Pop, Collaborate & Listen

S04E13 U2 ’Zooropa’ with special guest Stephen Hill from Riot Act

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 the biggest U2 fan we know and agreed to come on and tell us why we're wrong if we say we don't like one of their songs. It was a real treat for us to have this chat with him - go and follow him on Twitter so you can read some of the articles he writes about bands like Tool and Radiohead and make sure you check out the Riot Act Podcast itself to keep yourself up to date with all the new releases worth knowing about. Oh, and most importantly you can hear the Broken Records podcast that they do as well where they try and seek out the worst albums ever made. At least we have an excuse for listening to some of the rubbish we have to do for this podcast. They're doing it for fun.
As well as talking about U2 on this episode we also squeeze in some chat about bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, and, er, Spin Doctors. July 1993 was a wild time.
You'll find links to all our social media and spotify playlists etc on our website www.pclpodcast.com

S04E12 Jamiroquai ’Emergency On Planet Earth’

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 already heard the podcast that Phil Lucas produced with the much-missed Phil Jerrod, Crash Bang Wallop, then we cannot recommend it enough if you like laughing until you're sore.
Along the way in this episode we also talk about the likes of Chaka Demus & Pliers, House of Love and Phil introduces us to the wonders of fake porno soundtrack composer Klaus Harmony.
Also during our conversation we refer to a couple of video clips which we promised to link and so here they are: A truly horrifying 'Stars In Their Eyes'-style show featuring a white woman becoming Stevie Wonder; and The Fast Show's very thinly veiled pisstake of Jamiroquai.
As always, please follow us on social media if you're not already, all the links are on our website. And tell your mates how good we are, go on. Do us a favour.

S04E11 2 Unlimited ’No Limits’

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 marvelling at Ray Slijngaard's quite astonishing rapping we take the opportunity to chat about some other bands like Gunshot, Fugazi and the Spin Doctors.
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 and our ongoing and sprawling playlist of songs from each album that we do an episode on. Cheers!

A Very PCL Christmas!

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 Krister brought along some of the finest festive jokes known to mankind which pleased Dave no end as you'll hear throughout.
We'll be back with another proper episode before long but in the meantime have a glass of eggnog and think of us. Cheers!

S04E10 Janet Jackson ‘janet.‘

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 lot of it already, right? Right?
Along the way we also discuss things like Anthrax, Snow and Guru's Jazzamatazz. Nice.
Do check out our social media platforms and have a listen to this episode's companion playlist with all of the Janet album as well as the other tunes that we talk about and play as well. And you can hear our ongoing Spotify playlist made up of our favourite tunes from each episode to date here.

S04E09 New Order ‘Republic‘

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, could New Order find their place in a new decade?
Along the way we also chat about things like Credit To The Nation, Rancid and Terrorvision to name but a few.
Hope you enjoy this episode and don't forget to check out our ongoing Spotify playlist which features at least one song from every number one album we've done so far. 

S04E08 Cliff Richard ‘The Album‘

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 saxophone solos straight out of 1987 all over the place; let's take a minute to remember that this was whole grunge was taking over the whole world. Although while we mention it, do take the time to check out our saxophone solos quiz from last year if you haven't done so already - it's great fun.
Thankfully we do also get the chance to talk about Porno For Pyros, Screaming Trees and Let Loose (about four times) so it's not wall to wall Cliff.
As always, give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram if you fancy and feel free to get in contact with any thoughts about this or any episode. Check our website www.pclpodcast.com for more links and stuff.

S04E07 David Bowie ‘Black Tie, White Noise‘

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 up nearly thirty years after release?
In other music news we get to have a chat about acts like LL Cool J, The Fall and Poison among many others but it's realistic to say that the majority of our time is taken up being surprised by the amount of saxophone (and other horns) all over the Bowie album.
We also mention the fact that this episode goes out to the memory of the wonderful Phil Jerrod who was a stand-up comic and good friend to Dave who sadly passed far too young just a few weeks back. And to regular listener and friend of the show Mat Davies who similarly left us just recently as well - our hearts go out to friends and family of both of these truly lovely, creative and kind men.
As usual you can check all of our social media for stupid pictures and more nonsense, all links available on our website www.pclpodcast.com