Something Changed
‘Something Changed’ asks all the questions that lovers may have about their fate through the mighty ‘what if’. After a short, clean guitar introduction, Cocker sings “I wrote this song two hours before we met”. The first line has sparked many debates as to whether Cocker wrote the lyrics in the hope that he would meet somebody later that day, or if he meant a different song altogether. This immediate uncertainty leads us into a story filled with wonderings about where his life would be had he never met this person, a pivotal moment in his days when ‘something changed’. “When we woke up that morning we had no way of knowing / that in a matter of hours we’d change the way we were going.” Cocker perfectly explains that even if we all have a destiny, none of us will ever discover what it is.
The accompaniment follows a simple chord progression yet the entire song is one extensive crescendo building towards the final verse. Cocker’s vocals begin to exclaim while the instruments become more dynamic alongside his cries of “Where would I be now if we never met? / would I be singing this song to someone else instead?” Pulp’s expressive tale of unearthed love remains one of my very favourite tracks from the band, and is remembered as their sole sickly-sweet lovesong with only happiness shared throughout.
Words by Nancy Davis