Welcome to Episode 68 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 Guy brings a Robyn's latest release 'Sexisitential'. 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 'Sad Bangers'. —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Robyn | Sexistential ——Robyn is a unique, iconic figure in contemporary music. She's been making and releasing music since 1995, her career spans 4 decades already and she shows no signs of slowing down. Her pop career started when she was 15, she's about to celebrate her 47th birthday, this is insane staying power!Sexistential is her 9th studio album if you count the Body Talk series as full albums? It's only 29 mins long, it doesn't mess about and no track or the album in full overstays it's welcome. There is lots to get into in the discussion, has she still got it? Is she doing new things? Is this still relevant and if so who for? How artists change and what we expect from them as they age?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 —————- Robyn's biggest track is 'Dancing On My Own' is the archetype of a genre that Guy made up 'Sad Bangers'. This is our theme for Spin It or Bin It this month. It's got to be sad, and it's got to bang. Simple (in theory).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'?David chose Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron.Joey chose 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack.Guy chose 'Lovesick' by Friendly Fires.Nolan chose 'Blue Monday' by New Order.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/
This month we’re doing things a little differently. In this episode we are celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th Birthday by each choosing our favourite Hip Hop album. We’re not choosing ‘the best’ or ‘the most important’ we’re choosing our personal favourites. We take it in turns to introduce our favourite album and discuss what everyone else thinks.
Listen Here – 16 track playlist, 4 tracks each from our 4 favourite Hip Hop albums.
Nolan’s Favourite Hip Hop Album | ATLiens by Outkast Straight out of the blocks is our resident Hip Hop expert Nolan’s with his selection, Outkast’s 2nd album, 1996’s ATLiens.
You can find an introduction to this album by Nolan on our blog – read it here.
ATLiens 25th Anniversary You Tube page and videos can be found –here.
Joey’s Favourite Hip Hop Album | Buhloone Mind State by De La Soul Choosing a classic TINH album from the past, Joey counters with his favourite, going back 3 years and selecting De La Soul’s 3rd album, release 30 years ago in 1993, Buhloone Mind State.
You can find an introduction to this album by Joey on our blog – read it here.
Have a look here at De La Soul’s You Tube account for videos – here.
David’s Favourite Hip Hop Album | Reachin’ by Digable Planets This one was a real pleasure to be re-introduced too. We’re staying in 1993 with David’s selection Reachin’ by Digable Planets. The ‘most-David’ Hip Hop album evs.
You can find an introduction to this album by David on our blog – read it here.
Watch the video to the track that kicked the whole thing off – here.
Guy’s Favourite Hip Hop Album | Renaissance by Q Tip After some deliberation, Guy chose an album that divided opinions at the time but has aged very well and is a lovely choice by Guy. 2008’s Renaissance by Q Tip.
You can find an introduction to this album by Guy on our blog – read it here.
So, these are our 4 favourite Hip Hop albums of all time. What do you think? Do you know these albums? What are your favourites? Hit us up, let us know.
This month we’re all picking our favourite Hip Hop album to celebrate the genre’s 50th Birthday. We’re NOT picking ‘the best’ or ‘the most hipster’ or the ‘one with the most singles on it’ etc etc. It has to be personal, it has to be ‘our’ and it has to be ‘favourite’. For me, there is not too much debate on my choice. Well, ok, there was a little debate. I too, like David struggled with a Public Enemy album but mine would be Apocalypse ’91 which is almost nobody else’s favourite PE album. But being true, I had to pick Buhloone Mind State.
I bought this, on CD from John Menzies in Aldridge in 1993. I guess that means I was 16 and I guess that means that due to the release date I had just started my A levels. I had barely listened to De La Soul for 5 years. I wasn’t a huge 3 Feet High and Rising fan. It has a place in my heart and in my history but SOOOOOO many skits. Obviously it had a HUGE impact on music, on Hip Hop and on culture in general. It was important. I was mostly listening to Sonic Youth and the Pixies at this stage. I was starting to explore electronica. But something made me buy this album and it has been with me ever since. I wish I could chart the consistency of which I play this album cause I think it would be a surprisingly frequent and regular listen over the past 30 years. Albums have memories attached to them, my memories attached to this album span 30 years!
So what is it? It’s De La Soul’s 3rd album. And its a ‘proper’ album. Its a coherent body of work with productions credits going to Prince Paul and perhaps his best work? (Handsome Boy Modelling School?). The album has recurring musical, lyrical and emotional themes. It’s an exploration of Hip Hop, of music, of De La Soul’s treatment by the music industry. It’s about 3 musician’s growing up.
At first it can sound like a bag of ideas, not all of which are expressed fully formed but in my mind all of the ideas on this album are fully explored, they are just not explored within the confines of one track. Motifs are introduced on one track, carried through to another and finally resolved in yet another. The tracks on this album could only ever appear in the order that they do. There is no debate. Sorry. If you listen to this on shuffle, we need to speak.
