Tag: new music

Posted in Album of the Month, New Albums

Oct. ’25 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey

Posted on by misterstory

This is ‘This Is Not Happening’ and it’s time for ‘Album of the Month’. The album is Essex Honey by Blood Orange and the Month is Oct. 2025. Some months we have obvious choices for AOTM, some months we have few options and some months it’s impossible to choose an album as there is an embarrassment of riches to pick from. This month we struggled with the latter but settled on Essex Honey. I am VERY glad we did but others are less so!

Devonté Hynes, AKA Blood Orange, is a Grammy-nominated English singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, and director based in New York City. I forgot all about the fact that he was in Test Icicles and was previously known as Lightspeed Champion before transitioning into Blood Orange. Devonté is a talented human being, playing multiple instruments to a standard where he plays for other artists; I think he is a consummate songwriter and an incredible producer. He also directs film work, composes scores and soundtracks… the list probably goes on.

But let’s focus on Blood Orange. This is the 5th album from Blood Orange released over an extended period since 2011. The albums that I am most familiar with are Cupid Deluxe from 2013 and Negro Swan from 2018. Both of these were consdidered for AOTM’s back in the TINH blog days. I think my decision to not pick them was that they would be considered to ‘noodley R&B’ by some on the blog? And I think this will be the deciding factor in the reaction to Essex Honey … but it’s also 14 years later, music has changed, the world has changed and we’ve all changed too.

So what does this album ‘sound like’? By this I mean, can we easily describe its sound, genre and similarity to other music so we can help build a picture of this for people?

The quick answer to this is … no. But I will have a go. I think the first thing people will hear is ‘R&B’ but I think that is massively reductive and will actually put some people off who might really enjoy this. I think this is fundamentally a pop album, it is a pop album about grief, loss, time and home … so it’s not disco-bangers-pop. This is key. The abum was written after the loss of his mother and the exploration of this in his mind. How it made him think about time, home and loss. It’s contemplative, calm, reflective, artful and soulful, experimental-pop. It’s an album of melodic fragments collected and presented across 14 songs and nearly 47 minutes. Yes, it uses some of the melodic and stylistic tropes of R&B … but no more than it uses the structure and approaches of classical music.

Here are some hot-takes on what I can hear on this album (interestingly, only one of these is an ‘R&B’ artists);

  • Big Sufjan energy – ‘Carrie and Lowell’ (another album about loss which Dev listened to a lot after he lost his mother) but also ‘The Ascension’ and ‘Javelin’.
  • There are also big jazz vibes that occur in the transitions and the odd fragment that reminds of Andre 3000 in experimental but also The Love Below modes.
  • There are tracks that almost feel pure dream-pop guitar band a la early Deerhunter.
  • I’d add Andorra-mode Caribou in this thought too.
  • The tell-tale melodic style of Tuung pop up every now and then.
  • The use of guitar (and how and where it is important) reminds of Blonde by Frank Ocean

The album is predominantly instrumented by guitar, piano, synths and a wealth of woodwind, brass and strings. Guitars are very important to this album. But for me the most important instrument is the human voice, Dev’s and his fellow contributors. There are so many vocal sounds and energies that wash over you at moments and pull you in at others.

Pretty much ever ‘track’ has a transition into the next ‘track’. These transitions are often fragments of other melodies, abstract sound experiments with acoustic instruments or a bit of everything. These transitions will be make or break or break for some in my opinion. Do these transitions create an angular energy in an otherwise very calm, lower-energy album or do they represent an interruption in the flow of energy from one amazing pop melody to the next.

As with any album, there are layers to the listening experience with this album. It is beautiful music to accompany you through life – working, cooking etc. But there is way more to this than it being beautiful background music. The next layer down is to listen in headphones on a calm walk, I found this to be a hypnotic and pseudo-therapeutic experience, thank you Dev. Sitting down and listening with lyrics reveals another layer and is massively rewarding.

This is what YouTuber ‘Deli’ did in his live reaction video – he predominately talks about hip hop so I was interested to watch this which is loads of fun and really interesting watch.

