Hits 21 - 1997 (4): Eternal, Hanson, Puff Daddy, Oasis

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Andy's 12-hour Christmas marathon: https://www.gofundme.com/f/andys-12-hour-christmas-music-marathonHello, everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every single UK #1 hit..You can follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hits21UKYou can email us: [e-mail] 21 DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ANY MUSIC USED IN THE EPISODES. USAGE OF ALL MUSIC USED IN THIS PODCAST FALLS UNDER SECTION 30(1) OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT 1988

HITS 21. Hi there, everyone, and welcome back to Hits21, the 90s. Where me, Rob, me, Andy. And me, Hermione Blair. Looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s, happy new year to all of you. Thank you very much for waiting for us over Christmas. We are back.

If you want to get in touch with us, as some people did over the Christmas period, you can get in touch with us, Hitch 21 podcast. at gmail.com. We're on Twitter 2 at Hits21 UK. Thank you ever so much for coming back and joining us again. We're currently looking back at the year 1997 and this week we'll be covering the period between the 25th of May and the 19th of July. So going over the summer and into the summer holidays for 1997, time to press on with this week's episode, Andy, the summer of 97. What are our

buying habits as it pertains to albums. It's Michael Jackson with Blood on the Dance Floor, colon, his story, his story, in the mix. Just, oh God, that's like five titles at once. Just terrible, terrible. And that went gold, only gold for Michael Jackson. A bit of a sign of the times there. And that was number one for two weeks.

Before Michael Jackson was toppled by a much greater figure in pop history, Gary Barlow, with open road. Open Road, which went number one for one week and went platinum. Lord only knows why. Then we've got Wutang Clan, of all people. I believe you and I believe Robin Ed have been to see Wutang Clan, haven't you? We have. I remember a night that you...

We went for tea and then you two went to see Wutang Clan. Yes, and it's their album Wutang Forever, which went number one for one week and went gold, Wutang Forever. I'm reminded of a joke by Simon. I'm still about Pete Doherty's song Fuck Forever where he says, find his suggestion both obscene and impractical. Then we've got Hansen, the teenage mopheads, with middle of nowhere. And they're not in the middle of nowhere. They're at the top of the charts for one week, and that went gold.

Then we got a little album no one's heard of called OK Computer by Radiohead. I don't know. Two weeks are number one and went triple platinum. Yes, only triple platinum to this day, which I think is kind of. mad, to be honest. I think the very definition of a slow burner that, like only ever two weeks at number one and only ever went triple

platinum, but serious argument for like the sound of the mid-90s there. So, yeah, big moments, but small on the charts. Radiohead with OK computer. And finally, we finish off this period with a full six weeks, basically the whole summer holidays from

middle of July to end of August, dominated by six weeks at the top, triple platinum for The Prodigy. with the fat of the land, which is not one of my favourites of theirs, but plenty of people obviously loved it, and I'm happy for them. Tell you what, though, Ed, their two albums going past that,

I think, are both among our favourites of all time. I'm, of course, talking about Hansen and Gary Barlow. Yes, Wutang Forever. I know that you are of the controversial opinion that you have a bigger fondness for forever than you do 36 Chambers. Yeah, I personally prefer it, but that doesn't mean I'm not.

Right. Wu-Tang nuts are my favourite seasonal snack, actually. So in the news, the United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong over to the People's Republic of China, with many political analysts referring to the event as the end of the British Empire. In London, construction begins on what will become the Millennium Dome, which will become the O2 Arena, and the IRA declares a ceasefire following nationalist riots in Northern Ireland.

In America, 27 people are killed. in a tornado in Texas, making it one of the deadliest tornadoes of the 1990s. Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead by Andrew Cunanan outside of his home in Florida. But in outer space, the Pathfinder Buggy begins exploring the surface of Mars. In pop culture news, Noel Gallagher marries Meg Matthews in Paradise, Las Vegas. I've driven past the chapel they got married in. There's a lot of them. The New Globe Theatre, which is an exact replica of William Shakespeare's original

Stratford Theatre, opens in the... London and the first Harry Potter book is published by Bloomsbury and to this day we have no idea who the author is um the films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows absolute power con air the fifth element Batman and Robin and Jurassic Park the lost world ed dinosaurs have taken over America what about the albums what were how what were they buying when they were looting the record stores in response to the the Tyrannosaurus rexes and diplodica, Diplodica roaming the streets. The Spice Girls, to begin with,

they conclude their month-long dominion of the US charts for now. But then we see a relentlessly wordy, borderline incomprehensible two and a half hour album of little commercial potential that lays out its table at the beginning with ten minutes of cod philosophical spoken word drivel. and no, it's not the audio track from David Lynch's Dune, it's Wutang Forever,

which happens to be all of those things and also one of the best things I've heard in my life. Only in for one week in America, however, its sales were massive. It sold more than 600,000 in that week, which means it technically sold more in that one week than Spice Girls did in four, which is odd. But, yeah, they were huge.

And it's just like listening to that album, it's like, wow, there really was a time when records with no choruses whatsoever that were about 45 tracks long would actually sell bucket loads just in principle. But anyway, for two weeks, I'll hold your horses. It's butterfly kisses, shades of grace by Bob Carlisle. Bob Carlisle, as in, the villain from the world is not enough. and sports manager in, there's only one Jimmy Grimble, Robert Carlyle. That's the only one I know, so I assume he's singing with that bullet lodged in his head.

Yeah, but Bob Carlisle, the B-Man himself, the Bobster, Bob Carlisle there. But, oh, but, but-oh, spice is back again. And I'm not talking about the audio tractor, David Lynch is June. No, the Cromulant Five return for another week at number one before, you know, America, I salute you for this.

The prodigies fat of the land sells well enough for a week in the California sun. And no, I'm not talking about the audio track to David Lynch's June. Then Willie gets his big sandworm out and dances

with some aliens. It's Men in Black, the album. There was a whole album. And finally, fuck you. It's Sean Diddy Come with a cluster of his sycophantic mates on who gives a fuck it sucks, he sucks, singles. Weird album title there. Yeah, I know, it's a classic, it's almost as concise as Michael Jackson's.

Now, America tries to combat ziggasigars with their own brand of protracted blue-eyed nonsense. And no, I'm not talking about the audio track to David Lynch's June. Mbop, does it all for you, Bop, for three weeks. Bob. Before. Now, regardless of his crimes, America, 11 weeks at number one. For this. Sometimes America scares me a lot.

I mean, imagine taking a half-assed rewrite to number one for weeks on end, just to cradle some rabid projected national grief. I mean, who would do that? Yes, it's Didicum again with Diddley Squat. All right then, so the first of four songs this week is this. Yes, I See You. Okay, this is I Wanna Be the Only One by Eternal featuring B.B. Wynens. Released as the fourth single from the group's third studio album titled Before the

the rain, I Wanna Be the Only One is Eternals, 13th single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2020, six, it is their last. I want to be the only one, went straight in at number one as a brand new entry and stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 150,000 copies beating competition from Closer Than Close by Rosie Gaines, and Albi, there for you by the Rembrandt's. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, I want to be the only one,

dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Andy, kick us off with Eternal. Yeah, it's an odd little cross-genre thing. I wouldn't describe it as its own genre, really,

but I always think it's interesting when I hear it. when you hear music that's not churchy, but sounds like it's churchy. And I'm not just saying gospel there, because I know that's kind of the definition of gospel to some extent, but like there's all sorts of things in this little microchondra really, like lean on me, or something inside so strong, or that's what friends are for, or I'll be there by Mariah Carey, the kind of stuff that you think,

I could imagine that being in a church, even though it's pop music. And this fits right into that, I think. But this is very gospely, it is very soul-driven, but this is by Eternal. It's quite an odd little thing to look at this, that you know, you can totally imagine sort of clapping along and getting your Jesus on. That's not the phrase for it, but you know what I mean. To this. But I don't know.

