We Love Life

About

We Love Life is the seventh studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 22 October 2001 by Island Record. It reached number six on the UK Albums Chart, with a total chart stay of only three week. Written and recorded after the tumultuous sessions for This Is Hardcore, We Love Life saw the band move toward a more relaxed and natural sound, shepherded by producer Scott Walker. Walker had replaced original producer Chris Thoma, whom the band had worked with on previous album. We Love Life saw positive critical reception and charted at number 6 on the UK album chart. We Love Life was intended to be a departure from the disillusionment of the band's previous album, This Is Hardcore, in that it featured a more organic sound and an emphasis on nature, which Cocker found interest in "because it is dangerous in some ways". Cocker explained, "I never took any notice of nature when I was a kid. I thought we'd all be living on space stations or floating metropolises by now. But after This Is Hardcore, which was a very alienated record, it was time to go back to simpler thing, like thi, the natural world." At the same time, Cocker stated, "This isn't Pulp's pastoral album. I was very aware of avoiding hippy dippy stuff." The band had initially begun recording with Chris Thoma, who had produced their past two album. However, his more rigid style of recording conflicted with the band's desire for looser session, resulting in the recordings being shelved. The final album was produced by Scott Walker. Keyboardist Candida Doyle recalled, "I certainly thought about leaving but I realised that I'd still feel shit even if I did. If Scott Walker hadn't come about, I don't think we'd have bothered to finish this LP." The band, who had met Walker at the 2000 Meltdown Festival run by Walker, had been longtime fans of Walker. Walker's own album 'Til the Band Comes In is mocked in the lyrics of the We Love Life single "Bad Cover Version". Cocker claims the lyric was written long before Walker became involved in the album's production and recalled the moment of recording the song as "embarrassing". The album's title was originally to be Pulp Love Life, but this was vetoed as Cocker felt that the title looked confusing on an album cover—he explained, "It always looked like the name of the band's Pulp and the album's called Love Life." The album was then renamed Pulp, reflecting the "uncluttered" nature of the album. With the September 11 terrorist attack, however, the album was renamed to the more universal We Love Life. Cocker recalled, "To be honest, I was really freaked out when that World Trade Center thing happened. ... So in the aftermath of that, I thought, actually this Love Life business isn't a bad sentiment at this particular time." The minimal cover art (by Peter Saville) shows a set of initial capitals held in the collection of St. Bride Printing Library in London. They were engraved in wood by or for Louis Pouchée around the 1820. Initial critical response to We Love Life was very positive. The album received an average score of 84 at Metacritic, based on 20 review. The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed We Love Life at number 194 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000. .

via Last.fm

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