Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, podcast

Podcast Episode 29 | Ab Soul | Herbert

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/
  1. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential
  2. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green
  3. EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern
  4. EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top
  5. EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX

Our first AOTM episode in 2023 finds us exploring Ab Soul’s ‘Herbert’ in Part 1 and we focus on New Music for ‘Spin It or Bin It’ in Part 2.

Part 1 | Album of the Month | Ab Soul | Herbert

It’s Nolan’s choice this month and he’s taking us to his spiritual home – Hip Hop with Ab Soul’s late 2022 release, ‘Herbert’. For once, we’re all coming to this artist pretty fresh . Nolan’s been banging on about the singles from this album for like 6 months so giving the album some extended love seems a natural choice.

If you’ve not heard it, we think it’s well worth a listen …

  • Go listen to the album – Here
  • Go watch some videos – Here
  • Go buy some merch – Here 

Our discussion focuses on how we’d describe the album, mental health, suicide and how these topics impact the album, the length of the album, the bangers and of course we touch on a few of the clangers too.

We mention a few things that we’d highly recommend checking out, so here are the links;

  • YouTube interview with Charlamagne Tha God – Here
  • GQ interview – Here
  • Joey’s alternative, 10 track playlist that focuses on the bangers – Here
  • Guy’s alternative, 11 track playlist that focuses on the narrative – Here

Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘New Music’ (Nov ’22 onwards)

We all pick a tack based on a theme and present to the rest of us to ask the simple question, Spin it or Bin it? The theme this month is a simple one ‘New Music’. The only rule is that the track has to be released after November 2022. We chose albums from as far a field as Doncaster and Russia.

  1. David chose – ‘Nothing Left to Loose’ by Everything But the Girl 
  2. Nolan chose – ‘Like a Heart Won’t Beat’ by Skinny Pelembe  
  3. Joey chose – ‘Let’s Hold Our Hands Together’ by Kito Jempere
  4. David chose – ‘Gorilla’ by Little Simz

Next Month

David is in the hot seat for AOTM and he’s bringing Rozi Plain’s new album ‘Prize’ to the table. We’re all getting stuck in and seeing how we live with the album for a month or so. In Part 2, ‘Spin It or Bin It?’ will be a good one too … the theme next month is Protest Music.

We’ve been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/