Having left Bristol, the second stop on our virtual road trip of famous musical cities takes us across the Atlantic (and back in time a couple of decades) to Detroit, Michigan in the 1970s, as we cast our eyes (ears?) upon two albums released by arguably the most famous record company of them all, Motown. Well, Tamla actually, but who cares about details?

First up, we revisit Marvin Gaye’s groundbreaking ‘What’s Going On’ from 1971, and in doing so talk about the profound effect that Marvin’s personal experiences had on the writing and recording of the album. We also find out what Motown chief Berry Gordy thought of the album’s title track, and a song that would change the future of pop music, when he first heard it. Plus there’s a load more besides that to get into, not least of all touching on the myriad artists who were influenced and inspired by what Marvin Gaye achieved with this album (including someone who we will be talking about very soon…)

We have another installment of ‘can’t get you out of my head’ in which Tim curses the commercial for a UK-based holiday booking company for dredging up the memory of one of the 90s more puzzling hits.

Also on this week’s show we have, to be honest with you, entirely too much talk about taxes. And some surprising Paul Hardcastle based chat. I promise it will all make sense when you listen.

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating and a review of the show on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find us and it means an awful lot. Thanks for listening!***

On this week’s show we round off the first clash in our tour of famous musical cities by taking a look at Massive Attack’s entry into the battle of the Bristolian big beat behemoths, 1994’s ‘Protection’. How would the band follow up on the breakout success that was Blue Lines? Particularly after their vocalist, producer and manager had all done one and left them searching for new creative impetus? How would they deal with the fallout from that all-too-common scourge of the successful British band, a disastrous US tour? And how on earth did they manage to blag tickets for the final of USA ‘94?!?

As well as attempting to answer those questions (apart from the World Cup one, although we do have an amusing anecdote about that) we share our thoughts on the album that has sort of become known as Massive Attack’s ‘forgotten middle child’.

Elsewhere this week it’s Tim’s pick for ‘video killed the radio star’, and he takes us through something a little out of left field, but nonetheless spectacularly innovative, from a group who have built something of a reputation for memorable music videos…

And as we head off on the next leg of our (virtual) road trip, Tim reveals which two albums will be the next to do battle inside the Ring of Death.

Also this week:

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***Please take a moment to leave a rating and a review of the show on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find us and means a hell of a lot. Thanks for listening!***

DING DING DING!!! It’s New Clash Season Day! What do you mean “that’s not a thing”? We’re making it a thing dammit!!

Anyway, we kick off our new season of clashes involving famous musical cities with a trip to the sedate South West of England, gazing across the Severn estuary from good old Bristol. While we’re there we take a look at two of the leading acts in the mid-90s ‘trip-hop’ scene - Portishead and Massive Attack.

First up it’s Portishead with their 1994 debut ‘Dummy’, the Mercury Prize winning effort that came from nowhere to define an entire movement. And as usual we get stuck into an awful lot around this album, such as learning about some of the incredibly innovative recording techniques the band used (which might go some way to explaining the duration of the recording sessions...) and how they used those techniques to blend an eclectic mix of influences into something that people had never heard before.

We have another in our ‘can’t get you out of my head’ series, in which Kev explains how the newest addition to his household appears to have a fondness for Canadian country music singers…

And of course we have all of our usual meandering nonsense, including:

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating and a review of the show, on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find us and means a hell of a lot. Thanks for listening!***

And so to the final episode of our Britpop season, in which we conclude our clash of the stalwarts by reviewing The Charlatans’ fifth album, 1997’s ‘Tellin’ Stories’.

Once again there’s some heavy stuff for us to get through as we discuss the background to this album, in particular the tragic death of the band’s organ player, Rob Collins, during the recording sessions. We talk about how The Charlatans received a helping hand from another titan of the 90s British music scene, and how they dealt with the aftermath of Rob’s death by playing a couple of quiet little gigs to an audience of a quarter of a million people at Knebworth.

We also get our teeth stuck into an album that manages to blend a melange of influences, from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Funkadelic and the Chemical Brothers, to create some of the most quintessential songs of the Britpop era. And after all that we take a look at the album’s legacy, and touch on some of the other events that led to The Charlatans being given the rather undesirable moniker of ‘the unluckiest band in pop’.

