Welcome to Episode 45 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, in Part 1, we dive right into the deep-end of ‘Only God Was Above Us’ the new album from TINH favourite (at least 3 of us) Vampire Weekend. This month we’re in the capable hands of Nolan who has introduces the album and guides us through some key questions and an interesting conversation. In Part 2 we play Spin it or Bin It with songs that are all. ‘a little bit country’.
Part 1 | Vampire Weekend | Only God Was Above Us
My god Vampire Weekend can write a song! And this album really proves that. We answer (or at least attempt to answer) some big questions – is this best Vampire Weekend album? How do you pick a favourite track when they’re all so good and do such different things.
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘A little bit country’
Country is massive in 2024 … and Guy hates it. So, what other theme could we choose? The clue is in the title, the tracks only have to be ‘a little bit country’. 4 Track playlist of our chosen tracks is here.
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/
Welcome to Episode 42 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, in Part 1, we get stuck right into Integrated Tech Solutions by Aesop Rock. Nolan and I (Joey) think this is one of 2023’s underrated albums and definitely a hidden hip hop gem. David is missing this month so we only have to convince Guy! In Part 2, the Spin it or Bin it theme is ‘Technology’ where we all chose a track that we think fits the theme and ask the others ‘Spin It or Bin It’.
Part 1 | Aesop Rock | Integrated Tech Solutions.
This one’s special (in my opinion). Nolan has always tried to sell Aesop Rock to me but there’s so much music and so little time that I never quite got it. That changed in the Autumn when Mindful Solutionism, the lead single from this album dropped. I chose it as a Spin It or Bin It track and won that month. There’s another 17 tracks on this album. It’s dense, intelligent, socially conciuous, amusing, moving and thought provoking hip hop. Get stuck in if you haven’t already.
Taking inspiration from the album of the month, a really interesting theme of ‘technology’. Interpretation was wide open on this one. Our chosen 4 tracks can be found on a play list here. In order to chose a track we each shortlist 4 tracks each, a combined 16 track playlist can be found here.
January 2024 is another slow month for new music … well, actually, a slow month for New Albums. There’s a glut of interesting tracks being released as precursors to new albums but nothing that floated our boat from an album perspective. With this in mind, it is my absolute pleasure to bring an album to the table from Nov. ’23 – Interated
As this album, and to be fair this artist, was introduced to me (Joey) by Nolan, I thought it was best for him to introduce things …
You know when someone tells you a story, and starts with ‘bear with me, it’s worth it’. Or when you have to talk your partner into watching a film that their face says they don’t want to watch but you know they’ll love it by the end? Ladies and gentlemen; I give you Aesop Rock, and his latest release ‘Integrated Tech Solutions’ or ITS for short. Aesop was recently referred to by Kitty Empire of the Guardian as ‘dad rap’, the reference is fair. It’s accessible and unique. Arguably he’s one of the most interesting musicians and story tellers in modern times, which you need in your life, but you will need to give him some time to let his commentary fully sink in.
Aesop Rock isn’t new, he has been making exceptional underground hip hop for all the train spotting backpackers since 1997. Although a new name to most, over the last quarter of a century he has slowly been building a dedicated fanbase through not only unique beats and lyrics, but his unique delivery. Expect the unexpected, his lyrics and content are far from stereo typical hip hop. Aesop has been attributed to have the widest use of vocabulary in hip hop and content is spun with humour over ego. His self-awareness and an unique observations likens him more to John Cooper Clarke than Nas.
On his Spotify page, his wordplay is described as dense. A fair description. There’s an argument that to truly get a taste of what he’s lyrically putting across in each album you will need at least 20 listens. The ability to create music that keeps on giving and requires multiple listens is admirable is these times of throw away, on to the next music listening, but admittedly also could and has left him without the accolade that most of his albums deserve.
The Guardian also pointed out that his last album Spirit World Field Guide had ‘late career rave reviews’. I’d argue he’s just getting started as with each album release there’s subtle evolution, Aesop Rock makes his best album to date with each release.
Pitchfork described ITS as ‘an album loosely about life under technology. For me this is an album of stories, thoughts, and daydreams. The content ranges from the evolution of man (and himself), Mr. T, mental health, pigeons, even salt and pepper squid.. and skateboarding. He refers to skating a lot.
On each Aesop Rock album, there is always a track that is a ‘gateway’ song, one I recommend to get someone to listen to the album. On ITS there is a plethora. 100 Feet Tall, Mindful Solutionalism, Kyanote Toothpick… in fairness I struggle to think of a track that I wouldn’t recommend. There is an ever so subtle evolution, where Aesop Rock finds himself making his best album yet with each release.
Thank you Nolan … let me drop some thoughts;
I’ve ‘known about’ Aesop Rock for years now but never really dived straight in and fully committed to the aforementioned density of his albums. To do this you need your gateway track and Mindful Solutionism is just that. It was my No.2 track of 2023 and is a stone cold classic. The beat is infectious, the lyrics burrow into your ears and then you’re mind.
Everything that Nolan has said about the album and Aesop is spot on. He is a great story teller. He layers meaning into all of his songs. I don’t mean there are little ‘in-jokes’ in his tracks that you have to google to understand. This is what I mean;
Pigeonometry – a track that is about setting a task to draw 1000 pigeons but is really about individualism, bigotry and the disenfranchised.
100 Feet Tall – is a track about meeting Mr. T in a restaurant in the 80’s but is really about the impact (and the lack of) black role models on TV. On one hand it makes you smile and laugh and on the other hand it makes you empathise with the little boy version of Aesop telling the story.
Aggressive Steven – is another great example of story telling that is basically about going home to smoke with a friend to find out your apartment has been broken into. But this track ends up being about underfunded mental health services and criminalisation of people in need.
