Podcast Episode 22 – Big Thief – Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You.

EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 64 of This Is Not Happening. An Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we review and Album of the Month. This month Joey brings perhaps the most critically acclaimed album of 2025, Rosalia's 'LUX'.In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. As it's January and everybody is back in the gym or re-starting running program's we've picked 'songs to get injured to'._______________________Part 1 | Album of the Month | Rosalia | LUX________________________This is a big one. Big in many ways. Massively popular, globally. But more importantly MASSIVE in scope, scale and ambition. Rosalia's 4th album takes a major turn from the reggaeton, digital urgency of Motomami. This a symphonic, spiritual, complex and challenging collection of songs presented in 4 movements (if you're on vinyl). It requires you to focus, engage and consume with purpose.It's undeniable that it is ambitious, its brilliance is clear … but will any of us actually like it? Does it make you want to listen to it? Are you drawn to come back to it?Listen to the album here.Watch some of the videos for the tracks here.Check out the Zane Lowe interview with Rosalia here.___________________Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Songs To Get Injured To _____________________New Year New Me. The gyms are packed. People are begging to get injured. What should you chose as your soundtrack to that achilles rupture or that rotator cuff tear? The answer is probably in this 16 track play list that we created.We each pick 4 tracks for the playlist and submit 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Joey chose 'Baddadan' by Chase & Status et al.Guy chose 'Go' by Chemical Brothers.David chose 'Kool Thing' by Sonic Youth.Nolan chose 'Stop What You're Doing' by Apathy.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/

1. EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX 01:13:15
2. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 01:20:41
3. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes 01:14:05
4. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey 01:12:50
5. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer 01:11:11

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, New Mountain …’ by Big Thief. Three of us love Big Thief and have much 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 to the album before next month, perhaps share some thoughts with us on the blog or on our Insta. This albums getting a lot of positive attention and we think it’s going to be in a few year end lists.