Separations is the third album by English band Pulp, released on 19 June 1992 by UK indie Fire Records. Recorded in 1989, it appeared belatedly as the band's final original release with Fire before their transition to a major-label career.

Recording, release and aftermath

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
ConsequenceB[4]
Drowned in Sound7/10[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]
The Great Rock Discography5/10[7]
NME7/10[8]
Pitchfork6.7/10[9]
Q[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[11]
Vox7/10[12]

Pulp's initial deal with Fire Records had expired, following the release of several singles and the 1987 LP Freaks, when in 1989 the label approached frontman Jarvis Cocker about re-signing the band.[13] Whereas the group had, to its chagrin, only been allotted £600 to record Freaks[14], Fire now promised a £10,000 budget for its next project.[13] Still wary from their prior experience with the label, the band booked Sheffield's FON studio and producer Alan Smyth to begin recording what would become Separations; according to drummer Nick Banks, the band hoped to use the studio advance without actually formalising a new deal with Fire.[13]

The material represented a new direction for the band, with vocal-driven ballads on the first side and an acid house influence on the second. The disparate styles can be attributed to the interplay of tastes between Cocker and then-new bassist Steve Mackey; Mackey introduced Cocker to house music and raving upon the singer's move to London, while Cocker introduced Mackey to "Scott Walker and Serge Gainsbourg".[15] Cocker was also inspired by the band Magazine's early work that "had attack to it combined with a real intelligence, without going into ponce territory".[16] Notably, Banks ended up programming his parts into a drum machine rather than performing live on the record, a concession requested by Smyth out of concern for time and budget in light of the liberal use of MIDI sequencing requested by the band.[13] Separations is also notable for the track "This House Is Condemned" being the last of the occasional vocal performances by guitarist/violinist/songwriter Russell Senior found throughout Pulp's catalog[13], a role which he would later claim not to have ever relished:

I used to 'sing' in Pulp and I'm not quite sure why this came about, because I can't sing for toffee and have never been under any illusions about it...I really wasn't comfortable with singing in Pulp but Jarvis was keen on it, he said it gave him a break.[17]

Upon completing the album, with no discernible interest from any other label, the band reluctantly agreed to re-sign with Fire Records.[18]

The album was reissued and remastered by Fire in 2012 along with 1983's It and 1987's Freaks. This re-release took several delays as the first stated release date was 8 August 2011 while the albums finally came out on 13 February 2012.[19] An announcement in the interim stated that the albums would be remastered with new bonus tracks to be added to the track listings as well as new artwork and liner notes from music journalist Everett True.

This re-release gives an opportunity to hear "Death Comes to Town" which was previously released in 2005 only on CD that accompanied Sheffield journalist Martin Lilleker's book Beats Working for a Living. This 22-song CD featured rare tracks from some of the bands featured in the book.

"Death Goes to the Disco" and "Is This House?" are remixes of "Death Comes To Town" and "This House Is Condemned" respectively.

The bonus track "Is This House?" on the 2012 edition is labelled incorrectly. This track is taken from "My Legendary Girlfriend" single, where two remixes of the song "This House Is Condemned" by Parrot & Winston can be found, but it is in fact the remix titled simply "This House Is Condemned (Remix)"

Scottish musician Momus claims that Cocker wrote to him with an offer to produce Separations, but that he ignored it.[20]

Track listing

All music written by Pulp and lyrics written by Jarvis Cocker, except where noted.[a]

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Love Is Blind"5:45
2."Don't You Want Me Anymore?"3:52
3."She's Dead"5:09
4."Separations"4:45
5."Down by the River"3:39
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Countdown" 5:07
7."My Legendary Girlfriend" 6:51
8."Death II" 5:36
9."This House is Condemned"Russell Senior7:52
Total length:48:41
2012 reissue (bonus tracks)
No.TitleLength
10."Death Goes to the Disco" (B-side to "Countdown")5:42
11."Is This House?" (B-side to "My Legendary Girlfriend")7:36
12."Countdown (Extended Version)" (B-side to "Countdown")8:04
13."Death Comes to Town" (from the Beats Working for a Living: The Story of Popular Music in Sheffield 1973–1984 book bonus CD)4:26

Personnel

Pulp

Additional personnel

  • Alan Fisch – engineering
  • Martyn Broadhead – sleeve design basis
  • Alex Hornsby – layout, additional design

Notes

  1. ^ Cocker is credited as the sole writer in the liner notes of the album's 2012 reissue. The liner notes of the album's original release simply credit Pulp.

References

  1. ^ "PulpWiki - Separations (Album)".
  2. ^ "New Singles". Music Week. 23 February 1991. p. 22.
  3. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Separations at AllMusic. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
  4. ^ Mojica, Frank (11 August 2011). "Album Review: Pulp – Separations [Reissue]". Consequence.
  5. ^ Farah, Amanda (13 February 2012). "Album Review: Pulp – Separations (Reissue)". Drowned in Sound.
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Pulp". Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2004). "Pulp". The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Canongate Books. p. 1231-1232. ISBN 1-84195-615-5.
  8. ^ Collins, Andrew (18 July 1992). "Pulp — Separations". NME.
  9. ^ Tangari, Joe (9 August 2011). "Pulp: It / Freaks / Separations". Pitchfork.
  10. ^ Aston, Martin (July 1992). "Pulp — Separations". Q.
  11. ^ Harris, Keith (2004). "Pulp". The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 665. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  12. ^ Phillips, Shaun (July 1992). "Pulp — Separations". Vox.
  13. ^ a b c d e Banks, Nick (2023). "Chapter 17: London Calling (Death Comes To Town)". So It Started There: From Punk to Pulp. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78759-259-9.
  14. ^ Senior, Russell (2015). "Chapter 16: The Curious Case of Captain Sleep". Freak Out the Squares: Life in a Band Called Pulp. London: Auram Press. ISBN 9781781314715.
  15. ^ Sturdy, p. 175.
  16. ^ "Magazine – Real Life – Jarvis Cocker". NME. 30 August 2018. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  17. ^ Senior, Russell (2015). "Chapter 9: Crisps Are a Free Meal". Freak Out the Squares: Life in a Band Called Pulp. London: Auram Press. ISBN 978-1-78131-471-5.
  18. ^ Banks, Nick (2023). "Chapter 18: Return to Fire (Going Back to Find Her)". So It Started There: From Punk to Pulp. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78759-259-9.
  19. ^ "Fire Records article". Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  20. ^ "PulpWiki - Jarvis: Filmography". pulpwiki.net. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separations_(album)
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