These are only 3 examples but every track can be described in a very similar way. I am not sure if I can think of many … any other rappers who have this level of ‘writing’ capability. The thought process and skill sitting behind this output is incredible. But wow … then the delivery. Does it get much better than this? Ok, its not ‘banger hip hop’ this isn’t Superbowl Half Time Show hip hop. But if you like your music to say something, to say many things, to say them intelligently, with razor sharp word play, over super sharp beats and always with a smile on its face … this is for you.
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/
Welcome to Episode 41 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, in Part 1, we go deep with Lana Del Ray for the first time on TINH. LDR is one of the industry major players, few move units or split opinions like her. Find out what we think. In Part 2, the Spin it or Bin it theme is ‘A Song for January’ where we all chose a track that we think fits the theme and ask the others ‘Spin It or Bin It’.
Part 1 | Lana Del Rey | Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.
This is album no.9 for LDR and its a whopper. It’s got a lot to say and says it across 16 tracks. There are common LDR tropes and new twists on what you might expect. We think it contains some of the best music released in 2023 but is it all good? Can a 78 minute be brilliant from start to finish?
A really interesting interview on Billboard can be found here.
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘A song for January’
Well, that was an odd Episode of Spin It or Bin It! The usual structure goes to the wall this month and it all gets a bit loose. Nolan get’s the hump, Joey gets all serious but thankfully David and Guy clean up the mess and no blood was spilled.
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/
Welcome to Episode 40 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where we usually review an album in depth and play something called ‘Spin It or Bin It’ … but not this month.
We’re celebrating our big 4-0 in style. It’s end of year review time. We select our top 10 albums of 2023 and each pick our Track of 2023.
Part 1 – 2023 Top 10 Albums
We all independently picked our top 10s. We run those choices through a series of deep learning models commonly known as ‘Algo Dave’ and we create a mathematically generated combined Top 10. We made our selections and recorded this pod WAAAAAY ahead of any body else’s lists coming out so we are not influenced by the mainstream musical media (which is why our list looks SO different to everyone else’s). We’re super proud of our 10 and chuffed to bits that our No.1 is an album that we all love and one that we’ve loved since the start of the year. No recency bias here my friends.
Part 2- 2023 Tracks of the Year
We each select a track of the year. Simple as that. We explain why it’s our track of 2023 and have a little critique of each others choices.
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/
Welcome to Episode 39 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, in Part 1, we get stuck in TINH favourite, Sufjan Steven’s latest release ‘Javelin’. Wow. Is there a lot to talk about. I hope we do it justice. In Part 2, the Spin it or Bin it theme is ‘Unconventional Love Songs’ where we all chose a track that we think fits the theme and ask the others ‘Spin It or Bin It’.
Part 1 | Sufjan Stevens | Javelin
It’s David’s choice this month and a record 3rd time that we’ve reviewed an album by the same artist. On one hand this Sufjan doing Sufjan things … and then on the other, it’s a heart breaking, gut punch of an album that takes you to beautifully uncomfortable places. It’s genuinely spectacular.
In the chat we reference Sufjan’s Instagram, that can be found here.
A rare and recent (ish) interview with Sufjan on his health condition is here.
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Unconventional Love Songs
Who are we to judge what ‘conventional’ means, what ‘love’ means … what a ‘song’ is? The interpretation of ‘unconventional love songs’ was left wide open this month.
We all chose a 4 track shortlist to chose our track, you can here all 16 tracks on this playlist here.
Nolan chose – ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
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/
Welcome to Episode 38 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’?
This month, we get stuck in Noname’s latest release ‘Sundial’ in Part 1. It’s a short album but there’s a lot to talk about. In Part 2, the Spin it or Bin it theme is ‘New Music’ where we all chose a track released since 1st August 2023 and present it for judgement.
Part 1 | Noname | Sundial
It’s Nolan’s choice this month and he’s chosen the new album from Noname, ‘Sundial’. It’s an interesting, uncompromising album with a challenging cover from an unapologetic, controversial artist. It’s only 30 mins long but packs a big punch and brings a lot to the party!
Check out Noname’s Insta here and her Twitter here
Check out a few opinions on some Noname controversy here
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | New Tracks
It’s a simple theme this month. New Music. We all chose tracks that have been released since August 1st 2023. We all chose a track that fits the theme then ask the others a simple question ‘spin it or bin it?’
We all chose a 4 track shortlist to chose our track, you can here all 16 tracks on this playlist here.
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/
Welcome to Episode 37 of This is Not Happening. An Album of the Month Podcast where 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’. This is where we pick a theme and each select a song that represents that theme. We judge each others selections by asking the question ‘Spin It or Bin It’? This month, we get pretty emotional about Julie Byrne’s latest album ‘The Greater Wings’ in Part 1. In Part 2, Spin it or Bin it theme is ‘no human sounds’. All will be explained …
Part 1 | Julie Byrne | The Greater Wings
It’s Joey’s choice this month and for the 2nd time in This is Not Happening history he chooses a beautiful album by Julie Byrne. We’re in the indie-folk-ambience hinterlands from a stylist perspective. From an emotional perspective we’re right at the intersection of beauty, grief, loss, hope and reflection. We talk about what this album is, how there’s more than one way to experience it, our favourite tracks and what it means to us.
Another interview with Julie, this time on KEXP Podcasts
Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘No Human Sounds’
This one was way harder than it sounded at first. The theme this month is ‘No Human Sounds’. We started with no vocals, then decided no human sounds at all, then we added that it couldn’t be ‘dance music’. Joey suggested we define ‘dance music’, he got laughed at … then we got into an argument about all of Guys choices being dance music.
We all chose a track that fits the theme then ask the others a simple question ‘spin it or bin it?’
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!
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