Your Brother Should Know

As YBSK turns 10, Dave gets all misty eyed over the first band he was into that hadn't spilt-up or died. Can he convince Rob that this thick slice of his personal history hasn't gone stale? And what was ruddy “crusty rock”, anyway?

No Surrender, my Bobby Jean? With the greatest expectations, two long lost brothers play "count the pop culture references", and reconnect via The Gaslight Anthem's breakout LP, discovering a hot-blooded modern rock classic so earnest it almost makes guitar music sound vital again.

Dave ranks Elton John alongside Neil Young and Lou Reed. Rob sees a cheap entertainer in a Donald Duck costume. Will this early LP change his mind?

After 12 episodes of sharing the music that shaped them, long-lost siblings Dave and Rob talk through what they loved, hated and learned ... about music, and each other.

To celebrate the extended 30th anniversary release of Suede’s misunderstood masterpiece Dog Man Star, we present a suitably extended release of YBSK. We learn how Rob’s life has been inextricably entwined with the unlikely Britpop darlings, and why he probably should have pitched a simpler Suede album to his melody-hugging brother. Meanwhile Dave realises he can in fact be talked into liking a band, as just maybe what he thought was a dog, is really a star…

Opium, abuse, prostitution, depression, addiction, gonorrhoea ... and plenty of pop ditties? The intrepid brothers attempt to unravel the conflicted muses (and deep Jacques Brel obsession) of Scott Walker's best-selling outing.

To celebrate a decade of You're Dead being in the world, we unpack the frenetic fusion and genre-bleeding majesty of FlyLo's afterlife-inspired masterwork.

He finally went there. After 13 episodes doing everything he could to tangentially turn the conversation to prog rock, Dave forced his younger brother to actually listen to some. Rob did not come to the party without preconceptions – namely that 70s prog is the least sexy music in the world, listened to only by celibate Chemistry teachers in Middle England. Did Jethro Tull’s sprawling, tongue-in-cheek single-song opus change his mind? And, most importantly, who the hell is Biggles?

Bon Jovi’s These Days was the first album Rob ever fell in love with, and three decades later he’s convinced that this grunge-influenced left turn would be hailed as a masterpiece today had it been made by any other band. 
Which is why, ahead of These Days’ 30th anniversary, Rob insisted his long-lost brother needed to hear it. Will the prog-loving poodle rock-adverse Dave fall for Bon Jovi’s uncharacteristically angsty, mid-90s masterpiece, or laugh it back to the footnotes of given-up glam metal lore? 
Also, how much of this album was really down to MIA guitarist Richie Sambora, and what’s the deal with Jon Bon Jovi’s beleaguered voice today?
 
Notes and references
Rob’s largely positive 2011 live review: https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/255317/Review-Bon-Jovi-at-Hard-Rock-Calling
Rob’s not very positive 2015 review:https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/review-bon-jovi-fails-to-hit-the-high-notes-at-abu-dhabi-concert-1.85326
Rob shitting on Burning Bridges:https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/album-review-burning-bridges-bon-jovi-1.46827
Rob on seeing the band for a fifth time:https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/wild-night-for-bon-jovi-fans-in-abu-dhabi-1.131995 
 

This is as far back down his personal musical memory lane that Dave can go. The enigma that is Ultravox –  a proper band with an engaging thirst for all things shiny and electronic? Or second rate rockers, papering over the cracks with third rate synthology? Dave thinks they remain full of Western Promise, but will Rob find they were Passing Strangers to talent, leaving him in a Sleepwalk? And who is Mr X anyway?