It’s got just about everything you could want from any album. It’s introspective (without that introspection every wandering up it’s own arse), it’s genuinely innovative, it’s funny, it’s heart breaking, it’s educational, it’s 48 mins but feels much less. It’s a joy.
It’s also pretty dark in places. A repeated notion is the their frustration with constantly being asked to ‘cross over’. ‘Why are N***** always crossing over something huh? I mean what’s the matter huh? They can accept our music as long as they can’t see our faces’. This theme appears through out the album and is a clear reference to the expectations of the industry following the success of 3 Feet and then the critical reception to De La Soul is Dead.
Let’s also hear it for Maceo Parker ‘who be blowin’ the soul out of this horn’.
David has asked if ‘I am I be’ is the best Hip Hop album track of all time. I ask, is it the best Hip Hop track of all time? It is the beautiful, perfect resolution to many of the motifs explored on the album, they all point to this piece of Hip Hop perfection. If you ever find yourself in an argument with a mouth breather about the importance of Hip Hop as a credible art form, just ask them to sit down and listen to this. You might want to share the Posdnous’s first verse lyrics and ask them to reconsider their opinion;
I am Posdnous I be the new generation of slaves Here to make papes to buy a record exec rakes The pile of revenue I create But I guess I don’t get a cut cuz my rent’s a month late Product of a North Carolina cat Who scratched the back of a pretty woman named Hattie Who departed life just a little too soon And didn’t see me grab the Plug Tune fame As we go a little somethin’ like this Look ma, no protection Now I got a daughter named Ayana Monet And I can play the cowboy to rustle in the dough So the scenery is healthy where her eyes lay I am an early bird but the feathers are black So the apples that I catch are usually all worms But it’s a must to decipher one’s queen From a worm who plays groupie and spread around the bad germ I cherish the twilight I maximize, my soul is the right size I watch for the power to run out on the moon (And that’ll be sometime soon) Faker than a fist of kids Speakin’ that they’re black When they’re just niggas trying to be Greek Or some tongues who lied And said “We’ll be natives to the end” Nowadays we don’t even speak I guess we got our own life to live Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule? Every now and then I step to the now For now I see back then I might have acted like a fool Now I won’t apologize for it This is not a bunch of Brady’s But a bunch of black man’s pride Yet I can safely say I’ve never played a sister by touching where her private parts reside I’ve always walked the right side of the road If I wasn’t making song I wouldn’t be a thug selling drugs But a man with a plan And if I was a rug cleaner Betcha Pos’d have the cleanest rugs I am
How to feel old? Realise that hip-hop turns 50 and that when it was born you weren’t even (quite) alive. But it feels pretty incredible to be celebrating a genre of music so wide and vast that is just as strong as a pop-cultural touchstone, a movement, a social bedrock and so much more. So we had to try and pick something out ourselves to celebrate it all.
It shouldn’t be any surprise to listeners of the podcast that I am not the biggest hip-hop head of the four of us. In fact if Joey, David and Nolan are all dipping for the line, I’m still sauntering around the home straight. But this doesn’t mean I don’t love it: I adore so many cuts from its five decade history. But while everyone else was getting into Nas, Public Enemy, NWA or KRS-One, my nerdy teenage self was, well, into pop music, indie and guitars. Yes, I saw the odd track on Top of the Pops, and the Chart Show, even the safest on Now albums (though White Lines is gloriously on Now 3, which I have on vinyl at home), but like dance music, it wasn’t until I went to university that this really changed. So for one, I was a late starter, and for another point, for a long time I was a singles man. So many bangers, so much great tracks through the late 90s and into the 2000s, but did I even own an album before the new millennium? No, I did not.
Given we are all choosing our favourite hip-hop album for Episode 34 of the podcast, unlike the other four, narrowing it down to even ten, I was struggling to even pick 10 I owned and knew. We’ve reviewed some brilliant, epochal albums on the blog before: Kendrick’s To Pimp A Butterfly is a modern classic, RTJ’s RTJ4 was the first episode of what would end up as the podcast, 3 years and counting. We’ve covered Rapsody, Mac Miller, Skyzoo, Apollo Brown, Little Simz, Gangstarr, N.E.R.D, Loyle Carner, Tribe…. in fact I’d go as far as saying that this blog and podcast single-handedly got me into hip-hop albums so amen to that!
But picking one that came to me via elsewhere, nominated by someone else, never felt right, however much I loved it (Tribe’s glorious comeback We Got It From Here was a flirtation though). So I had to go back to the slim pickings and actually work out what I liked in the end that was truly ‘mine’. There were some great albums, just not many! I loved Jurassic 5’s J5, a 1998 classic that I still play now. But while it was fine, it wasn’t one that would want me reaching for the repeat button. Of course, by the 90s and 2000s, I owned classics like 3 Feet High, It Takes A Nation Of Millions, Midnight Marauders, and I’d got and loved Beastie Boys long players, but I wanted to pick one I was there from the start with, and in the end, with my love of sample-based, Native Tongues-adjacent rap, it could only be Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, from 2008.
