This Is Not Happening - An Album Of The Month Podcast

Last month we shared our thoughts on 'Dragon New Mountain I Believe In You' by Big Thief.  This month This Is Not Happening stays in the broad genre of 'Indie' with Hurray for The Riff Raff's 'Life on Earth' which we get into a deep discussion about in Part 1. In Part 2, we play 'Spin It or Bin It?' where we judge the tracks that we've chosen for this month's theme.

Part 1 - Album of the Month

This month it's Joseph's choice, 'Life on Earth' by Hurray for the Riff Raff. We discuss the album in length, favourite tracks, what other artists's energy we can hear in this music ... and what has become the killer question for us; 'is the production engaging or disengaging ?' Big scenes on this pod guys!

There's some great bits to link you to this month too;

• The Metacritic review page is always a good start and can be found here
• Check out this live performance of some of the album's tracks here
• The following are podcasts that are really interesting to listen to if you like the album and want to hear more and/or other people's opinions on it;
  • Blind Tiger Record Club Podcast
  • Launch Left Podcast
  •  Radio Menea Podcast
  • Living in This Queer Body Podcast

In the second part of this episode we get stuck into 4 tracks representing this months theme - 'Minimalist Grooves'. We all pick a track,  introduce our track and ask the others the painfully binary critical question; 'spin it' or 'bin it?' 

After last month's Spin it or Bin It 'fiasco', this month is a little calmer and another great chat. It's a bit more of a love-in than last months with lots of 'Spin Its' but a couple of 'Bin Its' in there too.

1. Nolan's track selection is - 'In White Rooms' by Booka Shade
2. Joey's track selection is - 'Dance' by ESG
3. David's track selection is - 'Cranes in the Sky' by Solange
4. Guy's track selection is - 'Weak Become Heroes' by The Streets

Next Month

Episode #24 will be with you soon - Nolan will be guiding us through Mr. Morlae and the Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar and WOW, there's a lot to talk about there! Have a listen and  share some thoughts with us on the blog or on our Insta. Its hard not to have an opinion on this one.

Other episodes of the pod and 10 years of the blog;

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out the others. If that's not enough for you then there's 10 years worth of music discussion on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We'd love to see what you think. 

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Last month we shared our thoughts on Small World by Metronomy, all 9 tracks and 35 minutes worth. This month This Is Not Happening ups the ante with 'Dragon, New Mountain ...', all 20 tracks and 80 minutes worth.  In part 1, we deep dive into the density of Big Thief and Part 2 we play 'Spin It or Bin It?' where we judge the tracks that we've chosen for this month's theme.

Part 1 - Album of the Month

This month it's David's choice, 'Dragon...' by Big Thief. Three of us love Big Thief and have more than a passing relationship with the band ... whilst one of us is a Big Thief virgin. There was SO much written about this album as soon as it came out including a number of 100% reviews.  As always, we take a slower, more considered approach to criticism, living with this album for a couple of months and letting it really settle in before we reflect and share our views.

You don't have to look to far to find interviews, reviews and videos on Big Thief and this album but some of the content that we consumed and discussed in part 1 can be found below;

• The Metacritic review page is always a goo start and can be found here
• This is a great listen - 'Out On The Line' Podcast 
• Really insightful take on the album - 'Taking it Down' Podcast
• If you love them ... or not, this one's got you covered - 'NY Times' Podcast
• A great article in Vulture - read it here

Part 2 - 'Spin it' or 'Bin it?'

In the second part of this episode we get stuck into 4 tracks representing this months theme - 'Not on Spotify'. We all pick a track,  introduce our track and ask the others the painfully binary critical question; 'spin it' or 'bin it?' 

This month was a little more 'free form' than usual ... but an amusing listen none the less!

1. Guy's track selection is - Prassay - Krvsin
2. David's track selection is - Nick Drake - I Was Made to Love Magic
3. Nolan's track selection is - Pharoahe Monch - F You
4. Joey's track selection is - Joanna Newsome  - '81

Next Month

Episode #23 will be with you soon - Joey will be leading the discussion on 'Life on Earth' by Hurray for the Riff Raff. If you get the chance we'd love you to have a listen and perhaps share some thoughts with us on the blog or on our Insta. This album's getting a lot of positive attention and we think it's going to be in a few year end lists.

Other episodes of the pod and 10 years of the blog;

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out the others. If that's not enough for you then there's 10 years worth of music discussion on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We'd love to see what you think.  

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Following last months's Album Club #1, This Is Not Happening returns to our traditional format. In part 1, we deep dive into an album that one of us has selected. In Part 2 we play 'Spin It or Bin It?' where we judge each others track selections of great new music from 2022.

Part 1 - Album of the Month

This month it's Guy's choice, Small World the new album by Metronomy. Spoiler Alert - Metronomy are one of Guy's favourite bands.  We discuss our expectations, reactions, reflections, dynamics in the band and if every album being released at the moment is in some way a 'lockdown album'. 

Some interesting 'bits' to check out;

1. The Metacritic album review summary can be found here
2. An interesting interview with Joe Mount for DIY Mag can be found here
3. Joe Mount doing an Instagram Live Q&A can be found here

Part 2 - 'Spin it' or 'Bin it?'

