His 'n' Hers is the fourth studio album by Pulp and is commonly cited as the band's breakthrough album, reaching number 9 in the UK charts. Pulp's fourth studio album, 'His 'n' Hers', is named in reference to this phenomenon. Mentioned in Victoria Wood's Political Correctness Gone Mad song: 'If you're buying him a present/'his' and 'hers' things can be pleasant/ but don't bother wrapping 'hers'.
There's something about hearing a song at 16 that stays with you forever. Babies, that ebulliently pathetic tale of teenage love and sex, had already been out for six years when it finally reached my ears for the first time. My sister played it to me and showed me how to do the 'indie dance' that went with it. Like lots of indie dancing, it seemed to involve standing still and moving only one arm.
What's unusual about my subsequent love affair with His 'n' Hers, the album that I discovered after listening to Babies over and over again (on a compilation MiniDisc courtesy of my sister), is the slightly backwards way I became obsessed with Pulp. The band had already been around for years, Common People had conquered the charts, Disco 2000 was everywhere.
At school, however, Jarvis Cocker's lithe, pale and proudly twee demeanour meant he was, obviously, a 'batty man'. Anyone else who liked him or his band's music was also, clearly a batty man, even if you were a girl. Like most schools, you could end up with a smack in the mouth just for standing out. It's not the kind of place where you could discover the joys of, say, Belle and Sebastian without fear.
It was therefore the case that, once discovered, my love of Pulp was quietly restrained until home time, which was fine, because if ever there was an album designed for listening to alone in your room it was His 'n' Hers. Despite the anthemic appeal of Babies ('I only went with her cause she looked like you') and the haunting euphoria of Do You Remember the First Time?, it's an album in which Pulp's ability to encapsulate the navel-gazing, hormonal turmoil of adolescence really crystallised. Someone Like the Moon, with its softly spoken portrait of the first taste of heartbreak, brings to mind a girl sitting on her bed dreaming of something, anything (but hopefully someone) that will help her escape. It's still the truest sketch of adolescent loneliness I can think of.
And while you couldn't move for boy-bands in the mid-90s, all of them telling you they totally understood and supported you in all your needy, teenage femaleness, Jarvis remains one of the few male lyricists who actually appears to have genuine insight into the female psyche. He may not have had the clothes or the curtains haircut , but he made it abundantly clear, given half the chance, he would both ravish and respect any one of the women who lived on lipgloss and cigarettes and put up with men who made them feel like shit. In Pink Glove, Jarvis mocks the unbearable unsexiness of miserable women trussed up in tight, shiny clothes. Not for him the blank-faced poses of tabloid stunners; Cocker is a man who'd rather have a bit of fun under a kitchen table with a neighbour, as gloriously detailed in Acrylic Afternoons.
It took me until 1998 to fall for His 'n' Hers, but unlike lockable diaries, overplucked eyebrows and episodes of My So-Called Life, this is one obsession that has endured beyond my teenage years.
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His 'n' Hers | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 18 April 1994 | |||
Recorded | October 1993–February 1994[a] | |||
Studio | Britannia Row, London[b] | |||
Genre |
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Length | 50:38 | |||
Label | Island | |||
Producer | Ed Buller | |||
Pulp chronology | ||||
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Singles from His 'n' Hers | ||||
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His 'n' Hers is the fourth studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 18 April 1994 by Island Records. It proved to be the band's breakthrough album, reaching number nine on the UK Albums Chart,[4] and was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Music Prize. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted it the seventieth greatest album of all time, while it was placed at number 110 in the book Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums.[4]
Release and aftermath[edit]
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Chicago Tribune | [6] |
Drowned in Sound | 8/10[7] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [8] |
NME | 8/10[9] |
Q | [10] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [11] |
Select | 4/5[12] |
Spin | 8/10[13] |
Uncut | [14] |
'Lipgloss', 'Do You Remember the First Time?', 'Razzmatazz', and a new mix of 'Babies' were released as singles, the latter as part of the Sisters EP.
A 'deluxe edition' of His 'n' Hers was released on 11 September 2006. It contained a second disc of B-sides, demos and rarities.
Themes and content[edit]
Lyrically, the album encompasses subjects for which Pulp were to become well known, including sexual encounters, social class and voyeurism.[4]
Robyn Strachan retrospectively describes the opener 'Joyriders' as setting the tone for the album with 'acerbic observation and lurking seediness and decay'.[15]
'She's a Lady' takes much of its musical inspiration from Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive'.[16]
The album closer, 'David's Last Summer', is notable as being one of Pulp's most narrative songs, delivered entirely in spoken word apart from the chorus despite being an uptempo track.