Now, if you asked me what my two favourite hip-hop acts were, it would be easy to answer: De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. They were incredible musicians, they went against the grain of so much hardcore and hood/gangsta hip-hop that didn’t really connect with me. But I remember seeing De La and that departure from what I thought hip-hop was, as they played with samples, conscious lyrics and it changed things for me. Tribe were not far behind. But in 2008, Q-Tip, their beating heart, released his second solo album: The Renaissance. I pretty much fell in love with it at the time. Melodies and hooks? Tick. Samples galore: tick. Q-Tip’s distinctive flow all on his own? Yep. Funk? HELL YEAH. And then some perfectly pitched guests – D’Angelo, Raphael Saadiq, and (even) Norah Jones. BINGO.
That was enough to get me in, but why is it so good? Because whatever others think – and it’s definitely considered a classic – there’s so many reasons to adore this record. For one, it is so optimistic. It arrived after Obama got into the White House – even with a sample of one of his speeches on Shaka – and seemed to evoke so much of what we all hoped would happen (and that really didn’t). Contrast it with the fantastic comeback from Tribe – We Got It From Here in 2016, to see just how far the world had fallen. From the opening bars of Johnny Is Dead, with its cascading guitar chords and that so distinctive flow (‘What good is an ear if a Q-Tip isn’t it it?’, indeed!) breaking into the harmonies in the chorus. It is simply life-affirmingly good. I challenge anyone to listen and not come out of it feeling better.
It just has so much life, energy, positivity and goodness. The bumping Won’t Trade, trading on soul vocals and Gettin’ Up’s sun-drenched vibes (with that great Black Ivory Sample) it just has you nodding and wondering where this album has been all your life. Across 46 minutes (my perfect hip-hop album length, no hour plus stuff, this is just tight and fizzes along) it goes from introspective break-ups (You), funk and soul half-songs (WeFight/WeLove), the Can-sampling ManWomanBoogie’s head-nodding brilliance (giving props to all the great artists along the way), Move’s all-out maximalism sampling the Jackson 5, and slower jams Life Is Better and Believe. Arguably its strongest effect is from the Dance On Glass, (picking up the hypocrisy of the industry, ‘ The people at the label say they want something to repeat / But all my people really want something for the streets’) with its first minute of just pure unaccompanied flow.
For an album that’s 15 years old, it still absolutely pops. There’s so much to enjoy about it, and it’s so musical, some of the tracks almost songs in their own right, even if its’ a guest vocal or sample, and with Tip let loose to do what he wanted. It’s an artist still at their top of their game, and enjoying the freedom of a solo project. It came with a lot of pressure and history, given a decade after his solo debut, Amplified, and label-denied false starts (the jazzy Kamal the Abstract from 2001 was a niche masterpiece for me too), the Renaissance came with a lot of expectation and delivered. It was when Tribe were on hiatus too, so for a creative like Q-Tip, it must’ve been a real release to put something out so good.
Talking about it ten years on, in an interview with the NME, he mused about where he was and what the album meant: “The Renaissance was about dealing with classic colloquialisms about self.…. I wanted the music to have a sound that stood the test of time, it was all about our humanity. It felt like I had re-entered hip hop. At the time I exited, music was vastly different.” In 2008, it was all about Kanye, Jay-Z, Lil’ Wayne, a world from Tribe’s heyday. But he delved into not just some of the usual subject matter, but Renaissance was a much more personal album that I’d expected: “You” was hard to go through, but easy to recount. It’s much like going through a break up and telling your boy what happened as therapy. That was to one of my ex-girlfriends, actually.” So it had layers beyond the samples, or the flow. And that’s why I still come back to it.
It’s been a total joy to get back into it. I must have rinsed it 20+ times in the last 6 weeks and I could let it go back round again and again. While I struggle to stick with hip-hop albums, this feels so easy. It has so much of everything I love about the genre in it, and it has an infectious positivity and outlook that seems to be in scant supply 15 years later, with so much of hip-hop on a much darker tip than the time of Tribe and De La (not that they didn’t talk about reality, of course). So it’s a ray of sunshine, a classic artefact of the best of hip-hop, a slice of pre-Trump goodness we could all benefit from a listen to.
If you were to ask me what I think is the best hip hop album of all time, after a quick hesitation I would tell you it is Illmatic by Nas. I’ve spent more than 25 years debating this with friends; and this has always been my conclusion. When tasked with choosing my favourite hip hop album it wasn’t as straight forward. Those that read the blog or listen to the pod will have at least a slight inkling to the fact that hip hop is a large part of my music collection and is a key pillar to my musical journey since a young age. I own 100’s of hip hop albums; and I love most of them. Although Nas’ debut album was and still is phenomenal, there are albums that connected with me better when they were released. Deciding which one is my favourite has been a near impossible task. Some albums haven’t dated that well, some albums I’ve loved more with time; but what album has been rock steady since my first listen? What album is timeless? What album still moves me? I widdled the list down to five, but there was one that ticked all the boxes: Outkast – Atliens.