There are moments of pure lyrical beauty that are always accompanied by pure melodic beauty. With some artists, it feels like they think of a clever lyric and shoe horn it into the melody or the other way round – on this album it feels like this cmbinned beauty just flows out of Mr. Orange. A perfect example of this is on ‘Somewhere in Between’ where the lyric ‘Light was just for hope and it keeps flickering, and I just want to see again’ is paired perfectly with the songs melodic hook.

For me, there is a classical, symphonic approach to the strucure of this album. It feels like an overture, with repeated phrases, themes and motifs appearing throughout. These motifs reference themselves across and throughout the album. This coupled with Devonte’s skill as a writer of melody, lyrics, his experimental approach to instrumentation and accompaniment makes this at the very least, a very clever, fascinating album created by a very clever, fascinating artist.

If you like it or not might be a different matter. I love it.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, podcast, Spin it or Bin It

Podcast EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

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/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

TINH happening is officially 60 episodes old. Happy 60th to us.

We’re missing a team member again this month. David is back and in the hot seat, Guy is off making beautiful memories with his family. 

In Part 1, we review and Album of the Month. This month it’s Davide’s choice and he’s picked Moisturizer, the sophomore release from Wet Leg, British Post-Punk, Post-Pop band that were previously catapulted to fame by their break out single Chaise Longue. Tune in to find out what we all thought.

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 ‘English With An Accent’. 

                                   —– Part 1 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer  —–

Wet Leg, AKA ‘that Chaise Longue band’ started their career with a bang. Their first single Chaise Longue became a global hit and created a massive amount of attention. Could they ever break the curse of being a novelty, one hit wonder band …? Well, yes is the simple answer. Their first album proved that (partially) but this second album smashes that idea out the park. Listen to the episode for more detail but there’s a lot of positivity about this one.

Listen to the album, listen to the pod, tell us what you think. Here are some links that we mention on the pod or think could be useful to explore;

  • Listen to the album … HERE
  • Watch some great videos … HERE
  • Buy some stuff … HERE

                     —– Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘English With An Accent —–

The theme this month is English With An Accent. Simple. Artists singing in English but with an acent.

We all chose 4 tracks as a shortlist which we combine into a belter of a 16 track playlist, listen to that bad boy HERE.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums

SEPTEMBER: Moisturizer by WET LEG

Posted on by David Allison

Why have I chose Wet Leg for this month? I’m not their biggest fan although I love some of their songs and I really dig what they’re doing. But something really got my goat and I thought it was worth having a discussion about. Essentially, I was reading another one of those dreadful reactionary articles the other day (alas, I can’t find what it was, I’ve looked online, there are so many!) asking why guitar music and guitar bands are dying.

Of course, the hidden implication in that is MALE guitar bands. That’s what they mean. Because there are PLENTY of top tier guitar bands around – I want to throw Wolf Alice straight in there, who just get better and better and I was desperate to review their new album for this month but alas it’s not out yet. On top of them are a plethora of UK female led acts, from The Last Dinner Party and The Big Moon to the new-all female vocaled Black Country New Road. But leading the pack are Wet Leg, and what’s interesting about them is they really quite an odd proposition, and that’s why I want to talk about them this month.

The Isle of Wight indie phenomenon are back with a new album, their 2nd, Moisturizer after a frankly extraordinary breakout debut that has made them music press darlings on both sides of the pond. Chaise Longue became one of those songs- backed by a v clever video and look for the band – the giant hats and lobster claws – that they then referenced in a series of excellent singles with similarly excellent videos – the fabulous Wet Dream, as well as Oh No and Yr Mum. It was clear they were not a one-hit wonder, and had a playfulness as well as an edge that made them perfect crossover indie fodder – 6 Music, Pitchfork, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza – this band was made for them all.

That makes them sounds contrived and I don’t they are all, there’s never been any sense of that. But I wondered how you follow up an album like that and how you evolve. Because, though I enjoyed the first album, I had a niggling doubt that behind the unbelievable effervescent and singular personality of lead singer Rhian Teasdale was a band that perhaps, musically at least, were just a touch indie generic?

