Pop, Collaborate & Listen
by Pop, Collaborate & Listen
A tongue-firmly-in-cheek podcast where Dave Fensome and Krister Greer, two lifelong music fans, go back and listen to every UK number one album from the 90s in chronological order to see if the decade’s music holds up to scrutiny.
Episodes
-
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…
more -
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…
more -
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...
-
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...
-
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…
more -
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...
-
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…
more -
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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.…
more -
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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…
more -
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...
-
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...
-
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…
more -
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...
-
S06E02 Elastica 'Elastica'
One for the 90s indie fans, here's an episode on Elastica's self-titled debut from 1995 which even though it's got 15 songs on it is somehow only a 38 minute long record. That doesn't mean a short podcast though - quite the opposite in fact as we find ourselves with plenty to enjoy and lots to…
more -
S06E01 Celine Dion 'The Colour Of My Love'
It's a brand new season of PCL, you wonderful people! A reason for celebration and joy all over the world except for the fact that our first episode is apparently on a Celine Dion album that first came out in 1993. How is this the case? It's the one with 'Power Of Love' and 'Think Twice' on it…
more -
S05E22 Best Albums of 1994 - Season Five Wrap-up
It feels like it's taken forever but here we are at the end of season 5, our journey through 1994. And as is now tradition we have put an episode together to discuss what our own personal top ten lists of the best albums released during the year are. After a brief chat about some of the albums…
more -
S05E21 Nirvana 'Unplugged In New York' with guest Niall Bakewell
For our last "proper" episode in season five before we get into our 1994 end of year round-ups we return to a band that we've covered a couple of times before. And while you could argue that we realistically shouldn't be covering this record because it's not a studio album and is half full of...
-
S05E20 REM 'Monster'
Our third REM episode but the first one that we had to delay some recording of because of too much vomiting, which was a treat for Dave. If you've heard our takes on 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic For The People' you'll know that we absolutely loved those but we weren't even a fraction as familiar...
-
S05E19 Us Not Talking About Eric Clapton
So here's what happened. We scheduled an episode on Eric Clapton's 'From The Cradle' album from 1994, made a big old list of all the other records we were going to discuss during the episode that got released at the same time but then realised that the Clapton record was just a collection of…
more -
S05E18 Oasis 'Definitely Maybe'
When you're talking about bands that defined 90s music it's hard not to include Oasis which means that simply doing an episode on their debut album 'Definitely Maybe' from 1994 is a minefield because everyone has an opinion on this one, usually either VERY positive or VERY VERY negative. Krister...
-
S05E17 Prince 'Come'
Hey, stop that sniggering at the back. Just because a Prince album is called 'Come' doesn't mean that it's all smutty and full of filth. Oh wait no, that's exactly what it means. Recommence sniggering if you wish. If you want to hear Prince croon about oral sex and orgasms then have we got a…
more -
S05E16 Rolling Stones 'Voodoo Lounge' with guest Gaz Jones
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?...
-
S05E15 The Prodigy 'Music For The Jilted Generation'
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...
-
S05E14 Ace of Base 'Happy Nation'
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…
more -
S05E13 The Cranberries 'Everybody Else Is Doing It...'
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...
-
S05E12 2 Unlimited 'Real Things'
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...
-
S05E11 Seal II
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...
-
S05E10 Erasure ’I Say I Say I Say’
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...
-
S05E09 Senser ’Stacked Up’ Bonus Episode
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…
more -
S05E08 Blur ’Parklife’
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...
-
S05E07 Pink Floyd ’The Division Bell’
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...
-
S05E06 Soundgarden ’Superunknown’ Bonus Episode
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…
more -
S05E05 Nine Inch Nails ’The Downward Spiral’ Bonus Episode
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...
-
S05E04 Morrissey ’Vauxhall And I’
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...
-
S05E03 Enigma ’The Cross Of Changes’
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...
-
S05E02 Tori Amos ’Under The Pink’
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…
more -
S05E01 Chaka Demus & Pliers ’Tease Me’
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…
more -
S04E22b Best Albums of 1993 PartTwo
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…
more -
S04E22a Best Albums of 1993 Part One
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...
-
S04E21 Best Hip Hop Albums of 1993
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...
-
S04E20 Phil Collins ’Both Sides’
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...
-
S04E19 Take That ’Everything Changes’
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...
-
S04E18 Pet Shop Boys ’Very’
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...
About this show
A tongue-firmly-in-cheek podcast where Dave Fensome and Krister Greer, two lifelong music fans, go back and listen to every UK number one album from the 90s in chronological order to see if the decade’s music holds up to scrutiny.
Hosted by
Pop, Collaborate & Listen
Categories