Recommendations of the Editorial team
If you believe the master himself, most of the lyrics on this record were written in one night at the kitchen table, flanked by a cheap bottle of brandy and emotional imbalance.
Journalists and academics alike are probably aware that this way of working is often the most successful. In the case of “Different Class” it led, above all, to an immense unity of content: Jarvis Cocker basically portrayed the milieu, but also his own state of consciousness, which, like the criminally underestimated predecessor “His’n’Hers”, was fed by all sorts of latent sexual flashbacks.
But the ambivalence of the initial success was also noticeable: In addition to the well-known indie disco hits “Common People” and “Disco 2000”, “Sorted For E’s & Wizz” is particularly worth mentioning: “Oh is this the way the future’s meant to feel / Or just 20,000 people standing in a field,” it says here.
What was actually supposed to be a milieu study of rave celebrations can, in retrospect, also be read as a description of the status of the successful live band Pulp, who achieved one thing above all with this record: confidently winning the 1995 media-staged duel between Blur and Oasis.
Intelligent, dandyish, amusing
ROLLING STONE author Wolfgang Doebeling said: “The 1995 album sealed Pulp’s rise to the Premier League of Pop, from which they only left three years later in the direction of the First Division, and three more years later in the direction of the Second Division. Intelligent, dandy-like, amusing.