Track listing[edit]
All lyrics written by Jarvis Cocker; all music composed by Pulp.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | 'Joyriders' | 3:25 |
2. | 'Lipgloss' | 3:34 |
3. | 'Acrylic Afternoons' | 4:09 |
4. | 'Have You Seen Her Lately?' | 4:11 |
5. | 'Babies' (does not appear on the album's vinyl release) | 4:04 |
6. | 'She's a Lady' | 5:49 |
7. | 'Happy Endings' | 4:57 |
8. | 'Do You Remember the First Time?' | 4:22 |
9. | 'Pink Glove' | 4:48 |
10. | 'Someone Like the Moon' | 4:18 |
11. | 'David's Last Summer' | 7:01 |
North American edition (bonus track) | ||
---|---|---|
No. | Title | Length |
12. | 'Razzmatazz' | 3:41 |
Deluxe edition (bonus disc) | |||
---|---|---|---|
No. | Title | Origin | Length |
1. | 'Live On' (BBC Mark Goodier session) | Previously unavailable | 3:58 |
2. | 'You're Not Blind' (demo) | Previously unavailable | 3:45 |
3. | 'Space' (BBC Hit the North Session soundcheck) | Previously unavailable | 3:27 |
4. | 'The Boss' (demo) | Previously unavailable | 2:27 |
5. | 'Watching Nicky' (demo) | Previously unavailable | 3:04 |
6. | 'Frightened' (demo) | Previously unavailable | 3:36 |
7. | 'Your Sister's Clothes' | Sisters EP | 4:41 |
8. | 'Seconds' | Sisters EP | 4:19 |
9. | 'His 'n' Hers' | Sisters EP | 6:20 |
10. | 'Street Lites' | B-side to 'Do You Remember the First Time?' | 5:56 |
11. | 'You're a Nightmare' (BBC John Peel session) | B-side to 'Lipgloss' (incorrectly noted as previously unavailable) | 5:20 |
12. | 'The Babysitter' | B-side to 'Do You Remember the First Time?' | 5:00 |
13. | 'Deep Fried in Kelvin' | B-side to 'Lipgloss' | 9:49 |
Personnel[edit]
Pulp
- Jarvis Cocker – vocals, School piano, Vox Marauder guitar, EMS Synthi A
- Russell Senior – Fender Stratocaster guitar, violin, bowed bass
- Candida Doyle – Farfisa Compact Professional II organ, Stylophone 350S, Korg Trident II, Fender Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer piano, Hohner clavinette, Steinway grand piano
- Nick Banks – drums, percussion, treated cymbals, timpani, fire extinguisher
- Steve Mackey – Fender Jazz Bass
Artwork
- Philip Castle – Pulp portrait
- Kevin Westerberg – original photograph
Notes[edit]
- ^Except 'Lipgloss' and 'She's a Lady', recorded 2–10 July 1993; and 'Babies', recorded 20–24 July 1992[1]
- ^Except 'Babies', recorded at Island Records Fallout Shelter, London[1]
Pulp His And Hers Rares
References[edit]
- ^ abSturdy, Mark (15 December 2009). Truth and Beauty: The Story of Pulp. Omnibus Press. ISBN9780857121035.
- ^Sanders, Brad (21 April 2014). 'His 'N' Hers Turns 20'. Stereogum. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^http://www.allmusic.com/album/his-n-hers-mw0000625094
- ^ abcLarkin, Colin (1998). Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. ISBN0753502585.
- ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. 'His 'n' Hers – Pulp'. AllMusic. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
- ^Messbarger, Matt (1 December 1994). 'Pulp: His 'N' Hers'. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^Cowen, Nick (26 September 2006). 'Album Review: Pulp – His 'N Hers (2006 re-issue)'. Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
- ^Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN0-85712-595-8.
- ^Williams, Simon (16 April 1994). 'Pulp – His'N'Hers'. NME. Archived from the original on 13 October 2000. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^'Pulp: His 'n' Hers'. Q (169). October 2000.
- ^Harris, Keith (2004). 'Pulp'. In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 665. ISBN0-743-20169-8.
- ^Harrison, Andrew (May 1994). 'Short Cuts'. Select (47). Retrieved 13 January 2017.
- ^Modell, Josh (June 2009). 'Discography: Jarvis Cocker'. Spin. 25 (6): 82. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
- ^'Pulp: His 'n' Hers'. Uncut (112). September 2006.
- ^Robyn Strachan (3 August 2014). 'Resentment in Retrospective: Pulp's 'His 'n' Hers', 20 Years On'. Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^Andy Gill (4 May 1995). 'POP / The last detail: It was a special night for Pulp, playing at home with their first single in the Top 10. Andy Gill was there'. The Independent. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
External links[edit]
- His 'n' Hers at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
Pulp His And Hers Rarebit
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