This Is Hardcore

The cover photo was art directed by Peter Saville and the American painter John Currin who is known for his figurative paintings of exaggerated female forms. The model photographed is Ksenia Zlobina{{Cite web |title=PulpWiki - This Is Hardcore (album) |url=https://pulpwiki.net/Pulp/ThisIsHardcoreAlbum |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=pulpwiki.net}} and the images were further digitally manipulated by Howard Wakefield, who also designed the album.Cocker, Jarvis [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1034489,00.html 'They're not grotesque – they're beautiful'] Retrieved 11 December 2007. Currin was also the art director for the "Help the Aged" video, based on his painting "The Never Ending Story". Advertising posters showing the album's cover that appeared on the London Underground system were defaced by graffiti artists with slogans like "This Offends Women"Anon [http://www.acrylicafternoons.com/hardcore.html 'PULP – ACRYLIC AFTERNOONS – This Is Hardcore] Retrieved 8 July 2008. and "This is Sexist" or "This is Demeaning".{{cite news|last=Kelly|first=Amanda|author2=Clay, Alistair|title='Sexist' Pulp ads attacked; Anything goes, say advertisers. Not so, say angry women with spraycans|newspaper=The Independent|location=London|date=19 April 1998}}

The music video for the title track was directed by Doug Nichol and was listed as the No. 47 best video of all time by NME.{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/list/100-greatest-music-videos/217342/page/6 |title=100 Greatest Music Videos |website=NME |access-date=2013-01-07}} A bonus live CD entitled "This Is Glastonbury" was added to the album later in 1998.

The album had first-week sales of just over 50,000, 62% fewer than Different Class first-week sales of 133,000.{{cite journal |last=Jones |first=Alan |title=The Official UK Charts: Albums – 11 April 1998 |journal=Music Week |date=11 April 1998 |page=18}} The album was certified gold by the BPI April 1998 for sales of 100,000. As of 2008, sales in the United States have exceeded 86,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.{{cite magazine |last=Caulfield |first=Keith |title=Keith answers readers' questions on Bette Midler, Radiohead, Celine Dion and more! |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1045824/ask-billboard |magazine=Billboard |access-date=25 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912063746/https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1045824/ask-billboard |archive-date=12 September 2014 |date=18 April 2008}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-is-hardcore-mw0000035589 |title=This Is Hardcore – Pulp |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=30 September 2011 |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/04/03/pulpthis-is-hardcore-island-star-star-star/ |title=Pulp: This is Hardcore (Island) |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=3 April 1998 |access-date=2 May 2016 |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603085000/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-04-03/entertainment/9804030290_1_pulp-glam-midlife |archive-date=3 June 2016 |url-status=live}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = A−{{cite magazine |url=http://ew.com/article/1998/04/13/this-hardcore/ |title=This is Hardcore |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |issue=427 |date=13 April 1998 |access-date=30 September 2011 |last=Browne |first=David |author-link=David Browne (journalist) |pages=70–71 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118113856/http://ew.com/article/1998/04/13/this-hardcore/ |archive-date=18 January 2017 |url-status=deviated}}

| rev4 = The Guardian

| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite news |title=Confessions of a pop group |newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 March 1998 |last=Sullivan |first=Caroline}}

| rev5 = Los Angeles Times

| rev5score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-05-ca-36080-story.html |title=Pulp 'This Is Hardcore' Island |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=5 April 1998 |access-date=2 May 2016 |last=Hochman |first=Steve |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828143041/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/05/entertainment/ca-36080 |archive-date=28 August 2016 |url-status=deviated}}

| rev6 = NME

| rev6score = 7/10{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19980101001323reviews.html |title=Comedown People |magazine=NME |date=21 March 1998 |access-date=2 May 2016 |last=Patterson |first=Sylvia |author-link=Sylvia Patterson |page=48 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991113162905/http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19980101001323reviews.html |archive-date=13 November 1999 |url-status=dead}}

