I like this album because it’s familiar to me, I know most of the songs, and listened to it quite a lot when I was younger. It’s not good though. This is the pinnacle of manufactured pop, and that shines through from start to finish. I think Hear’Say came too late in the pop cycle to really have any major success - they were more of a nineties band but hit in the early 2000s. Earlier, they might have done better, but as it is, we’ll have to put up with Monday Monday being the best they can do.

A good, solid album this one, but perhaps a little bit on the depressing side - whilst I quite like the defiance of Don’t Give In (a really good song), there’s also a track called ‘What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?’ which really was as downbeat a listen as you might imagine. Good album though, you just have to be in exactly the right mood for it.

We watched the Westworld edition of Carpool Karaoke yesterday, and thought “Yea, I know there’s a Paul McCartney one out but it can’t be as good as this.” Evan and James had great chemistry, great fun and got up to some fab antics with bonus Westworld memes thrown in there for good measure. So, we turned to the Paul McCartney and James Corden episode and… well, we couldn’t have been more wrong, could we?

I’m currently working my way through the various options for learning how to code via Swift Playgrounds, and branched out recently to the standalone session that lets you adapt a version of the well known game Rock Paper Scissors. The demo first lets you play the game so you can see how it works, then it asks you to personalise the game with a variety of options. I think it wants you to pick the colours that each player uses and perhaps adjust the hue of the background, but I went for a slightly more ambitious personalisation scheme.

Tricky little film this one. They did a good job airbrushing one actor for another, and the seams were barely visible, but it does feel like they were focusing so much on that aspect that somewhere along the way the rest of it got lost.

In stark contrast to the low-key Lily Allen I listened to the same week, Madness are just a barrel of fun. A lot of it sounds the same, it all has the same reggae beat underneath and you just go along for the ride - great fun.

I’ve only recently realised how much I like Lily’s work so far, and this album is another great addition to her body of work. It’s slightly different to what has gone before, though, and has a much more mellow quality than the rest. It’s also quite depressing, if you listen to it all in one go, very much instilling the loneliness and restlessness that Lily must have been feeling at the time throughout the tracks.

I wasn’t too bothered about the TV series of this, but saw that before I read the book. Finishing the book it didn’t add or take away a lot from what I had seen on screen - the two matched each other quite closely, although I can see areas where the drama was ratcheted up for the TV show, like the hot tub situation.

I didn’t know anything about this story before seeing the film, so it was something of a revelation! It was a fascinating tale and definitely one worth knowing about. It was good to be able to get through the whole film without being disappointed in our knowledge of poker - we have none but everything was explained that needed to be explained.

This was SO GOOD. Great story, fabulous actors, a new spin on the superhero tales we’ve seen so many times now. It does, unfortunately, suffer from being part of the Marvel universe in that we just can’t remember anything anymore and all the nuances are lost. But that aside, as a standalone film, it’s incredible.

I was all ready to write a glowing post about how much I love the Apple Design Awards that take place during WWDC week, but it turns out I have already done this, two years ago! Back then, I was looking for more from the Apple crew in terms of discoverability of the best apps out there and their update to the app store to include a great Today tab has done just that. Featuring stories, lists, behind the scenes videos and more, it’s a nice way to find new content, or learn more about apps you already use.

Been a little while since we watched a film so wanted to ease ourselves back in with something kinda mindless - you know, Neeson flexing his specialist skills as always.

Really loved this, obviously, some of the great songs from the great man all packaged up in one neat album. I actually knew a few more of the songs than I thought I did which made it even better. But really, marching along the streets on a sunny lunchtime walk, with Bad blaring in your ears is basically as good as it gets.

I was really looking forward to this debut release from Jorja, as the huge coverage she’s had on Beats 1 has hyped me up as intended. I was really impressed with the album, it’s very mellow, chilled out and easy to listen to. I thought it went a little bit warbly in places, but for the most part a really great album from Jorja.

I’m kind of in two minds about this one. On the one hand, I started reading thinking this was an absolutely absurd situation to have ended up in. But on the other hand, you sort of can see how it would happen - particularly as our characters appeared to have feelings for each other right at the start of the relationship - complicated though they may have been.

In direct contrast to my post this week about struggling to care for the Westworldian robots, now I’m all over-excited at the thought of this Transformer’s spin-off featuring the one and only Bumblebee. Of course, part of that is because Haiz is in it, but equally, it’s hard not to love that big yellow beast, isn’t it? I wonder why I care more about the machine with headlights for shoulders than the one that looks and feels and is acted by a human being.

