During the "be-twix-mas" period of 2023, hosts Tim and Ollie catch up to discuss what artists, both new and old, they have recently discovered.

What makes a punk rock band decide to make a concept album? This is the central question that Tim and Ollie explore in this episode on Green Day's phenomenal seventh album "American Idiot", released in 2004. Up to that point, Green Day were one of the most successful pop-punk bands to emerge from the Bay Area scene in the 1990s and became hugely popular following the release of their major label debut "Dookie" in 1994, with quirky hits such as "Basket Case". Over the course of the next few albums however, their commercial fortunes and musical relevance went into steady decline, generating tensions within the band and a crisis of confidence. In true punk fashion, the band ripped it up and started again, taking a more collaborative approach to song writing that resulted in a 9-song-rock-opera, telling the story of a disaffected American teenager on a journey of destruction and self-discovery that acts as a wider parable of American society. Commercially and critically, it represented a second coming and won over a whole new younger audience who could identify with the themes of teenage angst. Whilst commonly associated with the wider anti-Iraq War/anti-George Bush movement, the album holds up incredibly well and remains just as relevant now as it did 20 years ago. Join Tim and Ollie on their journey to discover just who is the "American Idiot".

Recorded during the Christmas holidays, Tim and Ollie broke from tradition and looked instead at a recent release from 2022, Arctic Monkeys' "The Car". Initially formed at school by Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Andy Nicholson and Jamie Cook in 2002, Arctic Monkeys rapidly broke onto the UK indie-rock scene in the mid-2000s following a grass roots level hype that had built up through playing many local gigs in Sheffield, where free copies of demo CDs were handed out to fans who ripped the tracks and file-shared them online. Their debut album "Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not" (2006) broke records with its commercial and critical performance, immediately making them the hot new favourites. But their trajectory since then has consistently been one of continuous evolution, often losing old fans and gaining new ones along the way. Initially going heavier and gloomier with "Favourite Worst Nightmare" (2007) and "Humbug" (2009), then they went more polished and commercial with "Suck It and See" (2011) and "AM" (2013) until most recently, by going more lounge-jazz, experimental and science-fiction via their hotel-on-the-moon concept album "Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino" (2018). Their latest effort very much continues this Alex-Turner-as-crooner direction, doubling-down on a cinematic sound that could easily be the score to any spy thriller film from the 1960s. But has this new direction come at a cost? Has the band simply become a vehicle to support an Alex Turner solo project? Have they released one polarising album too many? Join Tim and Ollie as they take a ride in The Car to explore the band's new album as well as their incredible, unpredictable career.