Anyone who has been following this site for a while will know that at the end of each year, I like to hand over the reigns to Mr C to share his top five songs and films of the previous twelve months. Last year was an absolute disgrace as he was unable to narrow down his shortlist to five and after a full month of arguing about it, we ended up with top tens instead.

Over Christmas, the 80s TV show Pop Quiz returned for a two-part special, and it was brilliant! I’ve never heard of this show before, but was keen to give it a watch as it looked just like Question of Sport only about music. It even features genuine music acts, including Toyah Wilcox, some guy from Spandeau Ballet and other people I don’t know but who were a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the intros round, as well as the “guess the song from the lyrics” round. It’s always amazing how hard it is when lyrics are taken out of context and read with the wrong rhythm.

It has been an incredible year for me, listening to 100 albums in total across 50 weeks and learning an enormous amount about albums, artists, and music in general. The biggest lesson, though, is that there is so much more to learn. This album listening thing will continue into next year, but it seems only right to wrap up what has been a brilliant 2016 of albums for me. Firstly, it’s worth saying that whilst I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the subscription music business model, this album adventure couldn’t have happened without it. When I was a listener of “just the songs that I like” then I wanted full control over what I did with them, which playlists I put them in, and wanted to hoard them which meant subscription services weren’t the right thing.

Now, you know I love James Corden and his antics, but combine them with the fabulous Hailee Steinfeld and you’re on to a winner. This game, though, it is something mindbending. Taking the first line of every song and repeating it for every line is so hard, have you tried it? Try it! A lot of fun though, and far more hilarious than it has any right to be. I’m worried I will never be able to sing songs normally, now that I know they should all just be the first line repeated over and over.

The BBC recently published a short video that explained why some people respond better to having music playing when they’re studying and others work better in silence. This is a topic that has been on my radar for a long time, because Mr C and I differ radically on our approaches to concentration. He can listen to music as he works and learns, whereas I don’t favour silence but certainly prefer a white noise that requires no additional concentration.

I was superbly excited going into this year’s Apple Music Festival, even more so than usual. Previous years have seen me bouncing around in glee at the concept of a fortnight’s worth of free live music, streamed around the globe to be soaked up in the comfort of my own living room. This year, given my focus on musical education, I was looking forward to it even more! Plus, the line up looked exceptionally good.

Passenger, playing at the Apple Music Festival this evening, perks up my attention. Me: “Who does he sound like?” Mr C: “Not sure.” Me: “Is it Mumford & Sons, maybe?” Mr C: “Could be, the guitars and stuff.” Me: “No, it’s his voice, it’s familiar.” Mr C shrugs. We listen on. Two songs later, Passenger starts playing Let Her Go. “OHHHH, this is who he sounds like! This is the song I was remembering!”

Apple Music gets quite a lot of stick for its functionality and usability, and I can understand the complaints to a degree. However, I’ve used it constantly these past six months for my weekly album adventure and much more, so I’m listening to more music than I probably have before in my life. I’m comfortable with how it works and I love it being part of my iOS experience. There’s one feature I really would like, though, and that is a Reading List style place to save things for the future. If you use Safari, you’ll know it’s easy to save whatever web page you’re on to your Reading List so that you can revisit it at a later date. Or if you’re anything like me, save stuff that you take several months to get round to looking at.

Now, I have to be careful writing this post, because in our household there is one human who is utterly obsessed beyond comprehension with Taylor Swift, and just to be clear, it’s not me. I like Ms Swift, I think she’s very talented and pulled off an incredible feat switching from country to pop the way she did. 1989 is a really good album. I also like the stuff she does with her fans and the way she really seems to care about what’s going on around her. (That’s enough praise to get me out of trouble, isn’t it?)

It’s always a lot of fun when artists cover other artists, and that is never more true than when it’s a Backstreet Boys tune on display. The superbly fun Florida Georgia Line took on that challenge with an impromptu cover of ‘Everybody’ and they did it pretty well, I think! If anyone else leaves BSB, there could be a spot open for one of these two. Although, I have to admit, my one takeaway from this video is to ask what device is it being filmed with? It’s a brilliantly clear image! Love it.