In the second part of this episode we get stuck into the MASSIVE amount of great music that has been released in 2022. We all pick a track,  introduce our track and ask the others the critical question 'spin it' or 'bin it?' We then decide on a track of the month from the list of 4.

Nolan's track selection is - Pusha T - 'Diet Coke'
David's track selection is - Sasami - 'Call Me Home'
Joey's track selection is - Holodrum - 'Low Light'
Guy's track selection is - Ibibio Sound Machine - 'All That You Want'

A link to a mini-Spotify-playlist of these 4 tracks can be found here.

In order to make our selections, we all create a long list, then shortlist 4 tracks each. The 16 tracks that make up our track shortlists can be found here.

Next Month

Episode #22 will see us focus on Big Thief's latest release 'Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You' as David's selection for Album of the Month. The theme for Spin It or Bin It is 'Tracks that are not on Spotify'

Other episodes of the pod and 10 years of the blog;

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out the others. If that's not enough for you then there's 10 years worth of music discussion on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We'd love to see what you think.   

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

We usually pick a (relatively) new album release to focus on but this month we changed things up. The start of the year is a funny time for album releases and 2022 was no different. We decided that rather than spend a month and a podcast talking about something that we weren't too passionate about, we'd take a different path.  This month is the first TINH 'Album Club'.
 
The format for this podcast is simple. The four of us all (randomly) chose  someone from the Team-TINH to pick an album for. The album should be from the past 10 (ish) years and should represent something special that the recipient might have missed. A modern classic perhaps.

This episode was loads of fun to make. There's loads of agreement, a little bit of niggle, a fair chunk of nerdery ... something for everyone. The following are the albums that we discussed, who chose them, who they were chosen for and some links that take you to some of the things that popped up in the discussion.

First-up - Joey chose Deerhunter's 2010 'Halcyon Digest' for Guy;

You can listen to the album here on Spotify
... or catch it on YouTube here
The ethereal video for Helicopter can be watched here
... or watch them perform the poptastic 'Memory Boy' here

Next-up - Nolan chose Kanye West's 2016 'Life of Pablo' for David (what could go wrong?);

You can listen to the album here on Spotify
... or catch it on YouTube here
Nolan highly recommends NORE's podcast interview with Kanye here ...
... and if 2.5hrs of Kanye wasn't enough here's part 2

Next-up - David chose Wye Oak's 2011 'Civilian' for Joey;

You can listen to the album here on Spotify
... or catch it on YouTube here
Watch a live NPR Tiny Desk performance of 'Civilian' here

Finally - Guy chose Enny's 2021's 'Under 25' for Nolan;

You can listen to the album here on Spotify
... or catch it on YouTube here
Watch the video to 'I want' here
... and the video for 'Peng Black Girls' here

Next Up Episode #21 will see us dive deep into all 20 of the tracks on Big Thief's double album release 'Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You'. Have a listen here if you've not heard it so you know what we're talking about.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by 

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Part 1 - Album of the Month

This Is Not Happening kicks off the New Year with a great album from the end of 2021, Joy Crookes' debut release 'Skin'. We discuss our expectations and reactions, similarities between this album and a certain other soul singer from London and get deep into our favourite tracks from the album. There's lovely point of pod-synergy when Nolan predicts with 100% accuracy Joey's favourite track and more impressively, the reason for this selection.

In the chat we reference 3  interviews that are worth looking into to get a rounder flavour of Joy. These gave us a better sense of some of the tracks, her background and a bit of old-fashioned entertainment ... she's a great interviewee;

1. 'This City - Podcast - With Clara Amfo - Feb. 2020
2. 'gal-dem' interview - Oct. 2021
3. 'Diffus' interview - Oct. 2021

Part 2 - 'Spin it' or 'Bin it'

In the second part of this episode we take inspiration from Joy's stomping ground and we all bring a track from South London that we love.  Each of us introduce our track and ask the others if they want to 'spin it' or 'bin it';

Joey's track selection is -  Ha ha by Ty
Guy's track selection is - Little More Love by A J Tracey
Nolan's track selection is - Sad Cowboy by Goat Girl
David's track selection is - You Look Certain (I'm not so sure) by Mount Kimbie

A link to a mini-Spotify-playlist of these 4 tracks can be found here.

Next Month

Episode #20 will see us take a slightly different approach to the podcast. January is often a flat month for releases, rather than choose something that we didn't have our hearts in, we're each going to chose an album from the last 10 years (ish) for another member of the team.

Other episodes of the pod and 10 years of the blog;

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out the others. If that's not enough for you then there's 10 years worth of music discussion on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We'd love to see what you think.   

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

This Is Not Happening's 2021 comes to an end with a look back at the many musical highs of a memorable 2021 and count down our top ten  albums of the year. Despite the many challenges musicians have been facing in making music in a pandemic, it's been a truly exceptional year,  from the likes of Wolf Alice, Japanese Breakfast, Arlo Parks, Billie Eilish, The Weather Station and many others, but there's only room for one winner - who's it going to be?