Before all that we have another installment in our ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ segment, where Kev takes us through a video that, while not from the Britpop genre, is still synonymous with the 90s and which came to define the band that made it.

Also this week:

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to rate and leave a review of the show on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find us and it means an awful lot. Thanks for listening!***

***TRIGGER WARNING - this week’s show includes discussion on mental health issues including depression, self-harm and suicide. PLEASE make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to hear about those subjects, and talk to someone if you are feeling vulnerable. In the UK, the number for the Samaritans is 116 123. Take care of yourselves.***

The final clash in our Britpop season sees two of Britain’s most enduring bands go head-to-head, as we pit Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Everything Must Go’ against The Charlatans’ ‘Tellin’ Stories’. Two groups who both overcame tragedy to achieve phenomenal commercial and critical acclaim, and who used that success to outlast all of their contemporaries.

This week the Manics are up first, as Tim takes us back to 1996 to learn how the band coped with the loss of Richie Edwards and recorded one of the defining albums of the 90s. Along the way we hear about how a Phil Spector inspired indie anthem inspired the band to get back in the studio, and talk about the huge risk the band took in deciding a new musical direction. We  also find out what (the oft outspoken) Nicky Wire thinks of Pulp and Blur, and we discover which classic Britpop album influenced the album’s sound. We also have A LOT to say about ‘Manics fans’ - feather boas, tiny backpacks and all…

In our latest ‘can’t get you out of my head’ Kev speaks of the trauma of having to listen to a 90s sub-disco pop atrocity, and Tim discusses his latest act of masochism in recalling one of Britpop’s less memorable artists…

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!

***PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating and a review of the show, on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find the pod and it means a hell of a lot to us. Thanks for listening!***

Continuing our Britpop season with the second part of our ‘battle of the exes’, and after Tim guided us through Elastica’s debut album on last week’s show, this week it’s Kev’s turn to lead us through Suede’s third, and most successful, album ‘Coming Up’. Well, I say that Kev leads us through it - and to be fair he mostly does - but Tim keeps taking over the conversation and leading it down all sorts of tangents.

There’s loads of interesting stuff about Suede that we do cover, not least of all how the band recovered from Bernard Butler’s departure and the commercial failure of ‘Dog Man Star’ by recruiting a 17 (SEVENTEEN) year old guitarist and going very much ‘back to basics’ for the follow-up. We also talk about how the success of ‘Coming Up’ took its toll on the group and led to their eventual, albeit temporary, demise. In between all that we chat about, y’know, the songs on the album and what we think about them.

In this week’s ‘video killed the radio star’ we revisit a stonewall classic of the Britpop genre and find out what happened when Mansun took 25 grand in cash to Liverpool Street Station.

We of course score these two albums and find out whether it will be Justine Frischmann or Brett Anderson who comes out on top (oh grow up). And finally, Tim reveals the two albums that will go head-to-head in the final clash in our Britpop season.

Also this week:

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!

***PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating and a review of the show on whichever platform it is you listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find us and means an awful lot to us. Thanks for listening!***

We start a new clash this week, and continuing our Britpop season we take a look at two of the bands - and band leaders - that were very much at the centre of the scene. It’s Elastica vs Suede. (Also a clash that would have fit nicely into our ‘beef’ season…)

This week Tim leads us through Elastica’s 1995 self-titled debut, and there’s an awful lot for us to get through - starting with Justine Frischmann and Brett Anderson’s romantic entanglement and how her time in Suede influenced the sound she wanted to create with Elastica (but not in the way you might think).

We also talk a lot about the relationship between Justine Frishmann and Damon Albarn, aka Britpop’s ‘power couple’. We don’t talk about Justine’s love life, however, because we also need to talk about plagiarism lawsuits, appearances on Top of the Pops, and the effect that hopping across the Atlantic every 20 minutes had on the band…

We have the latest entry in our ‘can’t get you out of my head’ series, in which Kev reveals how a spot of filing led him to have a 90s hip-hop classic stuck in his head, and Tim explains how his research for this clash had ‘reminiscing’ about the dawn of girl power. We also introduce something exciting as a special treat for each of you lovely listeners (so long as you subscribe to either Spotify or YouTube music…)

Also this week, we have our usual nonsensical ramblings about tangential matters, including:

This. Is. Album Clash!

***PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating and a review on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It makes it easier for others to find the pod, and it means an awful lot to us. Thanks for listening!***

This week we conclude our trip back to the early 90s by going through Primal Scream’s seminal ‘Screamadelica’ from 1991. Winner of the inaugural Mercury Music Prize and the album that rescued Primal Scream’s career from the doldrums, we take a look back at how Andrew Weatherall, and the band, completely reinvented the art of music production to produce something the likes of which had never been heard before.

We talk about how the album is (‘allegedly’) structured to replicate the feeling of a chemically induced high, and how the recording of several songs was directly influenced by those very experiences. We speak with wonderment about how the musical compositions were created, and conclude that the only rational explanation is that Andrew Weatherall was magic.

I’ll be honest with you guys, if you’re expecting to hear a balanced critique of this album you might be a little disappointed with this one. We really struggled to find anything negative to say. In fact, Tim at times struggles to say anything at all and instead just mumbles various incoherent noises that signify his approval.

In this week’s ‘video killed the radio star’ we reminisce about one of the most iconic videos of the Britpop era, and lament the fact that we are left only to wonder what might have been had Supergrass teamed with Steven Spielberg to record a Monkees style TV show.

We of course decide which of ‘Pills ‘n’ Thrills’ and ‘Screamadelica’ is the better album (as if the above paragraphs haven’t completely given the game away), and Kev announces which two albums will be the next to enter the ring of death (before Tim basically removes all suspense by pretty much announcing which is his favourite of the two).

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to rate and review the show on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It means a lot to us and it makes it easier for others to find the pod. Thanks for listening!***

Who says that the term ‘Britpop’ has to apply only to music released between 1994 and 1997? Certainly not us, as in the latest clash in our Britpop season we journey back to the start of the 90s, don our baggy jeans and listen to two of the bands that best defined the ‘acid house’ scene: Happy Mondays and Primal Scream.

Shaun Ryder, Bez and their mates kick things off on this week’s show as we take a look through Happy Mondays’ third album, ‘Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches’. Produced by superstar DJs Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne, we talk about how the album blended the Mondays’ previous ‘indie’ sound with the burgeoning house music scene to create some of the catchiest and most iconic songs of the last 40 years. We also talk about how the band imploded in the years that followed - and how the decision to send the Happy Mondays to record an album in Barbados proved disastrous for Factory Records…

In our latest ‘can’t get you out of my head’, Kev goes full Bridget Jones, while Tim reminds us that not everything to have come out of the Britpop era is worth celebrating.

Also this week:

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to rate and review the show on whatever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It means an awful lot and it makes it easier for others to find us. Thanks for listening!***

And so to the album that defined an era. The album that became the calling card for a generation and propelled five lads from Burnage (well, four lads from Burnage and a Cockney fella - we’ll definitely get into that) onto the global stage - before they fucked it all up (which we’ve already gone into - at length - on our ‘Be Here Now’ episode).

It is, of course, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis.

After Blur dropped the ball with ‘The Great Escape’, how would the Gallagher Brothers et al follow up the runaway success of their debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’? And which of these two albums will emerge victorious in the final clash in our ‘beef’ season?

We attempt to put nostalgia aside and talk objectively about this album, and as ever there’s a lot for us to talk about, such as our thoughts on some of the track choices for this album, more on the ‘fractious’ relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher and in particular a notable flashpoint during the recording sessions, and (of course) the thorny subject of Noel Gallagher and plagiarism. We also somehow manage to go from talking about Wonderwall to wondering if Daniel O’Donnell is popular in Brazil, via condemning the musical tastes of our parents in the 90s.

In our regular ‘video killed the radio star’ segment, Tim reminds us of a classic White Stripes video and we lament that fact that we never got to see what a Lego Jack White would have looked like (probably just a Lego fella with black hair and a red and white torso in fairness).

We also have our usual whimsical ramblings, including:

Finally, as our Britpop season continues, Tim reveals which two albums will be the next to enter the ring of death…

This. Is. ALBUM CLASH!!

***PLEASE take a moment to rate us and leave a review on whichever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It means a hell of a lot and it makes it easier for others to find us. Thanks for listening!***