Pop, Collaborate & Listen

It feels like it's taken forever but here we are at the end of season 5, our journey through 1994. And as is now tradition we have put an episode together to discuss what our own personal top ten lists of the best albums released during the year are. After a brief chat about some of the albums that NEARLY made our top tens we then get into it and have a lovely conversation about bands like Portishead, Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, Senser, NIN, Kyuss and loads of others. We're also very grateful to some of our friends who contributed their thoughts about their favourite albums of 1994 - big love to the wonderful comedians Stephen Grant and Rich Wilson, and Steve & Gaz from Trve.Cvlt.Pop - stay tuned right at the end of the episode to hear their whole conversation about their choices where Steve manages to not mention the Chaka Demus & Pliers album which frankly none of us could have predicted. If you want to check our our playlist with songs from each of our own choices on it then you can find it here. We will be back ASAP with a whole new season of albums to look at as we go through 1995 but until then enjoy this episode and as always please do let us know your own faves from '94 if we totally missed them out.

For our last "proper" episode in season five before we get into our 1994 end of year round-ups we return to a band that we've covered a couple of times before. And while you could argue that we realistically shouldn't be covering this record because it's not a studio album and is half full of previously released tunes, well... shut up. We're very obviously too big of fanboys not to do this one as well. And to help us out with discussing such a big record we are joined by the brilliant Niall Bakewell from The Zeroes Podcast. Full disclosure: we recorded this episode a good while ago and out of sequence with the rest of this season because Niall had to make the trip over to us from Northern Ireland and he's a very busy man so we happily worked around his schedule. There are also plenty of other bands and acts that we talked about in this one as well such as Pearl Jam, Stone Roses, Sheryl Crow and, erm, Jimmy Nail. Hmmm. Along the way we do touch on some more serious subjects as you can probably imagine so this one isn't necessarily as light-hearted as other episodes but there are also some of Dave's worst jokes to date to try and balance it out. 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!

Our third REM episode but the first one that we had to delay some recording of because of too much vomiting, which was a treat for Dave. If you've heard our takes on 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic For The People' you'll know that we absolutely loved those but we weren't even a fraction as familiar with this one at all. Also this is an absolute beast of an episode in terms of running time, mainly because of the total deluge of album and single releases within the five week time period in late 1994 that we were looking at so we won't be offended if you skip those sections if those aren't your favourite bits. But if you do skip them you'll miss us talking about the likes of Korn, Shellac, Digable Planets, Refused, Shampoo and obviously East 17. 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!

So here's what happened. We scheduled an episode on Eric Clapton's 'From The Cradle' album from 1994, made a big old list of all the other records we were going to discuss during the episode that got released at the same time but then realised that the Clapton record was just a collection of blues cover versions, not his own songs. And the rules we have say that we don't need to cover that sort of nonsense and we therefore chose to skip it. However, there were too many albums and singles which we planned to chat about to just bump into the next episode because the list of releases for THAT one is also pretty massive and so we came to the decision to make a mini/bonus episode which was just us doing the albums and singles sections. And frankly we know that for some of our listeners that's all the really want anyway. So here it is, a filler stopgap episode before we come back into the proper timeline with the REM one. If you do want to hear the Eric Clapton album (and all of the singles we discuss herein) then you can always head to this episode's companion playlist and knock yourself out there. Cheers!

When you're talking about bands that defined 90s music it's hard not to include Oasis which means that simply doing an episode on their debut album 'Definitely Maybe' from 1994 is a minefield because everyone has an opinion on this one, usually either VERY positive or VERY VERY negative. Krister had this album at the time and remembers enjoying it for the most part, Dave has never previously deliberately listened to Oasis in his life but still knows most of the songs on here through mere osmosis. Will either of us end up loving this one by the end of a reassessment? Not completely, no, but we both have songs on here that we really love it turns out. We also talk about bands like Portishead, Manic Street Preachers and, erm, Indie Kylie along the way. 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!

Hey, stop that sniggering at the back. Just because a Prince album is called 'Come' doesn't mean that it's all smutty and full of filth. Oh wait no, that's exactly what it means. Recommence sniggering if you wish. If you want to hear Prince croon about oral sex and orgasms then have we got a treat for you in this episode. Conversely if you want to hear Krister find it excruciatingly embarrassing having to listen to Prince's sexy talk then you're also in luck. Thankfully we're also able to chat about acts such as Jeff Buckley, Gravediggaz and Orbital so it's not all wall to wall smut. 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! 

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.