Two massive hit singles later and Pulp are on everybody's lips (how Jarvis would like that). But can 'Different Class' consolidate their late-in-the day success over the course of an album?
'Mis-Shapes' opens the case for the defence of the terminally unfashionable - "We don't look the same as you/And we don't do the things you do" says Jarvis, thrusting you unremittingly into his world.
It's a world of outsiders, of illicit sex, of escape from the terminal mediocrity of everyday life. And at times - as on second track 'Pencil Skirt' - it's quite a bleak voyage.
But the mundanity is often tempered by the exhilariting rush of pure pop - the stupendous 'Common People', the hilarious-in-its-detail tale of a rave gone wrong in 'Sorted For E's & Whizz', the glamp stomp of 'Disco 2000'.
The only real criticism is that some of the material - 'I Spy', for example - could use some more of Pulp's blend of pop melodrama, which is what marked out last album 'His'n'Hers' as a classic.
Nonetheless, a fine collection from a band who have at last have found the art of consistently writing great songs.