My fears were initially confirmed when I first heard the first single Catch These Firsts. I was underwhelmed. It felt harder and more driving and rocky, but I worried that it traded vibes and a groove for a lack of melody. But do you know what? I was wrong! But it wasn’t until I heard follow up single CPR that everything started to make sense to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD1QZBBXM8&list=RDorD1QZBBXM8&start_radio=1

Wet Leg were involving in all kinds of ways. I immediately loved Teasdale’s new look, a real giving no fucks queer vibe that I am just here for all day. But actually the music started to make sense, especially when I realised that they were moving away from a UK template and drawing on a much deeper well – American 90s alt rock. Pavement! Belly! Throwing Muses! Those bent guitar riffs, the slightly atonal quality, the grunge of the riffs. It’s all there, and fuck me, actually I am starting to love this. I imagine Joey will be feeling those same references.

So what do we have as an album? Well, sure it’s a mixed bag. It starts off magnificently with CPR, but 2nd track Liquidize feels a bit by numbers. Catch These Fists I’ve come to admire, though it’s by no means my favourite song. That goes to Davina McCall, a total surprise of a track, and funny, left field love song that just steals me completely. Jennifer’s Body is, alas, the other quite generic track before we get into the magnificent Mangetout. From then on, I have to say, the back end of the album gets better and better.

The last three songs are, for me, three of the strongest and the most bold, musically. Don’t Speak is pure Belly/early 90s 4AD. And then 11.21 is extraordinary, a haunting, lovely lollopoping ballad that could easily be Billie Eilish. Closer U and Me at Home is nothing short of magnificent, a Pavement esque grunge singalong that leaves you with a very nice vibe as you bring this brisk 38 minute album to a close.

So what is that about them? Teasdale is clearly the key figure here, presenting a bold and fearless version of modern femaleness that nonetheless loses none of the playfulness of the first album. But I have to say, I’ve come round to the band too. There’s some serious songwriting chops here, and it also just sounds like a load of fucking fun. Maybe it’s also that? Maybe everyone’s sick of the boys in their leather jackets taking themselves so seriously and not even talking to their audience – yeah, we see you Arctic Monkeys, headlining Glastonbury like it was a contractual obligation. This band are having fun and they are doing things there way, and you know, I am here for it!

And you, brothers?

Posted in Album of the Month, New Albums, podcast

Podcast EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

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/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

Welcome to Episode 59 of This is Not Happening (TINH), an Album of the Month (AOTM) Podcast. We’re missing a team-member this month as Davide is on an Anglo-French diplomatic mission. 

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’.  We pick a theme and each pick a song that represents that theme. We judge the selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?

In Part 1, Nolan is in the seat. He brings Little Sim’z new album, Lotus. This was a reluctant choice when he made it. He thought it was an interesting album but he was far from loving it. Has that changed in a month?

In Part 2, we celebrate New Music. What are our favourite new tracks from the last couple of months?

                            —– Part 1 | Little Simz | ‘Lotus’ —–

This is the 2nd Little Simz album we’re reviewed as our little Album of the Month collective. Last time round was here debut album Grey Area which would all pretty much loved. I think our experience of her work since then has varied significantly. This album has been launched in a quite dramatic and controversial environment following the collapse of Simz’ relationship with former collaborator Inflo. What does Simz sound like without Inflo? Let’s find out.

Listen to the album, listen to the pod, tell us what you think. Here are some links that we mention on the pod or think could be useful to explore;

  • Listen to the album … HERE.
  • We mention the great Louis Theroux podcast interview … HERE.
  • Watch the video for ‘Young’ … HERE.
  • Buy some stuff … HERE.  

                          —– Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘New Music’ —–

The theme this month is New Music. Simple. What new tunes are we loving? There’s LOADS of amazing music out but we also need to pick something that we think the rest of us will vote ‘spin it’ to.

We all chose 4 tracks as a shortlist which we combine into a belter of a 16 track playlist, listen to that bad boy HERE.

Posted in Uncategorized

AOTM | Little Simz | Lotus

Posted on by nolankane706

It’s tough to believe that this is Simz’s 9th album (4th on a major label). Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but she seems like new artist to me in some ways. Perhaps because unlike the rest of the This Is Not Happen pod members I’ve never clicked with her albums, akin to drop in and out and champion the singles that click with me (note I think Boss from Simz’s Grey Area album is one of the best British songs in the last ten years). So why am I not a huge fan of her albums? Largely as a hip hop fan I’ve found her delivery lacking substance and emotion often. So why have a picked this album? In short I think she’s turned a corner for me. All niggles I’ve had previously have been pushed away with the release for Lotus.