When it comes to Outkast and their fan base, there are layers. The majority discovered the group via Stankonia and Ms. Jackson, some through Aquemini’s ‘Rosa Parks’, less through the forementioned ‘ATlien’s’ and people like me who started the ride in 1994 with their debut album ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmusik’. From the second I heard a teenage Big Bio say ‘time and time again I’ve been thinking about the future’, I’ve been in with two feet. Whilst many of my peers couldn’t get enough of gangster rap, the honest, raw view of Big Boi were on constant rotation in my Walkman. They smoked weed, were navigating life, were backed by delicious beats from the dungeon family, and were custodians to a step change in hip hop.
By 1996 I was fully committed to hip hop. It was my world. Could you argue with a 16 year old me? The genre had been releasing nonstop incredible music since late 1992 (IMO) and it was at a great pace. As the music evolved so did my taste, and hip hop in 96 flaws. The jiggy era was in its infancy and the music was embroiled in a west coast / east coast beef (enter the southern hip hop stage left).
From the first time Much Music’s Rap City played the lead single ‘Elevators’, I think hip hop changed for me. A new bar was set. You will struggle to find 18 bars by Andre 3000 that aren’t special, but his verses on Elevators were elevated; and Big Bio’s may be better. I have always felt that Elevators was their war cry to hip hop. Released in August of 2016, Andre has stated at the now infamous East Coast / West Cost tension riddled award show that ‘the south got somethin’ to say’. Little did we know that a few weeks later Outkast would release an album that would not only change the sound of hip hop.
The album was a giant step from their debut. Big Boi had become a father, Andre had given up smoking and drinking and replaced them with reading. They wanted to make something different, and wouldn’t let anything get in their way. The album as we know it almost never happened. 20 songs didn’t make the cut for Outkast. LaFace records didn’t like Elevators (the group took it to radio, and it blew up). The album cover was initially rejected because the cartoon version of Big Boi didn’t look like him (this was resolved by covering his face with an Atlanta Braves hat. The Universe had its on making sure that ATLiens saw the light of day.
From end to end the album is solid. They start with ‘Two Dope Boys’ and follow with ‘ALTiens’. On first listen I remember thinking they went too soon with two big tracks, but the quality throughout the album is consistent on every track. ‘Wheelz of Steel’, Jazzy Bell’ (which has one of my favourite lines in hip hop from Andre).. and then ‘Elevators’. Seriously!
The grittiness of ‘Ove Da Woods’ is quickly complimented by the opposite in ‘Babylon’. Wailin’ and ‘Mainstream’ again do the same whilst ‘Decatur Pslam’ is a perfect Organized Noise posse track.
Getting lost in Andre’s chorus on ‘Millennium’, the building tension of ‘E.T.’ ….. whilst encasing watertight lyrics and flows. As the end of the album approaches, ‘13th/Growing Old’ lets you loose yourself one last time as the Big Boi sample of ’96 gonna’ be that year’ echo’s though the track. For one last time you try and decide who is the best as the two mc’s trade verses without fault…. They’re both untouchable, reminding you that ‘the south has somethin’ to say’.
I could talk endlessly about each song at length (and over time have to brother Joey), but for the sake of time I think that each song is perfect.
Unlike Illmatic which was introduced to me, I introduced ATlien’s to most of the people I knew. It was a sound soundtrack to many teenage cars with big sound systems in the town I grew up in; and was a gateway to many of my friends into getting into hip hop.
In 2016, on the album’s 20th anniversary, Billboard stated that ATLiens was one of hip hop’s most celebrated opuses. Nearing it’s 30th anniversary the album for me goes from strength to strength as it still sounds fresh and is as relevant as the day it was released. This is why it’s my favourite hip hop album.
Who else were in my top 5? There was no particular order: Jeru The Damaja ‘Wrath Of The Math’, The B.U.M.S. ‘Lyfe’N’Tyme, Gza ‘Liquid Swords’ and Common Sence ‘Resurrection’. Note that this list is subject to change!
Some records come into your life in the perfect Time & Space (see what I did there), and to listen to them is to be transported back to that very special place.
And so it is with my choice for my favourite hip hop album of all time. Of course, choosing one is crazy, a ridiculous idea. How could I not choose IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS? How can you ignore BLACK ON BOTH SIDES? What kind of idiot doesn’t go for PAUL’S BOUTIQUE? I bounced around between some obvious big hitters, but all the while, I could feel the pull of what eventually became the very clear winner: REACHIN’, the 1993 debut for Philly via NYC trio Digable Planets. Man, what does this album mean to me? Let me count the ways, and let’s start by tracing my journey to that record.
Like a lot of 80s indie kids, my first introduction to hip hop actually came via John Peel, who regularly played everything from Biz Markie to Public Enemy on his show. The first song that really got under my skin, and indeed the very hip hop song I ever bought was the 7″ single of Eric B & Rakim’s Paid In Full – or to be clear, the Coldcut remix, sampling the Turkish singer Ofra Haza’s haunting vocal.