It's a weird angle to go down, but it makes it quite unique. It makes it quite interesting in the landscape that, you know, you could do something like the Spice Girls and be all girl power and be all right on the moment. extremely innovative and have these like clean, slick electronic sounds that, you know, are looking towards the future. Or you can kind of bask in sort of 60s, 70s, clap-along, you know, party time R&B, bordering on gospel music like this. It's such a different route to take. And it kind of, you know, just makes it clear to me that we talk about girl bands as if they're a genre and they're not. It's just a description. Like, there's so much you can do as a girl

group. And I just think this is a really interesting thing. I think it's very, very catchy. And what helps it be even catchier is that key change, because there's something about that key change, the first key change it is of many, that makes it sort of feel a little bit timeless. It makes it feel like you can just transport this tune into any key and keep singing. It's a bit like happy birthday in that sense that you can just transpose this to anything and the same basic elements will follow. And I say that because I have a really happy memory of this song. Me and my sister, when we were about 10, we used to, we had tele-west broadband, which shows how old I am, and the kind of music for when the channel wasn't on, on like BBC 3 or BBC 4,

they didn't start until 7 o'clock, if you put the channel on, if for some reason it would just be playing this song saying, come back at 7 p.m., just this. And so we got to know this song quite well. used to joke about those key changes, but how they just keep going up and up and up. And like, we used to joke between us. We used to try and sing it at the highest key possible to see who can get to the highest.

It's like, I want to be the only one. Like, go really, really high by the end. And it's a really happy memory. But yeah, I just think this is like heaps of fun, heaps of fun and something very different to what you might expect from a 90s girl band that's competing or, you know, contemporaries at least, with Spice Girls.

Yeah, not a whole lot to say about this Just that it's, it's very fun, it's unusual It's not the greatest thing ever But it brings a smile to my face And it's got exactly the right type of nostalgia to me of this Where this is like a specific moment But I don't wallow in it It's just a nice thing to return to which I never ever listened to as an adult

So yeah, really liked hearing this, yeah It's funny Andy that you've kind of finished on that point Because when I was listening to this And I've listened to this a fair bit In the two weeks over Christmas Since we've been coming up to this episode And every time I listen to it, I imagine the conversation in the studio going, So, at the end, how many key changes do you want?

Yes. Yes. No, no, no. How many? Yes. Anyway, I wish I liked this more because I think this is lovely as an idea. It's a warm hug. It sounds like the upbeat theme to like a smiley BBC Saturday morning show

crossed with something you might hear at like the National Baptist Convention or something. This actually came on the radio the other day. independently of like any Hits 21 listening. And I did have a smile on my face for most of it. You know, Bibi Winen's definitely has a stronger voice than anyone in Eternal. But they also bring nice flavors to this as well, just with the little like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you can imagine their shoulders going up and down with each kind of utter utterance of,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really, really fun. You can tell everyone probably had a laugh making this. They set the stage well, I think, Eternal, for BB Wynes to enter during the second verse with that, now you deserve a mention. That's very, very good. It's very sweet.

I begin to think televangelists might not be totally evil. And that smile does stay on my face mostly just until that bizarre series of key changes at the end, which feel like to me, I know they're like ostensibly ambitious, but to me they feel like a pretty rote attempt to add some variation. I'm just a bit like, do something different.

Be braver. Why not go down a semi-tone each time? That's always more fun when you listen to songs on the radio and you hear like, How Will I Know by Whitney Houston? And it's like, oh, it's gone down at the end. That's fun. I just end up wincing whenever the transitions happen with the upward key changes. Because they're not really transitions or modulations. They're just kind of sudden jerks. And that kind of songwriting makes it a lot harder for me to forgive this also sounding a bit tinny and a bit stock. I don't understand this decision. pop mixes and producers make sometimes where the song is clearly going for authenticity and realism in its subject matter and its vocals. But then they decide, meh, sod, live instrumentation. Let's just make this sound really fucking polished to the point where it doesn't even sound like humans have had anything to do with it. Just let it sound like it's being played live in a church. Make it sound like it's being played in a church. But it isn't. And form and content kind of have to be in sync with each other for me and but never mind BB Winers

has a very nice voice doesn't he next kind of thing so Ed eternal how we feeling it's party time at cold land it's the horns it's the horns yeah the horns yeah it's so I know exactly what you mean Rob

unfortunately I mean a complete agreement it's just it sounds so flat and wafer thin and I think the reason that I like you don't feel those changes at all that they don't feel like they're earned and it just feels like about as powerful as they were when they were first worked out on the piano in spite of all the extra elements is there's no there's no more musical thickness to them it all sounds

just as thin or as you know mid-level substance as it did at the beginning of the song and so it just kind of carries on I'm trying to avoid using the word dynamic here because Jesus Christ I've written that one into the ground but you get a what I mean. And it is a shame because the vocals are great. And the song is fun and memorable. I like this, even in spite of the fact that, my God, they just could have, it's just really poorly produced for all of the power and impressiveness of the vocals. They just, they do not do it any justice, because it's like something very rich, packed in very cheap, plastic-y packaging. And it's very unfortunate, even if they just got

someone into them, a bit of improvisation, a bit of wild shit and some wild glissandoes on an organ at the end when they do the changes, anything. It's just, it just feels perfunctory like they lost interest in the arrangement, if there ever was any, but it's a shame

because I think there's a lot of potential in this track and I think it could be, it could have been realised so much better, but I do like it. It's just mild like, unfortunately. Alright then, so the second song this week is this. Okay, this is Unbop by Hansen.

Released as the lead single from their debut studio album titled Middle of Nowhere. Unbop is Hanson's first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is their last. Unbop went straight in at number one as a brand new entry and stayed at number one for three weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 260,000 copies, beating competition from Paranoid Android by Radiohead, six underground by sneaker pimps, and waltz away dreaming by Toby Burke and George Michael. In week two, it sold 120,000 copies, beating competition from Midnight in Chelsea by Bon Jovi, free by Ultranate, Love Rollercoaster by Red Hot Chili Peppers,

Cocoa, by Mr. President, and the end of the show. The Beginning is the End by Smashing Pumpkins, and in Week 3, it sold 86,000 copies, beating competition from How High by Charlottons, Hard to Say I'm Sorry by As Yet, Al B by Foxy Brown and Jay Z, and Sun Hits the Sky by Supergrass. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Unbop fell two places to number three. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified, Platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Ed kick us off with Hansen.

