Thirty years after their debut album it turns out that the Rolling Stones are still capable of getting to number one in the UK with a new record. The 90s were fucking weird. Is this actually a good album though, should the Stones still have bothered putting out new music to add to their legacy? Opinions are divided. For this episode we are joined b…

Some albums are deserving of the term 'gamechanger' and here's a massive one from 1994. The Prodigy's second album 'Music For The Jilted Generation' introduced so many people to dance music who might not previously have given it a second thought so we were very excited to do an episode on it. So excited in fact that we brought a guest in to help us…

Who's up for a bit of Swedish reggae-pop then? Who knew that was going to be a big genre in the early 90s? Apparently Ace of Base did and they gave us quite a lot of it on this, their debut* album, which got to number one in 1994. As well as discussing the merits of The Sign and All That She Wants we chat some rubbish about Suicidal Tendencies, Kyu…

We're taking a metaphorical journey to Ireland to dip our toes into the debut album by The Cranberries 'Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We'. A band that both Dave and Krister admit to not liking the majority of what they've heard but then again the majority of what they've heard is the single 'Zombie' so perhaps there's more to The Cranberr…

How in the merry hell did 2 Unlimited get ANOTHER number one album in the UK? We thought we were done with these guys after our episode in Season 4 but here we are again apparently. So is this one a drastic departure away from their hyper-cheesy pop rave previous albums? Or course not. What are you, mad? Enjoy our journey through another record of …

We are back, and so is Seal with another self-titled album. After doing Seal 'Seal' in our second season we find ourselves doing Seal 'Seal' in season 5 as well. Has the music changed or progressed? Is this a very different beast to the one that went before? What we did find is that this is up there with the most divided we have been on an album - …

We are thoroughly back into our regular episodes after a bumpy, special-riddled journey of recent times. And this one is about Erasure's sixth album 'I Say I Say I Say' from May of 1994. We have already done an Erasure album back in Season 2 and we thought that that record was just ok, maybe this one will be more up our street? Along the way we als…

Yes, yes, ANOTHER diversion from our regular journey through the 90s, this time an episode all about Senser's debut album 'Stacked Up' from May 1994. This is an album that we both have a lot of love for, one that we played over and over when it came out and so we were keen to check it out again to see how it stands up after nearly 30 years. We have…

If you've ever heard Dave talk about Blur on the podcast before you'll know that he was NOT looking forward to this episode one bit. But rules are rules and so we had to cover it and see what we reckoned - the question is did it change Dave's mind? The answer is pretty much a "no" but with some definite concessions along the way. But apart from hea…

Sound the Prog Rock Siren, we're back in business with Pink flipping Floyd and their 1994 album 'The Division Bell'. An album which the band thought at the time would be their last - did they try and mix things up for their swansong and put together a record full of upbeat happy tunes to make you laugh and dance? Well, no. This episode also sees us…

In the second of our mid-1994 sidesteps away from the actual number one albums we decided to do a full episode on Soundgarden's massive breakthrough album 'Superunknown' which was released on the same day as last episode's NIN 'The Downward Spiral'. We're both big fans of this record but came to it from different angles back in the day and so are i…

It's our 100th episode!! Which is mad enough in itself so we figured we should mark the occasion with a bonus episode on a true classic album of the 90s, Nine Inch Nails 'The Downward Spiral'. Dave came into this one already a huge fan of the record but Krister was brand new to a lot of it. Along the way we have a few clips from some old friends an…

Like a bit of existential misery and complaining with your indie guitar music, do you? Well what a lucky day you're about to have being able to hear us talk about Morrissey's fourth solo album 'Vauxhall And I' from March 1994. Both of us love some Smiths tunes but don't really know any of Moz's solo stuff so we're not sure what this is going to be …

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did two Enigma albums have to get to number one meaning we are duty bound to listen to them? 1994 continues its rollercoaster up and down ride with 'The Cross Of Changes', the second album from new age bastards Enigma. Thankfully we are able to talk about other music that was happening at the time as wel…

After last episode's adventure into pop-dancehall we're doing a pretty extreme 180 into the world of Tori Amos and her second solo album 'Under The Pink' from February 1994. Will Dave decide that these songs could also be improved with some toasting from the man Chaka D? We shall find out. We also managed to squeeze in some chat about Reel II Reel …

Season Five, people! Imagine that if you can: we have survived the albums from 1990-93 relatively unscathed and we're now diving headfirst into 1994 to see what that holds for us. And it appears to hold Chaka Demus & Pliers. We decided that we needed some help in taking this one on so we drafted in Stephen Hill from the Trve.Cvlt.Pop podcast to joi…