I really love this music video for Sweet Lovin’ by Sigala. The song itself is your standard dance number, but the video takes it a step further with roller skates that issue smoke from the back. I want some! What is really fab about the whole thing is when more skaters join the fun towards the end of the video, creating a sort of roller skating version of the Red Arrows. This must have been a lot of fun to film.

I pick and choose my way through Desert Island Discs, but the wonderful thing about it is the timeless nature of all the interviews. The BBC have made the full archive available indefinitely, so you can listen to anyone at any time. I subscribe to the podcast, but often don’t get around to listening until well after the interviews have been aired. I just recently listened to Dame Judi Dench’s show, and fell even more in love with her than I already was. Rather than joyously recounting stories for each of the brilliant songs on the list, Dame Judi gradually comes to the realisation that all her songs are actually quite depressing. It’s really fun to hear, as each track passes by, Judi’s reaction that she maybe should have taken a look at the eight songs as a whole.

This music video from The Chemical Brothers is incredible. A single-shot sequence of a lone dancer moving around a grungy industrial warehouse space. So far, so normal. But gradually parts of her body become like wireframe, see-through, and that’s when the magic happens. It’s just so detailed and intricate. That you can see her leg through her other leg. That the red pants are wrapped around an essentially non-existent body by the end.

It started like this: John: Rumours? You ever heard Rumours? Kayleigh: What? John: What?! Rumours is one of the best albums in the whole wide world! Kayleigh: Never even heard of it. John: Excuse me? You’ve never heard of Rumours? Oh, you’ll love it. I’ll burn you a copy. Tonight. One of my all-time favourite albums. Kayleigh: Mine’s Now 48. John: Now 48?! Kayleigh: They’re all on it, all me faves S-Club 7, Steps, Samantha Mumba, Shaggy! It wasn’t me.

Now, normally at this point in the year, I hand over a portion of my site to Mr C, allowing him to pick his top five songs and top five films that we consumed in the previous twelve months. It’s a joyous process for me - throughout the year, we keep a note of potential contenders and then I get to watch him writhe in agony as he tries to finalise his top five lists. Unfortunately, this year, the internal debates within him went on for so long that I had to put my foot down and demand a decision.

The fact that Peter Kay’s Car Share was brilliant and received a lot of love is probably not news to many, given that the series aired in April last year. It was something that passed Mr C by, however, and whilst I watched it over and over and grew to love it more and more, I felt protective of it in that way that means you can’t really recommend it to someone. He’d ask if it was worth watching, and I’d umm and ahh whilst secretly coveting “my precious.”

One thing that had never really occurred to me about streaming music services until the last couple of weeks, is the access you have to things that you don’t need all the time. Sure, you want to create playlists of your favourite songs and you want to listen to the best band albums over and over again, but sometimes there is music you only require for a specific period of time - and Christmas is that time.

I think this was aired on James Corden’s show last week, but I’ve just caught up with the video now. Love Me Like You Do isn’t one of my favourite Ellie songs, but how can you not love it done in so many different ways? I particularly enjoy the country version, with some exceptionally dodgy accents. I’ve been listening to more and more country music recently, and not a lot of it sounds like that!

I’ve fully embraced the world of Apple Music, far more than I have any other streaming product. It’s not perfect, but considering how many Apple shaped gadgets I have, it fits into my life better than other streaming services do. It’s had quite a big impact on my listening habits, which is perhaps a story for another day, but the bottom line is I’m listening to a lot more music than I used to.

Following swiftly on from the films of 2014, Mr C turns his attention to music. The playlist to choose from was up to 17 songs at one point, and narrowing it down to five proved to be a difficult task, but one which was great fun for me to watch him agonise over. You can view previous years via the handy links at the end of the post, but for now, let’s see what the end result of the hours of weighing up country against girl groups against guitar bands were.

U2 were due to perform a week-long guest slot on Jimmy Fallon’s nightly chat show but of course Bono went and fell off a bike and broke himself. (BTW, why do people keep cycling when all I ever here from cyclists is tales of woe?) So, rather than drafting in someone less good, last minute, Jimmy upped the stakes and decided to become Bono himself. Video no longer available.

I love that game where, you’re listening to a song and it sounds just like another song and you compare and contrast. In this day and age, there aren’t a lot of new things in music left to be discovered - almost everything has been done before and can be picked up as “copying” a previous artist. Whilst driving, I was listening to Return of the 90s, a surprisingly cheap album stacked full of songs that bring back memories. This tune came on by Inner Circle, which I knew of but wasn’t overly familiar with.

