PULP

His’n’hers (reissue, 1994) ISLAND

8/10

Sheffield misshapes’ ‘almost’ album turns 25

Jarvis Cocker came to resent the charityshop chic and “songs about single mothers and sex” that earned Pulp their place in the April 1993 issue of Select that spawned Britpop. The wrong side of 30, the singer was growing out of Cuban heels and tank tops by the time of the band’s 1994 major-label debut, the Oxfam-era Pulp’s lurid mélange of Joy Division, Abba and Serge Gainsbourg hardening into something with emotional force as well as a unique sense of style. The lusty “Acrylic Afternoons”, and rapturous closer “David’s Last Summer” have a pleasingly sweaty sensuality, but His’n’hers has a more nurturing side, “Lipgloss”, “Have You Seen Her Lately?” and “Happy Endings” all evidence that a nuanced understanding of human emotion was still possible at the dawn of the lad-mag age. Suede producer Ed Buller failed to capture the magnificence of “Pink Glove”, but Cocker returned to its themes of sex and power to even greater effect in the annus mirabilis of “Common People”. Different Class

(1995) and its sober shadow This Is Hardcore (1998) made His’n’hers

sound slight, but – stretched over two discs – this white-vinyl edition is a reminder of its unisex appeal.

Extras: None.