Pop, Collaborate & Listen

Some albums are deserving of the term 'gamechanger' and here's a massive one from 1994. The Prodigy's second album 'Music For The Jilted Generation' introduced so many people to dance music who might not previously have given it a second thought so we were very excited to do an episode on it. So excited in fact that we brought a guest in to help us out so huge thanks to Cliff Barnes from the Devil Times Five Horror Movie Podcast who is a Prodigy uber-fan as well with loads of insights. Among us we also talk about other acts and albums from the time like Downset, Killing Joke and Julian Cope. Oh and the Vengaboys of course but presumably that goes without saying. We also mention our May 2024 Brighton Fringe live shows, tickets for which are already on sale and can be bought from the website here. We'd love to see some friendly faces if you fancy coming along! And as always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

Who's up for a bit of Swedish reggae-pop then? Who knew that was going to be a big genre in the early 90s? Apparently Ace of Base did and they gave us quite a lot of it on this, their debut* album, which got to number one in 1994. As well as discussing the merits of The Sign and All That She Wants we chat some rubbish about Suicidal Tendencies, Kyuss and the Reverend Horton Heat among many others. We also mention our May 2024 Brighton Fringe live shows, tickets for which are already on sale and can be bought from the website here. We'd love to see some friendly faces if you fancy coming along! If you'd like to listen to the Unsung Podcast episode that we mention all about the Nazi rumours behind the band then check it out here - it's a really interesting and well put together bit of research. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!   *sort of debut but repackaged and rejigged. Don't be a pedant.

We're taking a metaphorical journey to Ireland to dip our toes into the debut album by The Cranberries 'Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We'. A band that both Dave and Krister admit to not liking the majority of what they've heard but then again the majority of what they've heard is the single 'Zombie' so perhaps there's more to The Cranberries "dan dis". As well as pointed digs at Krister's Irishness we also chat about acts like Fun-Da-Mental, Rancid and The Sp!n Doctors. Apologies for that last one. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

How in the merry hell did 2 Unlimited get ANOTHER number one album in the UK? We thought we were done with these guys after our episode in Season 4 but here we are again apparently. So is this one a drastic departure away from their hyper-cheesy pop rave previous albums? Or course not. What are you, mad? Enjoy our journey through another record of Eurohouse ridiculousness and be thankful you don't have to listen to this record as many times as we did. Thankfully we also get the chance to chat about other acts like Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Dickinson and Helmet so it's not all bad. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

We are back, and so is Seal with another self-titled album. After doing Seal 'Seal' in our second season we find ourselves doing Seal 'Seal' in season 5 as well. Has the music changed or progressed? Is this a very different beast to the one that went before? What we did find is that this is up there with the most divided we have been on an album - let us know which way you end up landing. But as well as Seal we do chat some rubbish about Fish from Marillion, the Beastie Boys and, most bizarrely, 2 Live Jews. The 90s were a very strange time indeed. And as always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

We are thoroughly back into our regular episodes after a bumpy, special-riddled journey of recent times. And this one is about Erasure's sixth album 'I Say I Say I Say' from May of 1994. We have already done an Erasure album back in Season 2 and we thought that that record was just ok, maybe this one will be more up our street? Along the way we also chat about Jeru the Damaja, Pearl Jam and, erm, Toad The Wet Sprocket so enjoy those diversions. And as always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

Yes, yes, ANOTHER diversion from our regular journey through the 90s, this time an episode all about Senser's debut album 'Stacked Up' from May 1994. This is an album that we both have a lot of love for, one that we played over and over when it came out and so we were keen to check it out again to see how it stands up after nearly 30 years. We have contributions from some of our podcast buddies peppered throughout this as well so thank you to Stephen and Gaz from Trve.Cvlt.Pop, Si from Beat Rehab and Niall from The Zeroes for sharing their memories of this record.

