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Guilty pleasures from non Civilians

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Having basked in our own snobbery I reckon it’s time for the confessional.

What do you think you really “shouldn’t” like, and probably wouldn’t play to the cognoscenti but ,goddamn it, you love it just the same.

I will open the batting with a song cited in Bingo Little’s classic contribution to the Civilians thread –
Whitney Houston’s How Will I Know. The Greatest Love is just schlock but HWIK swings. And I’ve got the 12 inch too. -Cue Moose

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      • That Boo Hewerdine fella wrote both b-sides on the CD single and a few on the album.

        Sleeping Beauty:

        Butterfly (this is Boo’s demo with Jamie’s lead vocal overdubbed)

        I remember he played me this in his kitchen and asked me “is it any good?”, one of the few times I’ve been speechless.

          • It’s a poisoned chalice – for a decade or so I was his Man Friday, also holding down a day job – but I had to give it up when I had kids. I couldn’t be getting home from gigs at 3am and up at 7am to do the pre-school run. We’re still chums but since he moved to Glasgow it’s a bit more difficult to pop round for a cuppa, and the kids haven’t seen “Uncle Boo” for years.

            One of my other faves of the pop backroom writer years was Something Better which came out as a Natalie Imbruglia b-side:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOMThOLnvDE

  5. I genuinely and without mischief or provocation think that How Will I Know is a better song than anything ever released by the Beatles, The Stones or even the Lovin Spoonful. It’s joyful and amazing.

  6. Wet Wet Wet – Wishing I Was Lucky.

    Also numerous Bees Gees songs – Let’s go with Fanny Be Tender With My Love.

    Have the committee met to decide if the Bee Gees are cool this week? I can’t keep up

    • Just wwatched the Bee Gees doc on Sky Arts, and spent the lat fotnight re-discovering.
      Yes they are cool (eve the hah hah hah times).
      Spicks and Specks
      Words
      To Love Somebody
      Jive Talkin

      Guilty pleasure, or just a pleasure?
      No guilt here

    • The Wets are one of my guilty pleasures too – I’ve mentioned on here before that I saw them at Manchester Boardwalk (small club) doing their warm up gigs for the Hold Back The River tour and it was one of the best concerts I have seen.

      As for the Bee Gees being cool this week – well the Foo Fighters certainly think so……

      • Well, a couple of things here. Ironically you call them the Dixies, but they have changed their name to The Chicks. That is a very regrettable change in my view. Secondly, I’m not a fan of their music generally, but damn, that song is just so … so like the whole of Americana distilled into one perfect tune.

  9. None of these pleasures are really guilty these days, but here are some songs that once upon a time I wouldn’t have touched with a bargepole, because I was a bit of a teenage knob.

    Fantasy – Mariah Carey

    Everywhere in the early 90s, overplayed and therefore easy to miss the genius. Would have made a great Diana Ross record 20 years earlier, but benefits from that Dre-aping west coast whistle sound and a peak Mariah vocal that sends it to the stratosphere.

    Classic video too. Can’t knock a rollercoaster.

    All For Love – Bryan Adams, Sting, Rod Stewart

    Should be awful, but is in fact amazing. Rod’s lustrous barnet, Sting’s jumperdress, and that awesome harmony on the chorus sending hands in the air.

    Never Too Much – Luther Vandross

    Just imagine having this absolute banger in your back catalogue; coming onstage in your white silk suit, heading down the stairs giving it some “too much, never too much, never too much, never too much”, doing a couple of steps back up, the whole crowd going mental. That guy can sing like a motherfucker.

    Would I Lie To You – Charles & Eddie

    One of those songs that a lot of people don’t realise they like until it comes on at a party. Great excuse to shout “whooo” on the chorus at the top of your voice.

    If I Could Turn Back Time – Cher

    Pretty much everything about this is perfect, except that maybe the video needs more sailors.

    Live It Up – Mental As Anything

    A magnificent pop moment. Look what the drummer is wearing. Look at the haircuts. Look at the dancing. And treat your ears to an undeniable, 24 carat singalong classic that also has the benefit of slightly reminding you of Crocodile Dundee. “Hey-yeah-yoooou”.

    Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis

    I have no idea who wrote Bleeding Love. Probably a committee of about 20 people. It doesn’t matter, it’s one of the best songs anyone has written in the last 20 years. Slight suspicion that it might have had another gear to go up with a Whitney, rather than a Leona, but that’s really just a quibble. It’s superb.

