Pop, Collaborate & Listen

Well this is a massive album and deserves a lot of time devoted to it, so we did. Fair warning - there are some subjects touched upon in our discussion that might be a bit too much for some people; the album itself is all about death, mortality, suicide, pain, grief etc and so we talk about our own issues and experiences with such things so if you think this might be a bit too heavy for what is no...

It was 1992, a time of musical turbulence and experimentation, when new and exciting bands were cutting through the dead weeds of a changing music industry and forever leaving their mark on a brave new world. So what better time for Mike Oldfield to have a number one album with his long-awaited sequel to 1973's original 'Tubular Bells'. We had no idea what to expect from this one, as you'll find o...

We are back! After a slight hiatus (details of why are explained in the intro) we've got a new episode for you. Thank you for bearing with us and being so lovely and patient. In this one we're chatting about INXS and their 1992 number one album 'Welcome To Wherever You Are'. Remember that one? Well, fair enough. But how does it fare nearly thirty years after release? Should it be re-evaluated? We...

Because no festivals are happening this year Dave and Krister wanted to have a very quick chat about some of their favourite times from previous years at Download watching some of the best rock and metal bands of the 90s. This is just a one-off special, totally fine if you want to skip two middle aged men reminisce about getting drunk in a field and loving live music. Also, this was recorded over...

A seven track, 73 minute long, ambient album you say? And it got to number one in the UK? Well alright then! Chuck a load of drugs in your face and join us in a journey through space on an album where we really didn't know if we'd find anything to talk about [spoilers: we definitely did]. We do chat about a LOAD of other stuff that was going on in the charts at the time as well such as Kyuss, Jimm...

Another 90s music quiz for you to play along with - this is a re-recorded version of the live quiz we do on Friday nights on  our Facebook page  at 8pm GMT so please join us for the next one if you're able, we'd love to have you along. This week we've got questions about 90s film soundtracks and name-the-next-album-in-the-sequence as well as general trivia and our wonderful music round courtesy, a...

We tried. We really did. We tried to bring you a full episode talking about Michael Ball's self-titled debut album but we just could not do it. For one thing, it's not on Spotify so we had to actually create a youtube playlist, and not all the songs are even on there so it was incomplete at best. And secondly, it's a Michael Ball album so we really, really didn't want to. Which means that we spend...

Hang on to your denim jackets everyone, it's time to get in the pit and headbang along to some proper heavy flipping metal. Iron Maiden's 1992 one album is under the microscope this week and Krister and Dave have VERY differing views on the band as will be pretty instantly clear. How does this one sound nearly 30 years after release? Does heavy metal ever really age? We also get the chance to talk...

Another 90s music quiz for you to play along with - this is a re-recorded version of the live quiz we do on Friday nights on our Facebook page at 8pm GMT so please join us for the next one if you're able, we'd love to have you along. This week we've got questions about 90s novelty hits and all-girl bands as well as general trivia and our wonderful music round courtesy, as usual, of Chris Green fro...

Strange as it may seem to us nowadays, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine had an actual official number one album back in 1992. Grebo is an oft-overlooked genre from the time: is that for the best or are we unfairly overlooking what it had to offer? With opinions ranging from "not really bothered" to "actively disliked them" between Krister and Dave will this album win them round? We talk about lo...

Here's another of the 90s music pop quizzes we did on our Facebook Live page to keep you all entertained while we're in isolation lockdown - this is the second one we did and we focused more on alternative acts of the 90s this time. There are rounds on Nu-Metal, Britpop, anagrams and general trivia to test your brain.  And there is also another brilliant music round courtesy of Chris Green from Ty...

We're back with a proper episode! Yes - we, two men in our 40s, worked out how to use Zoom and managed to record this episode while sitting in our pants in our respective bedrooms. And it turned out surprisingly well if we do say so ourselves. Another album that neither of us had actually ever heard before but obviously we know plenty of Cure songs so we were looking forward to this one. Along the...

