Of course, I only listened to this because we recently finished watching the incredible Pam & Tommy on Disney+. I had only vaguely heard of Mötley Crüe anyway, and certainly didn’t know their music or what it was all about. If I’m honest, I was expecting the worst, loud angry headache-inducing hard rock, right? You know what? I really loved this album. That Dr Feelgood song is completely stuck in my head and I don’t even mind! I can’t see that I’m going to listen to any more of their albums, this is supposedly the best and most successful so I went straight to the pinnacle and loved it.

I know Martika for two reasons - Toy Soldiers, obviously, and then being discussed in the first episode of Peter Kay’s Car Share. This album is very much of its time - strongly 80s pop with a couple of covers in there. In fact, it might almost be missing the peak of the 80s, given that it was released in 88/89. Toy Soldiers stands out as a great track, it also doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the album, where it has such a deep meaning and resonance to it. But overall, a good fun album.

Let’s be clear, Too Many Broken Hearts and Especially For You (added later, I think) are both absolute bops and to start and finish your album with those is a great thing. Unfortunately, everything in the middle is just that standard Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop - fine but almost identical to each other. It makes me want to give Jason a big hug and say, you’ve done some good work here but there’s so much more to come!

There was a lot of Kylie on over Christmas, so I thought it was about time to dip my toe back in the Stock, Aitkin and Waterman waters. This is Kylie’s second album and it’s stacked full of that traditional late 80s, early 90s pop sound - a bit formulaic but still quite fun.

So, Mr C and I have a history of arguing about Richard Marx - I’m on the record as forecasting that his song Hazard will be the one and only reason we ever get divorced. However, that’s not on this album so I can have no complaints. And I actually have no complaints anyway, I really enjoyed it. Nice, proper eighties pop rock, good tunes. I had only heard of Right Here Waiting before listening to this, and that was a highlight, but I think the whole album stacks up.