| rev7 = Pitchfork

| rev7score = 7.8/10{{cite web |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21081-this-is-hardcore |title=Pulp: This Is Hardcore |website=Pitchfork |access-date=30 September 2011 |last=DiCrescenzo |first=Brent |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210193138/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21081-this-is-hardcore |archive-date=10 February 2008 |url-status=dead}}

| rev8 = Q

| rev8score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Velvet Overground |magazine=Q |issue=140 |date=May 1998 |last=Yates |first=Robert}}

| rev9 = Rolling Stone

| rev9score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/pulp/albums/album/302322/review/5946330/this_is_hardcore |title=Pulp: This Is Hardcore |magazine=Rolling Stone |issue=784 |date=25 April 1998 |access-date=30 September 2011 |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603115006/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/pulp/albums/album/302322/review/5946330/this_is_hardcore |archive-date=3 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}

| rev10 = Spin

| rev10score = 8/10{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhMpG7hKAr0C&pg=PA133 |title=People's Poet |magazine=Spin |volume=14 |issue=5 |date=May 1998 |access-date=15 August 2013 |last=Hornby |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Hornby |page=133}}

}}

Nick Hornby, writing in Spin, proclaimed that on the album "England's unofficial poet laureate Jarvis Cocker perfects his poetry of the prosaic". Rolling Stone noted that This is Hardcore was "less bright and bouncy" than its era-defining predecessor, but praised it as being "even more daring and fully realized", noting that "it plays like a movie, a series of scenes from a life", and declared that it "is arguably the first pop album devoted entirely to the subject of the long, slow fade", which it heralded as "a bold move because it breaks one of rock's oldest songwriting taboos". The review concluded, "In midlife oblivion, Pulp have found a strange kind of liberation. Desperation never sounded quite so entertaining." Reviews in the United States adopted a similar tone, with the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette all awarding three and a half stars out of four.{{cite news|last=Masley|first=Ed|title=For the Record|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KLIzAAAAIBAJ&pg=4011%2C969779|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=12 January 2017|date=22 May 1998}} The Tribune hailed it as "a smashing album about midlife crisis" and found that "[the] music is sumptuous lounge-lizard rock augmented by strings and noisy disruptions – a clever, catchy '90s take on the Bowie/Mott/Roxy glam rock of the '70s."

In a retrospective assessment of the album's impact, Matthew Horton wrote in NME that "in its sense of surrender, regret and flashes of panic, it captured the time to a tee." In an article entitled, "How Pulp's This Is Hardcore Brought Britpop to a Halt", Horton maintained that it was "a sloughing-off of fame’s skin, a rejection of the Britpop monster".{{cite journal |last=Horton |first=Matthew |date=11 April 2013 |title=How Pulp's 'This Is Hardcore' Brought Britpop to a Halt |url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/how-pulps-this-is-hardcore-brought-britpop-to-a-halt-770347 |journal=NME}} He concluded, "It's an end, a hard-wrought epitaph to a band's jaunt in the limelight and a suitable jump-off point for what had been a rare old few years – for us, at least." Another review found the song "A Little Soul" to be "Cocker's most disconsolately beautiful", drawing "from the musical blueprint of Smokey Robinson's 'Tracks of My Tears.'"{{cite web |last=Pearson |first=Paul |date=30 March 2018 |title=Pulp's This Is Hardcore is still a shattering piece of work after 20 years |url=https://www.treblezine.com/pulp-this-is-hardcore-20-years-anniversary-hall-of-fame/ |access-date=6 October 2022 |website=Treble}}