You were supposed to hate this, I think. Being an adolescent, I think it was just made to be like, oh, God, oh, this, oh, oh, but I don't think anybody who wrote the song was too upset about that. They knew the audience. They knew the effect this would have. It's self-consciously and transparently bubble gum. and it's likable in retrospect as a result.

It's bouncy, it's fun, it's sure as hell is memorable. The problem is, every time I heard it, I would reach the same point, and it would be about two minutes and 28 seconds. I think it was exactly the same point. I looked at my phone each time. And I'd be like, no, that's it. That's good, that is.

That's a nice contained song. That's perfectly ample for the one button you have pressed. And then I was like, oh, Jesus. is four and a half minutes. There is no justification. I know they're trying to do the... do that. It's like, that is like lesson one stage improvisation.

It does not justify it. It doesn't need to be that long, but I think we're at the point now where people would actually think, even in spite of their better judgment and their instinct, that if a pop song was under two and a half minutes long, it was somehow inferior or insufficient in some way, because Jesus Christ, there is no reason for this to be four and a half minutes long. But yeah, that said, that fairly major book bear aside, it is a good song, even though no idea what they're saying in the verses.

Not a word, basically. I think they might just be making it up. And yeah, I could do without the record scratch. That's nath. That is terminally naff. And it's just seemed to, why did they do that at this point? It wasn't featuring any hip-hop of this era. It's like all of a sudden certain producers, who I guess were a little bit older,

just started picking up this late 80s trope in the late 90s. I mean, we had something comparable, not to the same detrimental degree, on a spice girl single recently. And it's like, why now? Why 1997 is this just appearing in these sort of hits? But yeah, yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, but it's, because it didn't signify coolness at the time. It's, it was very poochy feeling at the time, was it not? But, um, well, actually, you know, probably you were not in that headspace at the time, but I was certainly of the kind of, oh, God, it's so cool and it's really annoying.

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's shit, isn't it? You know, obviously. But yeah, I like it. I just, I don't like four and a half minutes. of it. That's my opinion. This may be more of a reflection on the other songs that we're covering this week, but I'm just going to say it, this is my favourite song of the week.

Even before getting into something that I'm going to get into later, I find this warm, summery, infectious, parts of it are sort of in its own little language. Whether it's the verses or the choruses I'm talking about, you make your own mind up. There is a constant smile on its face. It has a simple

but friendly philosophy you can take home with you if you read the lyrics. The combination of like light alt rock influences and like 90 skater aesthetics and baggy jeans and little tiny hip hop influences turn this into something that could only be released from this moment in this decade, which means that it evokes very specific time and place. I think the hip hop influences and the implication of samples and turntables, even if there probably weren't any involved, can only really exist in either 97 or 98 because precisely, as you were saying it, producers who were a little bit older than the acts now making the music,

were like, oh, we'll just litter it with things like this. We'll just litter it with things like that. Before that point, I'm not sure if hip-hop would have bled into the mainstream kind of British psyche far enough yet for us to like take it for granted that a pop rock song could contain things like in the background. Much later, and you run the risk of becoming even more novelty than it already sounds, I think this can only really exist in a world where deep blue something of just, had their success and maybe the same with like Hootie and the Blowfish, but in a world before

Crazy Town. Because I think if this comes after, come my lady, come, come my lid, I feel like we're a bit like, well, this already feels a bit old hat, to be honest. It's weird to think that Hansen's closest contemporaries after their original demo was remixed. This sounds like, funnily enough, we've literally just gone past Red Alt Chili Peppers cover of Love Roller Coaster, they're not entirely different. This remix was done as well by the Dunders. brothers who prior to this had worked with Beastie Boys, Beck, Young MC. You can feel that coming through a little bit in the decoration. But then you also get this sense that the three Hanson kids,

funny we were just talking about the church, and they really were kids. They all went to Sunday school and Bible study, and this is the song they wrote on the little instruments they had at the church during recreational hour or something on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. And it's through this feeling that I kind of stumbled across another feeling in my mind that like this is essentially a 90s interpretation of a Jackson 5 number.

It's like their go at something like that. The close harmonies, the slightly androgynous, boyish vocals, the sense of camaraderie, the feeling of a good time. They had apparently come up as kids doing like Acapella versions of songs like Rocking Robin and Johnny Be Good before starting to write their own material. You can feel that energy here too and you can really specifically hear the Lion King soundtrack this as well, because this is like Hakunumatata in the sense that Umbop is a simple catchy phrase indicating towards a problem-free philosophy, but you can also hear just can't wait to be king in this too. For something so ostensibly simple, I think it's quite deceptive and subtly shows its many-fold

influences without being too on the nose about them. This is still recognisably Hansen, if that's a thing, doing recognisably handsome things. where I think this starts to fall short of the vault for me is in its lack, I agree with you, Ed, of knowing where to go after the first couple of choruses. The only thing it really has up its sleeve is like that kind of slower half-time-ish kind of interpretation of the chorus, the rephrasing as a kind of bridge.

I don't think I could hum you much of the verse melody despite being an ever-present thing in my life this song since I was about four years old. The chorus being one of the stickiest of the, the 90s maybe hides the deficiencies of that which surrounds it. But like they were 11, 14 and 16 when they came up with this. Like I couldn't write a thing at that age. Well, not anything that was any good. And I'd even go as far as to say that the influence of this probably ended up having impact on things like teenage dirtbag by Wheatus, what I go to school for by busted,

heaven is a half pipe by OPM, where light alt-rock influences and skater aesthetics are kind of walled in by can's scratching effects and things like that. So, yeah, lots to like here, not vault worthy, but well done. Andy, unbop. Unbop to you too. Yes. It's like saying, peace be with you, isn't it? There's an unbop to you too.

I think it's interesting to think about music by children because it can be nightmarish. It can be like existentially awful. And I'm going to make a pitch for the song to Play us out this week. The song, Video Games, by the band Blackout from way back in the late Nauties. I don't know if you've ever heard this. It's nothing to do with the Lana Del Rey song. It's a completely different song called Video Games, which is just a bunch of tweens.

Not even going to say teens. I think they're like 10 or 11 who have all got stage mums, who basically got them a record deal with this song. I'm going to give you some of the lyrics and I'm going to sing it in their voice. I don't want to go. to school just want to be a fool just want to play

video games everything else is really lame and then the chorus I just want to play video games I just want to play video games you guessed it I just want to play video games all the time

every day and it's just like oh it hits something deep in my heart that's like do I like music? I'm just looking up the lyrics to the third verse. GameCube Xbox, PlayStation 2, know all about them as soon as they are new.

Yeah, and it was like, I think it touches the child in me in a bad way because I really think about the lyrics I wrote when I was like six and my parents were merciless. They recorded the songs that I wrote. They're like, not like professionally recorded. They just put like a microphone to me and a tape recorder and got me to sing the songs I was writing as a kid, so they're preserved forever. Thanks, Mom and Dad. And, like, my lyrics, I remember I wrote a song called I'm gonna love you forever,

that went, bop, b, b, b, b, b, I'm gonna love you forever. Bap, b, b, b, you're as light as a feather. Bap, bop, b, got to see how much heavier you are when I come back home. It was like a country song about gaining weight while people are away. It's weird. And, like, kids can write awful crap. And I do think there's a lot of that to this. But it has a weird kind of moral.

dimension to it, I think, because coming back to my parents again, it's funny enough of this. My main memory of this song is that my mum really disapproved of this. She really, like, didn't like us listening to this. She wanted to turn the music channels off when this was on. And she's not, like, a snob, but I realised as I got older, then, she disliked this on an intellectual level. It wasn't because she thought it was dangerous. It wasn't because she thought it was glorifying anything.