I started watching West World after a recommendation from a colleague. The last time this happened, Mr C and I became totally and thoroughly obsessed with The Big Bang Theory and this time looked set to be no different. We both sat down to watch it and loved it. The intriguing concept, glossy visuals, great cast, musical puzzles, twisting narrative and never-ending feeling of wondering where it was all going, these all added up to a great viewing experience. Even the occasional overly violent scene was an acceptable compromise for the greatness of everything else.

We suddenly realised that most of the Les Mills tracklists are propped up by Fall Out By and Panic! at the Disco so it was about time I listened to one of them. Opted for the debut album by P at the D, and whilst I enjoyed the songs, I sort of couldn’t get over the titles having absolutely nothing to do with the content within. Good fun rock, but not something I can get on board with!

I was dubious about this one, really, and probably wouldn’t have listened except I really liked Stop Me From Falling. Unfortunately, the rest of the album was kinda what I was expecting. It’s listenable but it suffers from not being one thing or the other - not really proper country and not really pop either. It didn’t quite stack up for me but I admire Kylie for constantly trying new things.

Simon Amstell has always struck me as a hugely quirky but pretty funny stand up, with more to tell than he is probably comfortable sharing. This book proved that the first part of my sentence is true, the latter not so much - as this book is an incredibly open look at his life.

Saw Gloria promoting the musical about her life and realised I haven’t listened to any of her stuff, although I know some of the songs, obviously. I quite liked this album, although at this point in my musical journey it felt a little cheesy. She’s got such a good voice and a personality that comes across in every song, so it’s a lot of fun.

I really loved this, which was a surprise as CHVRCHES have only really appeared on my radar recently. But it’s a really strong album, all the songs are solid rock although it’s worth mentioning that they all get quite samey towards the end. Love their work though.

Credit: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com I’m pretty in love with Tina Fey as it goes, but watching her episode of the David Letterman Netflix interview show only served to make me love her more. She talks sense, she’s eloquent, confident but modest and a bit of a comedy genius, what’s not to like? Two highlights from the show, but make sure you watch the whole thing if you can.

The BBC hosted their replacement for the absent Glastonbury festival this weekend, putting on four huge shows across the UK and welcoming the great and the good of the music world to play at them. There was far too much content to enjoy in one weekend, so I’ll be perusing the iPlayer for at least the rest of this week and maybe longer.

I was kinda expecting it to be pretty rubbish, and it really only popped up on our radar because of the Adam Devine/Netflix combination that worked so well with When We First Met. There were some moments that were good, and somehow it managed to be funnier than I thought, but also a lot worse than I thought as well.

Ah, great times with Robbie. He’s hit and miss and has a career as varied as you could ask for, but this was early solo Robbie and probably when he was at his best. Some strong hits in here, mixed in with other good songs, there’s no real dip in quality and there’s a variety of tempos and sentiments to enjoy. Top work.

I really enjoyed the previous album by James Bay so was looking forward to this - it’s a good follow-up, although I don’t think it quite lives up to the great poppy-folky standards of the last. The intro and interludes don’t really seem to add anything to the story, but the songs stand up and it’s an easy-listening endeavour.

There was quite a lot of excitement surrounding the recent release of a new Harry Potter game on iOS. It was your chance to attend Hogwarts, learn lessons, immerse yourself in the magical world that we’ve grown to love. It was even touted as Harry Potter meets The Sims, which, as you can imagine, immediately got my attention. Early reviews of the game weren’t so positive though, suggesting that whilst the story is interesting enough, it’s really just one of those ‘gouge-as-much-money-from-the-user-as-possible’ games which is free to play but perhaps not so free to fully indulge in.

I did not enjoy this. I’ve enjoyed some of Miranda’s other songs, but this one was back to the roots country, with slide guitar and crazy Southern accent and all. Not only that but it’s a double album, so lasts about 90 minutes. It was a bit of a slog to get through it twice, I’ll be honest.

I’ve been looking forward to this one and was disappointed when Charlie pushed the album back to make sure it was finished to his own high standards. Eventually got to listen though, and enjoyed it. I’m not sure it’s better than the last album, and the Boyz II Men song, whilst good, brings the mood right down in the middle where it would be better at the end. But otherwise, a good solid set of songs.

Here’s a piece of advice for anyone starting a new project or challenge or adventure that requires a little bit of structure: DON’T FOLLOW THE ALPHABET. It seems like such an obvious and fun choice. I’m going to set myself a baking challenge, why not a cake for every letter of the alphabet? I’m going to write a book of short stories, why not start each title with the next letter in the alphabet? I’m going to visit various attractions around the UK, why not do it in alphabetical order?

