Festive Greetings from This Is Not Happening and welcome to our year-end, 2025 wrap-up episode. As always we split the pod into Part 1 and Part 2.Part 1 features our Top 10 favourite albums of 2025. We use a proprietary algorithm to create our list our collective favourite albums, we're talking nascent data-science excellence! Every year it throws up some surprises as our tastes are so different (and in some ways so similar.Part 2 features a festive Spin It or Bin It. We each bring a candidate for track of the year and ask the age old question 'Spin It or Bin It' … will anyone really bin anyone elses Track of the Year? Probably.To retain the tension, I won't share any spoilers here … other than to share a 40 track playlist of some of our favourite 2025 tracks … here.Whatever you do at this time of year, who ever you do it with … have a good one.Please join us in January where we will go back to the usual format of Album of the Month + Spin It or Bin It.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Welcome to Episode 48 of This is Not Happening (TINH). An Album of the Month (AOTM) Podcast where in Part 1 we deep dive into an Album that one of us has chosen and in Part 2 we play ‘Spin it or Bin it’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, in Part 1, Guy has picked the an album that could not be further from last month’s Charli XCX outing. He’s also picked the best named TINH AOTM ever, Linda Thompson’s Proxy Music.
In Part 2, Spin It or Bin It, the theme is simple … ‘Long Songs’ no explanation of the theme required here apart from Guy’s completely arbitrary suggestion that all tracks had to be over 8 minutes.
Part 1 | Linda Thompson | Proxy Music
English Folk musician legend Linda Thompson has lived enough life for several people. The good, the bad and everything in between. She’s now a 72 year old songwriter force who has sadly lost her super-power to sing … so she’s written songs for other artists to perform. The album is an eclectic collection of songs and collaborators pulled together through the concept of performing through a proxy. The critics love it with a combined Metacritic Score of 86. There’s a lot of love on the pod but not without a few reservations along the way.
Watch Linda on Jools Holland back in 2011 videos here.
Guy references a couple of articles in his introduction and conversation they’re worth a look and can be found here and here.
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Long Songs.
We love a long song. Even our resident (but absent on this episode) pop being loves a long song. Guy defines a long song as anything over 8 mins, who are we to argue with that kind of logic. So them’s the rules. Who bought what to the table to judge in Spin It or Bin It?
This month we’re delving into Common and Pete Rock’s The Auditorium Vol. 1. There have been times throughout history that the human race didn’t know how much we actually needed certain super combinations (individually doing well on their own, but even better with the perfect match). Salt & pepper, fish & chips, milk & cookies, David & striped t-shirts.
Much like the aforementioned, both Pete Rock and Common have had long heralded music careers spanning over 30 years which individually are eye watering. Both have had multi generational successes in the underground and mainstream. From Pete Rock’s historic track T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You), production with Nas on Illmatic, Run DMC, House of Pain, and Kendrick Lemar there is a constant Pete Rock essence throughout music culture constantly. Common has released 15 albums to date. A mainstay within the (new) native tongues, Common has been a long time collaborator with the likes of De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli, Black thought, etc. whilst also maintaining muse stature of some of the best producers in hip hop; No ID, J Dilla, Kanye and of course Pete Rock. You can add three Grammy Awards, and Academy Award a Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Award to his achievements (did I mention he is also a pretty good actor?)…..Whilst writing this I wonder to myself if these two need any introductions at all?
Not resting on their laurels, they continue a steady output of creativity within hip hop and beyond. If you want some insight to the history of both Common and Pete Rock and their respective parts within hip hop’s story I encourage you to listen to them on Drink Champs (though you’ll need a spare 4 hours), it’s not only entertaining but mind blowing how involved they are within the cultures history. One key thing that shines through in the interview is not only each artist’s deep history within hip hop, but their love of the music and the culture. This is evident throughout The Auditorium Vol. 1.
As you can imagine, there was a lot of buzz in the build up to the albums’ release. Since world of the album broke in late 2023, expectations were high for the project being released from two of hip hop’s most respected sons. Drenched with inspiration from the golden era of hip hop (the 90’s), the album delivers arguably some of the best music both artists have released their heralded careers. Differing from recent hip hop albums we have discussed, this offering isn’t as dense. Pete Rock’s well-orchestrated laid back beats compliment Common’s welcoming narrative flow.
From the get go, all that is good in hip hop shines through on the lead track Dreamin.
There is a lovely sprinkling of soul throughout the album. Tracks like This Man, Fortunate and Now and Then not only compliments Common’s laid back story telling —-(flow)— but also highlights Pete Rock’s sample prose and highlights why he has been long heralded as one of the best beat makers in hip hop for both his production and ear to match the perfect beat with the MC he’s working with. Not forgetting their roots, they delve into the boom bap on tracks like Wise Up, Chi-Town and Stellar, reminding that a strong sample and well executed scratching can be all you need for the perfect hip hop track matched with one of Hip Hop’s most consistent MC’s is a wonderful thing.
A smorgasbord of exception tracks, the stand out for me is All Kind Of Ideas. Sliding in with its subtle bass line and clinical scratch of Rakim’s ‘all kinda ideas’, we’re welcomed by a rare 18 bars from Pete Rock ‘I’m soul brother uno, black from the future. Make beats on the table if I break my computer and still make hits like I used to. Keep your top five, I’m god’s favourite producer’. One for the hip hop heads, the song instantly puts a smile on my face.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s T.R.O.Y. is one of my favourite songs of all time, and Common’s Resurrection is one of my favourite albums of all time. There was a high bar for this album in my mind. Has it been met, yes and more. The Auditorium Vol. 1 is super accessible. It’s the kind of album that people that ‘sort’ of like hip hop will love whilst giving everything you want out of a positive conscious hip hop album. Common’s positive lyrics and Pete Rocks refreshing beats have served up an album that is a ray of light. I’m still early into this album, but it’s already one of the stand outs for 2024 for me.
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