Album Clash - a music podcast!

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  We conclude our latest clash, and indeed our civil war season by going through New Order’s second album, ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ from 1983.  In doing so we learn how the other members of Joy Division coped with the aftermath of Ian Curtis’s suicide, how a change of name and the addition of a new member helped them move on, and how that new member was instrume...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  Yes, yes, I know it’s a few hours late again - really really sorry about that - things are somewhat hectic here at Clash towers at the moment. Anyway, we start a new clash this week, and it’s the final clash in our ‘Civil War’ season, but with a slight twist as we take a look at a band who evolved into another band following the death of one of their founder membe...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  With sincere apologies for the slightly delayed release, in this week’s pod we conclude our Paul Simon clash by casting our ears over the diminutive folkster’s (yes, I’m reusing that moniker again) most successful album, 1986’s ‘Graceland’. There’s an awful lot for us to get through with this one, not least of all the controversy that Paul Simon caused in breaking...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  We start a new clash this week as we welcome into the world of Album Clash everyone’s favourite diminutive folkster (well, everyone apart from Art Garfunkel anyway), Paul Simon. Entering the ring of death are two of Paul Simon’s most renowned solo albums, first up being his first album following the dissolution of folk’s most famous duo, his self titled effort fro...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  In this week's pod we conclude our Johnny Cash clash (yep, I'm sticking with that almost rhyme) as Kev leads us through the sixth and (thus far) final installment in the American Recordings series, 2010's 'Ain't no Grave'. I'm not going to lie to you guys, it's a pretty maudlin show this week. But what do you expect when we're going through an album recorded by a...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  We kick off a new clash this week by welcoming the man in black back into the ring of death, as we put two of his legendary American Recordings albums up against each other. First up it's Tim's job to take us through the fourth instalment, and the last album released during Johnny Cash's lifetime, 2002's 'The Man Comes Around' - a bumper album in which Johnny Cash...

This is ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR!!  To round off our rocktastic AC/DC mega clash we ask ourselves a question: How would AC/DC recover from the tragic loss of frontman Bon Scott in early 1980? Well, how does recruiting a little fella in a flat cap from the North East of England and going on to record the third most successful album of all time sound? Because that’s exactly what they did. Yep, in this...

Welcome to Album Clash! We start a new instalment in our 'ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR' season this week, and we get into full on Dad rock mode by taking in the masters of chunky riffs, driving rhythms and gravelly vocals, AC/DC. And what a fascinating couple of albums we’ve picked, as we pit Bon Scott’s final appearance on ‘Highway to Hell’ with Brian Johnson’s debut on one of the most successf...

Welcome to Album Clash! Concluding our first 'ALBUM CLASH: CIVIL WAR' clash this week, Kev picks up where Tim left off on our last pod by taking us through the last Beatles album to be recorded and the magic that was 'Abbey Road'. As might be expected, the story behind the Fab Four's last hurrah is an interesting one and we get into all of the stuff the fans want to hear about - commercial dispute...

Welcome to Album Clash! We start a new season this week, and what a blessed relief it is to not have had to deliberately listen to terrible music. We are taking things in a slightly different direction for the next few pods, because instead of pitting two albums by different artists against each other we have decided that two albums by one legendary artist will go head to head inside the ring of d...

Welcome to Album Clash! We bring our brief ‘hate listens’ season to a merciful close with this weeks album, as we go through Bob Dylan’s 1988 effort ‘Down in the Groove’ - an album widely regarded as one of, if not the, absolute worst of Dylan’s career (although admittedly most of those reviews were written in an era before Dylan released his Christmas album). And wow. It’s certainly a thing. We h...

Welcome to Album Clash! We begin a new clash in our ‘hate listens’ season and, in doing so, as Kev noted at the end of our last pod, we are sacrificing some sacred cows by sampling arguably the worst albums (‘coincidentally’ both released in the late 1980s) from two of the greatest artists of all time - David Bowie and Bob Dylan. Kicking things off this week we cast our eyes and ears over the albu...

Welcome to Album Clash! Concluding the first clash in our brief ‘hate listens’ season this week we consider a 2005 album which more than lived up to it’s name, the Darkness’ second album ‘One Way Ticket to Hell and Back’.  And what do we think of this particular slice of camp cock-rock revivalism? Well, it’s called ‘hate listens’, so fans of the Darkness be forewarned that we probably don’t have m...

