eMusic Review 0
After enduring an eternity of unpopularity and personnel changes, Sheffield, England's Pulp finally hit the UK big time as their quintessential Englishness satisfied a national thirst for all things Britpop. Their mid-'90s breakthrough also coincided with the band mastering its instruments and leader Jarvis Cocker learning how to write a tune worthy of his pop inspirations. But Pulp's earlier indie material has an audible seediness that mirrors his lyrical content: Its tinny, ham-fisted and sometimes pitch-shy approximations of disco, glam, jangle-pop, '60s lounge and even goth suit Cocker's sooty social commentary and tales of adolescent sexual fumbling. This 20-track cash-in collects in reverse chronological order a decade of sleazy singles, lurid B-sides and pervy album tracks — all flops. But what Pulp here lacks in polish it compensates with clumsy enthusiasm like a drunken shag in a stinky bathroom stall.
