Throughout Pulp's nearly 20 year career, one thing has always been a constant: Jarvis Cocker's wry and acerbic songwriting. You can almost detect the smirk on his face as you listen. His songs are mostly bleak and ominous, so imagine my surprise when I learned that the new album was called We Love Life. Either this was more irony or the man had finally cracked.

And sure enough, songs like "I Love Life" and "The Birds in Your Garden" prove that Jarvis has finally found importance in love and his own mortality. Quite a stretch from albums past where drugs, booze, and watching girlfriends sisters having sex was more his forte. But never fear Pulp fans, Cocker hasn't completely cheered-up, there's still enough morbid humor here to satisfy. Still he appears to be on the road to Wellsville.