Popcorn Culture
Ruminations on TV Shows, Comics, And Music
Like most American fans, I came to know Pulp through "Common People", their biggest hit off the Different Class album. By the time they popped up on the Trainspotting soundtrack, I was hanging out with British nannies who made sure I got a copy of the previous Pulp album, His & Hers. They told me the band had been around since the 80s New Wave movement. But that they kind of sucked for a while. I think it's less that they sucked, and more that they were directionless and forgettable. They had some decent songs but frontman Jarvis Cocker was still writing about love and life in his twenties, which isn't nearly as interesting as the sexual voyeurism and class envy that he focused on in the 90s and early 2000s. I bought their early hits anthology, Countdown, when it came out but...I didn't listen to it more than once. I have very different opinions about what early Pulp songs are worth a listen or two. Death Goes To The Disco is my personal compilation of their best singles, album cuts, and B-sides from the 80s and very early 90s. It's sort of Nick Cave meets The Cure but fails to write a mega-pop hit. 1. There's a Nick Cavey bop to the first track, Don't You Want Me Anymore? It's a love song about falling in love with someone at their worst and being desperate for them not to leave him but with a weird dash of how he wants his whole home town to watch and approve. It's a slight twist on a common songwriting trope and it helps elevate this out of typical love song territory. There's a bit of growl to Cocker's voice that he smoothes out over the years. It's a shame. I like the growl. Also, there's fiddley-violin on this track that gives it a brightness most New Wave tracks lack. This could absolutely be a melodramatic ballad in an 80s Coming Of Age film.
2. I Want You isn't just an answer to the previous track's title. It's also a familiarish piano twinkle riff New Waver. It's got some fun 50s style doo-wop background vocals in some places. The lyrics start out pretty forgettable and common with some super easy rhymes but evolve more malice to them than you'd expect. A lot of love songs sound stalkery and creepy if you really listen to them, but this is In Your Face Psycho Love with actual threatens of violence if the love is not returned, all with those doo-wop bum bum bum bums in the background. 3. We pep things up with some drum machine and bleepy pop at the beginning of Death II. There's some lovely twangy bass in the background while Cocker sings about dying at the disco, and yet waking up alive and in love the next morning. It's pretty delightful. This also marks the first time Jarvis Cocker points out that he isn't Jesus Christ. This will be a theme he revisits several times over the decades, including during his biggest pop culture moments where he hopped on stage while Michael Jackson was singing "Earth Song" and mocked Jackson's martyr image. I also noticed when I was putting this together how many Pulp songs end with the word away. This track makes it 2/3 for the album. 4. There is a LOT of violin on this album. The previous track ends with a violin riff, and this track begins with another one before a whole string section climbs into the song. I swear this could be a B-Side to "Fiddler On The Roof". And then, out of nowhere, it turns into an 8-bit country western song. Seperations is an unsung howler in Pulp's discography. It doesn't sound at all like a Tom Waits song but it has hie energy. If someone told me that this was the song that inspired The World/Inferno Friendship Society, I'd 100% believe them. And we're 3/4 for away. 5. There's No Emotion has the most Cure-y lyrics on this album. There is a beautiful harmony background vocal to this song which I wish appeared more often in the discography. I think this would be stronger about how emotionless he seems, as opposed to making it about someone else. But that's a 2023 view of 198something song. 4/5 for away. 6. There's a darker hook to the strumming guitar on There Was. It has an early REM feel to it. It's a cozy stalker song about how he knows what you're thinking. You love him. You love him. He totally knows that you love him. So why don't you love him? The lyrics are way more complex than I'm giving them credit for but the subtext screams while Cocker and his background vocalists give us an entire verse of la la la las. 7. I love me a song that starts with a tight drum groove. Life Must Be So Wonderful is an unexpected but not unwelcome side hug from an acquaintance. The two of you sway from side to side to the laid back song. Maybe holding a lighter aloft. Then everything falls away but the drum machine. When the music comes back you're no longer touching, and the swaying has shrunk down to just head bopping. Cocker teases us with the last line being a way but then adds another few lines and then BOOM away! 5/7. 8. Dogs Are Everywhere is a tropical breeze about the omnipresence of the kind of people who just suck to be around. Not literal dogs, which are awesome, but cads. How they're omnipresent, and that deep down we're all dogs. It's a sweet conceit. Instead of away, we end the song with the title. 9. We bring back the circus energy for Down By The River. Something about this song reminds me of Ween. Oh dear, someone dies again in this song. Maybe don't date Jarvis Cocker. He seems to leave a lot of angry women and corpses in his wake. I was really hoping this wong would end with the water washing the corpse away but it didn't happen. 10. Ambient conversation bridges the previous track to the spare piano of Blue Girls. The flute and reverb lift this weird little song into the ether. 11. I love the flute and background vocals on Wishful Thinking but the lyrics remind me of the poetry I wrote when I was nineteen and constantly in love with bad decisions. It's not very creative, just one of those self-pitying love me love me love me why don't you know how much I love you love me love me love me songs. But the melody is haunting, so I'm keeping it on the album. 12. Uh-oh, another song about a woman Jarvis is in love with that has death or dead in the title! There were definitely some decaying "Blue Girls" in that track, too. She's Dead is less metaphorical about it, though. I mean She's dying is the opening lyric. It's got a New Wave western movie from the 80s feel. I don't know what video game this could be the theme to but I know you'd be playing it on the original Nintendo. It's also one of them there songs about how you wish you would have/could have died with the object of your love so that you wouldn't be separated. 13. Here's the title track! Another drum machine start with Nintendo theme vibes. But you can really dance to this one as Death Goes To The Disco. One of the more upbeat songs warning about the perils of overdosing on drugs. 14. We wrap things up with the lush lullaby Manon about, what else, a guy sitting in his house, and later his garden, picking the flesh off the corpse of his deceased girlfriend. You know...you know...I thought the voyeuristic lyrics from Pulp's 90s output was creepy but DAMN Jarvis, how many dead women are on this album? (Sadly, we end this album with a paltry 5/14 songs ending with the preposition away.)
