Time has woven a interesting narrative for Pulp. In “Spike Island,” the lead single from their first album in 24 years, Jarvis Cocker reflects on their 2002 reunion, which was met with a lukewarm reception. By that time, the band had notably lost much of its audience due to the introspective tone of 1998’s This Is Hardcore and the Scott Walker-produced We Love Life, released in 2001. Their greatest hits compilation, intended as a farewell, barely made an impact on the charts. A year after their breakup,John Harris’s retrospective on britpop titled The Last Party,pointedly noted that Pulp’s music seemed to have “aged rather poorly.” Cocker’s lyrics resonate with this sentiment: “the universe shrugged and moved on,” echoing his earlier remarks about the greatest hits album being “an actual mute fart” that left fans feeling indifferent.
