ALBUMBLE

After our elongated Eurovision hiatus we are back - with a Eurovision related episode! France Gall famously won the Eurovision Song Contest in the mid 60s, bringing a touch of the contemporary "yé-yé" sound to a sleepy, easy listening audience. She never really went away after her win but this particular album was deemed one of her 'comeback' releases. The songs on "Babacar" have a range of styles...

AUSTRALIA, GEORGIA, MOLDOVA, MONTENEGRO, POLAND, PORTUGAL & UNITED KINGDOM Accidental wrestling chat   A block of flats Well, it worked for Lena Czechia of the Balkans...? Man at C&A Twang on your harp The revolving door of artists

AZERBAIJAN, AUSTRIA, BULGARIA, CZECHIA, ESTONIA, SAN MARINO & SWITZERLAND Apex predator it's an impressive rolodex Beenie Man He lives with the strapless lads on Sadboi Street The dance break comes early Mumsnet Band Covering up the punch

Shite Or Alright is back for another year! They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...   Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the e...

Shite Or Alright is back for another year! They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...   Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the e...

Shite Or Alright is back for another year! They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...   Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the e...

Sorry for the delay but illness, school camp and technical issues got a bit in the way - but it's here ! This band from the south coast of England have been going for almost a decade it is seems that in this album they have tried hard to collate the best of what they have produced and show their point of view. Many of the conversation points that turn up in this album seem to revolve around the fa...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! In our first podcast of 2026 we start almost where we left off by looking at another album from the mid-90s but this one is seen and heard through a VERY different lens. Seen by many (and wrongly) as a bit of a one-hit wonder, Leicester's Cornershop started off their album careers with this collection of ditties which at some points feel a little disjointed but leads us...

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!   This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countrie...

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!   This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countrie...

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!   This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countrie...

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!   This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countrie...

In our final podcast of 2025 we look at a tricky album from the mid-90s which leaves us with rather more questions than answers regarding its release. On the plus side, its reason for being chosen for the podcast gives us a chance to share an interesting anecdote with you! We look into “Indian Summer” by Go West – an album released 5 years after their previous one AND containing a song which was a...

In this month's offering we analyse one album in order to review a whole slew of albums under the PWL umbrella. "F.L.M" was the only studio album by the duo Mel & Kim and was almost entirely produced and written by (Mike) Stock (Matt) Aitken and (Pete) Waterman whose signature pop/dance/electronic sound can be heard through many a UK chart act in the 80s and 90s. The Appleby sisters were one o...

Hello and welcome back to ALBUMBLE and as you might hear we may be sounding a *little* different to normal! In this pod we look at a very recent UK number one album - but by a band very few people may have actually heard of! This northern band seems to have a dedicated and stalwart fan base which was able to vote with their feet - or should that be purchase with a few clicks - enough copies of thi...

Hello and welcome back to ALBUMBLE! Apologies for the wait for this episode to come out but we do profusely apologise and go through why we waited before doing the podcast properly! In this pod we turn back the clock to a time - before both of us were actually born - where musical tastes and technology we in flux. Although the EPs run was extremely finite, it has been re-released on a couple of oc...

In a strange turn of events, Andy - not Ann - chose an album with Eurovision connotations, furthermore with Liverpool Eurovision connections. Stef Caers AKA Gustaph could well be described as the Nico Hulkenberg of Belgian pop: almost 20 years after their first foray into showbusiness they finally got the success they deserved. The album uses the catapult of the Eurovision hit to explore the wider...

It was Ann's choice of album this time and we delve into the back catalogue of a band that was lightly weaved into the fabric of 80s - and 70s and 90s - music but has never truly received the plaudits they deserve. In this iteration we see the band evolve from communist punkers to slick funk samplers. During the episode we talk (not in much detail as we would be here for weeks) about how, on the s...

Welcome back to a more modern episode of ALBUMBLE. We look back to the late 2000's and a bit of American indie pop rock with more than a shake of Britishness on the top. Black Kids hailed from Jacksonville, Florida and the band's multi-ethnic and mixed-gender make up seemed to give their music a unique edge and viewpoint culminating in this album which was the band's second release. The album has...

We are back!!!! After our short yet slightly stressful Eurovision break we look back over the last few weeks and have a quick round up of news regarding some of our past ALBUMBLE alumni. On the subject of this podcast, we delve into the 60's with an album by The Monkees. "Headquarters" was the band's third album - and the third that reached number 1 on the Billboard album chart - although it conta...

Welcome back to the final Shite Or Alright for 2025! We start off this last - and hopefully exciting - episode by noticing if the similarity between seemingly disparate jingles may actually be by design. Ann also dumps the idea of Eurovision Tariffs because the EBU might be able to get some extra funding and expertise by appearing on a certain BBC business show... Once we have our final show winne...

Welcome back to episode 5 of Shite Or Alright 2025! Andy starts the podcast by revealing he has some kind of Eurovision malaise but don’t worry he has a belated Belgium-related fix to relieve it. We swiftly begin the judging with a lot of explaining to do as it has ended up being a rather loaded episode!!!!  So here we go! SHOW 5 - THE YEAR OF THE PLINTH Albania, France, Lithuania, Malta, Netherla...

Welcome back to Shite Or Alright for 2025! We start the podcast by considering how good Gilles de Coster, the Belgian host of “De Mol”, is at keeping secrets and a convincing straight face but that is all after relating the Monty Hall problem to why USB ports are so random… We eventually get onto the job at hand and judge some Eurovision songs… with some rather surprising results!!!!  So here we g...

Welcome back to Shite Or Alright for 2025! We start by wondering of the recent rise in talk about 'tariffs' could be leveraged in Eurovision and think about the categories of Eurovision tropes that could be incentivised and sanctioned so the entrance fee for the contest could be slightly negotiated. After that we judge 6 of this year's crop from 0 to 5 and find a show winner! So here we go! SHOW 3...

Welcome back to Shite Or Alright for 2025! We talk about why we didn't really see Nemo coming for the win last year (I blame trains) but that 's after we start with a brief sojourn into reaction videos - and not just Eurovision ones - before Andy and Ann give their views on each song & performance giving them a score from 0 to 5. So here we go! SHOW 2 - SWEEP FOR ESC 2026 Armenia, Finland, Ice...