• News

• All

May 22, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Tom Jackson

Britpop legends Pulp are releasing More, their first new album in 24 years, on June 6 via Rough Trade. Now they have shared its second single, “Got to Have Love,” via a music video directed by frontman Jarvis Cocker. Watch it below.

“Love is a word I was unable to say until I was approaching 40,” says Cocker in a press release. “I listened to love songs all the time but couldn’t use the word in real life. The words to this song are me having a word with myself about this state of affairs. I gave myself a real talking-to. I have now learnt how to say it whilst keeping a straight face. You’ve got to have love. Oh yes you have.”

Cocker adds: “It’s a slightly hysterical song that tries to talk about love as I see it now.”

The video features footage of the 1977 Wigan Casino documentary directed by Tony Palmer. Its footage of Northern Soul dancers is now cut to Pulp’s music.

“I love dancing—and this is the best footage of dancing I’ve ever seen. I first saw it in Mark Leckey’s ‘Florucci Made Me Hardcore’ video,” says Cocker.

Previously Pulp shared More’s first single, “Spike Island,” which was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Then they performed the song on the long-running British chat show The Jonathan Ross Show. Then they announced some North American tour dates.

Cocker directed the AI-assisted “Spike Island” video, which attempts to bring photos from the band’s Different Class-era to life, sometimes to amusing results.

Pulp’s last album was the Scott Walker-produced We Love Life, released in 2001. Since then the band went on hiatus, reissued their old albums, returned to touring from 2011-2013, put out the unreleased song “After You” in 2013, went back on hiatus, and reunited again in 2022 for a well-received tour that stretched from 2023 to 2024. The band’s bassist Steve Mackey sadly died in March 2023 at only 56, so he did not take part in the last reunion or the new album. Cocker also released several solo and collaborative albums, as well as guesting on various tracks by other musicians (including Air and Hot Chip) and collaborating with filmmaker Wes Anderson on songs for some of his movies. In 2019 Cocker formed the new band JARV IS… and released the 2020 album Beyond the Pale (it was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2020).

James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.) produced More, which was recorded at Orbb Studio in East London. Pulp’s main lineup is Cocker, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, and Mark Webber. Pulp formed way back in 1978 when Cocker was only 15 years old, but they didn’t hit it big until the 1990s when they became one of the centerpiece bands of the Britpop movement alongside Blur, Oasis, and Suede and had iconic hit songs such as “Common People,” “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” “Mis-Shapes,” “Babies,” “Do You Remember the First Time?,” “Disco 2000,” and “This Is Hardcore.” Doyle has been with the band since 1984, Banks since 1986, and Webber since 1995 (before that he was the president of Pulp’s fanclub). The new album features various other collaborators, as detailed by Cocker below.

“Spike Island” was inspired by the infamous Stone Roses concert of the same name in 1990. Cocker’s collaborator in the Relaxed Muscle side-project, Jason Buckle, co-wrote the song with Cocker. Apparently a DJ at the event repeatedly shouted all day the phrase: “Spike Island, come alive!” This got on everybody’s nerves and inspired Cocker to write the song, even though he didn’t actually go to the Spike Island concert. Pulp’s 1995 hit “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” from Different Class, was also inspired by the Spike Island concert.

Cocker also had this to say about the new album in a previous press release: “This is the first Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Yes: the first Pulp album for 24 years.

“How did that happen?

“Well: when we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called ‘Hymn of the North’ during soundchecks and eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones and played by the Elysian Collective.

“The album was recorded over three weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18th, 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen.

“These are the facts.

“We hope you enjoy the music. It was written and performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process.

“This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey.

“This is the best that we can do.

“Thanks for listening.”

Read our tribute to Steve Mackey.

Read our interview with Cocker on JARV IS… and Beyond the Pale.

Read our 2017 print magazine article on Cocker and Chilly Gonzales’ Room 29 album.

Read our 2017 extended Q&A with Cocker on Room 29.

Read our 2009 cover story interview with Cocker on his second solo album Further Complications.

Read our 2007 interview with Cocker on his debut solo album Jarvis.

Pulp Tour Dates:

UK:

June 7th – Glasgow, OVO Hydro (sold out)
June 10th – Dublin, 3Arena
June 13th - London, The O2 (sold out)
June 14th – London, The O2 (sold out)
June 19th – Birmingham, Utilita Arena (sold out)
June 21st – Manchester, Co-op Live (sold out)
July 25th – Sheffield, Tramlines Festival (sold out)

North America:

Thu Sep 4 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
Sat Sep 6 – Washington, DC – Anthem
Tue Sep 9 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
Thu Sep 11 – Queens, NY – Forest Hills Stadium
Sat Sep 13 – Boston, MA – The Stage at Suffolk Downs
Tue Sep 16 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Wed Sep 17 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple
Sat Sep 20 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
Mon Sep 22 – Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Thu Sep 25 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl^
Fri Sep 26 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl^

^ = w/ LCD Soundsystem

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.