Monthly Pick: Pulp & Suede — Britpop Elders, Future Tense

Two 1990s powerhouses return with records that feel resolutely now. I am currently listening to both on repeat. Maybe because I came of age in the 1990s, but more so because they are that good.

Pulp’s More is the first studio album in 24 years — Jarvis Cocker’s wry surveillance of middle age set to taut, modern production. It’s brisk, sly, and oddly moving; you can hear the 2023 reunion tour’s adrenaline in the writing, and the dedication to the late Steve Mackey gives the whole thing a quiet ache.

Suede’s Antidepressants arrives as a darker companion piece to 2022’s Autofiction: a post-punk, goth-hued set produced by Ed Buller, preoccupied with disconnection, aging, and the stubborn spark that survives both. Brett Anderson sings like a man running toward the fire; the band plays like they lit it.

Taken together, these albums shrug off nostalgia. More refines wit into wisdom; Antidepressants turns bruises into fuel. Call it Britpop’s renaissance — less about rewinding the past than writing the next verse.

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