Tag: Joanna Newsome

EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 65 of This Is Not Happening. An Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we review our Album of the Month. This month Nolan brings a big chunk of country (or is Heartland Rock?) with Zach Bryan's latest release 'With Heaven On Top'.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 'New Music', tracks released since January 1st.__________Part 1 | Album of the Month | Zach Bryan | With Heave On Top ____________Zach Bryan is a relatively divisive, country artist who is HUGE in the states but can his latest album help him become (even more of) a global superstar? At 25 tracks and 1hr 18 mins he's giving the album every chance of making an impact.This album has genuine, authentic heart. It's length is a big talking point, so is it's genre, is it country? Americana? Something else?Listen to the original album here.Listen to the acoustic version released 3 days after the original here.Watch an interesting conversation with Bryan and Springsteen here.       ___________________Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | New Music _____________________Every 3 months we pick the theme 'New Music' and each pick 4 tracks that have been released in the last 2 month. Listen to our 16 track play list that we created for the New Music theme.We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Joey chose 'Aperture' by Harry Styles.David chose 'Miami' by Pigeon.Nolan chose 'Milk, Blue' by Pem.Guy chose 'Out of Phase' by Alexis Taylor and Lola KirkeWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/

1. EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top 01:12:22
2. EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX 01:13:15
3. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 01:20:41
4. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes 01:14:05
5. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey 01:12:50

Last month we shared our thoughts on Small World by Metronomy, all 9 tracks and 35 minutes worth. This month This Is Not Happening ups the ante with ‘Dragon, New Mountain …’, all 20 tracks and 80 minutes worth.  In part 1, we deep dive into the density of Big Thief and Part 2 we play ‘Spin It or Bin It?’ where we judge the tracks that we’ve chosen for this month’s theme.

Part 1 – Album of the Month

This month it’s David’s choice, ‘Dragon, New Mountain …’ by Big Thief. Three of us love Big Thief and have much more than a passing relationship with the band … whilst one of us is a Big Thief virgin. There was SO much written about this album as soon as it came out including a number of 100% reviews.  As always, we take a slower, more considered approach to criticism, living with this album for a couple of months and letting it really settle in before we reflect and share our views.

You don’t have to look to far to find interviews, reviews and videos on Big Thief and this album but some of the content that we consumed and discussed in part 1 can be found below;

• The metacritic review page is always a goo start and can be found here
• This is a great listen – ‘Out On The Line’ Podcast 
• Really insightful take on the album – ‘Taking it Down’Podcast
• If you love them … or not, this one’s got you covered -‘NY Times’ Podcast
• A great article in Vulture – read it here

Part 2 – ‘Spin it’ or ‘Bin it?’

In the second part of this episode we get stuck into 4 tracks representing this months theme – ‘Not on Spotify’. We all pick a track,  introduce our track and ask the others the painfully binary critical question; ‘spin it’ or ‘bin it?’ 

This month was a little more ‘free form’ than usual … but an amusing listen none the less!

1. Guy’s track selection is – Prassay – Krvsin
2. David’s track selection is – Nick Drake – I Was Made to Love Magic
3. Nolan’s track selection is – Pharoahe Monch – F You
4. Joey’s track selection is – Joanna Newsome  – ‘81

Next Month

Episode #23 will be with you soon – Joey will be leading the discussion on ‘Life on Earth’ by Hurray for the Riff Raff. If you get the chance we’d love you to have a listen to the album before next month, perhaps share some thoughts with us on the blog or on our Insta. This albums getting a lot of positive attention and we think it’s going to be in a few year end lists.