The second, and concluding, rundown of our own personal favourite albums from 1993 to round off Season Four with a festive bang. We also managed to rope in some fellow nerds from other podcasts to drop in with their choices so you'll find some of those clips peppered throughout the show. Make sure you listen after the closing credits to hear Steve …

On our journey through the number one albums of 1993 we got the chance occasionally to chat about some other records that came out during the year which we were particular fans of and this is our end of season opportunity to expand on those and make a list of our personal top tens. We've split it over two episodes so this is part one, kind of the l…

It's time for the first of our End-Of-Season-Four bonus episodes and we're starting with a chat about our favourite hip hop albums that came out during 1993. You can hear selections from all of our picks (except for Gunshot which isn't on Spotify so go and listen to it on YouTube instead) on our companion playlist. Feel free to get in contact with …

Well lookee here - we started this whole podcast about four years ago with a Phil Collins album and here he is again like a bald-headed returning character in the soap opera that is Pop Collaborate & Listen. Can this album live up to the heady heights of his 1990 effort 'But Seriously'? Probably not to be honest. But at least in this episode you al…

We're back with a bonafide POP monster in the form of Take That's second album 'Everything Changes' from October of 1993. Quite simply one of the biggest boy bands of the decade and indeed of all time with their breakthrough record - but does it stand up to a fresh listen nearly thirty years down the line? As well as discussing which of the Take Th…

It turns out that this was the Pet Shop Boys' first, and only, number one album which was a surprise to both of us considering how big they were in the latter half of the 1980s but neither of us had actually heard a PSB's album in full before so we went into this with pretty high hopes that there would be some gems inside. Just how many gems we did…

We've been looking forward to this one for a while - if you've already heard our episode on Nevermind then you'll know we're fans of Nirvana anyway and it was a treat to go back and revisit this album in full. Be prepared for a lot of shameless gushing from some fanboys. But you can also hear us gush about acts like Souls of Mischief, Sepultura and…

We are back after a longer than anticipated break so thank you for sticking with us (or thank you for just joining us if you're a new listener - you're very welcome), we reckon you're going to enjoy this episode a lot. We managed to bully Dave's wife Jenny into joining us to talk about Meat Loaf's massive 'Bat Out Of Hell II' album because when she…

We confess right at the start of this one that we were not fans of Ms Carey in the early 90s but tried to keep an open mind going into the episode. And it's fair to say that more than once we were very pleasantly surprised; consider some of those words completely eaten. Alongside singing along to some massive power ballads we take the opportunity t…

We've got halfway through the number one albums of 1993 and have come across this beast which was at the top spot for seven weeks that summer. Is that because it's totally amazing and the British public were right to keep on buying it? Or is it because they did an Elvis cover that was lightweight enough to get on the radio constantly? It's a myster…

What DO you do after releasing 'Achtung Baby' and already going off piste from what you're known for? Well, if you're U2 in 1993 then the answer is you go even more experimental and try new things to see what works. For this episode we have a very special guest in the form of Stephen Hill from Metal Hammer and the Riot Act podcast who is probably t…

Back with a new episode about everyone's favourite Acid Jazz hat-botherer and his band Jamiroquai and for this one we have drafted in the absolutely wonderful comedian Phil Lucas to help us out as he is a massive fan of the band and promised us he wouldn't fall out with us too much if we were nasty about Jay Kay during the recording. If you haven't…

We knew it was coming, it was inescapable. We weren't looking forward to it because surely we'll run out of things to say about what is probably going to be the same song 14 times in a row? Well it turns out we didn't run out of things to say and despite the source material this one turned out pretty well if we do say so ourselves. Inbetween marvel…

Happy Christmas! Although it's all still a bit weird and no one knows what's going to happen in the next few weeks we hope that you're all having as lovely a time as you can under the circumstances. We decided to get together for a short bonus episode and talk some rubbish about Christmas in general, Christmas music, films etc etc and obviously Kri…

Almost halfway through 1993 now and after a few episodes of more leftfield (let's just forget that we ever talked about Cliff Richard) records we've come to a big pop album in the shape of 'janet.' by Janet Jackson. Neither of us have ever heard the full album before but since seven of the songs were released as singles surely we must know quite a …

Join us in this episode for a look at one of the most influential bands of the 80s and their only album from the 90s. After the whole Manchester scene had exploded around them, with baggy and shoegaze coming to the fore and then fading out again, with their label Factory Records and their club The Hacienda becoming the absolute epitomes of cool, co…

I'm sorry, for a second there I could have sworn you said that this episode was all about a Cliff Richard album. Wait, what? Really? It actually got to number one in the UK album charts and so we have to listen to it and do a whole show on it? Fucking hell. Yes indeed, brace yourselves because this is actually happening. Songs tinged with Jesus and…

