'Do you remember the first time?' Britpop legends Pulp announce first album in 24 years

11 April 2025, 10:13 | Updated: 11 April 2025, 10:14

Pulp have released their first single for more than a decade and announced their first album for almost 24 years, titled More.

The group, best known for hits such as Common People, Do You Remember The First Time? and Disco 2000, revealed More, is dedicated to late bass player Steve Mackey, will be released on June 6.

Speaking about the new song Spike Island, which references The Stone Roses' well-known Spike Island performance, singer Jarvis Cocker hinted it was a follow-up to the group's 1995 single Sorted for E's & Wizz.

Read More: Bruce Springsteen to put out seven 'lost' albums of unreleased songs

Read More: Elton John reveals he 'can't see anything' as star unable to finish new album amid health battle

The 61-year-old said: "I'd spoken to people who went, so I just kind of picked up the second-hand thing of it.

"So for Sorted For E's And Wizz, it was a girl that I was speaking to in the Leadmill in Sheffield one night, and she just said, all she could remember were people going around saying 'is everybody sorted for Es and Wiz?', so that phrase stuck in my mind.

"For this song, it was Jason Buckle who wrote the music for it, and he was telling me a story of being at the concert, and all he could remember was a DJ who in between every song went 'Spike Island come alive, Spike Island come alive', so that phrase stuck in mind."

The new album will feature 11 tracks in Spike Island, Tina, Grown Ups, Slow Jam, Farmers Market, My Sex, Got To Have Love, Background Noise, Partial Eclipse, Hymn Of The North, and A Sunset, and will be released on vinyl, CD and cassette.

Joking that "no AI" was used in its making, Cocker said of the record: "This is the first Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Yes, the first Pulp album for almost 24 years, how did that happen??

"Well, when we started touring again in 2023, we practised 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 18 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record in the modern era. It was obviously ready to happen. ?

?

"These are the facts.?"

Formed in 1978, Pulp struggled to find success with the dark content of early albums It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His 'N' Hers album, in 1994.

In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the critically acclaimed Different Class album and a classic headline set at Glastonbury, after standing in for The Stone Roses, who dropped out after guitarist John Squire broke his collarbone in a cycling accident.

Pulp is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber, and has achieved five UK top 10 singles and two UK number one albums.