All Saints was my first ever album purchases, and so I know it quite well. I really like the funky nature of it, the kick-ass attitude of these girls who were trying to be the antithesis to the squeaky clean pop acts out there. It seems a lot safer compared to more recent artists but it still holds a fond place in my heart.

Having recently discovered a love of synth it was brilliant to find that Blossoms are basically a modern synth band. I really enjoyed the album, although I’m not sure it’s quite as strong as the first one - I’m going to have to listen to that one again now!

It is inconceivable to me that we haven’t already film-watched this movie, and Mr C spent a good portion of the first half trying to remember when we last watched it and why it hadn’t appeared on this site (turns out it was because we just caught the end.)

Last weekend, my good friend Lukeh ran his first marathon, completing the incredible 26 miles in the first event held in Newport city centre. He was raising money for a mental health charity and was aiming to complete the marathon in about 4 and a half hours. I’d been watching his progress as he shared training updates on Twitter, and reading along as the nerves kicked in once the marathon was only just around the corner.

I’ve been wanting to write about Masterclass for a while but didn’t really want to shout its praises until I had sampled some of the merchandise. Unfortunately, time has not been my friend but now there are two developments with the online learning provider that I have to talk about. Firstly, if you’re not familiar with Masterclass, they offer exceptionally high quality courses from incredibly big names with ridiculous amounts of wisdom and experience to share. The courses are delivered online, they come in a variety of subjects and are expensive but not prohibitive.

Well this was a revelation to me. I loved the album, and the band that I am now calling The ‘Mode, much to Mr C’s disapproval. I’d never realised it before but am suddenly growing to understand that synth music is right up my street and Depeche Mode are one of the key bands in this genre. Good stuff.

I’ve loved pretty much all of Anne-Marie’s singles, so this album was a long time coming and delivered exactly what you want - more of the same! Fun pop with the occasional serious edge, but lots of catchy choruses that draw you in from the start of the album to the very end.

Huge fans of the Pitch Perfect series, it seemed inevitable that this would be another brilliant outing to finish off the trilogy nicely. And it does that. There are a few gripes, of course, but overall it was almost as perfect as the title suggests.

I’m due an album update on the site but in the meantime, let’s just say I’ve been totally loving George Ezra’s Staying at Tamara’s. It’s unfortunately timed, really, because it would work so much better in glorious sunny weather and we’ve only been lucky enough to have a day or two of that. In a couple of months though, I’m hoping this album will totally come into its own because it’s sunny and peppy and cheery and I really love it.

I know what you’re thinking. Bletchley Park doesn’t begin with an X. Thankfully, it’s a destination that is also known as Station X so I can sort of get away with it (mostly because it’s my challenge and I make up the rules). Turns out it’s quite hard to find places to go that begin with an X, but thankfully I’ve been wanting to go to Bletchley for a while anyway.

I only know the song Kayleigh from this, played as the last song of series two of Car Share, but I can’t say I particularly liked this album. It’s okay as music goes but I really don’t like the way the tracks all blend into each other and nothing particularly stood out for me even after two listens.

You would never put these two together, would you? What a weird partnership but it totally, totally works. This is such a gentle but good album to listen to. It’s clear and open, honest and simple. From the UK to Jamaica, criss-crossing styles all the way. Nice and relaxing and probably perfect for summer.

I should have trusted Mr Johnson because this was a fantastic two hours of fun, drama, over-acting and generally good vibes. I loved the story - it was a great way of updating the old story without rewriting history or sacrificing any of the past. The characters were good, both young and old. At one point, Mr C said he wanted to watch the film about the high school kids rather than have them get sucked into the game, but once that did happen, it was even more fun.

I was quite excited to listen to this but actually it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Solid hip hop and the singles are good but it didn’t blow me away. A bit too much Eminem, as well.

My first pass through this album left me thinking ‘pretty good, sounds just like what you’d expect from the Manics.’ Apparently that hasn’t always been the case for the last few albums, so that’s a start. On the second pass through, it all started growing on me. The first three songs are brilliant, and the rest stacks up pretty well too. Definitely one to re-listen to a few more times yet.

There was something different about it compared to the other films, in that there wasn’t such a clear distinction between good and bad. It wasn’t just ‘believe us, there’s still some good in him’ like it was with Darth Vader. In Ben/Kylo, we’ve seen it with our own eyes and that makes a difference. And Luke’s moment of madness shows that even good people can do/consider doing bad things.