She thought this was just an unhealthy thing. And I asked her about it once, and she said it's because it's inane. It's because it's like, they're not bothering to do proper music. They're just making sounds. And I think she's got a point, to be honest. Like, if, you know, as someone now who's maybe thinking about having kids, I think if my kids were listening to music that's just sounds for the chorus, and it's done by kids, I'd be thinking, oh, really?

You know, should I not maybe give you some CDs to go and listen to? You know, let's listen to Abby Road. Let's listen to Abigold. and other albums that don't begin with A, B. But, you know, it's like, I just think there is something that's very kind of unedifying about this. It's like, the whole just doing, it kind of reminds me of like,

did you ever have that thought of when you're baking something? And you're like, you've got the flour, you've got the sugar, you've got the cream, whatever, and you think, what if we just ate the ingredients instead of making the cake? And that's what I think this feels like a lot of the time, where it's like, who needs to, make anything when you can just eat flour.

That's what the chorus feels like. It's like, who needs a chorus? Who needs words? Who needs meaning at all? We can just go, um, bap, badap, do whap. And, you know, there is a way to do that in a way that's, you know, that's artsy and has, you know, a scat influence to it, you know. But that's not what this is. This is just not bothering to do lyrics.

And so I do think there's a kind of moral argument about music itself to be against this that's like this is kind of inane this is kind of lowest common denominator on a fundamental level we should not encourage music like this and i do think it's also a bit of a harbinger of something that's way to come in the future that i don't think you can blame this for but i do think maybe it's the seed of an idea for some acts you know to think oh well if the hook is just noises essentially we did this thing in the i'm going to say the late tens maybe the early tens maybe the very late noughties, but certainly I remember being a big problem with pop music in the late tens, where we just, we decided to stop doing choruses in the world of pop music, where we decided to

either finish on an ostinato rather than a chorus and just do verse, verse, with the occasional little bridge or ostinato in between, I'm going to give you an example of that, which is, what do you mean by Justin Bieber, which I do like, but remember it struck me at the time as like, this song has no chorus. The chorus is just some panpipes. That's all it is. And basically everything Arianna Grande has ever written. Apart from like one last time, that's the only one I can really think of, but almost everything that she released in the late 10s has no chorus. She's allergic to them.

And I think that may be sort of in here as well. It's like it kind of feels like coping out to just make a noise instead of doing proper chorus and attaching meaning to choruses as the thing that anchors your song. It kind of questions the structure of pop music in a way that I don't think was a good thing for the future of the genre. So I don't think it's fair to lay that at this door, but it was in my head with this. I will say, though, considering how young they are, and considering that they did appear to genuinely sort of do this off their own backs

to any extent that you can at that age, you know, they are talented kids here. You know, they are, like, playing their instruments well. They're singing it well. It's quite a catchy song. I don't think anyone can deny that. Like, it's perfectly serviceable. Pop Rock. music, which I'm sure was in the heads of like Busted and McFly, so, you know, that's a good thing.

But is it really anything good musically? No. It's just a bit of a strange novelty. And I feel sort of uneasy about it because of that. But like, this is fine. I just think there's a lot baked into this more than you would expect for some silly song by kids. I just think it raises questions about music and what makes good music that make me uneasy. So it's, it's, it's, it's, It's a very tentative thumbs up for me, a very, very tentative one. And I feel like I could write a book about this, so I'm just going to stop talking now, because it's an odd one of this song. Yeah.

All right then, so, next up, it's this. Okay, so this is I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans and The One One, Two. The song was released from his album No Way Out. It's Puff Daddy's fourth single to be released in the UK. It's first to reach number one, not his last UK number one, but it's last of the 90s. I'll be missing you was number one for three weeks. Big competition from Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Ecuador by Sash and The Journey by 9-1-1.

Those were the number two singles, or at least the highest new entries. It's not the end of its time at number one. So Andy, you said you wanted to stop talking just there. You're not going to say anything about this? No. So, Ed, I'll kick to you. This one. This one.

I thought at the time that the lyrics and rapping were shit. And I have literally just discovered that he didn't even write the lyrics that were written for him by source money.

Oh great. Source money. Someone had to write this for him. Now I'll be honest, I'm just doing this from memory because I did not want to listen to this on a streaming platform that might result in any money

making its way back to Diddy Come? Yeah, I only note After that, I had no notes before this recording started And it was just, he added nothing And then I just thought, well, I don't really need to say more than that Because that's kind of, that's an epitaph, really, isn't it? He added nothing. So, yeah,

I know I'm basically sounding like he's already dead, but for all intents and purposes, uh, yeah, just, it was, it was the pits at the time. It was weak at the time. It was exploitative and empty at the time. And now in retrospect, it's just, it just doubles that up. It's just fucking manipulative vapor. It's complete ass. Apparently he, approached Jay-Z and Jay-Z went, no.

And so Jay-Z said, how about this guy instead? I've had him on my album last year. Okay, great. So that's how that happened. I've said before on this show when we covered Nasty Girl, the Biggie would never, I don't think, begrudge Diddy, trying to make some money from his image. Biggie loved money.

He was a kind of entrepreneur and capitalist who would celebrate anyone trying to raise some money for themselves, whether they were just making a book or building an empire. you know, Biggie and Diddy made a lot of money together, so what's a little more sort of thing? You know, people who've written biographies of Biggie, they do paint this picture of someone who's like, he only really turned to rap him because it made him more money than selling cocaine. Like, that's kind of the guy that he was. Like, he liked the money.

He was very, very talented, and it was a very, very, it was a means to an end that he was particularly skilled at. But regardless of how Biggie may or may not have felt, that still hasn't made me feel any less icky about the song itself. I think this is just as ghoulish as nasty girl, but doesn't even feature Biggie. Could you not put him on,

you know, put him on his own song sort of thing? Although maybe that would have made it more ghoulish at the time, I don't know, but I'm unsure, but it feels weirdly similar to I want to be the only one, just in the sense that Diddy's trying

to pass himself off as this kind of white-suited, religious pastor-type figure who's leading a sermon, only he's definitely not B.B. Wynens. Forgetting all of the hypocrisies for a second, which apparently consist of Diddy giving the bill to Biggie's funeral, to Biggie's estate. That's now recently been accused in this latest documentary that 50 Cent has been part of. But 50 Cent has hated P. Diddy for a very, very long time.

So I would always take what he says about Diddy with a pinch of salt. I just don't think this is any good, though. I think the worst crime actually committed by this song is that Diddy doesn't even sound fussed that his friend is dead. The lyrics are bored platitudes that contain very little specificity except for that bad, oh my God, that life after death punchline at the end of both verses. Oh, God, like he thinks it's funny. Still living your life after death. By the album, it's out now.