This is Hardcore was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.{{cite book|last1=Dimery|first1=Robert|last2=Lydon|first2=Michael|title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition|date=23 March 2010|publisher=Universe|isbn=978-0-7893-2074-2}} In 2013, NME ranked it at number 166 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.{{cite web|last=Barker|first=Emily|date=25 October 2013|title=The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 200-101|url=https://www.nme.com/photos/the-500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-200-101-1426258|access-date=17 January 2023|website=NME}} In 2014, US LGBT magazine Metro Weekly placed the album at number 46 in its list of the "50 Best Alternative Albums of the '90s".{{cite magazine|url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2014/04/50-best-alternative-albums-of-the-90s/|title=50 Best Alternative Albums of the '90s|magazine=Metro Weekly|last=Gerard|first=Chris|date=4 April 2014|access-date=12 January 2017}} In 2017, Pitchfork ranked it seventh in "The 50 Best Britpop Albums".{{cite web|title=The 50 Best Britpop Albums|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10045-the-50-best-britpop-albums/?page=5|website=Pitchfork|access-date=30 May 2017|date=29 March 2017|page=5}}

{{Track listing

| all_lyrics = Jarvis Cocker

| all_music = Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey and Mark Webber, except where noted

| title1 = The Fear

| length1 = 5:35

| title2 = Dishes

| length2 = 3:30

| title3 = Party Hard

| length3 = 4:00

| title4 = Help the Aged

| length4 = 4:28

| title5 = This Is Hardcore

| note5 = includes a sample of "Bolero on the Moon Rocks" written by Peter Thomas, recorded by The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra

| music5 = {{hlist|Cocker|Banks|Doyle|Mackey|Webber|Thomas}}

| length5 = 6:25

| title6 = TV Movie

| length6 = 3:25

| title7 = A Little Soul

| length7 = 3:19

| title8 = I'm a Man

| length8 = 4:59

| title9 = Seductive Barry

| length9 = 8:31

| title10 = Sylvia

| length10 = 5:44

| title11 = Glory Days

| music11 = {{hlist|Cocker|Banks|Doyle|Mackey|Webber|Antony Genn}}

| length11 = 4:55

| title12 = The Day After the Revolution

| note12 = edited to 5:52 on bonus track releases

| length12 = 14:56

}}

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Pulp

• Jarvis Cocker
• Nick Banks
• Candida Doyle
• Steve Mackey
• Mark Webber

Production

• Chris Thomas – production
• Pete Lewis – engineering
• Lorraine Francis – assistant engineering
• Jay Reynolds – assistant engineering
• Olle Romo – programming
• Matthew Vaughan – programming
• Magnus Fiennes – programming
• Mark Haley – programming
• Anne Dudley – string arrangement {{small|(2, 5, 7, 9)}}
• Pulp – string arrangement {{small|(2, 5, 7, 9)}}
• Nicholas Dodd – orchestration {{small|(5, 9)}}

{{col-2}}

Additional musicians

• Anne Dudley – piano {{small|(5, 7, 11)}}
• Chris Thomas – piano {{small|(5)}}
• Neneh Cherry – featured vocals {{small|(9)}}
• Mandy Bell – backing vocals {{small|(1, 9)}}
• Carol Kenyon – backing vocals {{small|(1, 9)}}
• Jackie Rawe – backing vocals {{small|(1, 9)}}

Artwork

• John Currin – direction
• Peter Saville – direction
• Horst Diekgerdes – photography
• Howard Wakefield – design
• Paul Hetherington – design

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{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|award=Gold|type=album|relyear=1998|artist=Pulp|title=This Is Hardcore|certyear=1998|refname="BPI"|access-date=25 June 2020|id=7550-498-2}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | nosales=true}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mzeUAdY6z2sIiB1YNLPbQ_ZfeNpJRd-Y4 This Is Hardcore] at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
• {{Discogs master|type=album|87172|name=This Is Hardcore}}

{{Pulp}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Pulp (band) albums

Category:1998 albums

Category:Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)

Category:Obscenity controversies in music

Category:Island Records albums

Category:Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios

Category:Glam rock albums by English artists

Category:Art rock albums by English artists