ALBUMBLE

After our elongated Eurovision hiatus we are back - with a Eurovision related episode!

France Gall famously won the Eurovision Song Contest in the mid 60s, bringing a touch of the contemporary "yé-yé" sound to a sleepy, easy listening audience. She never really went away after her win but this particular album was deemed one of her 'comeback' releases. The songs on "Babacar" have a range of styles and genres; has an open heart and a global eye. This release spawned a number of her most treasured hits of the 1980s; now seen as French language pop standards and are still sampled/covered by contemporary acts.

Not much of a news review as there are too many acts to keep on top of!!

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (Babacar is on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of France Gall's work and whether you agree with our views !!

AUSTRALIA, GEORGIA, MOLDOVA, MONTENEGRO, POLAND, PORTUGAL & UNITED KINGDOM

Accidental wrestling chat  

A block of flats

Well, it worked for Lena

Czechia of the Balkans...?

Man at C&A

Twang on your harp

The revolving door of artists

AZERBAIJAN, AUSTRIA, BULGARIA, CZECHIA, ESTONIA, SAN MARINO & SWITZERLAND

Apex predator
it's an impressive rolodex
Beenie Man
He lives with the strapless lads on Sadboi Street
The dance break comes early
Mumsnet Band
Covering up the punch

Shite Or Alright is back for another year!

They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...

 

Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the end of the ling run on non-capital cities holding the contest as we see ourselves back in Vienna! In the intro, we look back at the fallout from 2025 - and boy is there plenty of that - as well as giving some spoilers as to the tropes and memes we have to look forward to. Once again, we review *most* of this year's songs and give them a score from Parasite to Meteorite! Finally, the top entry of each of the 5 podcasts will go through to the 'Champions of Champions' round to see which one is our favourite of the year GUARANTEEING its fate as 'right side of the leader board' if not 'did not qualify'.

So here we go!

 

SHOW 3 - FARLEY'S RUSKS & RED BULL

CROATIA, CYPRUS, DENMARK, ITALY, LATVIA, LUXEMBOURG & NORWAY

Not everything has to be niche
Age approriateness
Doesn't need the gimmicks
Sponsored by Bic
The signs are there that he is an emotional guy
Teeth as white as the wig
No need for a key change

Shite Or Alright is back for another year!

They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...

 

Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the end of the ling run on non-capital cities holding the contest as we see ourselves back in Vienna! In the intro, we look back at the fallout from 2025 - and boy is there plenty of that - as well as giving some spoilers as to the tropes and memes we have to look forward to. Once again, we review *most* of this year's songs and give them a score from Parasite to Meteorite! Finally, the top entry of each of the 5 podcasts will go through to the 'Champions of Champions' round to see which one is our favourite of the year GUARANTEEING its fate as 'right side of the leader board' if not 'did not qualify'.

So here we go!

 

SHOW 2 - OSTERDAHL'S BIN OF GOOD IDEAS

ALBANIA, ARMENIA, FINLAND, GERMANY, LITHUANIA, ROMANIA & UKRAINE

MC Tunes lacking rhyme or bites
Dance Break? Very clever
The Boy From Space
Status Quo moves
Why is the classroom on fire?
Wine lake and butter mountain
On the brink

Shite Or Alright is back for another year!

They said we couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't do it again but we are stubborn, opinionated and LOVE a routine... so here we are...

 

Welcome (back) to Shite Or Alright where we - Andy (normal person) and Ann (ESC fan) review the tracks up for judgement at Eurovision which will, 11 years since the last time, be occurring in Austria. However this year seen the end of the ling run on non-capital cities holding the contest as we see ourselves back in Vienna! In the intro, we look back at the fallout from 2025 - and boy is there plenty of that - as well as giving some spoilers as to the tropes and memes we have to look forward to. Once again, we review *most* of this year's songs and give them a score from Parasite to Meteorite! Finally, the top entry of each of the 5 podcasts will go through to the 'Champions of Champions' round to see which one is our favourite of the year GUARANTEEING its fate as 'right side of the leader board' if not 'did not qualify'.

So here we go!

