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Pulp return with first music in 24 years with new single ‘Spike Island’
The beloved band have also confirmed details of a new album, ‘More’.
Pulp have made their long anticipated return to music with ‘Spike Island’, their first single in 24 years (since 2001 album ‘We Love Life’). Frontman Jarvis Cocker and his bandmates joined Lauren Laverne on BBC 6Music this morning (10th April) to give the record its first play.
The single comes alongside the announcement of a brand new album ‘More’ - dedicated to Pulp’s late bassist, Steve Mackey - coming on 6th June via Rough Trade. The news quickly prompted an influx of messages from fans, one of whom described the new single as “perfection”.
Produced by the eminent James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines DC), ‘Spike Island’ was co-written by Jason Buckle (Relaxed Muscle), and inspired by his attendance at the infamous Stone Roses gig, where an annoyingly persistent DJ apparently kept shouting the words: “Spike Island, come alive!”.
The track has also arrived accompanied by a controversial video involving the use of AI, about which Jarvis has said the following: “The first idea I had was to animate the photographs that Rankin & Donald took for Different Class: after all, back in 1995 they had been an “artificial” way of dropping us into real-life situations & getting an album cover done whilst we were too busy recording the music for that album to pose for pictures. No brainer.
“It was my initial idea to produce a kind of “making of” video that showed how the photos had come to be taken - but as soon as I fed the first shot into the A.I. app I realised that wasn’t going to happen. So I decided to “go with the flow” & see where the computer led me.
“The weekend I began work on the video was a strange time: I went out of the house & kept expecting weird transformations of the surrounding environment due to the images the computer had been generating. The experience had marked me. I don’t know whether I’ve recovered yet…..
I have to thank Julian House for some expert post-production work & Rankin & Donald Milne for allowing me to use their work in this way. As it says in text at the end of the video, I think what they did for Pulp back in 1995 was “Human Intelligence at its best”.”
Watch the ‘Spike Island’ video here:
While on air, Laverne also quizzed Cocker on whether Glastonbury was on the cards, but the frontman was quick to shut down any rumours saying the band had “no plans” to return to Worthy Farm anytime soon. Their new album will, however, be followed by a slew of UK and Ireland headline shows that kick off on 7th June.
JUNE 2025
07 Glasgow, OVO Hydro
10 Dublin, 3Arena
13 London, The O2
14 London, The O2
19 Birmingham, Utilita Arena
21 Manchester, Co-op Live
JULY 2025
25 Sheffield, Tramlines Festival
‘More’ tracklist:
1. Spike Island
2. Tina
3. Grown Ups
4. Slow Jam
5. Farmers Market
6. My Sex
7. Got To Have Love
8. Background Noise
9. Partial Eclipse
10. The Hymn of the North
11. A Sunset
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