Pop, Collaborate & Listen

S06E21b Best Albums of 1995 - Part 2

And here are our top picks for the best albums of 1995, the top halves of our top tens. Which means we get to talk about some absolute classics by the likes of Monster Magnet, GZA, Tricky, Radiohead and Faith No More. What a proper buffet of treats. Interspersed along the way are some contributions from top comedians Rich Wilson and Sean McLoughlin and tip-top podcaster & journalist Stephen Hill from Trve.Cvlt.Pop - massive thanks to all of them for taking the time to sent us their thoughts. If you'd like to hear our playlist of the songs we chose from all of our albums of 1995 then here you go, enjoy. We shall return soon enough to start taking on the albums of 1996!

S06E21a Best Albums of 1995 - Part 1

Here we are with our 1995 end-of-year-recap! In this episode, the first of two, we are running through the bottom halfs of both our Top Ten album lists of the year. And it was a tough one whittling it down to a mere 10 records this year - as we discuss there were in the region of around 250 albums that came out that are worth considering which is frankly insane. But we managed to do it and here we get into the likes of Clutch, Low, Leftfield and Rancid among others. We also hear from some of Dave's stand-up comedian buddies letting us know what their favourites are as well so big thanks to Phil Nichol, Tal Davies and Jason Patterson for allowing Dave to bully them into recording something for us at a show. The next episode will finish off our Top Tens and reveal what our absolute favourite albums of the year are so stay tuned...

S06E20 Queen 'Made In Heaven'

And so we come to the last proper album of 1995 that we're looking at, and it's the last "proper" album by Queen. Released four years after Freddie Mercury died this is compiled from unreleased vocal recordings, old solo songs and B-sides so it's a strange old mix of stuff. We also have about a million other albums and singles to chat about that were released in the same time period, acts such as Gza, The Pharcyde and Michael Barrymore. Wait, what? As mentioned on this episode, the next thing we're going to be recording will be our round-up of the best albums from 1995 so we would love to get your top 5, top 10, whatever you'd like to send us. You can email pclmusicpodcast@gmail.com or hit us up on any of the social media. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E19 Pulp 'Different Class'

Another very very big album from 1995 to talk about here - one that was massive in the Britpop boom but also crossed over into the mainstream in the UK at least. Pulp's Different Class' has their biggest singles on it but is also full of songs about dead end lives and seedy smut so there's something for everyone in here. And as well as chatting about Pulp we discuss the likes of Cypress Hill, Sunny Day Real Estate and Tricky. And East 17 obviously. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E18 Simply Red 'Life'

Well well well, Mr Hucknall, we meet again. Simply Red's 1995 album 'Life' was a big seller and had a massive number one single on it but kind of feels like it doesn't get remembered much when people look back. We certainly didn't know anything much about it going into this episode and to be honest we kind of wish it had stayed that way. But we do have probably the biggest albums and singles sections that we've ever done, loads of bands that we get to talk about like Smashing Pumpkins, Incubus, Anthrax and obviously Cliff Richard. Plus we get to add a song to our "much-loved" Give Me Some Reggae! playlist where we add terrible reggae songs from albums we're covering that are in no way reggae albums which is always the sign of a good episode. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E17 Oasis (What's The Story) Morning Glory?

Well now, here's one of the biggest albums we've had to look at to date - an absolute monster that came out in October 1995 and just changed everything it seemed. Oasis mania took over the UK and a lot of the rest of the world as well. And if you're assuming that we might give this one a kicking then prepare to be disappointed! We do also talk about things like Mr Bungle, Earthling and obviously PJ & Duncan. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E16 Mariah Carey 'Daydream'

Another Mariah Carey episode? In this economy? Well ok then, if we simply must. This time we're listening to her 1995 album 'Daydream' which was another massive seller, boosted by singles such as Fantasy, One Sweet Day and Always Be My Baby. It may have only been number one in the UK charts for one week but in the states this was another total monster for Mariah, as we discuss. We also have the chance to natter about the likes of Cypress Hill, Deftones and DJ Food so that's always fun. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E15 Blur 'The Great Escape'

Strap in for this one! If you're a Blur fan, you might want to just move onto another episode but if you're a fan of Dave being furious then this is going to be a treat. We're listening to The Great Escape and while Krister doesn't mind a bit of Blur from time to time, Dave is very firmly not a fan. A fact that is very clear from the outset. But we also get to discuss the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flaming Lips and the Outhere Brothers and some of their less radio-friendly songs. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E14 Levellers 'Zeitgeist'

After a few weeks off over Christmas 2025 we are back and starting off the new year with a look at 1995's 'Zeitgeist' album by the Levellers. Neither of us were fans of the band back in the day and don't know this record at all really so fingers crossed we get some fun new songs to get our teeth into. As well as talking about the Levellers and trying not to mention fire poi too much we happen upon the likes of KRS One, Lisa Loeb and Michael Bolton on our journey through what else was going on in September '95. Good lord. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E13 The Charlatans 'The Charlatans'

The Charlatans released their fourth album, just called 'The Charlatans', in September 1995 and here we are to give it a once over. Our musical tastes are shown in stark contrast on this one as Krister really enjoys it while Dave is left pretty cold. We do get the chance to gabble about the likes of Money Mark, Slayer and Whigfield though so a bit of something for everyone. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E12 Boyzone 'Said And Done'

Please lord forgive us for whatever we did to deserve this album in our run of 90s number ones. We knew it was on the horizon and finally here we are. It's only a mild spoiler to say we weren't looking forward to listening to this one and it turns out we were pretty justified in those fears. Sorry if you're a Boyzone fan - you might want to skip this episode. But at least you, the listener, can enjoy our sacrifice and we do at least get to talk about some other music from the time such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rancid and Urge Overkill so it's not wall to wall slagging off boybands. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E11 Black Grape 'It's Great When You're Straight' with special Guest Stephen Hill