Still living your life after death. Just reminding you, it's out now, buy it again. You could say, maybe, that Diddy is keeping a mournful tone in his voice. but I think the lack of actual content in the lyrics reveals this to be a rush job. He puts a little more effort into can't nobody hold me down. I can't, I can feel Faith Evans mourning through her vocals on this, but the verses just feel like a brand extension for Diddy, who knows this is his moment to see something big.

Again, Biggie would probably not have begrudged him that moment, but that doesn't mean that Diddy's intentions or his work is suddenly heartfelt and pained to me. I think its broadness contributes to its success. though, it does six weeks at number one in the end. It's people buying the record without really knowing who big he was. It's just a song about missing a loved one that's set to a familiar police sample. The biggest rap song in the UK since Gangsters Paradise,

it's basically a window into the shiny suit era, and the man had already done a lot of damage to the genre and the scene by this point, and then made that, and then just, like, scorched earth it and just napalmed it for damage even further. I just, yeah, I've never really been comfortable with this, never really been on board with this. I've never, ever liked Diddy as a rapper. We recorded our episode about Nasty Girl before all the allegations came out against him. And I just, yeah, I have not changed my tune on him. He's a rapper with nothing to say, nothing interest to give to the world, nothing interesting to give to the world out of his mouth. He was a very good A&R guy and a pretty

good producer and good at spotting talent. And that's about it. Any move he tried to tried to make into proper rapping and making his own music is all just total raspberries to me. It is all, basically all of it is shit. There's a few songs on No Way Out that are elevated by Notorious BID, just kind of being there. He made a good choice with putting the DeBarge sample on that remix of One More Chance, which was the thing that really sent Biggie over the top. And, okay, fine, he can have that. I just, yeah, I don't know.

This is all very, the thing that everybody kind of forgets, except not in the hip-hop community, is that after the funeral, not long after the biggie funeral, there was a big TV concert. And Diddy came out and he did this. And he was dancing around the stage like a fucking clown, this mournful song that he'd apparently done to celebrate his friend. And he was like skipping a,

across the stage and doing like hit thrusts and spinning around and all this stuff and it's like and then you find out that he apparently forced big his estate to pay for the funeral apparently allegedly whatever and it's just i don't know i just i feel like did he was kind of like a bit less of an open secret than are kelly but like enough people around him probably knew what he was like he was it would have been much better for everybody if he'd just stayed as the ad lib guy the annoying adlib guy that you just had to put up with if you wanted to listen to you just had to list you put up with him if you wanted to listen to biggie sort of thing any any step he tried to make into becoming a legitimate artist on his own terms as just always ended up like this to me just a

blank expression like oh well you tried great you shit don't do it again sort of thing i just yeah i've never never really liked this never really liked him um and if he can be consigned to history and if we can finally come up with a copy of life after death which doesn't have at least a copy of hypnotise that doesn't have him going in the background after uh biggie says anything um then yeah that'd be great but other than that yeah god what a what a stain what a scourge just yeah not not cool it didn't even occur to me because i decided i didn't want to say anything about this it didn't even occur to me to think about nasty girl but now that you've said that that episode. And I, you know, I've not made any secret of the fact that I am very far from

an expert on rap or hip-hop or anything to do with it. I certainly about the culture around it, on what these people's reputations are. I didn't much know. I was going into that pretty blind. And I remember listening to that song, and I was genuinely disgusted and appalled by that song. I just thought, I know that there's far worse in terms of language in other stuff, but like, there was something about the tone of it and the level of, kind of... kind of visceral, kind of, overt lust and, like, kind of, more than lust, just disdain towards women

that was being expressed in that song. That I honestly, like, sort of considered whether I wanted to absent myself from that song at the time, and I remember talking about it on the show, thinking, like, this is disgusting. Why did anybody like this? Like, this isn't funny. And, like, this is really horrible. And, like, I didn't know anything about,

um, Diddy then, and I'm not claiming to have any kind of clairvoyance about it now. I just think, like, I just, feel so vindicated now looking back at that. And I just think it's a really good example of that phrase by Maya Angelou, which is like, it's extremely trying now because everybody says it. But it is true. It's just the old simple thing of when people tell you who you are, believe them. He tells you who you are. He tells you who he is in some of his songs. He's a creep. We should have listened. Let's listen next time. You know. Yes, good sentiment to finish that segment on, I think.

So the last song this week, the fourth song this week, it's this. It's the, This. Okay, this is, do you know what I mean by Oasis? Released as the lead single from the band's third studio album titled Be Here Now. Do you know what I mean is Oasis's 11th single to be released in the UK and their third to reach number one and it's not the last time we'll be coming to Oasis during our 90s coverage. Do you know what I mean went straight in at number one as a brand new entry and stayed at number one for one week in its first and only week atop the charts it sold 377,000

copies beating competition from see you when you get there by Culeo freed from desire by Gala ghost by Michael Jackson piece of my heart by Shaggy Gotham City by R Kelly and how come how long by babyface and Stevie Wonder. Yeah not a great week. Whoa, whoa. When it was knocked off the top of the charts do you know what I mean dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 25 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2025,

Andy, you can go first on Oasis. Yeah, well, I mean, I've had a complex relationship with Oasis on this show. I think I've told people in the past about how they were for a very brief period of time for about a year when I was 16. I just thought the sun shone out of their asses. Like, I absolutely adored everything by Oasis. And then, as I grew up, I became continuously and sort of relentlessly less fond of them. And now I kind of have a begrudging kind of respect for a lot of their music, which is now blossoming again into actually some of their stuff I actually really quite like.

I've really become quite fond of whatever over the past year. And I've also become very fond of Lila as well. and it's a difficult relationship I have with them partly because of this thing that came up on a previous on a previous conversation about them about how they are kind of the ultimate heterosexual that band basically and that's not me at all

so I find it a bit uncomfortable but also because I think there's a fundamental shitness to a lot of their music which we don't talk about I think it's just like an overall crumbiness, as the Simpsons would say it, which is just a bit, like, we never address it really, and I think this is a perfect example. Obviously, I'm not going to, you know, be the one to tell the story of Be Here Now, because I think everyone who knows about Oasis knows the story of Be Here Now, which is that it is the apotheosis of The Emperor's New Clothes story, that that's what this is.

It was built up as the successor to What's the Story Morning Glory. It was going to be the next Sergeant Pepper, and a lot of publications treated it as it was, and a lot of listeners at first treated it as it, as it was. if it was, when it wasn't. It was a garbage fire. It was absolutely just a terrible album that was indulgent from start to finish that maxed out every second on that CD

for no reason at all. That became allergic to any form of editing, to any form of self-reflection, to any form of catering to an audience rather than just expressing yourself. It was anti-music, basically. So that's, I mean, that's a short version of it, and I won't go any further into it,

except that I completely agree with the narrative on it. Be here now, is awful and a serious contender for their worst album. I think I think it's worse than anything that follows, potentially. I think they absolutely hit rock bottom with it. And this is, I think this is just such a good example of the problem

that it takes minutes worth of time to get to anything in this. And you think, right, what are we all about here? What are we going to say, right? What is this big, massive blustering number heading towards? And it's leading to all my people right here right now, Do you know what I mean? It's just nothing.