    Wrecking Ball – Miley Cyrus

    Another masterpiece. Play it in virtually any large crowd and watch what happens.

    Love Really Hurts With You – Billy Ocean

    I feel like Billy Ocean is often regarded as terminally uncool, but his actual back catalogue completely slaps. Get Outta My Dreams, Red Light Spells Danger and – most of all – this. A heartbreak record that sounds like a party. Absolutely love it.

    Spice Up Your Life – The Spice Girls

    We all have permission these days to enjoy 2 Become 1, because it’s an obviously brilliant record, but it would be criminal to overlook this, which is shouty and lairy and far too much fun (three of the rejected original names for individual Spice Girls).

    Runaround Sue – Dion

    I’m going to be honest and say I’ve no idea the level of cultural cache this song currently enjoys. I just think it’s an absolute bop. Take a look at the crowd in the video going absolutely fucking mental. Party party people.

    I’ll stop there, but I could go on all day. Teenage me was such a dick.

  11. Uh oh, any minute now the argument is going to start up again about whether there are even such things as “guilty pleasures” in music….

    Until then, I will suggest:
    – Boom! Shake the Room by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
    – Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
    – Oh Carolina by Shaggy

  13. There is such a thing. It is something “you feel you shouldn’t like- for whatever reason , but you do”.It is not an objective guilt, it is subjective.
    2 more Sugar Sugar – The Archie’s definitionally saccharine – but I like it.
    Joe Dolce Shuduppa Your Face – puerile, little musical merit – but like it.

  14. When I first moved to America I was in the car driving from NYC back into Connecticut. A song was played on the radio that I’d never heard before, nor ever seen the band that played it. I’m not ashamed to say a little car dancing was done. Thought it was terrific. Now, if I ever tell people I like this particular song I get plenty of stick. Loads of it. According to most other people I know this song, and the band that plays it are shite.

    This would be summer of 1997.

    Any guesses?

  15. There is so much to despise about this song; it’s crass and stupid, blatantly sexist, misogynistic and generally shite. Plus a singer who looks disturbingly like Simon Cowell.

    So why do I find my toes tapping? Damn them.

  19. Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell
    Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms
    Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds
    Fine albums

    Bryan Adams – Reckless
    Not too shabby

    Simply Red – Stars
    Nah …

  22. Seemingly always cited the point where Rod irredeemably lost the plot but I’ve always loved this

    Grooves like fuck, the synth bass and faux Oriental strings are brilliant and the middle section is a work of genius.

  23. Some further stinkers for the delight and edification of the masses.

    One of the great delights of the death of the music press is that, absent anyone to tell me what I should be listening to, nowadays I tend to just follow my ears. And, while my ears are an absolutely horrendous guide when taken as a whole, they do send me to some pretty good parties.

    The Day We Caught The Train – Ocean Colour Scene

    Screamingly unfashionable band, the rest of whose output (including and especially Riverboat Song) I could happily never heard again, but I detect a lot of residual affection for this record. And I’m basing that on the numerous times I’ve been with disparate groups of mates, it’s come on in the bar or pub and we’ve ended up on our feet singing along (with bonus marks for whoever does the “we’ve got the whole wide wooooorld” bit).

    This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan

    Literally everything about this is good. The tune, the video, the dance moves, the rap interlude, the amazing lyrics. Hundred dollar bills y’all.

    No Love – Eminem feat Lil Wayne

    Not a huge Em fan and never have been, but I love love love this. Mainly because it’s brilliant that he dropped his best ever verse on what is pretty much a novelty record, lifting wholesale the chorus of Haddaway’s “What Is Love”. Should be awful, but it’s brilliant. Hilariously po-faced video too. I know that serious music bods gravitate to Lose Yourself like flies to honey (lets you tick the hip hop box despite secretly being a rock tune), but this is the one.

    Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me – George Michael, Elton John

    Monster tune, two great vocals and “ladies and gentlemen, Mr Elton John”. That’s how it’s done.

    Pillow Talk – Zayn

    Definitely in my top 5 post-One Direction solo singles, amidst stiff competition. Props here also to the mighty Watermelon Sugar.