If you've ever heard Dave talk about Blur on the podcast before you'll know that he was NOT looking forward to this episode one bit. But rules are rules and so we had to cover it and see what we reckoned - the question is did it change Dave's mind? The answer is pretty much a "no" but with some definite concessions along the way. But apart from hearing Dave rant about Damon you can also hear us chat some nonsense about bands like Biohazard, Tricky and G Love & Special Sauce among many others. As always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

Sound the Prog Rock Siren, we're back in business with Pink flipping Floyd and their 1994 album 'The Division Bell'. An album which the band thought at the time would be their last - did they try and mix things up for their swansong and put together a record full of upbeat happy tunes to make you laugh and dance? Well, no. This episode also sees us chatting about acts such as Terrorvision, Rollins Band, Salt & Pepa and The Offspring among many many others. As always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

In the second of our mid-1994 sidesteps away from the actual number one albums we decided to do a full episode on Soundgarden's massive breakthrough album 'Superunknown' which was released on the same day as last episode's NIN 'The Downward Spiral'. We're both big fans of this record but came to it from different angles back in the day and so are interested to see if the whole thing stands up 30 years later. Hope you enjoy our chat about this one, do let us know if you agree or not and what your favourite/least favourite songs on the album are to see if we're all totally in sync on this one - you can get do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Back to normal from the next episode!

It's our 100th episode!! Which is mad enough in itself so we figured we should mark the occasion with a bonus episode on a true classic album of the 90s, Nine Inch Nails 'The Downward Spiral'. Dave came into this one already a huge fan of the record but Krister was brand new to a lot of it. Along the way we have a few clips from some old friends and former guests such as Darren from our Def Leppard episode, Cliff from the Devil Times Five horror movie podcast, Niall from The Zeroes podcast, Stephen Hill from Trve.Cvlt.Pop (and our Chaka Demus & Pliers episode where he truly shone) and Si Sharp from Beat Rehab/Nautilus Gin and other general music nerdery. Huge thanks to all of them. Hope you enjoy this episode and thanks to everyone who has listened to any of the previous 99 shows or got in contact with some pithy comments or simply liked one of our shit joke posts on social media. You're the best.

Like a bit of existential misery and complaining with your indie guitar music, do you? Well what a lucky day you're about to have being able to hear us talk about Morrissey's fourth solo album 'Vauxhall And I' from March 1994. Both of us love some Smiths tunes but don't really know any of Moz's solo stuff so we're not sure what this is going to be like going in. But it's a bumper time period for other releases as well so we get to talk about bands like Nailbomb, David Holmes and Pantera among many, many others. Oh, and fucking Doop.  As always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can get do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did two Enigma albums have to get to number one meaning we are duty bound to listen to them? 1994 continues its rollercoaster up and down ride with 'The Cross Of Changes', the second album from new age bastards Enigma. Thankfully we are able to talk about other music that was happening at the time as well such as Therapy, Beck and Low among many others.  As always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

After last episode's adventure into pop-dancehall we're doing a pretty extreme 180 into the world of Tori Amos and her second solo album 'Under The Pink' from February 1994. Will Dave decide that these songs could also be improved with some toasting from the man Chaka D? We shall find out. We also managed to squeeze in some chat about Reel II Reel ft. The Mad Stuntman, Deep Forest (at which point Krister manages to get Star Trek very wrong) and we both try for the life of us to remember who Wendy Moten is and why she had a top ten single. The episode also features various contributions from Niall of The Zeroes Podcast (whose 1990 Music episode we managed to squeeze ourselves onto) so thank you to him. As always check out the companion playlist for this episode with all of the songs we talk about included on it and please feel free to get in contact if you fancy - you can get do so via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. And you can catch up with our ongoing playlist made up of songs from all of the albums we've covered so far right here.

The second, and concluding, rundown of our own personal favourite albums from 1993 to round off Season Four with a festive bang. We also managed to rope in some fellow nerds from other podcasts to drop in with their choices so you'll find some of those clips peppered throughout the show. Make sure you listen after the closing credits to hear Steve and Sam from True Cult Pop's FULL chat that they sent over by the way as opposed to the hastily-edited-for-time-constraints version that is in the main episode. Massive thanks as well to Gaz Jones from Track One, Side One, Andrew Bird from A Funny Taste In Music and Cliff Smogo from Devil Times Five Horror Podcast for making time for us. The playlist that we made alongside these Best Of '93 shows can be found here with our picks of songs from each of the albums we talk about. If we didn't put whatever your choice of song would have been on there it's probably Dave's fault so get angry with him. You can get hold of either of us or just leave some feedback on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. So that's it for 1993 and Season Four - a season of highs and lows, from Nirvana to Cliff Richard and plenty in between. Thank you to everyone who listened and we'll be back before long with a journey through 1994!

