Fear not everybody, your second favorite weekly blog (Dev does run a mean ‘New Releases’ post, after all) has returned following a week’s rest over Easter. In its place was the staff’s quarterly mixtape (brilliantly compiled by Jom), which can still be listened to in all of its glory by clicking here.

Today, I thought I would chat about something that is very dear to my heart: Guilty pleasures. In all honesty, I dislike the term… Mainly because no-one should really feel guilty for liking any kind of music. If you like it, you like it… And it should be as simple as that. But, of course, life doesn’t usually work out that way, and there’s always someone just around the corner laughing at you for listening to a certain song, before they abruptly snap that “Your taste in music sux”. Sometimes, this so-called fact comes as a shocking revelation, but most of the time we are actually in on the joke and are listening to something purely because we enjoy it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I posted twenty videos from the Soundwave festival which I attended last month. While I probably wouldn’t say that they were the best act I saw, the one which gave me the most enjoyment may well have been Papa Roach. Now I know that some of their releases are just plain crap (see my two star review of their sixth LP ‘Metamorphosis’), but songs such as ‘Scars’, ‘To Be Loved’ and ‘Last Resort’ being belted out live were fun personified.

In many cases, these guilty pleasures will be formed out of one’s personal experiences… Many of which will be nostalgic in one way, shape or form. Maybe it was a gateway band that got you into a certain genre of music. It could have been an artist whose music just happened to inspire you at the right place and time. Or you might just enjoy music that we know is rather bad sometimes. Heaven knows, some people think that everything I listen to is bad! But who can’t resist a little bit of “Nookie” on occasions:

Other popular examples of guilty pleasures may include female pop (basically everything that’s been on the charts for the past five years), boy bands (or girl bands, in the case of The Spice Girls), A.O.R (a.k.a. dad rock), and the all-encompassing one-hit wonder artists such as Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Vanilla Ice, a-ha, and possibly even this monstrosity:

You guys know the drill by now: What are your guilty pleasures? Whether it be a particular song or a musician in general, please don’t be shy… Let us know who you enjoy listening to, but feel just a little guilty doing so. I’m fairly certain that your reputation will remain intact and, at the very least, you won’t be able to hear us laughing at you from behind our computer screens.

As they say at the end of those dreaded English essays: DISCUSS…..