We'll also be nominating our tracks of the year, from a very tough long list of amazing records. Here are our our 4 monster fave tracks of 2021, one from each of us, below.

Guy: Feu! Chatteron - Écran Total
Nolan: Gheist - We Are Not Alone
David: Royce Wood Jr - Slush
Joey: Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

The full top 10s and playlists and all our music discussions over the last ten years can be found on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which will run alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We'd love to see what you think.  You can also find our longer tracks of the year here on Spotify.

Episode #19 will see us take on one of 2021's most underrated albums - Joy Crookes's incredible debut Skin -  and we'll be delving deep into it in January. The episode will land in the second half of January.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Episode 17 of This Is Not Happening follows Billie Eilish's memorable new album with a slice of classy electronic music from Irishman Mano Le Tough. Dubliner turned Zurich resident Niall Mannion's third album At The Moment  saw him expand his musical horizons in lockdown, and we all got to stand back and say what it meant to us. Nolan was at the tiller this month.

In the second half of the episode, we go to the movies, picking out our favourites from original music in films, and it was a beautiful conversation blending our love for the silver screen with our love for music. Here's our shortlist, and longer lists from Guy and David.  It was an absolute joy doing this month. The tracks we chose were:

Nolan - Jose Gonzalez - Stay Alive (from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty in 2013)
Joey - Public Enemy - Fight The Power (from Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in 1989)
Guy - Clint Mansell - Welcome To Lunar Industries (from Duncan Jones’ Moon in 2009)
David - Justin Hurwitz - City Of Stars / May Finally Come True - La La Land (2016)

November's album of the month and all our tracks, playlists, and chat from our last decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and all sorts more. Head down there and hopefully you'll find more stuff to like. We'd love to hear from you on the socials (links below).

Episode #18 arrives with our favourite month of the year with of our review of 2021. We'll be picking out our favourite Top 10 albums, and tracks of the year. Not too long to wait!

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]
Reviews: www.ratethispodcast.com/thisisnothappening

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Episode 16 of This Is Not Happening goes as big as it gets with Billie Eilish's new album, Happier Than Ever.  Following angular synth and guitars of Lonelady in episode 15,  we take an album that's already one of the most talked-about of the year, and delve into what it means for us, and the music world. David is bringing us this album.

In the second half of the episode, we go for intros, and pick out some of our favourite opening tracks of the albums we love. It's a mighty list, and we've also had some cracking shortlists from Guy here. The tracks we chose were:

Joey - Bjork - Human Behaviour from Debut (1993)
Guy - Etienne De Crecy - Le Patron Est Devenou Fou! - from Super Discount (1996)
David - Bill Withers - Harlem - from Just As I am (1971)
Nolan - A Tribe Called Quest - Excursions - from The Low End Theory by Tribe (1991)

October's album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you'll like what we're talking about and if you do, we'd love to hear from you on the socials (links below).

Episode #17 arrives with a nod to the dancefloor from Nolan, who picks Dublin artist Mano Le Tough's At The Moment. This next episode will be landing before the end of November ahead of our review of the year in December.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]
Reviews: www.ratethispodcast.com/thisisnothappening

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Episode 15 of This Is Not Happening heads to the north west of England with Manchester artist Lonelady's third album, Former Things. After the heart-on-sleeve shogazey pop of Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee, Julie Campbell's solo guitar/drums/synth template brings 8 tracks of post-punk, electronic fusion, with Guy at the helm!

In the second half of the episode, we stay in Manchester, each bringing a track from the city's fabled music history to the table. Our shortlist is here, and Guy's longlist lives here. Stick around and see what we thought of the picks:

Guy  – Zoe Abalone - Vortex
David - Paris Angels - Perfume
Joey - Pip Milett - Hard Life
Nolan  - Mr Scruff v Cyberpunks - A Space Disco Remix

September's album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you'll like what we're talking about and if you do, we'd love to hear from you on the socials (links below).

Episode #16 comes in the shape of Billie Eilish's new album Happier Than Ever as David bring his pop-beingness back to the fore. That next episode will be landing before the end of October.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]
Reviews: www.ratethispodcast.com/thisisnothappening

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/

Episode 14 of This Is Not Happening heads from hip-hop to pop with Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee. The creation of Korean-American Michelle Zauner, this is her 3rd album and sees her move from a more shoegazey, loose style into the full pop universe. Joey comes at us with it, but do we feel the same way he does? Find out! 

In the second half of the episode, we head back to new music, with a favourite from us that's been released in the past three months. Our longlist is here, see what we thought of the picks:

Joey - CMAT - 2 Wrecked 2 Care
David - Wet Leg - Chaise Longue
Guy  – Public Service Broadcasting - People, Let's Dance
Nolan  - GHEIST - You

August's album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you'll like what we're talking about and if you do, we'd love to hear from you on the socials (links below).

Episode #15 hangs onto the summer with LoneLady's Former Things. Guy's bringing this slice of modern Mancunian synth and guitars to the gang. That next episode will be landing before the end of September.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: [email protected]
Reviews: www.ratethispodcast.com/thisisnothappening

We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look - https://thisisnothappening.net/