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

EP.70 | Olivia Rogrigo | You seem pretty sad … – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 70 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 Joey is VERY happy to bring 'You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love' the 3rd album by Olivia Rodrigo.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 Olivia's love of and references to the Cure, the theme is 'Songs that reference other artists'.    — Part 1 | Album of the Month | Olivia Rodrigo |  You seem pretty sad … —Olivia is a force of nature. She is a song writing savant. She has a new album out, in case you didn't notice, this means we've got to talk about it. And there is a lot to talk about.Have a listen, tell us what you think.Listen to the original album here.Watch some of her videos here , particularly the singles from this album.Buy this album or some merch here.  Listen to the ridiculously brilliant Switched on Pop Podcast Episode.               — Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Songs that reference other artists — Olivia references the Cure a number of times on this album. We've taken inspiration and chosen 'Songs that reference other artists' as our Spin 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'?Joey chose Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.David chose Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder.Guy chose Destroy Rock & Roll by Mylo.Nolan chose Secret Wars I by The Last Emporer.What would you have chosen? What's missing from our playlist?We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/

1. EP.70 | Olivia Rogrigo | You seem pretty sad … 01:12:03
2. EP. 69 | Lykke Li | The Afterparty 57:33
3. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential 01:24:03
4. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green 01:12:16
5. EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern 01:06:54

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.