Although I may have had issues with previous albums I’m never doubted the talent of Simz’s. Both musically and also her acting has made her a household name throughout the UK and a shining light within the UK music scene. Very much a veteran artist that continues to collect global momentum with each release, Simz delivers a versatile, well curated 49 minute end to end. Filled with emotion and confidence each song is an adventure.

Many reviews of Lotus have focussed on her public fallout with long time friend and collaborator Inflo, Friends since she was 9 years old, their came to a hard stop over publicly disputed loan of £2m that Simz lent Inflo which wasn’t paid back. The frustration, hurt and betrayal of this is weaved throughout the album starting off with the first track Thief and finished with Blue (featuring Info collaborator Michael Kiwanuka). Although this is a standout theme on a handful of songs, it’s not the only theme of the album. There is so much more to the album to go at and focus on as she touches on everything in her world.

One interesting point is that Simz hasn’t pushed her sound in a different direction due to the split. Perhaps planting her flag to the sound we know Info for and that is as much hers as his, there are familiar sounds we have got to know both of them for highlighting their sound is much as Simz as Inflo.

Simz largely leans on collaboration throughout this album with 8 of the 13 songs featuring other artists. A theme common for hip hop albums, but interestingly the guests push this album away from hip hop and expands its accessibility through a versatile selection of guests. I’m not sure you would even call this a hip hop album? What is certain is that the additional help creates a rounded offering.

Currently Lion is my favourite track. The cross over friendly sounds comfort Simz in a close to perfect flow. It may be my song of the summer. The album sadly doesn’t go without a bump. I really struggle with Young…. But I’m trying to let it grow on me.

Simz delivers a rounded, mature and accomplished album with Lotus. For me her best release to date. I’m now in the Simz camp, and if you aren’t it’s time to take a step inside.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, podcast

Podcast EP.58 | Lucy Dacus | Forever is a Feeling

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

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/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

This month’s podcast could be re-titled ‘How to Disagree Nicely.  Welcome to Episode 58 of This is Not Happening (TINH), an Album of the Month (AOTM) Podcast. 

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’.  We pick a theme and each pick a song that represents that theme. We judge the selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?

In Part 1, Guy is in the seat. He brings Lucy Dacus’ new album, Forever is a Feeling for us to consider and discuss.

In Part 2, we celebrate the summer, it was hear, it has already gone. Nolan’s specialist subject, the Summer Night track is our theme for Spin It or Bin It.

                            —– Part 1 | Lucy Dacus | ‘Forever is a Feeling’ —–

We have varying levels of experience and history with Lucy Dacus but Guy has fallen for this album in a big way. It’s Lucy’s 4th solo album and sits alongside her work as part of Boygenius. The album is a really easy listen, it can sit with you on repeat for a significant chunk of time. The question that we explore is, can penetrate beyond a nice listen … opinions vary but at least one of us has this in their album of the year list at this point in the year.

Listen to the album, listen to the pod, tell us what you think. Here are some links that we mention on the pod or think could be useful to explore;

  • Listen to the album … HERE.
  • Listen to the the ‘A Deeper Listen interview / podcast … HERE.
  • Watch some videos (particularly the live performances) … HERE.
  • Buy some stuff … HERE.       

                          —– Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘Summer Nights’ —–

The theme this month is ‘Summer Nights’. Which tracks give us big summer night vibes. Ever since I’ve known Nolan he has always immediately given songs a season, I’ve never known anyone think as ‘seasonally’ about music. So no pressure but we play Spin It or Bin it with his specialist subject!

Here is a link to our 16 track playlist of religion-inspired tracks – with the first 4 tracks being our picks for this month.

