Pulp have shared a moody and sultry cover of Johnny Cash‘s ‘The Man Comes Around’, recorded for The Hack drama series.
The new release sees Jarvis Cocker and co. put their own distinctive spin on the latter day Cash classic, having featured in a pivotal moment in the recent ITV drama series, which documents the 2011 phone hacking scandal that led to The News of the World closing.
Rough Trade shared the cover on Instagram today (Monday November 24), and Cocker shared in a statement: “‘The Man Comes Around’ is a cover of a song by another JC: Johnny Cash, no less”.
While the original sees Cash hone in on a stripped-back country vibe, Pulp’s new cover introduces a more ambient and open feel to the track, and on top of the swirling instrumentals, Cocker’s vocals take on more of an intriguing, spoken-word approach.
In The Hack, the song was featured at the critical moment when the general public becomes aware of the hacking scandal, and how it was used in relation to the case of the murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler.
It was director Lewis Arnold who wanted the track to feature at this specific moment, particularly given its symbolic lyrics of judgment and reckoning. Rather than opting for the original Johnny Cash version though, he sought out a British artist to cover it, so it aligned better with the series.
Screenwriter Jack Thorne (Adolescence, National Treasure, Enola Holmes) also pushed for Cocker to be involved in the soundtrack, having previously described the frontman as his “hero”, and including Pulp’s Glastonbury performance of ‘Common People’ as one of his Desert Island Discs.
The series, which is available to watch now, is set between 2002 and 2012, and follows the real-life effort of investigative journalist Nick Davies (played by David Tennant) to uncover the evidence of phone hacking at the British newspaper. It also stars Robert Carlyle and Toby Jones, and is produced by the team behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
For Pulp, the cover arrives shortly after the Sheffield band announced a one-off headline show at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park taking place next summer, and were confirmed as headlining End Of The Road 2026 alongside CMAT and Mac DeMarco.
The band released their first new album in 24 years, ‘More’, earlier this year, and it saw them both shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Prize and lock in a surprise performance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
Since then, they have also performed some songs for an NPR ‘Tiny Desk’ appearance, and, on Friday (November 21), it was exclusively revealed by NME that Cocker is set to return to BBC Radio 6 Music for a one-off festive special next month.
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