As Noddy Holder keeps on reminding everybody, "It's Christmas!!!". So to celebrate instead of the usual format this episode finds us looking back, and discussing the general state of the physical album based music industry. To help us in this endeavour we are joined by special guest Paul Sinclair, the founder of influential music website SuperDeluxeEdition.com. We also hang our heads in shame at numerous schoolboy errors, answer a few listener's questions, and Tim once more tries to make a case for McCartney II as a masterpiece, but this time with Paul on his side.

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Steven and Tim find themselves marvelling at the greatness of what they’d assumed was a typically flat mid-1980s placeholder year. Talk Talk, The Smiths, Peter Gabriel, Arthur Russell, Miles Davis, Metallica, Momus, XTC, Prince and many an Album Years drinking game favourite are discussed. We also discover that Tim saved a man from drowning while listening to Depeche Mode, and Steven forever associates Peter Hammill’s Nadir’s Big Chance with vile pink medicine.

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The boys' time machine lands in 2006 and the fresh fields of 2001 seem to have become neglected and funky (and not in a glorious James Brown kind of way). Artists discussed include Scott Walker, The Who, Thom Yorke, Joanna Newsome, Arctic Monkeys, Sparks, The Flaming Lips and more. Elsewhere, the fractious duo fiercely debate the merits of Marmite. Yum? Yuck?

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2001, a music odyssey! Tim and Steven venture into the 21st century and, against expectations, they like what they see. Good Lord, it might even be a Golden Age! Artists discussed include Radiohead, Opeth, Bjork, Tool, Elbow, Mercury Rev, Brigitte Fontaine, The Caretaker, Prefuse 73 and Prefab Sprout (with a special shout out to Paddy MacAloon's beard).

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Giving overviews of the years that in the duo's opinion define the era of ‘the classic album’, Season Two opens with 1981. Taking in Post-Punk, Electro-Pop, Metal, Progressive, Jazz and more, in this edition Wilson and Bowness discuss artists as diverse as Japan, A Certain Ratio, Rush, Grace Jones, Rupert Hine, OMD, Pat Metheny, Iron Maiden, Magazine and others. Against all odds, they also make a valiant attempt to defend Phil Collins' masterwork Face Value! Launched at the beginning of the UK lockdown in 2020, The Album Years ended up being in the Top 5 music podcast charts in nearly 30 countries.

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Tim declares 1974 the year of ‘Peak Prog’, while elsewhere Bowie the dog and Tim’s neighbour’s electric drill make debut podcast appearances.

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In the latest episode the guys venture into the nineties. Extra fun can be had by joining in with a drinking game as you prepare to down one every time Tim mentions Robert Fripp or Steven mentions industrial music!

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Tim even sounds like he's beaming in from a barn circa 1969 on this one, as the duo bring you more schoolboy errors in the third of their “9” trilogy. Oh, and it’s 69 minutes long, can you see what they did there?

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Tim and Steven try to to figure out why they don't understand the appeal of an album that regularly appears near the top of greatest albums of all time lists.

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Can it be that the album Tim and Steven finally agree is their unanimous favourite of the year is a 3 hour minimalist opera? Find out by listening to sides 3 and 4 of the double album that is 1979.

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