(and just for a laugh, here’s the video of DC10 we talked about…)

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums

AOTM | June | Lucy Dacus | Forever Is A Feeling

Posted on by GuyHornsby

I can’t remember who introduced me to Lucy Dacus. But a skim of our Whatsapp shows that while we all slept on it in 2023, Nolan was the first to alert us to it in April (perhaps from his legendary ‘Folk’ playlist). So, hats off brother, because that’s why we’re talking about Lucy Dacus’ fourth solo album, Forever Is A Feeling, and how I’ve come to bring it into the summer light. So, let’s rewind a little, then.

Back in early 2023, I’d not even heard of any of the trio of the acclaimed indie/rock/folk supergroup Boygenius. I’d been aware perhaps of Phoebe Bridgers in passing, but the album was a definition of a ‘how did we miss this?!’ record when we got to our 2024 Album of the Year picks for the podcast. In the November, it was catching fire, and by the time we recorded the podcast, it was climbing slowly into Top Tens. It hadn’t quite wrapped itself around me at that point but into early 2024, it really took off for me. 42 minutes, 12 songs – the TINH golden ratio – and some of the finest crafted songs of that year, however late they came to us. From the banjo-infused delicate feel of Cool About It, to the perfect rock of $20. It made me want to know who this trio was. Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker were doing things I needed to hear, in ways I didn’t know I wanted. I played that album into the ground last year. it was the perfect confluence of female voices that played across the genres and had so much interesting to say about being a woman and being queer in the 2020s. They seemed to be having the time of their lives.

But this isn’t about the band, it’s about Dacus. Back in March, I had interest when Forever Is A Feeling was trailed, but I had no expectations of this weaving its way into my head and heart so much. I love when an artist that’s either new to you or you don’t have a big history with comes out of the wings to catch you unawares, and this feels like 2025’s for me. I was familiar with her voice from The Record, and how it sat so nicely within that frame, but on her own it was a focus that really called out the Virginian’s talent for melody and songwriting, and a skill with the guitar that took me by surprise. All the parts were there, fully formed: from the classical intro of Calliope Prelude, Big Deal was the first one that really had me: its simplicity of strummed guitar, brushed percussion and Dacus’ rich but expressive voice, talking of unrequited love come into the open, and it had this connection that I can’t quite explain when you feel a song is written for you. As I got to know the album, it felt so open, wearing its love and emotions large across its 13 tracks. And if you connect with that, it’s a powerful drug. Then I read the backstory and it all seemed to fall into place.

I’m slow to the context, for sure. But casting through news stories of the past and I realised there’s been speculation and rumours around the trio’s creative bonds ever since they got together, and whether there was anything more. And while it feels trite to buy into this stuff – they certainly enjoy how they dress, perform and make music together – because, really, in 2025 why can’t it just be a group of female friends and musical partners making amazing records together, finding out that Dacus and Baker were in a relationship earlier this year suddenly added layers to the music that I already felt a real connection to. Because when you reframe the songs on this album to that backdrop, it feels all the more relevant, meaningful and, above all, beautiful. Not because they should be telling us what is absolutely their business and theirs only, but because they did, and it felt right to do it. “It’s been interesting, because I want to protect what is precious in my life, but also to be honest, and make art that’s true,” Dacus told the New Yorker recently. “I think maybe a part of it is just trusting that it’s not at risk.” And we are all the beneficiaries of that trust.

So an album more generally about love, loss, infatuation, lust and life, became (mainly) about this. And it lifted it up to another level. The lust and sexual energy of Ankles (with this wonderful version on Jimmy Kimmel) took on a new meaning, and the gentle insistence of Best Guess transformed into a warm hope for future lives together. Mogdiliani’s intonation that “you make me homesick for places I’ve never been before” is a sweet sentiment. If it wasn’t coalesced around a person it may feel a bit mawkish, but I think there’s a truthfulness and openness to the songwriting – which clearly feels different after the fact – that makes this something special to me. The album isn’t all soft focus love songs, for that would be unfair on an artist of the talents of Dacus. Talk fizzes with scuzzy guitars and angst over, presumably, the ending of the previous relationship before Baker: “I didn’t mean to start
Talking in the past tense / I guess I don’t know what I think / ‘Til I start talking.” The balance between the start of something new and the end of the previous affair also looms large here.

