The new old thing

Music from a pair of 60-somethings proves as vital as ever.

- GRAHAM REID

The July issue of the British “dad-rock” magazine Mojo reviews new albums by Sparks (debut album 1971), Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison and, inevitably, yet another Neil Young.

In this context Pulp – formed late 1970s, breaking through in the 1990s Britpop era with their Different Class album and hit single Common People – seem like upstarts.

Their rise was slow, the end quick. Just two more studio albums.

But it seems Pulp were simply on an extended sabbatical. More, their first studio album in 24 years, finds some of the old gang (and others from frontman Jarvis Cocker’s Jarv Is band) back together, with songwriter Cocker singing, “I was born to perform, it’s a calling. I exist to do this,” on the anthemic Spike Island, a nod to where the Stone Roses played their game-changing 1990 show and helped birth Britpop and Oasis.