Black Band T-Shirt

Nikki and Chris conclude their discussion of Girls Aloud's albums with guest Lucy, covering Tangled Up and final album, Out Of Control. Stick around to play along with the bonus quiz feature, 'So I Tuned In To Pop Idol, Which Was The Style At The Time'. The playlist of our top song choices is here, should you wish to listen along: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Ebp0Mhz5nfaIfC532SAy...

Lucy returns to Black Band T-Shirt with a slight shift from her previous topic of choice (Metallica), as she joins Chris and Nikki to discuss the career and rank the five albums of TV talent show success story and acclaimed pop group, Girls Aloud! In part 1 you can enjoy a god ol' chinwag about the origins of the group, general thoughts and deeper discussion of the first three albums: Sound of...

Welcome to the new bonus format from Black Band T-Shirt Podcast! Each time, Chris & Nikki take a music compilation and take it in turns to eliminate tracks one by one until only the best three remain. These get added to a playlist that will eventually create the greatest compilation of all time! Where better place to start than the first ever That's What I Call Music compilation from 1983.

Nikki and Chris continue their stumble through The Pogues' discography, from the commercially successful 'If I Should Fall From Grace with God', through the less successful 'Peace and Love' and 'Hell's Ditch' and Shane's departure from the band. We might not have loved it all, but there's plenty to talk about! Stick around for this episode's feature, &#3...

In the first episode of 2024, Nikki and Chris rank the five Shane MacGowan era albums from The Pogues! We've been keen to do this one for a while and figured that, with Shane's passing late last year, it would be a good time to take it on. Don't forget to listen along to our top picks with the playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WEsEBhWrATH1pCOOYkgW1?si=f883795aab2e482d

Nikki and Chris have left it right up to the last minute to discuss their favourite albums of 2023! They go through some (many) honourable mentions and then (because we are a ranking podcast, after all) give the rundown of each of their top ten albums of the year! To guide you through, here's a playlist with a song from every album mentioned: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qQ0NU7FaKES6uH57...

Well slap my baubles and call me Jolly Saint Nick! It's time for a bit of harmless bonus festive ranking, as Nikki and Chris get into some of their favourite Christmas films and the musical delights to be found within! If it's a song and appears in a film loosely linked to Christmas, it counts!

Just the one slightly longer part for this episode, as Chris and Nikki take on the 5 albums of weird, post-punk pioneers, Magazine! Stick around to the end for the special feature: "Marge, I've Never Read a Magazine in My Life and I'm Not Gonna Start Now!" CONTENT WARNING: Contains discussion of lyrics involving sexual assault and suicide.

Nikki got to choose the subject of her birthday episode, so she chose for Chris and herself to rank Jeff Buckley's Top 5 Songs! What a treat! They discuss highlights from the many posthumous releases before revealing their Top 5 songs, ending with a chat about/general gushing over the legendary album, Grace.

After delving into and ranking Animal Collective's discography back in July, Nikki and Chris are already returning to the experimental indie poppers to discuss their new album, 'Isn't It Now?' Keep listening to the end to find out where they'd rank it amongst the existing albums.

Nikki and Chris continue their discussion of Turnover's discography with the most recent two albums: Altogether and Myself in The Way. Stick around for this episode's bonus feature, "Lyric? What's a lyric?", where both give their top 5 songs that mention baked goods in the lyrics (but where said baked good is not in the song title)! Catchy, eh?! The playlist with favourite Tu...

With the most contemporary subject for a little while, Chris and Nikki rank the five albums of Virginia shapeshifters, Turnover. Part one sees a general chat about the band and where they fit in the musical landscape as well as discussion of their first three albums: Magnolia, Peripheral Vision and Good Nature.

We go all the way back to Episode 15 to discuss PJ Harvey's 10th album, July 2023's ethereal, wondrous 'I Inside The Old Year Dying'. Chris decides where this fits within his existing ranking and, due to not being present for the original episode despite being a Polly fan, Nikki gives her full PJ Harvey album ranking as of this week!

