Records that sound unique and why all bands need a backlash

Records that sound unique and why all bands need a backlash

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold October 26, 2025 Duration: 47:11

 

Boarding this week’s giddy carousel of news, we ride the following ponies …

 

… the Sliding Doors moment that made a ‘50s star a fortune

 

… Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and the art of being the Other One in a pop duo

  

… Bohemian Rhapsody, O Superman, I Feel Fine: records that sounded like nothing before them

 

… what links the Prodigy, Wet Leg, Daft Punk and Donna Summer?

 

… how all bands need a bad patch to make you appreciate the good ones

 

… “the concept album is a good servant but a bad master”

 

… Expensive = Reassuringly valuable? Cheap = Worthless?

 

… a new Taylor Swift album in ‘sweat and vanilla-perfumed orange glitter vinyl’, anyone?

 

… and the tricks singers use to disguise the fact that they can’t hit the top notes anymore.

 

… plus ‘the Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria’ by Blue Öyster Cult and birthday guest Phil Hopwood on best and worst concept albums.


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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