Welcome to Album Clash! We start a new theme with this week’s pod, and that theme is… hate listens! That’s right, we’ve realised that we’re far too kind about the albums we review on AC and so we’ve decided to deliberately expose ourselves to some music that is, let’s say, somewhat less likely to elicit such effusive praise. And we have an absolute corker of a clash to kick us off, as we pit again...

Welcome to Album Clash! With apologies for the slightly late release, this week we bring to a close our battle of the punk heavyweights, as well as calling a halt to our musical road trip, we take a look at the Sex Pistols' first and only album 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols'. Perhaps unsurprisingly it's a long one this week, because frankly there's a shit ton for us to get throu...

Welcome to Album Clash! We start the final leg of our musical road trip as we pay a visit to London and take in the incipient punk scene in the late 1970s. And what a clash we have lined up over the next couple of shows, as two of the standard bearers for punk go head to head in the ring of death - the Clash and the Sex Pistols. First up it’s the Clash who, despite having come together over a year...

Welcome to Album Clash! This week we conclude our visit to Memphis by getting next to the Reverend Al Green and casting our irreverent, sideways glance at his seminal 1972 album ‘I’m Still in Love with You’. In doing so we spend a lot of time talking about Al’s unique vocal style (and for some reason engage in a bit of one-upmanship in trying to come up with metaphors to describe his voice), and h...

Welcome to Album Clash! The latest stop on our musical road trip sees us pay a visit to Memphis Tennessee to compare two landmark albums by two of the biggest names in soul music - Aretha Franklin and Al Green. Kicking things off on this week’s pod is Aretha’s second appearance on Album Clash, as we go her breakthrough 1967 album (her tenth!), ‘I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You’. In doing so...

Welcome to Album Clash! It’s the concluding part of our steel city battle as we take a trip back to 2006 and the debut album from Arctic Monkeys, ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not’. An album which, despite the warning from the band themselves, had us all very much believing the hype and getting behind the Monkeys as the leaders of a new generation of British guitar music. As we go th...

Welcome to Album Clash! Kev is back this week and so normal service is resumed as we continue our musical road trip by paying a visit to the steel city, Sheffield. Yes, we begin our clash between two bands who weren’t afraid to shine a light on northern working class life and to say “these are our people” - it’s Pulp vs Arctic Monkeys. First up it’s Jarvis and the gang with their 1995 smash hit ‘D...

Welcome to Album Clash! In a change to our scheduled programming, this week we DON’T begin our musical visit to Sheffield, and instead bring you the thing that every self-respecting podcast does when it runs out of ideas - a clip show. Yep, sorry guys. Kev’s not been available due to some personal issues, so to honour our commitment to bring you, our loyal and loving audience, a “new” (old) pod ev...

Welcome to Album Clash! This week we bring to a close the first stop on our musical road trip (redux), saying goodbye to the Seattle grunge scene by going through a little known album called ‘Nevermind’ by three precocious young chaps called Nirvana. Yep, it’s the album that arguably defined a generation. And, as you might expect when reviewing such a cultural behemoth, there’s quite a bit for us...

Welcome to Album Clash! Not only is it new clash week but it’s also new season week, as we fire up the RV and recommence our musical road trip! First stop on the second leg of our tour of famous musical cities is Seattle, a hitherto unremarkable city in the US Pacific Northwest until the late summer of 1991 when it became the musical epicentre of the world with the explosion of grunge. And we have...

Welcome to Album Clash! We bring to a close our live clash of the soul legends, and with it our live season, by casting our gaze over Otis Redding’s first live album ‘Live in Europe’ from 1967. Released just five months before his tragic and untimely death, this album showcases everything that was great about Otis Redding, which leads us to pondering just how great a performer he could have gone o...

Welcome to Album Clash! We start a new clash this week, and to bring our live albums season to a close we have an absolute corker, as two soul legends James Brown and Otis Redding go head to head to find out who comes out on top. First up it’s James Brown, with his 1963 breakthrough ‘Live at the Apollo’ - another of those albums which regularly features towards the top of ‘best live albums’ lists,...