We Love Life

We Love Life was intended to be a departure from the disillusionment of the band's previous album, This Is Hardcore, in that it featured a more organic sound and an emphasis on nature, which Cocker found interest in "because it is dangerous in some ways". Cocker explained, "I never took any notice of nature when I was a kid. I thought we'd all be living on space stations or floating metropolises by now. But after This Is Hardcore, which was a very alienated record, it was time to go back to simpler things, like this, the natural world."[1] At the same time, Cocker stated, "This isn't Pulp's pastoral album. I was very aware of avoiding hippy dippy stuff."

The band had initially begun recording with Chris Thomas, who had produced their past two albums. However, his more rigid style of recording conflicted with the band's desire for looser sessions, resulting in the recordings being shelved.[1] The final album was produced by Scott Walker. Keyboardist Candida Doyle recalled, "I certainly thought about leaving [after shelving the Thomas sessions] but I realised that I'd still feel shit even if I did. If Scott Walker hadn't come about, I don't think we'd have bothered to finish this LP." The band, who had met Walker at the 2000 Meltdown Festival run by Walker, had been longtime fans of Walker.[1]

Walker's own album 'Til the Band Comes In is mocked in the lyrics of the We Love Life single "Bad Cover Version". Cocker claims the lyric was written long before Walker became involved in the album's production and recalled the moment of recording the song as "embarrassing".[2]

The album's title was originally to be Pulp Love Life, but this was vetoed as Cocker felt that the title looked confusing on an album cover—he explained, "It always looked like the name of the band's Pulp and the album's called Love Life." The album was then renamed Pulp, reflecting the "uncluttered" nature of the album. With the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, the album was renamed to the more universal We Love Life. Cocker recalled, "To be honest, I was really freaked out when that World Trade Center thing happened. ... So in the aftermath of that, I thought, actually this Love Life business isn't a bad sentiment at this particular time."[2]

The minimal cover art (by Peter Saville) shows a set of initial capitals held in the collection of St. Bride Printing Library in London.[3][4][5] They were engraved in wood by or for Louis Pouchée around the 1820s.[6][7][8]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Blender	[11]
Entertainment Weekly	B[12]
The Guardian	[13]
NME	7/10[14]
Pitchfork	8.2/10[15]
Q	[16]
Rolling Stone	[17]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[18]
Spin	9/10[19]
Uncut	[20]

Initial critical response to We Love Life was very positive. The album received an average score of 84 at Metacritic, based on 20 reviews.[9] The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed We Love Life at number 194 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.[21]

Steve Hobbs of Q Magazine wrote of the album, "Cocker's lyrics are still sharp and beautifully observed, just a little less personal. But in many ways, it's a more familiar Pulp record than This Is Hardcore."[1] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album "an emotional and musical breakthrough, finding the band leaping beyond the claustrophobic Hardcore and consolidating their previous obsessions, creating a textured, reflective record that in its own measured way is as impassioned as Different Class."[10]

Credits adapted from liner notes.

• We Love Life at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
• We Love Life at Discogs (list of releases)