Hey, remember that time that David Bowie said he wanted to create a new form of melodic house music? Of course you do, don't pretend otherwise. This episode we are looking at his 'Black Tie, White Noise' album from April 1993 and it's definitely pretty hard to categorise. It was hailed as a return to form by some people at the time but does it hold…

Time to get spaced out and explore the world of Monster Magnet's 1993 album 'Superjudge' as requested by one of our listeners. Basically he made a big enough donation to the show via our PayPal that we couldn't say no but luckily we didn't actually want to because we both love a bit of Monster Magnet. So indulge us chatting about a load of stoner r…

We are back after a short break to have a look at what the big deal was about Suede's debut, self-titled album which was released in April 1993. Krister remembers really liking those big three first singles while Dave remembers actively hating the band and all they stood for when he was an angry 17 year old. We also get the chance to chat about Too…

In this episode we get to talk about Depeche Mode AGAIN which is always fun - after our special on 'Violator' in season one how will this fare in comparison? We have invited a very special guest to discuss it with us, the wonderful comedian/podcaster/DJ/general music nerd Rich Wilson. As you'll be able to tell, we had a lot of fun recording this on…

THAT RIFF! THAT STYLE! THOSE FLARES! With Lenny Kravitz's 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' we may be checking out an album from 1993 but it's one that was trying to sound like it was from 1970 in the first place so buckle up for double time-travelling. Krister had never heard the whole album before and Dave only had the vaguest of memories of it so we wen…

Just a quickie here - it was pointed out to us after we released our 'Walthamstow' episode that the version of 'It's Alright' that we talked about (and the one that everyone knows) wasn't the original version that was on the first release of the album. We then listened to the original version and decided it was so terrible that we really should mak…

Get out your stupid hats and prepare to be "sung" at by a load of teenagers from East London. Yes, it's been a while since we've done a full on 'pop' album but here we are with one of the biggest boy bands in the UK in the 90s and their debut album 'Walthamstow'. Containing their hits 'Deep', 'House Of Love' and 'It's Alright' as well as quite a lo…

WHAT THE HECK? Yes indeed, it's the first episode of Season 4! We've finished with the music of 1992 and are casting it off like a bootleg T-shirt that you bought outside the gig but then lost all of its backprint and one of its sleeves after just one wash. And here we are looking down the barrel of a very exciting 1993 with so many amazing bands a…

Another bonus for you to wrap up season three - this week we're doing a listener's choice of Sugar's 1992 debut album 'Copper Blue'. Both Dave and Krister remember this from the time but haven't revisited it in many years so it's all very fresh to our ears. Thanks to everyone who has listened along the way this season, we will be back with Season F…

We're back with a very special bonus episode and you can interpret "special" any way you want. At the behest of a podcast listener who donated a far too generous amount of money to our paypal link we are covering an album of his choosing. It's possible he chose this particular one because he is a massive fan and knows that Dave is as well or it's p…

Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho! Etc! Welcome to our festive themed special all about ABBA 'Gold', their Greatest Hits which was released in 1992 and became one of the best selling albums of all time. We've got a very special guest helping us out on this one in the form of comedian Sean McLoughlin who is a big ABBA fan, as is Krister. However, Dave fucki…

Here's the second part of our rundown of our top ten albums of 1992 for you. Probably not a lot of surprises in here but you simply can't argue with some of these choices - so many great albums! Thank you again to all of you listeners who sent in your own top five lists to us - you can see them all here on our website. And thank you as well to our …

Well we've done all of the UK number one albums of 1992 so as is now customary we're rounding up this season with a two-part episode of our own choices of what we reckon the best albums released that year were. Or our personal favourites at least - some of our choices probably wouldn't make any other proper Best Of list. We've also invited some spe…

It's Bon Jovi's big return after their 80s heyday - Jon Bon Jovi has cut off his big hair and the band has decided to go for a "more mature" sound in this post-grunge world of 1992. Great. Dave was a big fan of these guys in the 80s while Krister was a lot more ambivalent and had never heard this album before listening for the show. But in between …

Extra bonus content for you lucky people - in our recent episode about Rage Against The Machine's debut album we are lucky enough to talk to Andy Copping, the man behind Download Festival and general rock music guru about his experiences and memories of the album and the band. We included about half of it in the episode for time limit reasons but h…

Yes yes yes, we know that this was never a number one UK album and therefore it doesn't fit our remit, but our podcast, our rules. Both Dave and Krister are such big fans of this album that we decided to do a full bonus episode on it to give it the props it deserves. And not only that but we were lucky enough to persuade the legendary man behind Do…

We are back with a much more frivolous and light-hearted episode than our previous one so you can expect many more smutty jokes and terrible puns throughout alongside our usual incisive music knowledge and expertise. Ahem. This week we are listening to and chatting about Prince's 'Love Symbol' album which Dave has vague memories of from back in 199…