Watching a bit of Vevo TV on the Nashville channel (it’s more entertaining than it sounds), I stumbled across this video from Brad Paisley. It’s a terrible song but a great video, have a peek! It’s a water-skiiing squirrel! At first I thought, jeez, some animals must have been harmed in the making of this video, but a little closer investigation revealed it’s an actual squirrel that has been trained to water ski. Meet Twiggy, the water-skiing squirrel.

It wasn’t long ago I was waxing lyrical about how great Jimmy Fallon’s skit with Paul Rudd was - the pair of them taking on a lip sync battle with amusing results. Now, the Tonight Show host is back again with another classic. This time, he’s roped in Billy Joel for a spot of crooning. I love the use of the looping app in this, and how great they both are. I didn’t actually know Fallon could sing, but he holds his own against one of the greats.

This is the time of year where I hand over the keys of my blog to Mr C, or at least give him a paragraph or two of space, to share the things he’s been loving this year. There are two categories - films and music - and we’ll be starting with the latter. Here’s Mr C’s top five songs from 2013, and I will tell you now, it’s been a heartwrenching process to whittle these down to just five.

This year, I was quite excited to see the Top of the Pops Christmas special, because it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t seen much, if any, of the TOTP brand through the year. I used to watch the 1970s editions that were showing on BBC Four but soon bored of that. I remember last year, there was a festive edition on both Christmas Day and New Year’s, and although there were some acts who couldn’t even be bothered to change between programmes, it was still brilliant.

I hadn’t heard of Bastille before I saw them on the iTunes Festival this year, but I’ve grown to like quite a few of their songs, particularly the anthemic Pompeii. I loved this recent video on Vevo of the band rocking up to a park with the barest of instruments and putting on an impromptu performance. Well, impromptu enough that you have plugs for your keyboard, anyway. Things to love about this video:

Last year, the iTunes Festival was the awesome tail-end of what had been a fantastic year of sport and general greatness. Mr C watched every single available minute of it, and found a whole host of new acts to like. I even liked some of it, and wrote about my findings. This year, we were excited for the month of September music, although a little disappointed in the line-up when it was announced. Free music, available to stream online, for thirty days, though. Nothing to complain about.

Did you ever wonder whether using the lines from pop songs would help to find you a date? Well, whether you did or you didn’t, someone has put the theory to the test for you, and the video evidence makes for some amusing viewing. On the Vevo YouTube channel, there is a series of videos called Lyric Lines, in which Tommy Wooldridge takes specific lines from pop songs – one video per artist – and tries them out on the ladies.

I saw this video on Kottke recently, the making of a Steinway piano. I am obsessed with pianos, always upset when one gets smashed or beaten in a film. I play a bit, and dream of owning something slightly more impressive than the keyboard that is currently gathering dust. I’d never given much thought to how a piano is actually made, and this video is quite a revelation. I love that it is voiced by John Steinway himself, in an audio recording from a tour in the ’80s. It just shows how the procedure hasn’t changed much, and even with so much progress in technology and factory methods, there’s only so much you can automate when it comes to fine-tuning musical instruments.

I’m not a huge music video aficionado, but Mr C tends to point out those that catch his eye whenever he spots them. Recently, a new video from Kelly Clarkson emerged, for her single People Like Us, and it’s worth a look… for the wrong reasons. There’s an odd story about saving a colourful child from a world of black and white, but that’s not what I saw. I’m fully aware that product placement is part of how these things get funded, and I’m totally okay with that - if it is done with a bit of subtlety and/or restraint.

Recently, Mr C played me a music video that showed nothing but the lyrics of the song in question. I was a bit disappointed, thinking it was just like Adele’s Skyfall video. Whilst that was quite Bond, and an interesting experiment, I thought a video of only the lyrics was a bit… lazy. However, it turns out that there’s a craze for Official Lyrics Videos that run alongside their more traditional action-packed counterparts. For example, Pink’s Try video was very well received, with her contemporary dancing and beautiful imagery. Then there is the lyrics video which is stripped back, bare with just the words.