I flirted with a few other artist, but then fell pretty hard for Public Enemy’s IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS, which felt vital and angry but also surprisingly accessible and full of strong hooks and powerful beats. But it was the herald of the Daisy Age and the flourishing of the Native Tongues bands that led me headlong into hip hop as something I listened to on a daily basis. No need to restate the genius of De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest, but what strikes me now about their music is their playfulness and willingness to experiment, their lack of bravado bullshit, and their plundering of jazz music as much as old soul and RnB tracks.
When I went to Uni in the early 90s, I ended up making a friend with a proper jazz head, and strange though it feels to recount now, I had a year when I learned all about classic be-bop era jazz, and got to know everyone from Wes Mongtomery to Art Blakey to Dexter Gordon. Armed with this new love for a genre I didn’t previously understand, I then spent a year in the States in 92-93 as part of my degree (in American Studies). There were too many highlights to mention, though seeing Clinton getting inaugurated in Washington DC was pretty cool. But it’s the music that’s stayed with me now. Fuck me, I can remember every album I listened to that year.
The US was overflowing with grunge and post grunge at the time, which I absolutely hated with a passion. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, all those guys. It was everywhere. I retreated into random corners, discovering Brazilian music via David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label, and getting into Afro-Belgian accapella group Zap Mama (yeah, I know, nothing’s changed!). But there two hip hop albums that year that became constant friends. One was Arrested Development’s debut, which was HUGE. And the other was Digable Planets. I remember walking onto the record store near the uni campus I was on, and they were playing Cool Like That. I recognised the Art Blakey sample, and on top of it floated this playful, almost feminine male vocal, rapping with such style and panache that it blew my head off. Needless to say, I left the store with that album.
DIGABLE PLANETS were – or rather are, now they’re touring this album again! – a 3 piece from Philadelphia who moved to New York. They seem to arrive fully formed as a concept – 2 men and 1 woman, all of shared rapping duties, and who sold themselves as interplanetary insects – Butterfly, Doodlbug & Ladybug. Their album, Reachin’, felt immediately like a manifesto for a new kind of hip hop – one that was as influenced by jazz and Blue Note records as James Brown or the usual sources. One that felt slick and cool and effortlessly stylish. Both opener It’s Good To Be Here and monster sunshine groove Where I’m From seemed to welcome the listener into their world. Grooves were funky, jams were slow, lyrics and rhymes seemed to flow so perfectly with the music that it was impossible to imagine they’d ever lived apart. I was absolutely besotted.
But it wasn’t all just good vibes, even if it always sounded that way – La Femme Fetal – is an utterly blistering attack on abortion rights told through a first person narrative that builds to a wider political point, and it’s, for me, one of the most articulate and brilliant political hip hop songs ever written. I know every line. I never thought, 30 years on, that it would be even more prescient now than it ever was then.
At the end of my year in the US, I went home clutching my Digable Planets tape. No one – and I mean NO ONE – in the UK had even heard of them. Everyone was listening to Suede and Britpop was riding over the horizon. But this album has never left me, and it never will.
It’s interesting comparing this to Arrested Development’s debut, which I think has fared less well with the years. That now sounds like a kind of pop-rap hybrid who’s appeal was really obvious, but it doesn’t sounds that revolutionary today. THIS album still does – fresh, vital and forward-thinking.
The band only made one other album, the completely excellent and more overtly political BLOWOUT COMB, before disbanding. Ishmael ‘Butterfly’ Butler went on to form the highly experimental Shabazz Palaces, who I lover and and I think everyone else on the pod hates! But they mostly disappeared from sight. And though this album went Gold in the US and they won a Grammy for best song in 93, Digable Planets seem to have got lost somewhere in the conversation about hip hop greats, which is crazy, because so many other hip hop artists have acknowledged the influence this had on them – from Mos Def to The Roots.
It’s so nice to see so much positivity about them now they’re touring the 30th anniversary of the album, so maybe people do finally understand that if you wanna get Cool like Dat, y’all need to dig Digable Planets.
In Part 1 we get to grips with the enchanting ‘Wait Til I Get Over’ by Durand Jones. We talk all things soul and share our opinions. In Part 2 we play a one-off version of Spin It or Bin It that we’re calling ‘Love/Hate’. We each pick a track that we love but we think the others will hate.
Part 1 | Album of the Month | Durand Jones | Wait Til I Get Over
It’s David’s choice this month and he’s chosen an album by and artist that none of us have any history with or knowledge of. The album is very much a soul album in every way that you could possibly define that word. If you want it to be, it’s a very easy to listen to soul album that fits nicely into the sun we’ve been enjoying. But it’s also a deeply personal and emotionally moving album if you go a little deeper.
‘The Show on the Road’ this is a great interview! – Click Here
‘Bedroom Beethovens’ … another interview – Click Here
Sound and Vision interview that we reference – Click Here
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Love/Hate
So. This is a new one. We all pick a track that we love and will defend to the hilt … but that we think the other 3 of us will hate. It sounds easy, but it’s actually not.
In order to chose our tracks we create a long list, then a short list of 4 tracks each. Each of our 4x track short lists are collated here… have a listen … but approach with caution, this makes no sense whatsoever!
