I’ve honestly based this on the Top 25 Most Played from the last seven days on my iTunes - removing only duplicate artists (12 of them are Gilbert & Sullivan. Seriously people, what the fuck?) and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John which I SWEAR MUST BE GEMMA’s FAULT.

So first up, there’s Big Girls Don’t Cry… …which has been on a loop in my head for about 3 days now. Something, I think, to do with the way Valli’s voice cracks on the first “CA-RY-AY-AY!!!” Who’s to say?

I can’t get enough of it though. I can’t begin to explain or excuse this one either: (Although the version that lives in my head is the Malcom Seargant conducted version from the 60’s that I’ve got on a cheap-ass Gilbert & Sullivan box set.)

Billy Bragg has been a constant over the last few months actually - this Woody Guthrie cover more than most:

Midlake are about the only new band that Gem and I can agree on. There’s something about the drums on this track that really gets me. They’re sat way back there in the mix and are enormously understated but, goddam, they’re just right:

You’ve never heard this song properly until you’ve heard Gem and me banging it out on the M6 as we drive back from London late on Sunday evening.

Marvin Gaye’s first single - awesomeness

And finally, Ben from work brought A Perfect Circle’s first album in the other day and it took me wonderfully back to 2000 when I lived footloose and fancy free in London’s Trendy Spitalfields and I could unironically embrace Metal without feeling vaguely wrong. (Yeah, thanks for that Slipknot.)