It's literally nothing. They're not saying anything at all. It's not just anti-music. It's anti-meaning. Andy, Andy, you forget. Questions are the answers you might need, though. But it's just, it's just, it's just, bollocks is what it is.

It's just bollocks. And like, I'm being quite foul mouth there, but I struggle to find the vocabulary otherwise, because it just flies in the face of all the critics who, I think somewhat reluctantly come on board to Oasis for their first two albums. They understood that they were very zeitgeisty and very excited, but I think they had a bit of a wry eye towards them,

but because What's the Story Morning Glory had been such a big pop culture event, they'd started taking them very seriously and were prepared to give this a proper hearing as they would with act like radio heads. You know, they were prepared to give this a proper hearing. And this is what Oasis gave them? And it's just, it's just, oh, it's a perfect confluence of the, industry, the act themselves, the public and the music itself.

All that log-aheads in an X shape coming towards this horrible implosion in the middle. It's just a regrettable moment in pop history of this. And yet, it's overlong to the point of obscenity. It's meaningless to the point of wasting time on it. Overproduced to the point of hilarity. This is absolute garbage. Sorry. I think this is potentially the worst single that Oasis ever released.

Ed, do you feel the same? Yeah. Rob. No. It's kind of vindication for the Stone Rose's second album, this. Because that got absolutely slagged for being overindulgent, overblown and disappointing. it was the poster child for disappointing

sophomore releases for the longest time and this is basically Love Spreads but with nothing in it another love spreads was another super long fucking single full seven minutes

there was no as far as I know like a bridged version that I'm aware of or was there I mean in that case I don't know if it's necessary in this one Jesus Christ, I was trying to find it. But even on their compilation, it's this seven and a half minute pile of coked up hubris. But Jesus Christ, play love spreads after this.

It sounds like Hendricks-level sort of divine guitar-based inspiration. Because this is, whatever they had at the beginning, whatever flicker, it's gone and is exploded by this point. And not in a kind of, ooh, you know, a, peak of success kind of way. It's hollow. I'm basically just giving synonyms for everything Andy's already said effectively. But it's particularly uninspired because basically like even the chord sequence, if you take away that when the levy breaks drum bit that runs over it,

it would just be a kind of overblown wonder wall without the poignancy to it. I honestly thought, maybe it would be funny just to actually have me approach muttering away from the mic at the beginning of this and just slowly walk towards it saying Bob all for like a minute and a half and then literally just say nothing. And that would be my review because that is the effect of this song. I don't usually indulge in hyperbole, but they seem to be indulging in fucking musical hyperbole here. So I thought, why not join the fucking party? it really is bloody awful it was worse than I was expecting and I know it's not the only single

off this album and it's not it's not even the only it's not even the longest number one single off this album because Jesus Christ I've not got pleasant

no I'm not going to spoil it okay maybe I will spoil it because fuck it the next single number one single is ass as well and they did it the reprise of it. They've got this, I'll say this, right? I don't know whether this is a talent, but it's certainly an ability where they have this thing. I'll put this down to Noel Gallagher,

I guess, and I'll put it down to drugs as well, this ability to say things without saying things, to make something sound like they're saying something without saying anything at all. That I think actually that's the one thing they do in trying to emulate John Lennon that he actually would have approved of is their ability to say words that sound like they mean something, but they don't. You know, go let it out is the classic example. But this, you know, all my people right here right now, do you know what I mean? Like, they're just not saying anything. And I think this Emperor's New Clothes effect that happens to be here now

and to this song and to all these other singles. I think the thing that makes that happen to any work is when it defies analysis. And I think OASIS have a skill of making things so dense and so oblique, lyrically and musically, with this wall of sounding, that they defy analysis. The problem is that I think Oasis defy analysis in a bad way, because it's so empty. whereas other things defy analysis because they're so deep and there's loads in them. I just think many made the mistake of thinking that because this is weird and hard to know what to think of it, that must mean it's somehow good.

That's a big mistake. And it's not good at all. The thing is it's almost like they're embarrassed, I think, about, you know, oh, I can't be poignant. People might laugh at me. So you might as well do this evasive cod, clever shite. which really misunderstands

the kind of the clever conflation of imagery and things like I am the walrus I mean it's embarrassing that they would actually seek to compare themselves to that in any way

No but I do think I do think they do have an ability to do that and in some of their better songs you know can be fair they do it and don't look back in anger where that's just nonsense you know they do have a skill

for writing lyrics that sound like they mean something that don't they can that's the thing and on the second album and on the first album in places, they do. I mean, I've always liked the image as he faced the sun, he cast no shadow.

That's a really nice poetic image that says quite a good deal, I think. Yeah, it's not transparent in its meaning, but there's nothing wrong with an image being broad and open to interpretation. If it's just fucking quasi-clever-sounding nonsense like this is, it's just annoying and sounds half-assed

because it's half-assed. Yeah, the main source. sort of criticism I keep coming back to with this is that it tries so hard to be an event that it forgets to be a song. You hear all the helicopter noises and feedback and the big booming drums that open things up and you think, ooh, Oasis are back. And by the end of the second chorus, it's a bit, oh yeah, Oasis a back, kind of. And then by the end of the seven minute mark, you wonder if they're ever going to go away again or if this is all you will hear. for the rest of time.

Even the single edit is outrageously long for the lack of development that it displays. And it really fucking trudges slowly. For something that sounds like cocaine in terms of the mix, it sounds more like beer in terms of its pace and arrangement. Although unifying all of that is that it sounds like nobody has said the word no to the Gallagos for about three years. every suggestion they come up with greeted with

oh yeah man that would fucking wicked you know what I mean like they've all turned into the Kathy Burke and Harry Enfield versions of themselves can you carry on giving all of your comments in that voice please I'd love that so much there's a few more there are a few more little drops into that accent because this is the issue they turn into their own parodies and I don't think they've realised it the song title is clearly a joke aimed at the fact that they finish every other sentence in every interview with the same five words. Funny.

It's like they've crafted their own in-joke where if you get it, you're in the club. If you have to ask, then you shouldn't know. It's that sort of thing. It's like they've stopped trying to appeal to Mr. X and Mrs. Y and are now channeling their music towards Mr. O, which just stands for Oasis. And I say, Mrs. Y, if that doesn't get you going, my name isn't Homer J. Simpson. going to go with Mr. F, but anyway. I don't think this deserves pie-hole in, which I'll get to, but it's very flabby, overlong,

doesn't have many ideas beyond the atmospheric cultivates within the first minute and a half, because it takes so fucking long to even start. This is Oasis starting to lean on the worst impulses that they'd occasionally displayed before this, and that they've seemingly learned all the wrong things from going stratosphere. It sounds like they've been told that acting like cunts and sounding like cunts will just keep the money rolling in and we'll get them another Nebworth. So they're writing songs for Nebwuf and yeah, okay, they remain the biggest band in the country for another two to three years after this. So as much as being here now is regarded as a bit of a disappointment, their fan base was so large that it probably didn't matter. and the thing is

is that their biggest fans who go mental don't really seem to like music well actually they like music as an accompaniment to their life they don't live for it though and that's where the sweet spot hits that's the people they aim for

