Pulp Is Back for ‘More,’ Their First Album in 24 Years. Even the Britpop Band Is Surprised 

Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
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Pulp Is Back for ‘More,’ Their First Album in 24 Years. Even the Britpop Band Is Surprised 

Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 

Pulp has returned with a new album, their first in 24 years. Who could’ve predicted that?

Not even the band, it turns out. “It took us by surprise as well,” dynamic frontman Jarvis Cocker told The Associated Press. “Why not?”

If there are casual Pulp fans, they don’t make themselves known. The ambitious Britpop-and-then-some band emerged in the late-'70s in Sheffield, England, artistic outsiders with a penchant for the glam, grim, and in the case of Cocker, the gawky. Fame alluded them until the mid-'90s, and then it rushed in with the trend of Cool Britannia.

Their songs varied wildly from their contemporaries, like the recently reunited Blur and soon-to-be back together Oasis. Instead, Pulp’s David Bowie-informed synth-pop arrived with humor, ambiguity and intellect — songs about class consciousness that manage to be groovy, glib, awkward and amorous all at once.

Then, and in the decades since, Pulp has inspired devotion from loyal fans across generations. They’ve charmed those lucky enough to catch band members in their heyday before a kind of careerism led to a hiatus in 2002 — and those who saw them for the first time during reunion tours in 2011 and 2022. With all that reputation on the line, it’s reassuring that the band has decided to give its audience “More,” their first new album in over two decades.

Give them ‘More’

There were a few catalysts for “More.” The first: “We could get along with each other still,” jokes drummer Nick Banks. “It wasn’t too painful.” The second: The band worked a new song into their recent reunion show run — “The Hymn of the North,” originally written for Simon Stephens’ 2019 play “Light Falls” — and people seemed to like it.

The third and most significant: The band’s bassist and core member Steve Mackey died in 2023.

“It made me realize that you don’t have endless amounts of time,” Cocker says. “You’ve still got an opportunity to create things, if you want to. Are you going to give it a go?”

And so, they did. Cocker assured his bandmates Banks, guitarist Mark Webber and keyboardist Candida Doyle that the recording process could be done quickly — in three weeks, lightspeed for a band that has infamously agonized over its latter records, like 1998’s “This Is Hardcore.”

Webber describes a “reticence to get involved in a yearslong process” that was alleviated when they started to work on new songs which came “quite easily.” That’s at least partially due to the fact that, for the first time in the history of the band, Cocker elected to “write the words in advance. ... It’s taken me until the age of 61 to realize it: If you write the words before you go into the studio, it makes it a much more pleasant experience.”

The 11 tracks that make up “More” are a combination of new and old songs written across Pulp’s career. The late Mackey has a writing credit on both the sultry, existential “Grown Ups” originally demoed around “This Is Hardcore,” and the edgy disco “Got to Have Love,” written around “the turn of the millennium,” as Cocker explains. “I did have words, but I found myself emotionally unable to sing them.”

“Without love you’re just making a fool of yourself,” he sings in the second verse. “I got nothing else to say about it.”

It makes sense, then, that the romantic song was held until “More,” when Cocker believed them — coincidentally, after he was married in June of last year.

A pop band reflects

Maturation — the literality of growing up on “Grown Ups” — is a prevalent theme on “More,” delivered with age-appropriate insight. “I was always told at school that I had an immature attitude. I just didn’t see any point in growing up, really. It seemed like all the fun was had by people when they were younger,” said Cocker.

“But, as I said on the back of the ‘This Is Hardcore’ album, it’s OK to grow up, as long as you don’t grow old. And I still agree with that, I think. Growing old is losing interest in the world and deciding that you’re not gonna change. You’ve done your bit and that’s it. That doesn’t interest me.”

“You have to retain an interest in the world and that keeps you alive,” he adds. “So, you grow up. And hopefully you live better, and you treat other people better. But you don’t grow old.”

In addition to “More,” 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the song that defines their career, “Common People.”

“That one, we’ve never really fallen out of love with,” says Webber.

“Because of the way it affects people, really, you can’t fall out of love with it,” adds Cocker.

“More,” produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.), arrives Friday. The band will immediately embark on a UK and North American tour. Then, who knows? Is this the beginning of a new, active era for the band?

“The next one is going to be called ‘Even More,’” Cocker jokes. “Nah, I don’t know. The album wasn’t conceived of as a tombstone. ... The jury is out.”

“It wouldn’t be good for it to end up feeling like you’re stuck on a treadmill,” Banks adds. “And at the moment, it’s still pretty exciting.”



New Film Academy Members Include Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Conan O’Brien

Ariana Grande. (Getty Images/AFP)
Ariana Grande. (Getty Images/AFP)
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New Film Academy Members Include Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Conan O’Brien

Ariana Grande. (Getty Images/AFP)
Ariana Grande. (Getty Images/AFP)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 534 new members to its organization on Thursday, adding recent Oscar nominees and many more to Hollywood's most exclusive club.

The newest class of Oscar voters includes a number of stars like Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza, Danielle Deadwyler and Andrew Scott. They, along with filmmakers, below-the-line professionals and executives will bring the film academy's membership total to 11,120, with voting members numbering 10,143.

That's the largest membership ever for the academy. Since the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the film academy has added thousands of members to swell its ranks and diversify its voting body. This year's class is 41% female, 45% from underrepresented communities and 55% from outside the US.

Those new members will make the entire academy 35% women, 22% from underrepresented communities and 21% international.

"We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy," said academy chief executive Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang in a statement. "Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community."

Invitations went out to 91 Oscar nominees and 26 winners, including best actress winner Mikey Madison ("Anora") and best supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain"). Recent nominees who were invited include Ariana Grande, Jeremy Strong, Sebastian Stan and Monica Barbara. Gints Zilbalodis, the director of best animated film winner "Flow" will join the animation branch.

Other filmmakers set to join the academy include Mike Flanagan ("Doctor Sleep"), Azazel Jacobs ("His Three Daughters"), Brady Corbet ("The Brutalist"), Coraline Fargeat ("The Substance") Jane Schoenbrun ("I Saw the TV Glow"), Halina Reijn ("Babygirl") and Gia Coppola ("The Last Showgirl").

Payal Kapadia ("All We Imagine As Light"), Lena Waithe ("Queen & Slim") and Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley of "Sing Sing" were all invited in the writers branch. In the music branch, new members include Brandi Carlile ("Elton John: Never Too Late"), Branford Marsalis ("Rustin") and Youssou N’Dour ("Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love").

The last two emcees to host the Oscars — Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien — were also invited as members. After a well-reviewed broadcast that drew 19.7 million viewers, O'Brien is returning to host the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15.

A few new rules will await the 2025 academy members.

For the first time, members will be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final road of Oscar voting. This year, a new award category for casting will be voted on for the upcoming Oscars. The academy has also established a new Oscar for stunt design, but that won't be given out until 2028.