After catching up with the penultimate episode of The Big Reunion on Saturday, we flicked over to ITV where Ant and Dec were having their evening Takeaway. We left this on as background noise and then were intrigued to see some of the bands from the Big Reunion going to sing at the end of the show. Our first chance to see them doing in public what we’ve watched them rehearse over the past few weeks.

I’m not a massive reality TV fan. I did the Big Brother thing back when it was good, and I’ve watched a Pop Idol or two, but mostly I find them irritating. The people tend to be either annoying or uninteresting, and this latest explosion of half-reality, half-setup stuff seems very misleading and contrived. However, I’ve finally found a reality TV show that I am totally on board with. The Big Reunion is an ITV show and subsequent tour, in which six (now seven) bands from the 90s who had acrimonious splits get back together and do it all over again. The show has, so far, charted the rise and fall of each band, how their reunions went, and the first few days of rehearsal. It has been a revelation.

We were doing some testing of our internets, browsing random things on YouTube, when Mr C asked if I had seen this version of I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift. As much as he has convinced me of some of her music, I’m not a fan of this song at all. However, when it’s done like this, by Walk Off the Earth, then I’m on board! These people are amazing. We got completely lost in their videos, they’re always doing something new and different, they’re so talented and creative!

New Year usually means quite a lot of reviews of the previous twelve months, and things are no different round these parts. At the end of each year, Mr C gets a chance to have his say on both music and films, and today it’s time to recap his top five songs from 2012. We’ve previously listed his songs from 2010 and from 2011, but this time it’s all about the music and melodies that were unleashed upon the unsuspecting public last year. What gems did Mr C manage to find?

The month of September was filled with a nightly music extravaganza courtesy of the iTunes Festival 2012. Each evening, one or more warm-up acts introduced a bigger name, and it was all streamed live on the internet, available as a catchup replay afterwards as well. Mr C watched all of them, I saw some of the main ones, and these are some of my findings. There were a variety of different genres throughout the 30 days, and most musical tastes were covered in some capacity. My personal favourite of the lot was Pink. She hadn’t performed for two or three years, and was rusty - forgetting some words here and there. That made the show a little bit more personal. She was chatty, cared about the fans (particularly one who fainted), and did lots of songs that I had forgotten I like and own. Many plus points for Pink. I was also suitably impressed with Alicia Keys, who I thought was going to be a great performer but a bit aloof with the audience. She warmed to it, I think. Now, I’ve always taken a bit of a shine to Noel Gallagher, particularly when compared to his brother, but I’ve not really had any reason one way or the other. I’ve heard him in a few interviews and he’s funny and articulate. However, in his set, he was just a joy to watch. He must have incredible hearing because he was holding conversations with people in the front row, to the exclusion of everyone else. It was weird to see just one side of a conversation but also completely compelling. There was also the Liam-Liam chanting moment, that I quite enjoyed, wherein he bemoaned his own one-syllable name being hard to chant, and a certain sibling’s name being slightly better. On the flip side, I had expected to like Ed Sheeran’s set a lot more than I did. He expected far too much of the crowd, and told lengthy stories that didn’t seem to have much to do with anything. He also went on far too long with “you need me but I don’t need you” to the point where I thought I was being brainwashed. The duet with Gary Snow Patrol was awesome, though. Jessie J was another one who I thought would be better. I’m not her biggest fan, but I like a couple of the songs and she belts them out. Unfortunately, she changed her shoes to big red clumpy things so that she looked like a clown, talked endlessly about how grateful she was, and broke the momentum of the gig to sit down and read an extract from her book. I don’t go to (m)any gigs but this seemed odd, and I gave up watching halfway through.

With the iTunes Festival ongoing (and irritating in their only putting up some of the replays and not all), Mr C and I have been having more discussions about music than normal. It’s always good fun when we talk music because we have slightly different music eras, very different music tastes, and what turns out to be different requirements when it comes to background noise. As people that do creative things (writing, coding, designing, etc), having something on in the background can make all the difference to getting things done. Complete and utter silence is okay for a few minutes of concentration but then it starts to become a distraction in itself. I know that I can watch TV programme after TV programme when I am doing things that require my attention but not full concentration, whereas Mr C finds the TV to be pretty distracting.