It’s been quite a few years for soul music, which feels like it’s undergone quite the revival, with everyone from Mercury Music Prize winner Michael Kiwanuka to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings to Raphael Saadiq to Nao to Cleo Sol, and very notably of late, Anderson .Paak, making music that can squarely be described as soul or neo-soul or retro soul or whatever the heck else you’d call it. And even on hipper projects like Sault, so beloved of us 4 on the podcast, you could make a strong argument that soul is right at the beating heart of its sound.
But it’s also a tricky genre to navigate – the history of soul music is so wide and so breathtakingly diverse, and its influence is so embedded in our musical culture, that it can be hard to find a space to make anything that genuinely feels new, and there is a lot of stuff out there that treads very heavily on existing formats. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but that old discussion that we’ve had on this blog/podcast many times rears its head once again – how can you best homage to the genre you’re working in, while moving music forwards?
I should say, for the record, that soul music has been one of the bedrocks of my musical taste since I was first leant an Aretha cassette by a friend in my teens. Like a lot of folk, I first gorged on Motown, Jackie Wilson & the 60s girl groups then headed into 70s soul territory via Stevie, Curtis, Marvin, Sly Stone and the rest, and by the time I was at Uni, I was getting into contemporary stuff like Mica Paris, Young Disciples and some of the acid jazz scene of the Brand New Heavies and Galliano era. I suspect my love of late 90s/early 00s R’n’B – and boy do I love that stuff – comes from the fact that it is a souped up, dance floor friendly take on soul music – which is arguably what RnB has always been! The vocals, the arrangements, it’s all in there, just with a hefty bass and drum kick.
Cut to the chase: I’m a sucker for soul music. But in the modern era, the more ‘traditional’ the soul revival sound, the less I’m personally that engaged with it. So I don’t mind a bit of Sharon Jones, but I preferred Raphael Saadiq when he’s got a bit more R’n’B in him and he’s not just sounding like a retro soul revivalist. Ditto, Kiwanuka got more interesting when he became more experimental and had the likes of Inflo on board pushing his sound into a more contemporary space.
I first came across Durand Jones via his band Durand Jones & The Indications via their big breakout single Witchoo, which I loved. However, at the time, when I dug into the rest of that album, Private Space, I found a band and a vocalist that felt a LITTLE too enamoured of Philly Soul and 70s soul disco vibes, and the exercise felt a bit too retro and stale for me to really connect with. In comparison to Anderson .Paak, for example, who seemed to be absolutely tearing the floor up at the same time with something steeped in those same influences, but felt so fresh!
Fast forward 2 years and I’m looking for an album to choose for this AOTM. I’m struggling – there is nothing that’s been recently released that grabs my attention. And then, while flicking through Metacritic, I see Durand Jones – but this time a solo album. And the reviews are INSANE. I stick it on, and from the very first track, and that gorgeous liquid string arrangement on beguiling opener Gerri Marie, I knew I was listening to something pretty special.
I’ve devoured a bunch of podcasts and interviews that the TINH brothers have shared (and that we’ll share with you in the links section!), and what first strikes you about Durand Jones, apart from his fierce intellect and strong personality, is how much this record means to him. This is him coming to terms with himself as a Queer black man from the Deep South – I think the first time he’s openly referenced that – in the astonishing confessional ballad, That Feeling (bloody WordPress won’t let the video embed in a working fashion, but go and check out the video on YouTube). It’s openly confessional, trying to make sense of his and his family’s life in Hilaryville, Louisiana, a town formed by former slaves given the land as part of most emancipation reparations – once ‘the place you’d most like to live’ according to his grandma, but now decimated by drugs and poverty.
First thing to say is that this album is constructed in classic album format – a sprightly, tight 41 minutes, moving opener leading to chugging banger Lord Have Mercy. The entire set is a homage to the entire breadth of soul music, with so many highlights that you could name any track as one. Sadie is a slice of plaintive doo-wop; Wait Till I Get Over a straight-down-the-line gospel track that suddenly drifts off into an ambient finale; See It Through a catchy AF soul jam that will surely be another single:
The closing tracks of the album are particularly strong. Someday We’ll All Be Free is a Stevie-esque ballad that mix political and emotional yearnings that surprisingly bursts into a rap in in the middle of the song – it’s a real album highlight. Letter to My 17 Year Old Self is a rather leftfield ballad, full of musical experimentation, that reminded me of Parade-era Prince. Like earlier slow jam I Want You, it wants to play with the form as well as celebrate. Finally, we end with the gorgeous, mournful Secrets, before the set ends and we just hear the sound of water, presumably the Mississippi river. Are the secrets being washed away? Or is Durand being reborn in the river? Either way, the sound of tides lap against the listener until it fades out.