    Fat Lip – Sum 41

    Screamingly of its moment, but what a moment. Huge amounts of fun from that iconic riff on down, and a video they clearly had a whale of a time making. The dentist said my mum should have had an abortion-bortion-bortion-bortion.

    You Make Me Wanna – Usher

    I like most things Usher has done, but I have a particular fondness for this tune, from his pre-imperial phase. Even if he has nicked my dance moves.

    Despacito – Luca Fonsi

    One of those globe-rogering Summer records that plays in the ice cream shop while we’re on holiday and we’re not really supposed to like too much in everyday life. To my mind, a work of pure pop perfection. It first clicked with me in a van full of Portuguese people on our way back from a day out surfing: they sang it like it was the national anthem, banging the walls of the vehicle. There aren’t many lyrics as fun to wrap your mouth round as “pasito pasito, suave suavecito, nos vamos pegando poquito poquito”. Gotta go with the Bieber featuring version, just to get him on the list and add to the annoyance of it all.

    Sleeping Satellite – Tasmin Archer

    What an absolute tune. Greatest adventure, a-woah-oh.

    Someone Like You – Adele

    Oh, the horrors of realising that dinner party favourite Adele had, in fact, gone off an written one of the best songs of recent times. The vocal is tons of fun (especially the “that your dah-ream-zzz came true” bit), the build is tremendous and the chorus is huge. If it works with 22 sweaty geezers singing it in their pants (as here) then you’ve clearly done something very very right.

  24. It is worth repeating (and probably putting on the websites’ tagline, but there are only 2 kinds of music: music you like and music you don’t. One only reaches this state of bliss once one has got past puberty.

    “Cool” and “uncool” as concepts can Do One.

  25. I’m going to go with what we must now call the Little Formulation, since actually feeling guilty about liking any music is for rank amateurs, unless you’re a teenager. So I’m going to go with songs my teenage self would scream blue murder at me for loving, instead.


    Go Your Own Way seemed to me as a teenager working in Pizza Hut, where it was on our loop tape, to be an Alan Partridge song avant la lettre. It’s obviously perfect, and Rumours/Tusk/Tango Mac is the best Mac. It’s also one of the best-produced songs I know of. You can hear everything, and it’s all amazing.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sbscx0S3jcY
    Roachford’s Cuddly Toy literally was in the Partridge film, and it’s really funny when it is, too. But this is still a great, great tune.


    Fugees – Ready Or Not. Oh, how we sneered at the Fugees about 6 minutes after we’d all bought The Score and realised, because the cool kids told us so, that it was white-boy-approved, corporate hip hop for people who don’t like hip hop, A&Rd by a mountain-climber who plays an electric guitar, looking for a suit-and-tie rap that’s cleaner than a bar of soap. We were actually right first time. That slick, sinister little choral humming intro, actually good Wyclef and Pras verses, Lauryn showing us all why she’s the great lost genius who coulda beena contender. It’s a monster tune.

    • I very nearly included Ready or Not in both my posts! What a fantastic fantastic song that is.

      My favourite bit is the middle eight: you can’t hide from the block, oh no.

      While we’re doing Fugees, I’m going to post this absolutely blinding, but largely forgotten, record they made for the When We Were Kings soundtrack, with Tribe and Busta no less.

      Not on any of the albums, not on Spotify, more’s the pity. Still classic.

      • A Fugees-adjacent opinion which would’ve made a younger, cooler me (or anyone who has any emotional energy invested in the inviolability of Islands in the Stream) turn practically inside out with shame is that Ghetto Superstar is ace.

    • Agree – Lightning Seeds are a super band, sadly dragged down by one song.
      Pure Pop with a psych edge.
      Saw them at an 80s Rewind Festival thing. They made the mistake of trying to play a normal set and the crowd only responded when he sang about 3 lines on his shirt.
      Same with Midge Ure – until he said it meant nothing to him the crowd were more concerned with finding the cheapest Quinoa salad on site.

  29. Not guilty for one second and I will not deny myself that run of late 70’s early 80s run of singles by Cliff Richard. “Devil Woman” “Wired for Sound, “We Don’t Talk Anymore and “Carrie”. Each one perfectly created to be a hit but all the more perfect for that. Shameless self promotion and self love. Perfect pop…

  33. There are no Guilty Pleasures for a well-adjusted music lover. We all like what we like and if others disagree with what we like it’s of no importance in the grand scheme of things.
    If others don’t like what you like, that’s their problem, unless you allow their disapprobation to get to you, in which case it becomes your problem too.

