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

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EP.71 | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah? – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 71 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month David is even more animated than usual as he has chosen 'Oh Yeah', Steve Lacy's new album to discuss.In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from 'Oh Yeah?' our theme is 'duets'.               — Part 1 | Album of the Month | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah? —Like Olivia last week, Steve Lacy started his musical career early being part of the Odd Future collective and the critical, creative force behind the Odd Future off-shoot 'The Internet'. 'Oh Yeah?' is Steve's 3rd solo studio album and follows 2022's Gemini Rights as his breakthrough album launching him into super-star status (?). The track 'Bad Habits' owned the internet for a good 12 months. But 'Oh Yeah?' sounds different. It is doing different things, while still doing some of the same things. David has been awaiting this release for months. Will he be happy? Joey didn't think much of Gemini Rights … so will this one work better? As for Nolan and Guy, who knows, anything could happen.Have a listen, tell us what you think.Listen to the original album here.Watch some of hisr videos here,particularly the amazing 'Doom' I love this Zone Lowe interview with Steve – starts cold, warms up.I got a lot from these 2 reaction videos Bob The Poppop and Turning Tables.                                     — Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Duets —Steve Lacy's new album features 3 tracks where he collaborates with other artists. Are they duets? Are the collaborations? Are they 'Tracks that feature ….'. What's the difference? With this in mind we pick 'Duets' as this month's Spin It or Bin It Theme'. The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Nolan picks American Boy by Estelle and Kanye West.David picks Wedding Song by Anais Mitchell & Justin Vernon.Joey picks The Boy is Mine by Brandy and Monica.Guy picks Barcelona by Freddie Mercury & Monsterrat Caballe.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP.71 | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah?
  2. EP.70 | Olivia Rogrigo | You seem pretty sad …
  3. EP. 69 | Lykke Li | The Afterparty
  4. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential
  5. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green

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.

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