 

SHOW 1 - SERBING GOTH

BELGIUM, FRANCE, GREECE, MALTA, SERBIA & SWEDEN

Veruca Salt
The last two winners?
The Masked Singer... in reverse
RBF stands for...
Ends at the wrong bit
You will always remember where you were when you first heard that line...

Sorry for the delay but illness, school camp and technical issues got a bit in the way - but it's here !

This band from the south coast of England have been going for almost a decade it is seems that in this album they have tried hard to collate the best of what they have produced and show their point of view. Many of the conversation points that turn up in this album seem to revolve around the fact that a) they have a particular point of view which is very well articulated and that b) one should not be fooled by the  funkiness/dancey/positive instrumentation. This also leads to wonder what else they might come up with net

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (Pop Couture is on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of Youth Sectpr’s work and whether you agree with our views !!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!

In our first podcast of 2026 we start almost where we left off by looking at another album from the mid-90s but this one is seen and heard through a VERY different lens.

Seen by many (and wrongly) as a bit of a one-hit wonder, Leicester's Cornershop started off their album careers with this collection of ditties which at some points feel a little disjointed but leads us as reviewers down a lot of paths. What were they trying to do? Could we see where they were going? How much of this was the band and how much was down to John Robb...? The album incorporates a number of genres which skirt along the edges of punk, psychedelia, prog, Britpop fringed with south Asian influences. One interesting caveat to this album is that many, many MANY rears later the band revisited this album renamed "Hold On It's Easy" which also created more questions than answers!

Before we start though, we make a small brief allusion to the ESC 250 *yawn* as well as certain Dutchman's new material!

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (Hold On It Hurts AND Hold On It's Easy are on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of Go West’s work and whether you agree with our views !!

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!

 

This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countries have withdrawn but a few have also re-joined giving us a reasonable show of 18 entries. Although the songs showcase a range of genres and singing styles, the cast list (bar Cyprus) contains almost exclusively solo singers which is disappointing. This may reflect the state of the music scene with its proliferation of solo acts over group, as well as indicating the strictness of personnel and monetary budgets the individual delegations have to spend on the project.

 

By the time we started this podcast project, the running order had been set so we used this official order to structure our reviews rather than a random pick from a hat. 

Here, we review the final 4 songs AND crown our winner of winners!

15 Georgia - Anita Abgariani   "Shine Like a Star"
16 Cyprus - Rafaella & Christos   "Away"
17 France - Lou Deleuze   "Ce monde"
18 Albania - Kroni Pula   "Fruta perime"

 

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!

 

This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countries have withdrawn but a few have also re-joined giving us a reasonable show of 18 entries. Although the songs showcase a range of genres and singing styles, the cast list (bar Cyprus) contains almost exclusively solo singers which is disappointing. This may reflect the state of the music scene with its proliferation of solo acts over group, as well as indicating the strictness of personnel and monetary budgets the individual delegations have to spend on the project.

 

By the time we started this podcast project, the running order had been set so we used this official order to structure our reviews rather than a random pick from a hat.

Here, we review the next 5 songs:

10 North Macedonia - Nela Mančeska   "Miracle"
11 Montenegro - Asja Džogović   "I tužna i srećna priča"
12 Italy - Leonardo Giovanangeli   "Rockstar"
13 Portugal - Inês Gonçalves   "Para onde vai o amor?"
14 Spain - Gonzalo Pinillos   "Érase una vez (Once Upon a Time)"

 

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!

 

This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countries have withdrawn but a few have also re-joined giving us a reasonable show of 18 entries. Although the songs showcase a range of genres and singing styles, the cast list (bar Cyprus) contains almost exclusively solo singers which is disappointing. This may reflect the state of the music scene with its proliferation of solo acts over group, as well as indicating the strictness of personnel and monetary budgets the individual delegations have to spend on the project.

 

By the time we started this podcast project, the running order had been set so we used this official order to structure our reviews rather than a random pick from a hat.

Here, we review the next 5 songs:

5 Armenia - Albert    "Brave Heart"
6 Ukraine - Sofiia Nersesian    "Motanka"
7 Ireland - Lottie O'Driscoll Murray   "Rúin"
8 Netherlands - Meadow   "Freeze"
9 Poland - Marianna Kłos   "Brightest Light"

 

It's the wrong time of year to be judging Eurovision songs (although national final season is already in full swing) but it *is* the right time for looking at this year's Junior Eurovision offerings!!! Ann and Marcus are here to decipher this year's 18 songs!

