pitchfork. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  16. ↑ "Pulp: We Love Life". Q (183). November 2001.
  17. ↑ Walters, Barry (22 August 2002). "Pulp: We Love Life". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 13 February 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  18. ↑ Harris, Keith (2004). "Pulp". The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 665. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  19. ↑ Winter, Jessica (October 2002). "Pulp: We Love Life". Spin. 18 (10): 116. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  20. ↑ "Pulp: We Love Life". Uncut (54): 128–29. November 2001.
  21. ↑ Pitchfork staff (28 September 2009). "The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 200-151". Pitchfork. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  22. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Pulp – We Love Life". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Pulp – We Love Life" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Danishcharts.dk – Pulp – We Love Life". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Pulp – We Love Life". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Pulp – We Love Life" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  27. ↑ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Pulp". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Pulp – We Love Life". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  30. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Pulp – We Love Life". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  32. ↑ "British album certifications – Pulp – We Love Life". British Phonographic Industry.
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