they aim for football fans who like to chant on terraces and you won't find much critical thinking about music amongst that crowd as you were saying Andy they make things that are oblique and hard to critique and very loud and very large and very dense so that if anybody says anything negative about it, 100,000 people will turn round and in unison with one hive mind voice say,

what you're being such a fucking kill joy for, mate? I think it's true because I have a friend who's like, who is one of those people who considers Oasis's absolute favorite, went to the reunion or, you know, always like puts them on and gets drunk and sings along whenever you hang out and stuff. And like, I wouldn't say he's not a fan of music. What I would say is that music is a thing to facilitate emotion for him in a way that it probably isn't for the people

where it's like, OASIS is such a blank canvas because their songs so often are so meaningless and so empty that you can just kind of project pure emotion in whatever sense onto them. And I think that's what a lot of their fans, that's certainly what this guy I'm talking about, gets out of Oasis, is that you can just throw your arms up in the air and think about whatever thing,

matters to you and that becomes intertwined with Oasis. It's a little bit of a kind of mass con job, I think they're doing, to be honest, where they're kind of jumping onto people's other emotions about other things and casting that as Oasis's thing. I just, yeah, I mean, I'm happy for people who've enjoyed this whole year of Oasis coming back and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I do think, though, it's like, it's certainly not what I want to get out of music. It's a weird thing to me, but yeah.

Yeah, and I wouldn't say that like literally everybody that went to those gigs doesn't care about music, doesn't listen to it enough, doesn't listen to it properly, you know, it's not that. It's just that like a lot of their fans just seem to come across that way where they they like Oasis because Oasis are, as they see it, normal. They're the kind of music that it's acceptable to like, that you can like them without actually showing anything of yourself. You don't have to be vulnerable or slightly nerdy or queer or strange or an outsider to like Oasis or have an appreciation for them because they are perfect for people who only like music with a pint in their hand,

who people who don't sit at home listening to records and listening to singles and going out and like, you know, spending your, you know, you're hard earned or like keeping up with pop and all this stuff. it's so that you can occasionally drift in and out, hold a pint, and have a good time. And that's fine. Art has to serve every, you know, every purpose has to be served by a bit of art. And I think that's what it's become. I think that people who are really into definitely maybe and what's the story, maybe there's a slightly different fan base there. But I think from Be Here Now Onwards, there is a particular kind of person that they are appealing to,

and it's cool over anything else, and it's cocaine over everything else. It is confrontationally empty and confrontationally meaningless. And so in many ways, that's maybe why it's very easy for a lot of people who don't have anything to say or creatively anything to add to actually really get on board. Because like, oh, you've got a fucking problem, mate. You've got a fucking problem. Oh, there are people right here right now. There was a chap who, when the tour.

was announced and Manchester went slightly insane for a few weeks and I felt a little bit scared there was a chap who walked literally he's like a fucking stereotype of exactly the kind of images that are being conjured up here who walk round

and round the rather grotty war-torn looking Solford precinct or the shopping city as it's known now just walk round and round with the headphones in yelling the lyrics to that and he was doing it all morning

just fucking all like the just all oasis songs like what what is the point what did he think he was imparting in people and the thing is he didn't care I think he wanted people to notice him and he wanted people to be either like oh fucking mate oasis or get annoyed

I mean that they seem to be the options there because there was nothing being transmitted by what he was doing. It was just abrasive. But anyway, easy for me to see. Everybody has to feel part of something. And I think it was a very,

a very catch-all effort to do that, which did catch a lot of people. But because it doesn't actually mean that much, in a textual sense, people had to do all sorts of things to get that kind of sense of meaning out of it. And some people acted very, very strange, And I think that's the politest thing that I can say about it.

But I mean, it's not even textual. I think part of the problem for me is that it's, it's afraid of committing to anything emotionally other than I'm fucking important. I've not got anything to say. But fuck you, because I'm important. And that's a really easy pass for some people. But I'm not pie-hole in this because I think Liam Gallagher can sell the coaked-up, Beery Football fan acts while still sounding and looking completely in control.

Without him, I think this would be a total disaster, but he just strides in to the song with consummate ease and reminds you why people buy into Oasis so much. Like you said, Ed, when we covered them a bit on top of the pops, Liam is both alluring and repellent, which makes him magnetic. It's true. It's true. I mean, it's the classic, it's the Mick Jagger thing. where it's kind of simultaneously it's like, ugh, but, uh, you know, kind of pull, this push and pull of the,

of the dirty and confrontational and the sort of enticing, yeah. I also think the one new idea that the song has, which is that kind of elevated bridge slash choracy section, the met my maker and made him, you know, there's actual melody there. It soars a bit. It's not some might say, but it's about the best we've got. and Liam's driving that section two, which brings me onto the lyrics, which were written by Noel.

Liam does his best to sell them, but the disparity and quality from one line to the next, I found really staggering, because you get lines like, sun in the sky, never raised an eye to me, which is a simple,

but kind of strong, poetic image, followed by, fall on the hill, and I feel fine. Oh, did you get the, but-dum, psh. Then you get lines like, open up your fist,

or you won't receive, near lines like, I think I know, but I don't know why. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing that you could put any bloody lyrics in the verses and still probably trust that Liam could sell them for you. Because on the one hand, that's a sign of Liam's strengths, but also a sign of something Oasis start to drift towards, which is Lucy in the Sky with Diamond's penmanship,

but as an airzat's version of that, where it's non-sequitur after non-sequitur, unless he tries to do something like little by little, which says true perfection has to be imperfect and I want to punch him through my headphones which oh god that's bad but like I had some fun this week because there are lots of disconnected images that kind of had nowhere in this song

but Liam sells them very well so I'll bring my Mank accent back because I did have some fun this week coming up with some new verse lines for this so I've got got on a bus made of plaster scene Went to Blackpool to see the sea Life gave me toast So I poured on some baked beans

And I've got There's nothing much on the TV It's not as good as it used to be I like Hill Street Blues Do you agree? And then last one I've got Saw a dog sitting on a bench I owe my house so I don't pay rent

Asda's offer was buy one get one free And I also, sorry, I forgot about what I wanted. Stared at the sun for a bit too long. It made me sneeze and it was strong. Tried to rescue a cat from up a tree. Yeah, so, yeah. And they're just a couple of days worth of work, you know? Nothing, no skin off my back.

But that's what I mean. Like, he could probably sell that, but it means that Noel gets away with a lot of bullshit after this point. But the thing is, Rob, The strange thing is, what you have there, you have accidentally conjured images of a place that I can identify. This evades them. There's no place. There's no, as I'm saying with, like, I am the walrus is not total nonsense.

There's emotion in that. There's actually a lot of tension about it. There's images from childhood, a lot of it. And so it's kind of saying something in its roundabout way, but reveling in its own rebellious. And this is the antithesis of that, where it's claiming to be rebellious and out there, but it's hiding. You know, it's hiding behind all of these double meanings or, well, no meanings, masquerading as triple meanings. But it's from my vantage point, and I'm not much of a lyrics person anyway, but oddly, Hansen's meaningless bollocks actually is a, more convincing than whatever

whatever Liam is trying to say here just because it has an emotional thrust behind it. They might not be self-conscious about it, but it has that joy, it has that instantly recognizable sense of youthful drive to it and nothing they do, none of the nonsense sounds they make actually interfere with that.