0 Comments
We start to come out of the doldrums with WWE, as they do start to push more exciting, younger wrestlers, like Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne (formerly and futurely Matt Sydal of ROH), MVP, Dolph Ziggler, and a few others. It's certainly not a Golden Age yet, but it's really starting to build up to a more exciting era, as long as you can slog through a billion John Cena vs Randy Orton matches. Sadly, it's meager pickings for Impact and ROH, despite very talented rosters. There are just even worse booking choices than WWE, which is quite an achievement. Sixty minute matches with no definitive winner was an exciting staple of early ROH but it is well rusted by 2009. And while Impact has truly moved almost all the way on from its previous Dinosaur generation, it's still guilty of throwing Mick Foley, Sting, and some other past-primers in a spotlight that still should really belong to the X and Knockout Divisions, which fade into the background a bit this season. You might imagine that this meant more WWE episodes this season, but my ROH & Impact timelines were a little bit behind where WWE was, so this season gets everything properly aligned again. I wanted to end the season with one of the best Wrestlemania matches of all-time, The Career Vs Streak Match. I mean, we ended Season Nine by saying goodbye to Hulk Hogan, Season Ten saw Shawn Michaels retire Ric Flair, now it's Michaels's own turn to bow out of the competition. And unlike the others, he never came back. NO, HE'S NEVER EVEN BEEN TO SAUDI ARABIA. This was his final Ever match. SEASON 11: |
1110. The Main Event Mafia It's an update on the NWO idea. Sigh. Only this time, it's Kevin Nash, Sting, Kurt Angle, Booker T, and Rick Steiner. We'll try and balance that storyline with some X-Division matches, and a good ol' Awesome Kong drubbing. Announcers: Mike Tenay, Don West 1. Kurt Angle vs Abyss in a Falls Count Anywhere Match 2. Sama Joe vs Kevin Nash 3. Sting (Impact Champ) vs AJ Styles 4. Chris Sabin vs Alex Shelly for the Impact X Division Championship 5. Awesome Kong (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Sojourner Bolt 6. Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett in a No DQ Match 7. Ultimate X Match Alex Shelley (Impact X Champ) vs Jay Lethal vs Xavier Woods vs Chris Sabin vs Suicide 1111. No Way Out Easily the best scripted Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in history pays off immensely, followed by a satisfying Money In The Bank Ladder Match, and what's considered one of the best Wrestlemania matches in the history of the WWE. Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Tazz, Todd Grisham, Lillian Garcia, Tony Chimel 1. WWE Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match Undertaker, Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Edge, Big Show, Vladimir Koslov 2. WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match John Cena, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Kane, Mike Knox 3. Money In The Bank Ladder Match Kane, CM Punk, Christian, Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, Finlay, MVP, Kofi Kingston 4. Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels 1112. Legacy We kick things off with the formation of the most promising stable that ever broke up too soon: Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted Dibiase Jr. We also get some WWE veterans of the 70s and 80s coming back to feud with Chris Jericho (I guess Randy Orton was busy that week?). Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Todd Grisham, Lillian Garcia, Tony Chimel 1. JBL (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Rey Mysterio 2. Chris Jericho vs Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper & Ricky Steamboat 2. Jake Hager (WWECW Champ) vs Christian 3. Chris Jericho vs Ricky Steamboat 4. Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy in an I Quit Match 5. Legacy vs Triple H (WWE Champ), Batista & Shane McMahon |
3/17/2023
3/7/2023
819. Survival Of The Fittest Announcers: Dave Penzer, Jimmy Bower We close out the ROH portion of our season with some fantastic matches from the biggest names in the company. Sure, CM Punk is missing, but don't worry, he'll be back next season. And then some. 1. Daniel Bryan vs Homicide in a Lumberjack Match 2. Jay Lethal (ROH Pure Champ) vs Samoa Joe 3. Daniel Bryan vs Homicide in a Steel Cage Match 4. Four Corner Survival Match Jack Evans vs Samoa Joe vs Delerious vs Ebessan 5. Austin Aries (ROH Champ) vs Daniel Bryan 820. The Faces Run The Places Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Tazz, Jonathan Coachman, Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews, Justin Roberts, Tony Chimel We wind down a bunch of this season's storylines here, as JBL will fade out of the title scene, Carlito and Shelton will fall further down the card, and while the Evolution members will still be some of the most important people in the WWE, their matches with each other will serve more as nostalgia rather than driving the direction of the company. 1. 2.Carlito (Intercontinental Champ) vs Shelton Benjamin 3. Shawn Michaels vs Hulk Hogan 4. John Cena (WWE Champ) vs Chris Jericho vs Christian 5. Batista (WWE Heavyweight Champ) vs Triple H in Hell In A Cell |
12/28/2022
All
Beck
Blink-182
Buffy
Cyndi Lauper
DC Arrowverse
Doctor Who
Final Girl University
Gabriels
Genesis
He-Man
Jacob Collier
Jimmy Buffett
Justice League Animated Series
Meat Loaf
Muppets
Neil Young
Night Court
One Album Discographies
Pearl Jam
Prince
Pulp
Queen
Radiohead
Reimagined Discographies
Rem
Snoop Dogg
Stargate
Star Trek
Stephen King
The Cars
The Conners
The Good Place
The Mountain Goats
The Rolling Stones
The Simpsons
The Weeknd
They Might Be Giants
Tina Turner
Tom Petty
U2
Wrestling
X-files
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
January 2021
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015