There’s some wonderful turns of phrase throughout, with For Keeps lamenting “If the Devil’s in the details and God is everything / Who’s to say that they are not one and the same? / But neither one of them were there / In the mezzanine cheap seats, or waking up in dirty sheets.” In these moments, Dacus almost feels as if she’s close by, singing directly to you. The title track is a more urgent-sounding confession about feelings hidden coming into the open, with a lyric that’s half put-down and half hopeful statement: “Yeah, you’re smart / But you’re dumb at heart / And that’s a good start.” Come Out’s chorus has been washing around in my head for weeks. There are some less strong notes, especially the duet with Hozier, Bullseye, which feels the most derivative on the album, but quickly blown away by Most Wanted Man and the closer Lost Time, a hell of a pair of final cuts. The album hangs together loosely and easily, like an old jacket. I’m sure we’ll talk programming but I can’t think of things that feel particularly out of place, and it flows so easily into multiple runs. I feel it’s been here for years already.

It’s not just a simple album about one person though. Because Dacus and Boygenius inhabit something bigger in the cultural landscape. A trio of queer women, unashamedly themselves, proud of who they are and enjoying playing with those identities, should feel normal of course, but the country they are from is in a strange era. Right now they are the sort of creatives that the unhinged White House hates, and willing to campaign for gay rights, abortion and trans communities is not a simple choice to make for everyone in this decade. The more I read about them, the more I respect, admire and adore them, and Dacus’ music and the layers it has makes me wish I was on board when her debut No Burden came out in 2016. Perhaps, when I read some of the press, the fact that I’m only starting out now, may be why I see it more favourably than some who got in at the ground floor.

This album has had some – to me – odd reviews in a number of places that decry its lack of edge and softness compared to its predecessors. How it’s more rounded and content, perhaps disappointment that a promotion to a major label – from independent darling Matador to big time Geffen – has smoothed out a few too many of those rougher edges. I think – to me – there’s also another factor in play: that when you’re singing and writing about yourself, but that world is private to you, you can talk about the stories and images and weave them with all the colour you feel is needed – real or imagined. But when your relationship is public – and she must have written and completed the work knowing that was where it would end up and how it would be framed – there’s a different angle to that, surely? Where your public and very well-known partner is the centre of many of the songs, would you be as visceral, as brutal, as colourful as before? Only Dacus can know this, but when you are in love and that album is largely an expression of that, critical appraisal of that must feel more personal and I feel there’s something to that here. It’s Dacus’ (and Baker’s) truth, and no one else’s.

For sure, having listened to it recently, I certainly get that her debut was more guitar-led and spiky – but that was not the overriding style itself – and she’s sung of pain, grief, love, and loss to great effect on her past work, but I felt that there’s light and dark on all previous albums she’s done. I find it a quirk – perhaps confirmation bias – that a good number of the less favourable reviews I’ve read this time have been written by men. Laura Snapes’ excellent piece for Pitchfork is an exception, that while it ruminates on the albums style, it also posits that the record’s biggest transgression may be the statement of queer ‘contentment’ and I very much like that idea (though of course that should not be a thing).

And I’m sure that’s a thought I’ll carry into the podcast too. There’s a critical narrative for sure, and while I acknowledge that and see it, I adore it all the same. Journalists can sift through the album against a back catalogue and critically appraise changes in tone and style, I am just here to say I plain old love this record.

The question is, will you all?

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, podcast, Spin it or Bin It

Podcast EP.57 | Perfume Genius | Glory

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

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/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

This month we struggle with very conscious bias when we discuss how much we love Perfume Genius’ new album Glory. Welcome to Episode 57 of This is Not Happening (TINH), an Album of the Month (AOTM) Podcast. 

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’.  We pick a theme and each pick a song that represents that theme. We judge the selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?

In Part 1, Joey is in the seat and basically bangs on about how much he loves Perfume Genius.

In Part 2, we celebrate contemporary queer music and play Spin It or Bin It with the theme. Joey’s track is unfairly and poorly treated … as is David’s but two other bangers make up for it.

                                     —– Part 1 | Perfume Genius | ‘Glory’ —–

I love Perfume Genius. Always have … barring something horrific happening, I always will. I love him so much that I get nervous when a new album comes out. And this one is a belter. But is it for the fan-people or is there enough to attract and entertain newcomers?

