Pulp’s 20 best songs ranked ahead of Finsbury Park: Jarvis Cocker’s Common People and all that Razzmatazz

Pulp return to London this summer with a massive show in Finsbury Park (July 1) and further dates at the London Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith (July 28-29).

A Sheffield band they may be, but they also have special ties with London, having lived in and written about the capital. For thousands of fans, the Finsbury Park gig will be a celebratory homecoming.

The year has been tinged with sadness for the band, with the death of Steve Mackey, who was Pulp’s bassist during the peak of their commercial success, although he was not set to join this year’s tour.

To mark Pulp’s live return, LondonWorld has put together what we think are their top 20 songs, in order.

We enlisted the help of the wonderfully friendly Pulp Band Fan Group on Facebook to find some deeper cuts. As this is a top 20 and Pulp are a fantastic singles band, only some of the suggestions could be fitted in. I hope fellow fans are satisfied, nevertheless, and I’ve added a ‘Deeper Cuts Playlist’ to the end. So, here we go:

20. Pink Glove (1994)

Nearly five minutes of prime filth from His ‘n’ Hers. “And now you've done it once, now he wants you to wear your pink glove all the time.”

19. Help The Aged (1997)

“Help the aged. One time they were just like you: drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue. Help the aged, don't just put them in a home. Can't have much fun in there all on their own.”

18. This is Hardcore (1998)

The title track of the album that followed the success marked a slightly new direction musically and set an ominous tone, with a rumination on fame and the Adult Channel.

17. It’s a Dirty World (2006)

A This Is Hardcore outtake which was later released to fan delight on the deluxe edition. It tells a story of anguish and dancing. “I’m not looking for a lover - no, no, no. I wanna dance, that’s all.”

16. Seconds (1994)

A fan favourite from His ‘n’ Hers and The Sisters EP, it is a grim domestic tale set to a pretty, yet desperate melody.

15. Mis-Shapes (1995)

A rallying cry for the outsider, the bullied, the misshapen, the weirdos, the kooks. “And brothers, sisters, can't you see? The future's owned by you and me.” The future may not be owned by you and me, but many young mis-shapes now live in a multidimensional social world, finding their tribes wherever they are, to the bemusement of an older generation.

14. My Legendary Girlfriend (1991)

Late-night beats and Jarvis whispers in this brilliantly titled seven-minute epic from Separations. Pain and longing in the wash of a starlit Sheffield night.

13. Razzmatazz (1993)

In a way, it’s an archetypal Pulp song - seedy, domestic - but also slightly bitter about a former girlfriend. Jarvis did later say they were able to laugh about it though.

12. Sunrise (2001)

This double A-side with Trees was the lead single for We Love Life and is an unashamed effort towards optimism, building to a choral wall of sound and guitar solo. I fondly remember it as a highlight at the 2000 Reading Festival.

11. O.U. (Gone, Gone)

It was a commercial flop and tangled up in a record deal dispute but this stand-alone single remains a fan favourite. A break-up song, its lyrics are pretty route one (with a classic Jarvis “yeah, yeah, yeah” refrain), but sonically it’s exhilarating.

10. Cocaine Socialism (1998)

Labour’s wooing of Jarvis before Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide led to this cutting riposte, written in (and inspired by the excesses of) the Groucho Club, the celeb hangout of choice at the time.

9. Something Changed (1996)

A beautifully sweet, string-backed single from Different Class, lacking in cynicism and a perfect single.

8. Bad Cover Version (2001)

An epic pop song with a classic video pastiching Band Aid-style charity efforts. Ironically, the orchestral and emotional pull of the song would make it a perfect selection for a contestant on X Factor or The Voice. The lyrics have the protagonist discovering his ex is seeing someone who looks like him - and expressing (false?) confidence that the newcomer cannot live up to him.

7. Do You Remember the First Time (1994)

It comes on like something of U2’s The Joshua Tree, but this is not a band ‘finding itself’ in the California Dessert, this is a band laying claim to the dancefloor of every indie disco in England.

6. Mile End

As a London title we can’t neglect the track that painted so grim a picture of urban living that it made it onto the Trainspotting soundtrack. It describes in vivid detail a flat Jarvis and Steve Mackey had lived at: “It smelt as if someone had died. The living room was full of flies. The kitchen sink was blocked. The bathroom sink not there at all. Oh, it's a mess alright.”

5. Sorted for Es and Wizz

Few festival performances can have been as influential as Pulp taking to the Glastonbury stage in 1995 in place of the injury-hit Stone Roses, a month after the release of Common People. And if you’re going to debut new material, how about the lines: “Oh, is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel? Or just twenty thousand people standing in a field?” Mind blowing.

4. Sheffield: Sex City (1993)

The Babies b-side is Pulp obsession at its finest. Eight and a half minutes of a lovely kick drum sound that perfectly captures the sound of a city in the early hours of the morning. It’s the sound of a night out that doesn’t want to end.

3. Disco 2000 (1995)

In 1995 I was 18 and, let me tell you, the year 2000 seemed a lifetime away. This was a reminder that youth was passing by and played into the excitement and weirdness of the impending year 2000.

2. Babies (1993)

As with so many Pulp songs, it’s intoxicating, uplifting and ultimately twisted, telling the tale of a young voyeur. But it’s also a picture of teenage obsession, right down to the mixed-up and frantic chorus: “Oh, I want to take you home. I want to give you children. You might be my girlfriend. Yeah, yeah, yeah…”

1. Common People (1995)

It’s the obvious one but it’s just about the biggest indie song of the ‘90s - and it’s brilliant. It flies. It’s lyrically concise, funny, and wrapped in an irony that no one can begrudge. It shot Pulp into the stratosphere, leading the way for Different Class after a decade of work, and rarely has success been more deserved.

*Deeper Cuts Playlist

Catcliffe Shakedown, Street Lites, His ‘n’ Hers, Separations, The Fear, Like a Friend, Pink Glove, Acrylic Afternoons, Happy Endings, She’s a Lady, Death Comes To Town, Acrylic Afternoons, After You, Love Is Blind, Wickerman, Ansaphone, There Was, Death II, Bob Lind, The Fear.

Sign up for our newsletter for the latest, and follow LondonWorld on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.