Coy Mistress

If I’m not mistaken, this is Pulp’s shortest song, at 1:27. It’s also one of their strangest. Backed by churchly organ, occasional xylophone bursts, and crashing explosion sounds, Russell Senior recites a slight rewrite of some verses from Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress.” Recorded in 1984, the song only appeared on two mid-‘80s compilation cassettes. “Coy Mistress” is one of the band artier, more obtuse explorations of the time period, although it’s curiously devoid of the miserablism that characterizes so much of the rest of their output during this era.