Listening to an A1 album has been on the list for a long time, and it came rushing to the fore after the rumours that Ben from the group was part of the quirky Norwegian Eurovision entry that involved wolves and bananas. This is straight up good hearted late 90s pop and I Love It. I actually knew more of the songs than I remembered - if you’d asked me to name A1 songs I could have come up with maybe two, but I knew at least double that and maybe more. I think it’s brave to kick off with an almost a capella number when you’re known for pop beats, but it leads into Be the First to Believe really well. Fun!

I knew a lot more of this album than I thought, I guess at the time I was really interested in what Mel would do post-Spice Girls. It’s a really good album, with lots of catchy pop songs, but I do think it feels like a hotch-potch collection rather than a coherent album. Like Mel was properly experimenting with all genres - dance, latin, modern pop, classic pop, a little bit of everything. I enjoyed listening to it though, and there are some classic songs on there that will stand the test of time.

Yay for the lovely manufactured pop sounds of the 1990s. There’s nothing particularly special about S Club 7 in the 90s pop universe, but they do have some good and memorable songs. I was a bit surprised that there were a couple of more Spanish-influenced numbers on there, and I liked it when it stumbled on to a track clearly letting the boys taking centre stage for a change. Overall just a nice, feel-good, pop album.

Love this album. I actually knew a lot more of it than I’d expected (went into it thinking I Try would be the only piece I recognised) and I really loved the whole thing. It felt like what I wanted the Billie Holiday album to be - an incredible and unique voice but, thankfully, overlaid not over jazz but general pop tunes.

Yes! What a great album to sign off the year with. If I’m honest, we were a bit lost for inspiration on how to wrap up the year, and so turned to many lists of greatest albums or best-selling albums. This featured quite highly but now I can see why.

This album is an old favourite, I suspect I had a physical copy as I knew all the songs throughout and had a lot of the lyrics in my head. It’s an interesting one because it’s a downbeat record, lazy and drifting, reminding me quite a lot of Coldplay’s debut album - not in the songs themselves but in the mood.

I knew far more of this album than I’d anticipated, so plenty to sing along with. Great songwriting skills and lots of interesting instrumentation and sounds to keep each song alive and fascinating.

This one was right up my street. Moody and blues, over a variety of different beats with a scattering of new soundbytes on top. Really enjoyed it but did make me crave the Bourne song.