On our journey through the number one albums of 1993 we got the chance occasionally to chat about some other records that came out during the year which we were particular fans of and this is our end of season opportunity to expand on those and make a list of our personal top tens. We've split it over two episodes so this is part one, kind of the lower end of our lists. Check it out and see if you agree with our opinions - feel free to let us know on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. We're compiling a playlist of choice songs from all of the albums we talk about as well which can be found on our Spotify.  Part two coming in a couple of days!

It's time for the first of our End-Of-Season-Four bonus episodes and we're starting with a chat about our favourite hip hop albums that came out during 1993. You can hear selections from all of our picks (except for Gunshot which isn't on Spotify so go and listen to it on YouTube instead) on our companion playlist.  Feel free to get in contact with what your own choices would have been, what did we totally miss out? Also please do let us know what your overall top five or top ten albums of 1993 would be as well as we'll be doing our own selection in the next episode and would love to hear your suggestions. Email us at pclmusicpodcast@gmail.com or stick it on our Twitter or Facebook page, whatever is easiest. Cheers!

Well lookee here - we started this whole podcast about four years ago with a Phil Collins album and here he is again like a bald-headed returning character in the soap opera that is Pop Collaborate & Listen. Can this album live up to the heady heights of his 1990 effort 'But Seriously'? Probably not to be honest. But at least in this episode you also get to hear us chat about MC Ren and Guns & Roses, and you can hear Dave sing along to quite a bit of Onyx. Consider yourselves warned. We also mention a few links that we recommend checking out: Dave's flashy new website where you can find his Edinburgh show ADHDave to watch for free on youtube; and Gaz Jones' music podcast Track1Side1.  As always come and say hello on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages where we always post terrible jokes about the most recent album we've done so you can give us grief on there. And check out our ongoing Spotify compilation playlist featuring "the best" songs from every single number one album we've done to date. Thanks as always to everyone who has given us the price of a pint on our paypal or even just spread the word and told some friends about our show - it warms our hearts every time we get mentioned in a Twitter thread asking what podcasts people are listening to or would recommend to others. Until next time!

We're back with a bonafide POP monster in the form of Take That's second album 'Everything Changes' from October of 1993. Quite simply one of the biggest boy bands of the decade and indeed of all time with their breakthrough record - but does it stand up to a fresh listen nearly thirty years down the line? As well as discussing which of the Take That boys is simply dreamy we are able to discuss some other acts and records from the time such as Eazy E, Pearl Jam and the one and only Shaquille O'Neal. We also mention a few links that we recommend checking out: Dave's flashy new website where you can find his Edinburgh show ADHDave to watch for free; Stephen from Riot Act's new podcast Trve.Cvlt.Pop!; and Remfry from Riot Act's new one 3 Is The Magic Number.  As always come and say hello on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages where we always post terrible jokes about the most recent album we've done so you can give us grief on there. And check out our ongoing Spotify compilation playlist featuring "the best" songs from every single number one album we've done to date. Thanks as always to everyone who has given us the price of a pint on our paypal or even just spread the word and told some friends about our show - it warms our hearts every time we get mentioned in a Twitter thread asking what podcasts people are listening to or would recommend to others. Until next time!

It turns out that this was the Pet Shop Boys' first, and only, number one album which was a surprise to both of us considering how big they were in the latter half of the 1980s but neither of us had actually heard a PSB's album in full before so we went into this with pretty high hopes that there would be some gems inside. Just how many gems we did uncover remains to be seen. But we also chatted about other classic acts such as Afghan Whigs, Duff McKagan and Dave gets to give us a very level-headed opinion on Damon Albarn and Blur. Fun times. You can hear the full Pet Shop Boys album as well as loads of the bands and songs we chat about on this episode's companion Spotify playlist. As always come and say hello on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages where we always post terrible jokes about the most recent album we've done so you can give us grief on there. And check out our ongoing Spotify compilation playlist featuring "the best" songs from every single number one album we've done to date. Thanks as always to everyone who has given us the price of a pint on our paypal or even just spread the word and told some friends about our show - it warms our hearts every time we get mentioned in a Twitter thread asking what podcasts people are listening to or would recommend to others. Until next time!