The iTunes Festival is currently in full swing - 30 days of live music, held at the Camden Roundhouse in London and streamed across the globe via iTunes and its many apps. There’s a variety of acts available, with warm up artists appearing before more established names, and the diversity is amazing. So far we’ve already heard from the pop name that is Olly Murs, through the more acoustic Ed Sheeran to the dub stepping Plan B.

Yesterday’s Goodwood debacle caused an emotional rollercoaster, and as I was speeding home - enjoying being out of first gear for the first time in hours - I listened to only songs that would cheer me up. Some were just infectiously happy, others were rousing in an angry kind of way, and all helped just a little bit. In the interests of rescuing future moods, here’s my playlist of 20 songs that made the difference.

The Jubilee concert was a real mixed bag, as these things are, but at one point, it did make me stop and think. Many of the acts are from yester year - Elton John, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, Cliff Richard, and Shirley Bassey. These are artists who are all still incredible (give or take a Cliff Richard or two), but can’t possibly claim to be anything but sliding past their best.

The latest phenomenon in reality TV, The Voice UK, came to an end this week, crowning a winner and dishing out a record deal. I stopped watching these talent shows after Hear’Say and Will Young, but for some reason this edition captured the attention of Mr C. The opening rounds - blind auditions and battle duets - certainly were more interesting than other audition shows I’ve seen, but once it went live it was same old, same old. I wasn’t really a fan of how semi-professional everyone was, and the coaches having to sell themselves to the participants made me very uncomfortable.

I’ve dabbled in internet radio for a long time, never a religious listener but always happy to give it a go. I wrote previously about how much I was enjoying Absolute’s variety of online streaming options - select your preferred musical decade and listen away, safe in the knowledge you’ll get none of that “noise” of today. A new station has crossed my path over the last few weeks, and it’s called The Office on 181.fm. Presumably, it’s intended for people to listen to as they get productive and every time we switch it on, I am amazed at the great selection of songs. There are very few that I don’t know or don’t like, they’re all catchy but not overly so and it creates some great background listening. There also seems to be a lack of presenter and just a few adverts scattered here and there. All a bonus when it comes to radio stations.

I’ve got a special affection for Jason Mraz, who I first heard of a few months after Mr C and I met. Back then, we found a live concert album available on Archive.org stacked with catchy songs and listened to it over and over and over again. As with lots of artists, subsequent albums haven’t lived up to that first one, although I’ve enjoyed a few singles peppered over the years. We bought the latest album and that has yet to make much of an impact, but it’s early days.

We’ve had a look at Mr C’s top five films of the 2011 year gone by, and now it’s time to put those 12 months firmly to bed with his top five songs released in 2011. It was not such a great year for music in our household, with very little grabbing our attention. In fact, Mr C’s shortlist was only seven in the first place. However, we’ve pulled out the top five and these are his:

What I love about the repeats of Top of the Pops on BBC Four is seeing the 1970s for all the good and bad of music, fashion, and taste. Rather than the golden era montages, where the best and the iconic are selected for a rose-tinted package, this is full repeats of TOTP programmes that were running in 1976. It’s incredible. Noel Edmonds pretends to be a cameraman!

With the challenge complete, it’s worth rounding up the list of links. I wasn’t all that specific about which song was which in the posts themselves, and given how unreliable YouTube can be in terms of videos disappearing, it’ll be good to have the definitive list in one place.

I have a lot of favourite songs. Picking one should be hard, but I kept coming back to this, and really… there can be only one. It reminds me of lots of things. The many times I’ve seen We Will Rock You. The first time I saw and loved Highlander. (Not so much now.) My brothers. The awesomeness of Queen.

Just two more to go, and the challenge is at an end. It’s been an interesting run through the highs and lows of my musical taste. I’ve discovered songs I thought I’d forgotten and I’ve managed to expand my knowledge at the same time. Good stuff. My least favourite song could be one of a few, but there’s only one that springs to mind at the moment. I had this one worked out when I first read the challenge through, but it’s made worse by the fact I just heard the song yesterday as well. Gah.

Unlike the last subject, where there are few songs that really make me sad, there are plenty of songs that make me happy. Narrowing it down to one is kinda hard, but I’ll go with this one for now. They’re specifically generating the music to make you feel better. I hadn’t seen the video before today. Not so keen on the clown thing.