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“Mis-Shapes” – Pulp
(Words/music: Nick Banks/Jarvis Cocker/Candida Doyle/Steve Mackey/Pulp/Russell Senior/Mark Webber, available on Different Class, Island 1995)

Eddie Izzard, while on a riff about the biblical notion that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” quips that if the meek “should be having meetings all over the world” in order to plan their acquisition.  If nothing else, Jarvis Cocker’s persona in “Mis-Shapes” isn’t standing around waiting for control to fall into his lap.  Instead, “Mis-Shapes” lays out the agenda for the thoughtful misfits.  He calls together his bookish brethren to rise up and take control on their terms.  “We won’t use guns / we won’t use bombs / we’ll use the one thing that we’ve got more of / that’s our mind.”  Where others see meek men and women, he sees a dormant revolution.

Of course, this sort of underdog fantasy rarely sounds either as confident or grand as “Mis-Shapes.”  From the opening notes, Cocker lets his words casually fall asunder, delivering lines with the right mix of spoken swagger and melody.  Behind him, the band builds from a couple guitar notes to a moderate stomp to a distorted gospel revival.  By the time he hits the chorus, Cocker sounds like a preacher singing his sermon to his tambourine-tapping congregation.  However, Pulp’s popularity would eventually swell to a point where Cocker wasn’t just preaching to the misfit choir (at least in the UK, where the entire crowd at the Glastonbury festival seemingly knew the words to “Common People”).  His effortless cool and cunning turns of phrase made him a compelling spokesman for the “meek,” and ultimately it was this charm (and a spot-on flair for the dramatic) that made Different Class such a compelling listen, whether you’re misshapen or conventionally pegged.

More on Pulp: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm