We Love Life
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox album We Love Life is the seventh studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 22 October 2001 by Island Records. It is the band's final studio album to feature bass guitarist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023.
Written and recorded after the tumultuous sessions for This Is Hardcore, We Love Life saw the band move toward a more relaxed and natural sound, shepherded by producer and singer-songwriter Scott Walker. Walker had replaced original producer Chris Thomas, whom the band had worked with on the band's two previous albums. It was the band's last album for over two decades until More (2025).
The album reached number six on the UK Albums Chart, with a total chart stay of three weeks.
Background
We Love Life was intended to be a departure from the disillusionment of the band's previous album, This Is Hardcore, in that it featured a more organic sound and an emphasis on nature, which Cocker found interest in "because it is dangerous in some ways". Cocker explained, "I never took any notice of nature when I was a kid. I thought we'd all be living on space stations or floating metropolises by now. But after This Is Hardcore, which was a very alienated record, it was time to go back to simpler things, like this, the natural world."<ref name="q interview">Template:Cite web</ref> At the same time, Cocker stated, "This isn't Pulp's pastoral album. I was very aware of avoiding hippy dippy stuff."
The band had initially begun recording with Chris Thomas, who had produced their past two albums. However, his more rigid style of recording conflicted with the band's desire for looser sessions, resulting in the recordings being shelved.<ref name="q interview" /> The final album was produced by Scott Walker. Keyboardist Candida Doyle recalled, "I certainly thought about leaving [after shelving the Thomas sessions] but I realised that I'd still feel shit even if I did. If Scott Walker hadn't come about, I don't think we'd have bothered to finish this LP." The band, who had met Walker at the 2000 Meltdown Festival run by Walker, had been longtime fans of Walker.<ref name="q interview" />
Walker's own album 'Til the Band Comes In is mocked in the lyrics of the We Love Life single "Bad Cover Version". Cocker claims the lyric was written long before Walker became involved in the album's production and recalled the moment of recording the song as "embarrassing".<ref name="truth">Template:Cite book</ref>
Title and artwork
The album's title was originally to be Pulp Love Life, but this was vetoed as Cocker felt that the title looked confusing on an album cover—he explained, "It always looked like the name of the band's Pulp and the album's called Love Life." The album was then renamed Pulp, reflecting the "uncluttered" nature of the album. With the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, the album was renamed to the more universal We Love Life. Cocker recalled, "To be honest, I was really freaked out when that World Trade Center thing happened. ... So in the aftermath of that, I thought, actually this Love Life business isn't a bad sentiment at this particular time."<ref name="truth" />
The minimal cover art (by Peter Saville) shows a set of initial capitals held in the collection of St. Bride Printing Library in London.<ref name="James Mosley: a life in objects">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Temple of Type">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Emily King, "Everyday Exotics" in Frieze Magazine, issue 68, 2002</ref> They were engraved in wood by or for Louis Pouchée around the 1820s.<ref name="Ornamented types: a prospectus">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Pouchee’s lost alphabets">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Fonts in Use">Template:Cite web</ref> It would later inspire the artwork for American metal band Deafheaven's 2013 album Sunbather.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reception
Initial critical response to We Love Life was very positive. The album received an average score of 84 at Metacritic, based on 20 reviews.<ref name="metacritic"/> The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed We Love Life at number 194 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Steve Hobbs of Q Magazine wrote of the album, "Cocker's lyrics are still sharp and beautifully observed, just a little less personal. But in many ways, it's a more familiar Pulp record than This Is Hardcore."<ref name="q interview" /> Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album "an emotional and musical breakthrough, finding the band leaping beyond the claustrophobic Hardcore and consolidating their previous obsessions, creating a textured, reflective record that in its own measured way is as impassioned as Different Class."<ref name="Erlewine" />
Track listing
Template:Track listing Template:Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes. Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Additional musicians
- Alasdair Malloy – percussion Template:Small, glass harmonica Template:Small
- Luís Jardim – percussion Template:Small
- Danny Cummings – percussion Template:Small
- Julian Poole – percussion Template:Small
- Steve Hilton – programming Template:Small
- Howie B – programming Template:Small
- Richard Hawley – lap steel guitar Template:Small, twelve-string guitar Template:Small
- The Swingle Singers – backing vocals Template:Small
- Joanna Forbes – musical direction, vocal arrangements
- Beverly Skeete – backing vocals Template:Small
- Sylvia James – backing vocals Template:Small
- Claudia Fontaine – backing vocals Template:Small
- Jeremy Shaw – keyboards Template:Small
- Scott Walker – additional keyboards and tree effects Template:Small, baritone guitar Template:Small
- Andy Findon – ocarinas and flutes Template:Small
- Caspar Cronk – musical saw Template:Small
- Timos Papadopoulos at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Southampton University under supervision of Professor Phil Nelson – birdsong Template:Small
- Philip Sheppard – five string electric cello Template:Small
- Metro Voices – choir
Template:Col-2 Production
- Scott Walker – production, mixing
- Peter Walsh – co-production, engineering, mixing; choir engineering Template:Small
- Matt Lawrence – assistant engineering; additional choir engineering Template:Small
- Chris Blair – mastering
- Clive Goddard – choir engineering Template:Small
- Geoff Foster – strings recording
- Gavyn Wright – strings leading
- Isobel Griffiths – orchestral contracting
- Jenny O'Grady – choral co-ordination
- Steve Price – choir recording
Arrangement
- Scott Walker – strings Template:Small, ten double basses Template:Small
- Brian Gascoigne – strings Template:Small, ten double basses Template:Small, choir Template:Small
- Candida Doyle – strings Template:Small
Artwork
- Jarvis Cocker – art direction
- Peter Saville – art direction
- Howard Wakefield – design
- Marcus Werner Hed – design
Charts
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|
Certifications
Template:Certification Table Top Template:Certification Table Entry Template:Certification Table Bottom
References
External links
- We Love Life at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
- Template:Discogs master