Listen to the album, listen to the pod, tell us what you think.

  • Listen to the album … HERE.
  • Listen to the Soda Jerker podcast that we mention … HERE.
  • Watch the AMAZING Tiny Desk Performance … HERE.
  • Watch the No Front Teeth video we discuss … HERE.
  • Buy some stuff … HERE.             

                             —– Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘Contemporary Queer’ —–

Music has always been massive to the Gay and Queer community and has always been an interesting area of crossover. Has it changed? What ever, we’re here to celebrate.

Here is a link to our 16 track playlist of religion-inspired tracks – with the first 4 tracks being our picks for this month.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, podcast, Spin it or Bin It

Podcast Episode 56 | Saya Gray | ‘Saya’

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

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/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

We dispense with the niceties this month and discuss an album where we have quite differing opinions. Welcome to Episode 56 of This is Not Happening (TINH), an Album of the Month (AOTM) Podcast. 

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’.  We pick a theme and each pick a song that represents that theme. We judge the selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?

In Part 1, David, resident ‘Pop Being’, has the pleasure of presenting an album from one of his genuine musical obsessions. ‘Saya’ the latest release by Saya Gray.

In Part 2, following the theme of ‘Saya’, break-up and heart-break, we play Spin It or Bin It with the simple theme of ‘Heart Break’ with no additional rules!

                                     —– Part 1 | Saya Gray | ‘Saya’ —–

To say David is a Saya Gray fan is something of an understatement. He has been championing the strange sounds of Saya for nearly 3 years. Nobody’s really sure if this is her debut album or not but that’s not important. It is an album and an artist that has divided opinion on the pod. 2 of us love this album, 1 of us doesn’t, and 1 of us has had such a busy month at work that we have no idea what they think pre-recording.

Regardless of how we feel about this album individually, we all think it’s an album that deserves a listen. Listen to the album, listen to the pod, tell us what you think.

  • Listen to the album … HERE.
  • Watch the World Cafe Podcast / Interview … HERE.
  • Watch the AMAZING Tiny Desk Performance … HERE.
  • Watch some ‘Visualisers’ (music videos!?!) … HERE.
  • Buy some stuff … HERE.             

                             —– Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘Heart-Break —–

Was music originally created to express heart-break? Probably not but it definitely feels like it when you start looking for your favourite tracks that embrace the subject. We’ve chosen a track each that may not be what you expect.

Here is a link to our 16 track playlist of religion-inspired tracks – with the first 4 tracks being our picks for this month.

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

Posted in Album of the Month, New Albums, New Tunes, podcast

AOTM April | Saya Gray | Saya

Posted on by David Allison

To anyone on the blog or pod, it’s been hard to avoid my growing Saya Gray obsession. I chose her as my track of the year in BOTH 2023 and 2024 like a mad fool. But we are not, as of yet, talking about an artist who has broken out in any way into the mainstream, or indeed barely into the consciousness of the average 6Music listener.

So who is Saya Gray? A Japanese-Canadian musician who’s lived in Canada, Japan, and is currently (I believe) resident in London, she’s a virtuoso bass player (just watch a video of her playing bass, wow!) who for a long time has played in a series of other bands and set-ups. Slowly, in the meantime, she’s been stepping out as a solo artist and making a name for herself in the early 2020s.

Gray’s output up until has been hard to categorise. She has a magpie approach to soaking up different influences, and her songs bounce around in different zones in a way that perhaps detractors might find a bit exhausting. My TINH brothers have commented that it can feel like you’re listening to three songs at once on some of her output. But she also feels quite prolific, her debut ’19 Masters’ (was it an album? She didn’t seem to think it was, but it seemed like one to me!) in 2022 followed by two long EPs, Qwerty and Qwerty II, that both felt to me like mini albums. High in the mix are hard to fathom song titles and a CAPS LOCK throughout (“DIZZY PPL BECOME BLURRY” and “AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE”). Guy has mentioned how much the Caps Lock annoys him and I can see that, but for me, the obtuse song titles feel to me like they reflect Gray’s subtle, mysterious persona and the often complex emotions she’s trying to express.

