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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

We Love Life
by Pulp


9.3

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

MUSIC:

Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis

The band's first album since 1997's 'This Is Hardcore' is produced by Scott Walker and features 12 new tracks.

LABEL:	Island
RELEASE DATE:	20 August 2002
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Alternative, Rock, Britpop

NOTES: UK release 22 October 2001.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Billboard

One of the year's best.

Village Voice

A magnum opus four years in the making, We Love Life is, like This Is Hardcore's epic cold sweat, a disco-nnection record, well stocked with mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits. But Pulp's glamorama has never tingled so invitingly, thanks to the full-body massage administered by producer Scott Walker.

All Music Guide

An emotional and musical breakthrough.

Spin

Preposterous and sensational, We Love Life grapples with nothing less than how best to prove you're alive. [Oct 2002, p.116]

CultureDose.net

“Weeds,” an excellent tune which compares the English working class to this type of plants, is only one of the various epic, melodramatic tunes in the key of Scott Walker (who produced the record) present here that use elements of nature to symbolise aspects of modern society and the human condition itself.

Alternative Press

His most winsomely loveless lyrics yet. [Oct 2002, p.92]

Pitchfork

Pulp have pulled off yet another remarkable reinvention of their sound and outlook, while simultaneously making their most organic album since their full-length debut, It, was released almost two decades ago.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

The band strikes the proper balance between ambition and pop instinct.

Mojo

Musically, it's the richest record of Pulp's career.... We Love Life isn't perfect, but it is vital. [Nov 2001, p.96]

PopMatters

We Love Life is an album that trades the group's tongue-in-cheek gimmicks and satirical savvy for a mode of pensive moderation and subtle telling.

Q Magazine

Cocker's treasurable wit and the band's seventh album have taken a corporation bus ride out for strange, poetic interludes among the trees and the undergrowth.

Neumu.net

The instant pop buzz Pulp have concocted in the past is largely missing, but each listen reveals another layer, another level, another reason to love it. Highly recommended.

Dot Music

At its best, 'We Love Life' features some of the finest British rock music of recent years.

Armchair DJ

An album as life-affirming as its predecessor was bleak.

Drawer B

We Love Life trades Pulp's characteristic risk-taking for smooth accessibility, which works a gray, rainy day magic over the proceedings.

Blender

Its surging orchestrations and and acoustic subtelties seem willfully out of step with current trends, taking time to reveal their unique, and very British, charms.

Entertainment Weekly

Invitingly lush. [23 Aug 2002, p.142]

New Musical Express

What saves this record from being another wallow in the misery of post-fame existence is the music.... 'We Love Life' is a grandiose, symphonic affair buoyed by succinct orchestration and white-light choral interludes.

Rolling Stone

Both messy and marvelous.

Playlouder

It's painstakingly layered and often lush, but sometimes scrubby and miserably sparse.

The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael gave it a10:
One of the best albums of the 21st Century so far...and we are 5 years into it now...dare I say as good as "Different Class"?yes. And horribly overlooked.

giulia gave it a9:
i love pulp, but their earlier work was better. its a shame that they stopped to play together.

Konstantinos A. gave it an 8:
Very Good. It's not of course as good as "Different Class" (a classic) but it is awesome music, especially when it is compared to other albums of 2001. A top-10 for 2001!

Ricky L. gave it a 10:
it's a shame they don't aren't recognized in north america..or england now, for that matter.

Ann Marie gave it a 10:
I crossed Pulp off my list around 1999, figuring they had fallen into the depths of post Brit Pop depression. I kept hearing news of this album, but it kept being pushed back and redone and I thought it was never coming out. I didn't expect much of it either. But upon one listen I've realized that Pulp has just done what VERY few other bands can do. Pick themselves up, reinvent their style, and make awesome music once again. It's a different sound, a different direction, but its still Jarvis and it sounds equally as great as His n' Hers and Different Class.

mister eels gave it an 8:
Not as immediately enjoyable as their early stuff. But just like one of Jarvis' stupid trees it sure is a grower.

We Love Life by Pulp

We Love Life
by Pulp