And here it just, sounds like a wall to comprehension. And that's part of what pisses me off about them by and large. They're so evasive, it almost borders on cowardice. But this is, again, I'm going fucking hyperbolic as sin here, but fuck me. I've had to listen to this fucking seven and an half hour dog turd. Cowardly evasive is basically a better articulation of what I said when we did. Some might say when I said that they did eventually fall into this coolness over feeling

thing where they're worried about seeming vulnerable because they have to be like you were saying when we covered them on top of the pops they have to look and feel like a battleship they have to be ready for war somehow they cannot be seen to cry they cannot be seen to be vulnerable

they cannot be seen to be exposed and so the closest you get in this song is just got off the train alone at dawn back to the hole where I was born it's like okay so he's a guy from a pretty rundown place and then it just kind of of, he's like, oh, shit, oh, God, I've revealed too much of myself there.

I think I know, but I don't know why. Yeah, that'll do. That's good. That'll send them away. I thought you could figure me out, boy, you know, that sort of thing. But even with them, I and the Walrus, though, the line that, yes, sitting on a cornflate, waiting for the van to come is, you know, whatever, but waiting for the van to come is a bit like, that, that's always really threatened me since I first heard it.

What, what van, what is, what's going to happen with that van? Are they going to come and take you away, roll out for the mystery. Sorry, I didn't need to do that. But, like, are they going to come and nick you off the street? Are they going to bundle you into it and kid that view? But there's lots of images of authority in the song anyway. And also, the Beatles are like, are able to, even if it's not particularly there in the lyrics, they're able to do so much with the music.

It's so atmospheric. I remember when I was younger, not that much younger, you know, when I was the teenager. Not much younger than today. I never needed anybody's helping anyway. Strawberry Fields, though, used to absolutely terrify me. It still gives me the creature. It's creepy. I still feel a bit scared.

I don't really put that one on late at night, like, especially the last minute where it comes back in with that little exit-lude thing at the end. There's such metatextual meaning into it, like extra-textual meaning to it, that it almost doesn't matter about the lyrics. Oasis, though, not one iota of atmosphere from the music itself in most of it. I know exactly what you mean. I'd say that what makes some might say stand out, is that that's the only one I can think of

where it does feel like the music itself is projecting something. That's the only one I can really think of that. Again, others would disagree, others would say, don't look back at anger and stuff. Back on this again, but I think Casto Shadow has a certain consistent sigh to it. Maybe, yeah. There is actually, that's a bit more, like this. This does actually feel like a bit of time out.

It doesn't always know what it's trying to say, but there is a lingering sense of resignation, and sadness to it. I do quite like that one as a little bit of a little thoughtful moment. A little thoughtful oasis. Anyway.

So I think we should get out of here. So Ed, Eternal Hanson, Puff Daddy, an oasis. Yeah, I like coffee a lot. But it's a bit like

I had reheated it because I'd left it in the microwave and then forgotten that it was there. And so I take it out and I'm like, well,

it's still like half a cup left. I don't want to waste it. And it kind of, you realize that it's, it tastes a bit of the microwave goo, having been in there, and it's a bit plasticy and it's a bit synthetic. It's still coffee, but it's just, you know, it's, it's, it's a bit, it's false coffee. It's tepid and it's been, it's been sullied by, I don't know where I'm going with this. I like coffee. Um, this one isn't going anywhere. This one isn't going anywhere, though. It's, fine. Mbop, yeah?

I do like the buttons it presses. It's got a great, vibrant sound, I like their energy, they've got good voices, but it's four and a half minutes. It's like if someone made you a pair of sort of nice gloves, like not

cashmere or anything, you know, let's not go crazy, but nice gloves. You know, they're comfortable, they're warming, as you say, Rob. But the problem is they made the fingers all seven inches long. So it's kind of, you know, it's like, well, they are comfortable, although, did he come? Cold, dead.

Well, I'm not going to make that joke. Cold, dead, ground, gone, done, fucking pie hole, burial. And Oasis, did you know that soft machine, ostensibly a jazz fusion slash prog band? once delivered a witty and thoughtful encapsulation of white privilege in less time than it takes this Oasis song to fade in. It's true. It's on a second album. It's brilliant. And it's a minute long.

But yes, sorry Oasis. You're not the Beatles and you're not the stone roses either. But this is going in the bin for me. I find it just loathomely nothingy. But if I, if I could live a fucking year without seeing images of Liam Gallagher's mournful fucking face, I would consider myself profoundly lucky. I am sick to the teeth of the overinflation of these boys. I don't fucking get it.

But one thing I will say is that unintentionally I'm dead pleased that a conversation about Oasis ended with us all coming together to talk about how good the Beatles were. Fuck you, Oasis. Fuck you. Anyway, that's me. Andy, I want to be the only one. Unbop. I'll be missing you.

And do you know what I mean? Well, I'll be missing you's getting discarded. That's an N.A for me. As for, I want to be the only one. Well, I'm not going to be putting it in the vault and not in the pie hole. Sorry, what I mean says, I'm not going to be putting it in the vault and not in the pie hole. what I meant to say was, I'm not going to be putting it in the vault and not in the pipe hole. No, what I meant to say was, I'm not going to be putting it in the vault and not in the pie hole.

Sorry, what I meant to say was, I'm not going to be putting in the vault and not in the pot hole. Come on, you've got a good one. We've still got two minutes to Phil. Come on, keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm not going to be putting in the vault and not in the pie hole. Oh, very nice. Very nice one.

Going to leave it there. Can leave it there. As for UMBO, more like, um, no. That's the best I've got on that one. Yeah, sorry for too much time talking about it tunnel there. And all my pie holes, pie them right now. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, garbage shit.

Yeah. And by the way, my own little fact similar to Ed's there. Funny enough that you brought up help, that got me thinking, and I looked it up. And yes, the whole of help, the song completes before the first chorus. That's what I mean. Bonkers. Bonkers, in it. Jesus.

So for me, I want to be the only one that's... going nowhere that's sticking in the middle. For um-bop, it's very much an mm-hmm, hmm, but not going anywhere. I'll be missing you. That's a pie hole. And do you know what I mean?

Just, just skirts on the edges of the pie hole, but doesn't fall in. It's very, very fucking close, though. It's very, very close. Although I'm really looking forward to our discussion in 98 about all around the world, because I have a bit of a softer spot for that one. because I feel like that's one of the few moments after 96

where a way to sort of go, you know, they try to be a bit reassuring and maybe it'll be fine sort of thing. So we'll see how we feel when we get to that. If I can last through nine minutes of it again and still feel... Honestly, I think it's twice as good as, do you know what I mean? By which I mean, I'll be scoring it at two, not a one.

I was about to say, let's not get carried away. No matter how good you find ingredients? It goes nowhere. So we will see you next time. Thank you very much for waiting for a couple of weeks. We hope you all had great Christmases and new years and looking forward to 2026 and all that. So yeah, we will see you next time.

Thank you and bye bye. Bye.