Total Rankers Toby Hales and Donal Leddy

We go onwards and upwards (or downwards?) into some of the most overhyped and overrated albums in Rock history: music revered by the critics; music rated as "important"; music that, in the words of our hosts, is just a bit pants. Or certainly not as good as it is made out to be. Toby goes on a rant about his most loathed band of all time (and NME's most loved...), and the album that results in a child's private parts adorning his daughter's bedroom wall. Donal discloses his distrust of musici...

This week, Donal and Toby go to a dark and dangerous place, and take on some of the Big Beasts of the Rock canon. We are discussing albums that are revered by the literati - worshipped by the intelligentsia - and asking two very profound questions: why are they so rubbish, and is it us, or them? These crimes against vinyl have variously been entered into the Library of Congress, topped polls for the most influential/seminal album of all time (or just their year of production) and ...

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more ludicrous. Or bombastic. Or pompous. This week, Toby and Donal pick up where they left off at the end of episode 7 to plumb the depths (or scale the heights?) and take last week's subject to its unnatural end.Expect stories of the human condition, of the nature of life, the cosmos, and that elusive quality - truth; all produced by a collection of fabulously wealthy, cosseted and privileged individuals who are kind enough to share thei...

We finally arrive at the most maligned (and celebrated) manifestation of popular music - The Concept Album. In times of yore (pre-1980), every band had to have one, it had to be at least a double album with a gatefold sleeve, and it had to have an unintelligibly stupid story or central theme.Toby and Donal slide down a deep dark hole to explore the concept of the Concept. Expect inexplicable cosmic themes of redemption, naval gazing of a particularly repugnant variety, and mechanical cows wit...

This week (in a slightly delayed episode), Donal and Toby go back in time to the music that they listened to and loved in younger days, to see whether the tunes, the albums, and the magic stand the test of time. Revel in such nuggets as Toby's first Guitar Hero crush; Donal's mum's favourite album; the ubiquitous strange collective of musicians dressed bizarrely and sounding vaguely like The Beach Boys; and that most rarest of sightings: an "Art Rock" album that Toby actually likes!We would l...

This week, Toby and Donal address the mathematical concept known as the Infinite Monkey Theorem, and apply it to Rock.The theory being: if you give enough monkeys enough typewriters and enough time, sooner or later they will produce Shakespeare.So who are the monkeys of the Rock world who have managed, after an infinite number of tries, to produce a nugget of Gold? Who are the terrible artists with back catalogues of no merit whatsoever, who have nevertheless achieved greatness just once for ...