It's 1995, it's the summer and all you want to do is party so what do you need? You need a new album featuring Shaun Ryder to neck a load of drugs to and throw yourself around a dancefloor. We're joined by our lovely friend Stephen Hill from the Trve.Cvlt.Pop podcast to cast an eye across Black Grape's debut album 'It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah' and debate its party credentials among other things. The TCP lads have their own episode all about this album on their patreon page already so check it out if you want to hear more of Stephen's opinions. Or, indeed, simply less of ours. We also take the chance to chat about acts such as Moist, Goldie and of course Dog Eat Dog. And we threw in a fruit-based pop quiz in the middle of the episode for a bit of fun because why not, eh? As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E10 Supergrass 'I Should Coco'

Ooh, hold onto your sideburns, it's the debut album by Supergrass from 1995, 'I Should Coco'. You may well know this album because of the ubiquity of the single 'Alright' and if so then try not to run screaming from this episode as there are 12 other songs on here that aren't that one. There are also plenty of other acts that we get to talk about from around this time period such as Raekwon, Whipping Boy and Tricky so that's a treat for sure. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E09 Bon Jovi 'These Days' with Special Guest Chris Green

We already tackled Bon Jovi's 'Keep The Faith' album back in Season Two and here we are again face to face with some rock cowboys, this time to have a listen to 'These Days' from 1995. And to help us out we are joined by our good friend Chris Green, a man who has played guitar alongside more rock royalty than you could shake a Fender Stratocaster at and someone who really knows his classic Bon Jovi albums. So will this pass muster? Will it join those other albums like 'New Jersey' and 'Slippery When Wet'? I mean obviously not but let's see what we all reckon. The Bon Jovi album was number one for four weeks so we get to talk about loads of other album and single releases from such acts as Reef, Foo Fighters, Kyuss and WASP. Hmmm. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E08 Michael Jackson 'HIStory Continues'

The King Of Pop returns with a double album in 1995, one of which is a Greatest Hits and the other being an album of new material heavily weighted towards MJ giving vent to his thoughts about the allegations that the press has been hammering him with. He's full or fury and he wants to shout about it! Neither of us had heard this full album before and of the non-single tracks which were completely new to us, there are some very peculiar choices being made. We also talk about the likes of David Holmes, Bjork and Ugly Kid Joe so there you are. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E07 Paul Weller 'Stanley Road' with special guest Rich Wilson

Time to discuss a bit of The Modfather and to help us out we invited comedian and Weller-fan Rich Wilson to help us fill in some of the blanks in our knowledge and to raise the comedy bar higher than we could ever do on our own. Huge huge thanks to him for making the time for us - check out Rich's latest comedy special on Next Up Comedy, his hit podcast Insane In The Men Brain, his music podcast The Tuned Up Time Machine and his website for everything else he's doing at the minute. As well as Weller we have chats about the likes of Jeff Buckley, Beastie Boys and Robson & Jerome so that's something to look forward to, plus Krister has a lot of great suggestions for potential Paul Weller TV projects, every one a winner. As we explain in the episode half of this was recorded with everyone in the same room and half was done over a dodgy Edinburgh hotel wifi connection so please forgive any rubbish audio quality issues - we genuinely tried our best. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

S06E06 Take That 'Nobody Else'

It's our second time reviewing a Take That album, this time it's 'Nobody Else' from 1995 which was the one they released just before Robbie Williams left the band and then they decided to split up thus ruining the lives of every teen girl in the UK. It's also the one that has Back For Good on it but having not heard anything other than the singles we weren't sure what the rest of the songs on here were going to be like. As it turns out, lots of New Jack Swing. But we also chat about Clutch, Earthling and Scatman John so happy days. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. And if you want to donate to our PayPal account for the price of a pint or a cup of coffee that is always appreciated as well obviously. Cheers!

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S06E05 Wet Wet Wet 'Picture This'

Somehow we appear to have to do the second Wet Wet Wet album of the podcast and this time it's the album with THAT song on it, 'Picture This' from 1995. You might well have heard 'Love Is All Around' too many times in the 90s but buckle up because you're going to get it thrown your way again. As well as listening to a load of slow ballads by the Scottish behemoths we get the chance to chat about acts like Pavement, Mark Morrison and, erm, H-Blockx. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating or a comment over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

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S06E04 Boo Radleys 'Wake Up!'

We are back into our regular schedule after a brief detour to do a special on Radiohead and so here we are to talk about 'Wake Up!' by the Boo Radleys. Now, we feel it's only fair to say right from the outset that if you're a big fan of the band, and especially this album, then you might not enjoy this episode because it really, really wasn't for us and we are quite forthcoming about that. So feel free to skip it if you fancy, we understand. Luckily alongside the main chat we get the chance to talk about things like Strapping Young Lad, UK hip hop and Clawfinger. As always please do give us a follow on our social media platforms and why not go and give us a nice rating over on Spotify now that you're able to while you're checking out this episode's companion playlist (which contains ALL of the songs we talk about on this one) and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

S06E03 Radiohead 'The Bends' Bonus Episode

Only three episodes into Season 6 and we're already doing an off-piste bonus episode. But how could we NOT do one on 'The Bends' by Radiohead considering it's crazy that it was never a number one album. For this one we both admit that we were slightly late to The Bends Party but these days we recognise it for the classic that it is and so while this episode might not be as jocular and funny as we try to make our regular ones, we hope that we make up for it in enthusiasm for the source material. Back with a regular episode as soon as we can, hope you enjoy this special bonus treat.