This Is Hardcore is the sixth album by English band Pulp. Released in March 1998, it came three years after their breakthrough album, Different Class, and was eagerly anticipated. As is the decision to follow such a feat of emotional dramatics with two namby jingle-pop reveries (' TV Movie' and ' A Little Soul' ) before ' Mis-Shapes' makes a reappearance as an anti-Bloke anthem called ' I'm A Man' and, quite suddenly, the seven veils of gloom begin twitching on top of the burnt-out, broken man on the floor who simply gets up and sings four of the most inspired songs in Pulp's 15-year history. ' Seductive Barry' sounds a bit like Joy Division; that BIG and bewitching, a sexual fantasy space-pop sequence featuring Jarvis objectifying himself in the eye of the beholder, which then turns into Madonna's 'Justify My Love'. As with the band's previous album, This is Hardcore reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart, but with far fewer sales, [6] and was well received critically, earning Pulp a third successive nomination for the 1998 Mercury Prize. [7] Matrix / Runout (B-side runout, variant 3): MPO 0602547852915 B [MPO logo] ® 22 292592 GREG @ FINYL TWEEK Matrix / Runout (B-side runout, variant 1): MPO 0602547852915 B [MPO logo]® 19 136924 GREG @ FINYL TWEEK

Pulp Vinyl Record LP Vinyl Record - This Is Hardcore - Merchbar Pulp Vinyl Record LP Vinyl Record - This Is Hardcore - Merchbar

a b Gerard, Chris (4 April 2014). "50 Best Alternative Albums of the '90s". Metro Weekly . Retrieved 12 January 2017. The fact that the album ends on an optimistic note with the final flourishing chords of ' The Day After The Revolution' ( "Yeah, we made it... The Fear is over, guilt is over, Bergerac is over...") just tends to con­firm the kind of obvious emotional manipulation you'd more normally expect from Andrew Lloyd Webber. At the same time it has to be admitted that ' After The Revolution' is gen­uinely affecting in its tugging of the heart strings. It could also be argued that the way that 'This Is Hardcore' takes on limelight aesthetics amounts to a powerful pop-art aes­thetic. But even if Jarvis' lyrical vale­diction does assure that "Cholesterol is over... irony is over" it seems likely that, when the dust settles, this is an album that will seem possessed of just a little too much ironic detach­ment - in the music at least. Barker, Emily (25 October 2013). "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time: 200-101". NME . Retrieved 17 January 2023. Sturdy, Mark (15 December 2009). Truth and Beauty: The Story of Pulp. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857121035. a b "British album certifications – Pulp – This Is Hardcore". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 25 June 2020. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type This Is Hardcore in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.Dimery, Robert; Lydon, Michael (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.

Pulp - This Is Hardcore - Black Vinyl - Boiler Room Records Pulp - This Is Hardcore - Black Vinyl - Boiler Room Records

DiCrescenzo, Brent. "Pulp: This Is Hardcore". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 10 February 2008 . Retrieved 30 September 2011. Welcome to personal disintegration - the West End musical. Welcome to an album that amounts to breakdown on Broadway - a situa­tion that makes the above snatch of dialogue almost eerily appropriate. The theatrical source is relevant enough, but the tone fits 'This Is Hardcore' to a 'T' - a man hitting the bottom but relaying the descent with the kind of thespian relish that says he's savouring every last minute of it.Matrix / Runout (B-side runout, variant 2): MPO 0602547852915 B [MPO logo]® 21216650 GREG @ FINYL TWEEK Matrix / Runout (D-side runout, variant 2): MPO 0602547866509 B [MPO logo]® 21216594 GREG @ FINYL TWEEK

Pulp – This Is Hardcore (2020, Vinyl) - Discogs

Never underestimate the spirit of a man who took 12 years to realise The Dream; he knows, perhaps more than anything, about survival... Such lyrical wit and empathy is there in the lovely, bittersweet croon of ' Dishes', a song that has Jarvis contemplating turning 33 (the age at which Jesus died) with typical self-deprecation: "I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials, I am the man who stays home and does the dishes." Such subtlety also runs through the gorgeous, Memphis-tinged father-son confessional of ' A Little Soul' and through ' Help The Aged'. The latter is the song that comes closest to the euphoric spirit of the ' Different Class' album. As with the Manics' 'La Tristessa Durera', it turns the youth-fixated world of the pop song on its head by using it to frame the plight of the OAP. Except, typically of Jarvis' lubricious realm, it concludes that the best way to help the infirm is to give them a shag. Offiziellecharts.de – Pulp – This Is Hardcore" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 2 January 2017. Browne, David (13 April 1998). " This Is Hardcore". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017 . Retrieved 30 September 2011. Matrix / Runout (D-side runout, variant 1): MPO 0602547866509 B [MPO logo]® 20 182562 GREG @ FINYL TWEEKMerline, Micheal (23 June 2014). "Revisit: Pulp: This is Hardcore". Spectrum Culture . Retrieved 6 October 2022. Laws, Mike (11 December 2014). "The 10 Best Britpop Albums of All Time (or At Least Since 1993 or So)". The Village Voice. Suzan Gursoy . Retrieved 13 December 2016. a b Kot, Greg (23 March 1998). "Pulp: This Is Hardcore". Rolling Stone. No.784. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008 . Retrieved 30 September 2011. a b c d Kot, Greg (3 April 1998). "Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island)". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016 . Retrieved 2 May 2016. Pearson, Paul (30 March 2018). "Pulp's This Is Hardcore is still a shattering piece of work after 20 years". Treble . Retrieved 6 October 2022.

Pulp – This Is Hardcore (2009, Gatefold, Vinyl) - Discogs Pulp – This Is Hardcore (2009, Gatefold, Vinyl) - Discogs

All well and good, but there's no " Common People", right? Wrong yet again. " Glory Days" has it all. It's got that ever-rising tune, Jarvis' hollering voice grabbing for higher and higher stars. It's got the same tirelessly sprinting pace, the same euphoric sense of hope and glory and the same sense of sullied justice as Jarvis sneers: "We were brought up on the space race / Now they expect you to clean toilets". He's putting his foot down and he keeps it there with the closing " The Day After The Revolution", an astonishing reprise of the entire album, over-emotional and over-powering. Over the top. Over the worst. Over and out. An incendiary song to end an incendiary album. But ask yourself: can you really afford it?

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The cover photo was art directed by Peter Saville and the American painter John Currin who is known for his figurative paintings of exaggerated female forms. The model photographed is Ksenia Zlobina and the images were further digitally manipulated by Howard Wakefield, who also designed the album. [8] Currin was also the art director for the " Help the Aged" video, based on his painting "The Never Ending Story". Advertising posters showing the album's cover that appeared on the London Underground system were defaced by graffiti artists with slogans like "This Offends Women" [9] and "This is Sexist" or "This is Demeaning". [10] Harris, Keith (2004). "Pulp". The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4thed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 665. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. a b Hochman, Steve (5 April 1998). "Pulp 'This Is Hardcore' Island". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016 . Retrieved 2 May 2016. Caulfield, Keith (18 April 2008). "Keith answers readers' questions on Bette Midler, Radiohead, Celine Dion and more!". Billboard. Archived from the original on 12 September 2014 . Retrieved 25 June 2020.