Father John Misty, everyone’s favourite / most detested* sardonic, nihilist crooner, is BACK. With new singles, and now his new album, Mahashmashana.
It’s a brilliant work, which you’ll adore / absolutely hate*. I’m here for all of it, but particularly the full faded start / hobo chic in the new single, She Cleans Up.
ALL HAIL.
We are big big Little Simz fans here at TINH, and while we were mixed with our view of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (S.I.M.B.I.) – for me, it was a brilliant record, somewhat let down by the strange skits from Emma Corrin / Lady Di in the Crown – we all adored Grey Area for its energy, power and sheer do-not-give-a-fuck attitude (not to mention amazing flow and vibe).
And as we all got to thinking about our 2022 Top Tens, here landed No Thank You, on 12 December, to land in that strange slot of after end of year lists, but not in 2023, hence a sort of hinterland. But my god, it doesn’t really matter, because it’s an amazing work. Much more personal, and pared back than the maximal feel of SIMBI, this sees Simz and her producer, Inflo, in perfect harmony. Gorilla may be one of my tracks of the year as a late entry, and if it came out in November, it would’ve likely been in my Top 5, straight in!
It’s great to have her back, but perhaps next time, release on 2nd Jan?
We love Simz.
This Is Not Happening‘s 2021 comes to an end with a look back at the many musical highs of a memorable 2021 and count down our top ten albums of the year. Despite the many challenges musicians have been facing in making music in a pandemic, it’s been a truly exceptional year, from the likes of Wolf Alice, Japanese Breakfast, Arlo Parks, Billie Eilish, The Weather Station and many others, but there’s only room for one winner – who’s it going to be?
We’ll also be nominating our tracks of the year, from a very tough long list of amazing records. Here are our our 4 monster fave tracks of 2021, one from each of us, below.
Guy: Feu! Chatteron – Écran Total
Nolan: Gheist – We Are Not Alone
David: Royce Wood Jr – Slush
Joey: Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
The full top 10s and playlists and all our music discussions over the last ten years can be found on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which will run 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 see what you think. You can also find our longer tracks of the year here on Spotify.
Episode #19 will see us take on one of 2021’s most underrated albums – Joy Crookes‘s incredible debut Skin – and we’ll be delving deep into it in January. The episode will land in the second half of January.
This Is Not Happening:
Created by Joey, Nolan, Guy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: thisisnothappeningpodcast@whyohwhyohwhy
The methods of making music may not have changed much in lockdown but the way its’ released and consumed surely has, especially with electronic music. With no clubs, how do you craft something for release? When should it come out? If you’re Kieran Hebden then Christmas Day is the answer to the latter. Not one, but two new albums appeared in December, and of the two – along with an odd retrospective, 871 – Parallel was the one that’s landed most with me. A selection of tracks, some of which have been released under a strange hieroglyph moniker over the past few years, which carry all the beauty of his electronica as well as anything he’s done recently. Particularly the opener, a monster 27-minute Parallel 1. It’s chimed perfectly in lockdown for me, and I’m really glad to have such a musical polymath like Four Tet around.
