Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, podcast, Spin it or Bin It, Tracks of the Month

Podcast Ep. 26 | Hot Chip | Freakout Release

Welcome to Episode 69 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 Nolan serves up Lykke Li's new record: 'The Afterparty'.In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, we pick our favourite new music.            —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Lykke Li |  The Afterparty ——Lykke Li is an adored and fascinating artist, having been releasing music since 2008. The Swedish artist has ploughed her own furrow of pop distinctly different to last month's Robyn, heavy on melancholy and referencing the 60s as much as the modern world and is a real pod favourite. Breaking out in the late 2000s with I Follow Rivers, she's the artist you never knew you loved. The Afterparty is the sixth studio album for Li, and reflects the uncertainty of the modern, chaotic work in its svelte 24-minute running time, packing so much emotion and dynamics into that short running time. The chat takes in her legacy, asks if this truly is her last album, and whether a famously reclusive artist can easily exist in the 'hyper-on' world of the music industry in 2026. 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. And listen to her talk about the album here.                 —————- Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Sad Bangers —————- For Spin It or Bin It this month, we return to new music, picking our favourite new tracks from May and June. The task is simple: 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'?David chose 'the cure' by Olivia RodrigoGuy chose 'THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE' by Genesis Owusu.Nolan chose 'Electric Revival' by Deante' Hitchcock.What new music 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/We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP. 69 | Lykke Li | The Afterparty
  2. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential
  3. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green
  4. EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern
  5. EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top

We’re back again this month with our usual format. In Part 1 we go deep on Hot Chip’s latest album, in Part 2 we play ‘Spin It or Bin It’, where we choose a theme and each bring our choice of tracks. This month the theme is ‘Dance-Pop’.

Part 1 | Album of the Month | Hot Chip | Freakout/Release

It’s Guy’s choice this month and he chooses the one of his favourite band’s latest release. It’s always interesting when one of us chooses a band that they love and have loads of history with. 

Listen to the album – Here

The chat focuses around our initial impressions, favourite tracks, the difficulty of maintaining relevance and engagement on your 8th album … and we all have something to say on the sequencing of tracks on this album.

Guy has curated a 28 track playlist called ‘Hot Chip’s Hot Hits’ – have a listen to it here

During the chat there were loads of references to Hot Chip side projects, here are a few links for you to check out;

Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | We all choose a Dance-Pop Track

In tribute to Hot Chip, the theme for Spin It or Bin It this month is Dance-Pop. Over the course of the month we all create a play list of our favourite Dance-Pop, a shortlist of 4 tracks and then choose a track to delight (or in my case annoy) the team. This month, the 4 tracks were …

  1. Nolan chose – Robyn | Dancing On My Own
  2. Guy chose – Cassius | The Sound of Violence
  3. Joey chose – The Knife | Pass This On
  4. David chose – Soulwax | NY Excuse 

The 16 track playlist of each of our 4 shortlisted tracks can be found here and it’s a belter!

Next Month

I (
Joey) will be running the show and hosting the discussion on Sudan Archive’s 2nd album – Natural Brown Prom Queen

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 hear what you think

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