Simply one of the finest albums you'll ever encounter . It is almost impossible for any album on Amazon to receive nearly a hundred reviews and still get an overall 5 star rating, yet DIFFERENT CLASS has managed to do just that.  Although Pulp has several really good albums, this is their best in my opinion.  It isn't just that the songs are musically compelling; lyrically the songs are frequently and unexpectedly complex.  When this album was first released in England it was one of the rare times when an album achieved simultaneously intense critical and popular acclamation.  Critics declared it a masterpiece, and fans bought it in astonishing numbers.  The album also is deceptively political, in that it features class difference in a large number of songs.      There are many musical highlights on the album, but what I find most remarkable is that there are several songs so good it makes the other songs seem bad in comparison, while one song in particular makes even the other great songs suffer in contrast.  Fans will always differ on their favorites, but few will question that the album starts off strongly with "Mis-Shapes."  "I Spy" is one of my favorites on the album along with "Disco 2000," which follows it.  "Sorted for E's and Wizz" is another stunner.  But seriously, all the songs on the disc are at least good, most are very good, and two or three are great.  But the best of the bunch is unquestionably "Common People."    "Common People" is simply a great song on multiple levels.  Musically it is incredibly compelling, one of those tunes that once you hear it you can't get it out of your head, with an upbeat tempo that makes you want to get up and dance around.  But this would merely make it a good song; what makes it great is the story the song tells.  An art school student is noticed by a fellow student, a rich girl from Greece, who declares to him that she wants to learn about what it is like to live as one of the common people.  There is a definite sexual come on, as she says that she wants "to sleep with common people, like you."  At this point you think you know where the song is going, to a nice if somewhat standard narrative of two people from different classes who have a romance despite it all.  But the song instantly takes you in a different tangent.  What follows is as extraordinary as it is unexpected.  Our hero takes the girl to a supermarket and asks her to imagine being there with no money, a notion she laughs at.  At this point the song turns very serious and dark, as he tears into her for her calloused desire to slum and make a game out of taking on a mode of life that is for others a fairly desperate affair.  He tells her that if she is laying in a bed watching roaches on the wall she can just call her dad and her problems would be over, but to truly find out what it would be like to live like "common people" would mean learning what it means to have no choices, no outs, no control.  He sings:    You will never understand  How it feels to live your life  With no meaning or control    So instead of the song of romance and love that we think we are getting at the beginning, we get an impassioned condemnation of anyone who would make light of the struggles of those who are less well off.  I know of no other song like it.  Pulp has done a number of really fine albums and a host of great songs, but this song has to go down as one of my all time favorites.  It definitely goes onto my all time Top 40.    There are four Pulp albums that I think any serious music fan should own:  HIS 'N' HERS, DIFFERENT CLASS, THIS IS HARDCORE, and WE LOVE LIFE.  If one were bound and determined to own only one Pulp album, one might go with HITS, but this DIFFERENT CLASS is so good that I just can't imagine anyone not wanting this and others as well.  Trust me:  if you don't own this album you need to get it today.  Your ears will thank you
Output: POS