So what drew me to Saya? Partly, it was the excitement of hearing something that felt so genuinely fresh. But beyond that, she has an extraordinary ability to harness a beautiful melody, even if it’s presented in a post-modern wrapper, and her lyrics are often stunningly good (“I bent over backwards so many times/ I turned into a golden arch for you to walk through”). Beyond that – and this is really crucial into whether you’ll buy her vibe or not – is for me that this is an artist who in completely devoted and genuine about expressing who she is. She doesn’t yet have a giant global fanbase, but it is a madly devoted one that is pretty obsessive about her. 

Her work up to this point has felt quite disparate and experimental – even down to the album titles like 19 MASTERS (named because that was written on the tape of her recordings that she had to battle a former record company to release) or QWERTY, reflecting the randomness of those letters together on a keyboard. Even fans such as myself would acknowledge that Gray has not tried to make a ‘coherent’ record – she’s gone with her gut and it makes her work up to this record thrilling but uneven.

This album is her move to change all of that. She talks of being on a road trip and consciously writing songs for an ‘album’, a coherent piece of work that makes sense as a collection of songs. And there is no doubt that, right from the slow-burn, stunning opener THUS IS WHY (I DON’T SPRING FOR LOVE) (yes, I know, the title, the title!), this album has a musical coherence and vision that her previous work has lacked.

Firstly, let’s be clear: this is an album about heartbreak. Songs about the death of a relationship (EXHAUST THE TOPIC and SHELL OF A MAN), the ache of love loss (HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE?) and feeling used (PUDDLE OF ME) run through this record like a stick of record. Musically, perhaps the most surprising thing about it is that it has, like so many things at the mo, a TOUCH OF COUNTRY! Slide guitar and acoustic pickings feature more prominently that in the past, and there’s a fascinating sense that Gray is pulling on a few more ‘classic’ influences – Stevie Nicks, Paul McCartney – than we’ve heard from her work in the past. 

That isn’t to say that she’s lost her experimental edge. Amongst all the mellow Beatles-esque Mellotrons and nice guitars are glitchy breakdowns, tempo shifts and odd segues: all the stuff that I think makes Guy struggle to love her ;-). She’s also a magpie with her own work, reusing old lyrics that call back to her earlier songs in a way that I absolutely love (“I can make your dust turn to sparkles’ from Preying Mantis, now re-used in Lie Down). But undeniably, she is writing verses and choruses. This is, for wont of a better phrase, a ‘proper album’. Perhaps she wants this to be her ‘debut’ because nothing she’s done before has felt like an album. It certainly feels like one to listen to.

So what did I make when I first heard? Actually, I wasn’t sure. My expectations were so sky-high, I was slightly blindsided by what I (iniitally, and wrongly!) felt was a bit more of a conventional album than I was expecting. Repeated listens – and fuck me, have there been a lot of those – have totally dismantled that view. This is an absolutely stunning record, and the thing that is most stunning about it is that there at least 5 or 6 of my fave Saya Gray songs of all time on it. That is how strong I think the songs are. The pretty, accessible opener THIS IS WHY… that turns into a proper guitar groove (the most Canadian lyrics of all time: “This is why I don’t fall in love in Spring/Hello snow, I’m alone”!);  beautiful use of heartbreak glitchy autotune vocal on HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE; the party country, party Beatles-esque gorgeousness of SHELL OF A MAN, the absolute fucking STUNNER of bleak genius that is penultimate track EXHAUST THE TOPIC, and then the somehow redemptive and contemplative LIE DOWN, as good an album closer ad I’ve heard in a very long time.

 For those who haven’t quite connected with her, I think her recent stunning Tiny Desk concert does a great job of stripping back her songs to their essence, and you can see their beauty on their own without any bells or whistles. But as for this album, I honestly have no idea of a) whether she’ll probably break out to a wider audience or remain cult and b) what the hell my TINH will make of this album.

For me, I’m enjoying the rare experience of an artist with which I’m genuinely obsessed not just delivering but completely surpassing my expectations. For the avoidance of doubt, this is my album of the year so far (sorry Weather Station, your crown has been stolen) and it will take something obscenely good to get anywhere near it.