This album has got under my skin like no other this year, save for Young Fathers, and like them, it’s a personal real AOTY contender, and certainly a top 10 shoo-in. So why does it work so well? I think the fact that band recorded so much as live in the studio gives it the most ridiculous energy. It’s like you’re listening to a live performance. Despite that, it somehow never feels like an exercise in retro-soul. I think that comes down to the breadth and skill of the songwriting, as well as at the very modern persona and emotions of the record’s protagonist, Durand J. He drags every inch of emotion out of every song like a force of will! Finally, the arrangements are deft and smart throughout – in particular the use of crunchy, heavy rock guitar is a genius move, and works against it sounding neatly soul-like. Listen to it muscle its way in at the end of Lord Have Mercy, for example, and it adds such a punchy layer that takes the sounds somewhere new. The whole thing is an exercise in how you make a soul record in 2023 that feels vital and relevant. Durand, we waited, and you sure as hell got over!
Welcome to Episode 68 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 Guy brings a Robyn's latest release 'Sexisitential'. 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 'Sad Bangers'. —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Robyn | Sexistential ——Robyn is a unique, iconic figure in contemporary music. She's been making and releasing music since 1995, her career spans 4 decades already and she shows no signs of slowing down. Her pop career started when she was 15, she's about to celebrate her 47th birthday, this is insane staying power!Sexistential is her 9th studio album if you count the Body Talk series as full albums? It's only 29 mins long, it doesn't mess about and no track or the album in full overstays it's welcome. There is lots to get into in the discussion, has she still got it? Is she doing new things? Is this still relevant and if so who for? How artists change and what we expect from them as they age?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 —————- Robyn's biggest track is 'Dancing On My Own' is the archetype of a genre that Guy made up 'Sad Bangers'. This is our theme for Spin It or Bin It this month. It's got to be sad, and it's got to bang. Simple (in theory).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'?David chose Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron.Joey chose 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack.Guy chose 'Lovesick' by Friendly Fires.Nolan chose 'Blue Monday' by New Order.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/
In Part 1 we explore the new Everything But The Girl album Fuse, and ask is it worth the 24 year wait? In Part 2 we play Spin It or Bin It? The theme this month is new music … tracks that have been released since Feb 1st 2023.
Part 1 | Album of the Month | EBTG | Fuse
It’s Nolan’s choice this month and we go with the long awaited / not even expected 12th studio album from Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. It’s rare that we get to talk about an artist that we all have a significant relationship, but this is a great example. In January we got treated to the track Nothing Left to Loose but the album offers much more. It’s got just about every type of EBTG track you can think of and some of their best tracks ever.
In order to chose our tracks we create a long list, then a short list of 4 tracks each. Each of our 4x track short lists are collated here … have a listen.
Over the last few weeks it’s been hard to avoid the excitement of the return of Everything But The Girl, and their latest release Fuse after a 23 year hiatus as a group.
Everything But The Girl are one of my favorite stories in music. Together in a relationship (both as creatives and as a couple) since their teens and releasing music since 1984, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt have walked a fine line with the music business and fame. They have been able to continuously make music whilst keeping their lives as separated as possible from the industry, fame and its pressures as possible whilst still being present. Before putting ETBTG on hold in 2000, they amassed 12 top 40 singles and 11 top 40 albums.
Fans interest in what Tracey and Ben have done together and on their own (at least in name) is like a train journey with multiple stops allowing their fans to jump on an jump off at different destinations as they have traveled through jazz, folk, pop, indie and dance influenced releases. Some destinations similar to the others, some very different. Brother Joseph is heavily vested in their earlier releases as his parents were fans. My journey started after I hopped on just after ‘Missing’ which has resulted in a journey less about the group and more about both Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn’s solo works through Ben’s community of Buzzin’ Fly and Tracy Thorne’s rare but effective collaborations with the likes of Tiefschwarz on ‘Damage’ and later four critically acclaimed solo albums. Both have had thoroughly successful individual journeys but have always been underpinned by the history of EBTG.
I’m mindful that I’m not delving too deep into the history of the group, but this article in the Guardian is worth a read.
Through both their musical efforts and also literary efforts there is little doubt in their creative talents which has allowed them to continue to stay present since first gaining recognition in the mid 80’s. Intertwined in their own creative paths and raising a family has always been Watt’s rare autoimmune disease Churg-Strauss syndrome. Those who follow Watt in socials would have had an insight into his forced isolation from his family throughout lock down which resulted in Thorn re-visiting the idea of EBTG and their collaboration. After some persuasion, Watt and Thorn started to create their long awaited follow up to 1999’s ‘Temperamental’. When it was finished, Thorn nonchalantly posted on twitter about it ahead of going out for dinner, whilst the music trainspotters of the world went into meltdown. What would it be like? Both had released a wide range of music since the last album. If anything for me it brought on the realization that my history with Everything But The Girl was actually everything but as their individual work is honestly where my love of their music lies. In the build up to the album 4 singles were released which strongly laid out their stall for a much talked about return.
The lead off track of Fuse (which was also the lead single) ‘Nothing Else To Loose’ was championed by brother David as his track of the month on a recent This Is Not Happening podcast episode and is everything I wanted from a EBTG release. Thorn’s harrowing vocals float through a well-orchestrated music journey with strong hints of the Buzzin’ Fly Records releases that were always present in my record bag throughout most of the 2000’s. There is little doubt that the track will be a favorite for many throughout 2023 and beyond. ‘Run A Red Light’ and then ‘Caution In The Wind’ followed as singles as they do on the album. All three solid tracks that easily fell into non stop plays in our house.