 

This year's JESC is being held in Georgia after they won the title (again) in 2024 and were given first refusal of hosting. A few countries have withdrawn but a few have also re-joined giving us a reasonable show of 18 entries. Although the songs showcase a range of genres and singing styles, the cast list (bar Cyprus) contains almost exclusively solo singers which is disappointing. This may reflect the state of the music scene with its proliferation of solo acts over group, as well as indicating the strictness of personnel and monetary budgets the individual delegations have to spend on the project.

 

By the time we started this podcast project, the running order had been set so we used this official order to structure our reviews rather than a random pick from a hat

 

Here, we review the first 4 songs:

1 Malta - Eliza Borg   "I Believe"
2 Azerbaijan - Yağmur   "Miau miau"
3 Croatia - Marino Vrgoč   "Snovi"
4 San Marino - Martina Crv   "Beyond the Stars"

In our final podcast of 2025 we look at a tricky album from the mid-90s which leaves us with rather more questions than answers regarding its release. On the plus side, its reason for being chosen for the podcast gives us a chance to share an interesting anecdote with you! We look into “Indian Summer” by Go West – an album released 5 years after their previous one AND containing a song which was a major hit 2 years previously. Without giving too much away there is an eerie imbalance in this album which leaves us… well you’ll have to listen and find out!

Peter Cox and Richard Drummie – who also co-wrote the majority of their output – started off as a pop-dance-rock outfit. However, by the end of the 80s their popularity had waned as the UK and US record buying public’s appetite veered towards the widening choice of dance from Europe and the vast array of pop personalities from the likes of PWL. All this and more pushed Go West's rather safe (nay bland) music to the fringes of the charts. This, seemingly twinned with their desire to be seen as a band with song writing and vocal nous, created this album which leans more into the Adult Contemporary/Blue-eyed soul sphere. Is this change of tact too much? Too little? Too late? Or does it leave them falling between two stools?

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (Indian Summer is on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of Go West’s work and whether you agree with our views !!

In this month's offering we analyse one album in order to review a whole slew of albums under the PWL umbrella. "F.L.M" was the only studio album by the duo Mel & Kim and was almost entirely produced and written by (Mike) Stock (Matt) Aitken and (Pete) Waterman whose signature pop/dance/electronic sound can be heard through many a UK chart act in the 80s and 90s.

The Appleby sisters were one of the few duos/groups in the PWL stable that stood out from the mainly solo crowd and, although their tenure as a pop act was incredibly short, they left behind a striking aural and visual legacy. Kim went on to have a few solo hits in the early part of the 90's, but it does make one wonder what *might* have happened if they had continued as a duo for even just a few more years. This said, we note that the Mel & Kim back catalogue has not really been touched on or covered very much but we come up with exactly the right platform to do it!

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (F.L.M. is on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of Mel & Kim's work and whether you agree with our views !!

Hello and welcome back to ALBUMBLE and as you might hear we may be sounding a *little* different to normal!

In this pod we look at a very recent UK number one album - but by a band very few people may have actually heard of! This northern band seems to have a dedicated and stalwart fan base which was able to vote with their feet - or should that be purchase with a few clicks - enough copies of this album to make it top the charts.

The K's are, as Ann would describe 'Wools' - meaning that they come rom the area betwixt the metropolises of Liverpool and Manchester and it seems like the musical legacies of both conurbations (as well as many more further afield) has influenced their music. In terms of song writing the lyrics seem rather personal and the boys are not afraid to lift the lid on their own particular worries including physical and mental health situations. In 'Pretty On The Internet', the boys seem to linger not too far from the indie-pop songs from their first album but dip their toes into some slightly different genres.

To fully immerse yourself in the Albumble podcast, listen to the album yourselves (Pretty On The Internet is on Spotify and possibly other places too) then listen to our appraisal. Remember to get in touch by tweeting us via @albumble and tell us what you think of The K's work and whether you agree with our views !!