Podcast Episode 23 – Hurray for the Riff Raff – Life on Earth

EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 66 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 brings Neo-Soul back into focus with Jill Scott and her comeback album 'To Whom This May Concern.In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month the theme is 'Neo-Soul, and it's a belter.  —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Jill Scott | To Who This May Concern ——Jill Scott's debut was released in 2000, it played a big part in some of our lives. But most of us lost touch after this release. It's 26 years later and Jill has been through some shit.This album is big, it's a lot. There is a lot to take in digest and consider. It works big time for some of us … not so much for others. Have a listen, let's get into this!Listen to the original album here.Tiny Desk concerts are getting better and better, here is Jill's.Watch some videos, interviews and performances here.                  —————- Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | New Music —————- The theme is Neo-Soul, the task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick for tracks for a 16 track play list  (that is fire).We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose 'Heard it all Before' by Sunshine Anderson.Nolan chose 'Serve this Royalty' by Cody Chesnutt.David chose 'Don't Mess with My Man' by Lucy Pearl.Joey chose 'Untitled (How Does It Feel) by D'Angelo.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/

1. EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern 01:06:54
2. EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top 01:12:22
3. EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX 01:13:15
4. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 01:20:41
5. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes 01:14:05

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. Morale 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.