It's Pop, Isolate & Listen this week! Everywhere is on lockdown so we decided to put together a 90s based music quiz which we held live on our Facebook page but have also uploaded for you here in case you missed it at the time. We'll hopefully be back with our normal programming next week but in the meantime test your knowledge and let us know on our social media how you did. Big thanks to Chris G...

Bonus episode alert - this was never a number one album but it's held in such high regard by both Dave and Krister that we figured it deserved an episode to discuss it. And we got our friend Si Sharp from Beat Rehab in to help us as well since he's a massive fan of it too. So we understand this is a very niche one and won't appeal to everyone, feel free to skip it if you want! But it was lots of f...

We knew it was coming - looming on our timeline like a brash, bald, pop behemoth. And here we are - Right Said Fred's actual debut album. Obviously we knew the singles already but weren't sure what to expect from the rest of it. Who know, maybe it's full of pleasant pop surprises, we shall have to see. We do get to discover the link between Jimi Hendrix, RSF and Taylor Swift though which seems unl...

Annie Lennox's debut solo album and one that neither of us really knew much about apart from the big singles. And to be honest we remember not thinking much of those at the time as well but that was nearly 30 years ago so perhaps we are being too harsh and a new listen will prove teenage us wrong. We also have brief chats about Curtis Stigers, ZZ Top and SL2, all included on this episode's Spotify...

Do you wanna get rocked? That's what we're all REALLY asking ourselves all the time, isn't it? Well, maybe Def Leppard's 1992 album 'Adrenalize' can provide some answers. For this one we are joined by special guest Darren who is Dave's oldest friend and a massive Lep fan from the 'Hysteria' album days. But what did he think of this follow up? What did Dave and Krister think for that matter?  Spoti...

The Boss is back with a long awaited album. In fact he's back with two released on the same day, but we're just looking at the one that got to number on in March 1992, Human Touch. Neither Dave nor Krister knew this one at all, or much Bruce Springsteen in general if truth be told outside of the big hits. Will this be the one that converts them to megafans? Outside of Bruce we talk about a LOT of...

Good crikey, it's Season 3 of Pop, Collaborate & Listen! And what better way to start off our journey through 1992's number one albums than Wet Wet Wet? Well, probably loads of ways to be honest but we don't make the rules. We just listen to what the pop charts dictate and then whinge about it for an hour or so each week. Neither Dave nor Krister had ever heard this whole album before because of c...

As we close the book on 1991 we run through both of our top five albums of the year, some of which may surprise you, some of which definitely won't. Feel free to agree with us or give us immense amount of grief about our choices via our various social media platforms . But before you do that, enjoy our chat and check out our spotify playlist where we picked one track off each of our album choices...

Since we have now gone through every number one album of 1991 it's time to take a look back through all the other records that came out and choose what we reckon were our favourite albums released that year. This is the first half of our conversation, the second part will come out next week. Agree with our choices so far? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know. Think you know what's going...

What a year it was for hip hop in 1991 - so many massive and great albums being released, the mainstream beckoning and big changes coming to the scene. So we're dedicating a whole episode to looking at what was going on and deciding on what we reckon our favourite albums are from the year. We are joined for this one by a special guest, the brilliant Rob Mulholland - stand up comic, professional no...

Let's get this out of the way at the start - if you don't want to hear a few pretty bad taste jokes as MJ's expense then maybe skip this one. We don't need the hassle. But if you do want to hear two people who genuinely liked the previous Michael Jackson albums discuss his first release of the 90s then step this way! Lots of chat about the new direction that producer Teddy Riley has taken things -...

While we know our own rules - we listen to and talk about every number one album of the 90s so long as it's not a compilation - we just simply could not find enough to say about Enya's 'Shepherd Moons' album and so we give it the most cursory of five minute conversations before moving onto the next on our list which is 'We Can't Dance' by Genesis. For obvious reasons, namely that we weren't 40 yea...

Continuing in the 'pop' vein for a minute, this week we're listening to Erasure's album 'Chorus' which came out in October of 1991. Neither of us were familiar with this one at all so it was very new and fresh all round. But did we enjoy it? Is it all as good as the classics we knew like 'A Little Respect' and 'Stop'? We shall have to see. And this week we get the chance to chat about other stuff...