    • @Mike_H

      Is the correct answer and my justification for my otherwise inexplicable fondness for Tiffany’s cover of Tommy Jones and the Shondells’ I Think We’re Alone Now.

      Even more so following the makers of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy used it to soundtrack an incredible action sequence second only to Edgar Wright’s use of Focus’ Hocus Pocus in Baby Driver

    • It’s a good song, for sure. Incidentally, Linda Perry, who as any fule kno is now a gun-for-hire songwriter to the stars, recently cropped up on the excellent This Is Pop series on Netflix. She was in the episode about the Brill building, and literally every sentence she uttered was complete bollocks, which I found very entertaining.

    • I genuinely believe that it is one of the worst things I have ever heard. No redeeming features whatsoever.

      I still count it as a very lucky escape that the day I went to see Neil Young in Finsbury Park, 4 Non Blondes were first act on. We arrived just as they were leaving the stage.

    • 4 Non Blondes… because blondes are stupid. Very feminist. And that’s a stupid hat.

      You think you’d be safe from that record in a club and then some bastard remixed it and there was no escape. For about five years.

  36. If ever a thread merited the posting of this track, it’s this one.
    Musically I ‘got over myself’ many years ago – there’s only stuff I like & stuff that sucks.
    If it moves you in any way at all ( other than wanting to pull the plug), it’s got to be good, hasn’t it?
    Loads of great track choices on this thread, BTW.

  38. As an Afterword ‘hard man’ I wasn’t going to join in this big Jessies, big blouses fest, but when I hear this, for reasons I cannot explain, I often find myself with something in my eye

  40. A few more I would have once sniffed at, but which I now shamelessly enjoy

    Goonies R Good Enough – Cyndi Lauper

    Surely amongst the least Afterword-friendly artists imaginable, and yet… responsible for some amazing tunes, not to mention one of the best album covers of all time (She’s So Unusual). Goonies R Good Enough has no depth, no real artistic value and was probably written in about 30 seconds, but it’s brilliant fun and brings sunshine to a cloudy day. On a semi-related note, I recently rewatched The Goonies with my kids and discovered that (Data aside) it stands up wonderfully.

    7 – Catfish and the Bottlemen

    I confess to having no idea whatsoever what the cultural status of this band is. The name is bloody awful and my suspicion is that they would be frowned upon amongst the Afterword cognoscenti. Doesn’t matter though, because 7 is an amazing record, worth 5 mins of anyone’s time, with actual guitars and a huge chorus and everything. Magic.

    Steal My Sunshine – Len

    A song with absolutely nothing going for it, apart from the fact that it opens with someone bashing a couple of coconut shells together and ends having made everyone in the room 50% happier.

    Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

    Proof positive that the general public have a better track record at picking tunes than any music magazine you can think of.

    Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen

    A classic example of an absolute banger ruined for most people by over-familiarity. Just imagine if someone wrote this song today; dropped this absolute A-bomb on the culture. In the pantheon of records that make people want to jump and dance and sing in large numbers it’s right up there, and that’s the most important musical pantheon of all. Incredible band, no matter how sniffy people want to get.

    Cry Me A River – Justin Timberlake

    Timberlake is responsible for half a dozen or more tunes fit to grace any playlist (Mirrors, What Goes Around, Signs etc), but this unmitigated triumph has the benefit of being a piece of classic songwriting, adorned by some supremely of-its-moment production. A seminal moment in my journey from sniffy indie-twat to third-eye-open musical visionary was watching my mate Jeffrey dance to this record at an office Xmas party. Having an amazing time, no fucks given whatsoever – I stood there on the side and realised: guess what? I was the bellend in this picture. I found out from hiiiiim.

    Insomnia – Faithless

    Utter cheese. Utterly wonderful.

    Yeah! – Usher

    More Usher. In my view, this has a legitimate claim to being amongst the best pop songs ever written. Is it even possible to visit the United States without hearing Yeah! at least once? I don’t believe it is. The record has everything; one of the greatest pop beats there has ever been, Usher’s fantastic pipes, an utterly glorious lyric, Lil Jon’s “Oh-kayyyy”s and then Ludacris iconic verse at the end.

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