‘When You Mess Up’ was the first song they wrote together when starting on this project which the Vulture review called ‘culture-war commentary delivered as motherly advice’, though Thorn highlighted that in fact that she wrote it in the voice of giving advice to herself. Where the track sits in the curation of the album tracks, it also reminds us that ETBTG have never been a one trick pony and are here to give as a wide spectrum of music that they want to make. ‘Time And Time Again’ carries classic ETBTG feels, as does ‘No One Knows We’re Dancing’ which was inspired by the lack of a dance floor community during the pandemic with nods to the packed Sunday clubs that Watt used to DJ in throughout the 2000’s. A space and time that I personally loved and miss.
As we delve into the second half of the album 4/4 pace of the album eases off as slow cords and distorted synths take you to a calm place with ‘Lost’ evoking a dreamy atmosphere whilst Thorn’s ever present raspy voice before ‘Forever’ brings back a slight pace and presents itself as one of the stand out tracks on the album. On ‘Interior Space’ the unimaginable happens; Thorn’s sacred vocals are process through auto-tune with and unexpected fascinating result. Rounding off the album is ‘Karaoke’, which chimes familiar tones of EBTG tracks of the past whilst Thorn delves into her mixed feelings surrounding performing live, sadly a hint of the reality of any of us seeing them live anytime soon is fairly unlikely.
Thorn said in a recent interview with the BBC “there are lots of recurring themes of desperately trying to connect with people and then [there are] dreamlike lyrics of being out in a club or in a bar. All this stuff bubbled up from those periods of isolation, where we just weren’t allowed to do the things we loved for a long period of time” which is evident in the album and the lyrics.
You could easily say that EBTG are a band that have always evolved and you would struggle to pigeonhole them. To me this release is a melting pot of their journey. EBTG have released an album which is so relevant to the current sound of music, pulling from their vast history of releases and seamlessly intertwining touch points of their past whilst moving forward. It feels that this release is an unintended perfection of timing in waiting for the world to catch up with them to release the album that listeners from all stops of their journey will appreciate and enjoy. I write this only a few days after the release, and there’s still a lot to digest throughout the album. I mentioned earlier that all of their albums have charted in the top 40, though none have got to number one. At the time of writing this, they are battling Enter Shikari for the top spot in the albums chart. It seems that perhaps I’m not the only one that thinks ‘Fuse’ was worth the wait, and their patience is already bearing fruit.
Welcome to Episode 68 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 Guy brings a Robyn's latest release 'Sexisitential'. 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 'Sad Bangers'. —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Robyn | Sexistential ——Robyn is a unique, iconic figure in contemporary music. She's been making and releasing music since 1995, her career spans 4 decades already and she shows no signs of slowing down. Her pop career started when she was 15, she's about to celebrate her 47th birthday, this is insane staying power!Sexistential is her 9th studio album if you count the Body Talk series as full albums? It's only 29 mins long, it doesn't mess about and no track or the album in full overstays it's welcome. There is lots to get into in the discussion, has she still got it? Is she doing new things? Is this still relevant and if so who for? How artists change and what we expect from them as they age?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 —————- Robyn's biggest track is 'Dancing On My Own' is the archetype of a genre that Guy made up 'Sad Bangers'. This is our theme for Spin It or Bin It this month. It's got to be sad, and it's got to bang. Simple (in theory).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'?David chose Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron.Joey chose 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack.Guy chose 'Lovesick' by Friendly Fires.Nolan chose 'Blue Monday' by New Order.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/
In Part 1 we explore the mesmerising (but opinion dividing) 2nd album by Kelela, ‘Raven’. In Part 2 we play ‘Spin it or bin it?’ … but do we really? The theme this month is our favourite De La Soul tracks … is anyone really going to bin a De La Soul track?
Part 1 | Album of the Month | Kelela | Raven
It’s Joey’s choice this month and we’re focusing on an intriguing, vibe of an album called Raven by Ethopian-American artist Kelela. It’s 15 tracks, over an hour and plays out like a late-90s, early-00’s post club mix tape. There’s lots of opinions on this album, in the critical sphere they’re almost universally (really) positive, the album being on of the best reviewed albums of the year. However, its a 100%, unquestioning love-in on This Is Not Happening.
Live Jimmy Fallen performance of ‘Enough for Love’ – Here
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | De La Soul tribute
After the sad passing of Trugoy the Dove, we pay tribute to De La Soul. This is the 1st time that the question ‘spin it or bin it’ is completely redundant.
Check out our 16 track De La Soul tribute playlist (4 tracks each) can be found – Here (this is a good one!)
Next Month
In part 1Nolan brings ‘Fuse’ by Everything But the Girl as our Album of the Month, in Part 2 we play ‘Spin it or bin it’ with new tracks for the last 3 months.
thisisnothappening.net 