Chris and Nikki are back with Paul Chave for the third and final part of their journey through the discography of The Smashing Pumpkins. In this part, the albums from the pulpy pumpkin mash that is the latter era of the band's career are discussed with... varying enthusiasm. Stick around at the end for this episode's special feature, 'Famous Musician, Smiling Politely', inspired by...

Welcome back, as Chris, Nikki and special guest ranker Paul continue discussing the ups and downs of The Smashing Pumpkins discography! Part 2 starts with a chat about why Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness is Chris and Paul's favourite Pumpkins album and Nikki's number two, followed by thoughts on Adore and Machina/The Machines of God.

At long last, we bring you our ranking and deep dive into the discography of The Smashing Pumpkins! Joining Chris and Nikki on this murky odyssey is returning guest and front man of Lincoln's Bat Flattery, Paul Chave! In part one, you can hear everyone's rankings, a long ol' chat about our thoughts on The Smashing Pumpkins in general (because, oh boy, is there a lot to discuss) and cha...

Chris and Nikki are back from a brief summer break to discuss their personal Top 5 Songs from the discography of Macclesfield/Salford/Manchester's post-punk pioneers, Joy Division. The two albums get discussed in detail along with the compilations, Substance and Still, before they settle on the top 5. As always, a playlist of the top picks can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2...

Lucy returns to chat about Metallica's long awaited new album with Chris and Nikki and decides where it would fit amongst the rest of their discography,

And I want to rank around with you... Chris and Nikki conclude their celebration of Animal Collective's discography with Strawberry Jam, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Centipede Hz, Painting With and Time Skiffs. There's also a little pondering on new single, Defeat, and whatever might come next! The special feature for this episode is "Am I so out of touch? No. It's Pitchfork who ar...

May I rank with this? This first randomly-selected-subject-matter episode turned out to be quite the journey of discovery (and occasionally despair) for Chris and Nikki! Listen to this first part to hear how they each rank the 11 albums of Animal Collective's discography and for discussion of Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, Danse Manatee, Campfire Songs, Ark, Sung Tongs a...

Desiiiiiiirrrreeee (hey, hey, hey, HEY!) we've got a review for you! A couple of weeks ago, Chris and Nikki hopped on the tube to Brockwell Park for Wide Awake festival and discuss the musical, culinary and meteorological highlights of the day! We've made a little playlist in case you want a taster of the sets mentioned: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1UWKFJjct0OOKistZBRUpB?si=0161d043a...

We're ranking off the edge of the world! Chris and Nikki conclude their journey through the discography of Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the divisive 'Mosquito' and 2022's succinct comeback, 'Cool It Down'. In this episode's special feature, 'Frock and/or roll', we rank our top 5 iconic festival set outfits. Be sure to get in touch with any thoughts of your own on Twitte...

Wait... they don't rank you like I rank you. Chris and Nikki rank and explore the discography of New York garage-rock revivalists/disco-post-punk pioneers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs! In part 1, we delve into the huge debut, 'Fever To Tell', the more polished follow up, 'Show Your Bones', and the ambitious 'It's Blitz!' All of our top choices are in the Spotify playlist for th...

Where do we go from here? Turn all the lights down now, Smiling from ear to ear (I'm rankin' this!) Our breathing's got too loud (I'm rankin' this!) Chris and Arkady continue to wade through the glistening, then increasingly murky waters of blink-182's discography. Part 2 includes (probably too in depth, let's be honest) assessments of: blink-182 (untitled , Neighborhoo...

Everything has fallen to pieces, Earth is dying, rank me Jesus. Get comfy, Black Band T-Shirt is back with a new episode of typically, bum-numbingly epic proportions as long time friend and former bandmate, Arkady English, joins Chris to rank and discuss the albums of Californian pop-punk silly boys, blink-182! In Part 1 we discuss the first four (proper) albums of the band's career: Cheshire...