I stopped listening to BBC Radio 1 a long time ago but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy dipping into that totally uncool territory that is the hit parade as I believe it’s called by the younger people.

We bought last year’s Live Lounge sessions and enjoyed it a great deal despite my preconceptions and so getting hold of this year’s CD seemed obligatory. For those that don’t know Live Lounge is where Radio 1s DJ Jo Whiley gets in current big names and some lesser names to perform live on her show. Some perform their own tunes while some perform other artists’ songs, indeed most of the tunes herein are covers: Arctic Monkeys perform Hold on “We’re Going Home “by Drake, Vampire Weekend do a version of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Mumford and Sons have a bash at “Tesselate” by Alt-J.

What I like about this two CD collection is that it’s in the main pretty simply recorded and it really is a good record to pop on onto the CD player of a Saturday night to set the mood.

Highlights for me are the fabulous Rudimental who kick off the album with “Waiting All Night”, Naughty Boy and the infectious “La La La”, Daughter doing a wonderfully stripped back version of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”, Jake Bugg’s skifflish “Lightening Bolt” and the aforementioned “Blurred Lines” by Vampire Weekend.

There are no real howlers on the album at all, but on a matter of principle I skip Little Mix and their cover of Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait”.

It’s a feel good blast of an album and it is getting a good deal of airplay here at the moment.

Stuart Smith

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