By gum. I'm not sure if I can withstand as much caustic soda as UNEXPLODED SHELLS have put into this explosive bag of dirty emotional laundry. It stings the eyes and scours the ears.
Prewash softening-up comes with main title "High Times". This one is written and sung by the de facto leader of the band, Mark Sturdy (author of the definitive book on Pulp: "Truth & Beauty: The Story of Pulp"). It easily qualifies as a fine song whose brevity is part of the strength. Nothing hangs about for more than a couple of bars, lots of work gets done. Tim Corbridge has a ragged edge of squawking guitar riff. Sturdy spits out the words in a speaker's, rather than a singer's voice - but that's fine. He gives himself some cutting lines of petulance to work with. My favourite goes: "I've got a note from the Doctor, so I don’t have to cope ... Alright?" And that guitar turns into a rock and roll accident warning.
With "High Times". on 1:41 Tom Goodhand's two songs (Tom has since left the band) spread to 3:36 and 4:43. "If I Could Turn My Back" makes good use of another tightly sprung guitar line form Tim Corbridge, and Andy Dykes keeps it crisp from the drum booth. The song choruses around "perhaps you'll forget to listen to me", and it really is that moody. Its virtues are in Goodhand's suppressed anger and the sheer momentum of the band. The secret ingredient is an emotional synth part filling out the backdrop.
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"The End Of The Affair" is where it really does turn gloomy and you’re going to love or hate it. Wet jeans; miserable streets; waiting for someone who doesn’t come: this is bleak, bleak, bleak. The band just about hold it together. You might want to click back to the comparative jollity of "High Times". It isn't emo - it’s genuinely, expressively depressed, with no guilty indulgence whatever. A brave song.
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