Pulp - We Love Life

We Love Life, Pulp's final studio outing before dissolving in the early 2000s, is an oft-overlooked album, but it is easily one of the Britpop band's finest. While its predecessor, This Is Hardcore, was dark, slick, and urban, Life is bright, organic, and thoroughly rustic, with the theme of nature providing a thread throughout much of the record.

Although the disc doesn't have the standout singles of past Pulp albums, Life is remarkably consistent, due both to frontman Jarvis Cocker's newfound maturity as a songwriter and to the production work of his idol Scott Walker. While Walker doesn't apply the bombast of his revered late-1960s records, he does give Pulp's compositions a wonderfully widescreen scope that enhances every track, from the potent opener, "Weeds," to the chilling narrative "Wickerman," and the gloriously crescendoing "Sunrise." More than previous Pulp offerings, Life is a guitar-driven affair, with additional six-stringer Richard Hawley (an excellent solo artist in his own right) filling out the sound. Though it may not eclipse Different Class in the minds of most fans, We Love Life is an incredibly accomplished album that shows Pulp bowing out with vitality and grace.