Tag: rock

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

Podcast Ep. 46 | St. Vincent | All Born Screaming

Posted on by misterstory

EP.71 | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah? – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 71 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 David is even more animated than usual as he has chosen 'Oh Yeah', Steve Lacy's new album to discuss.In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from 'Oh Yeah?' our theme is 'duets'.               — Part 1 | Album of the Month | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah? —Like Olivia last week, Steve Lacy started his musical career early being part of the Odd Future collective and the critical, creative force behind the Odd Future off-shoot 'The Internet'. 'Oh Yeah?' is Steve's 3rd solo studio album and follows 2022's Gemini Rights as his breakthrough album launching him into super-star status (?). The track 'Bad Habits' owned the internet for a good 12 months. But 'Oh Yeah?' sounds different. It is doing different things, while still doing some of the same things. David has been awaiting this release for months. Will he be happy? Joey didn't think much of Gemini Rights … so will this one work better? As for Nolan and Guy, who knows, anything could happen.Have a listen, tell us what you think.Listen to the original album here.Watch some of hisr videos here,particularly the amazing 'Doom' I love this Zone Lowe interview with Steve – starts cold, warms up.I got a lot from these 2 reaction videos Bob The Poppop and Turning Tables.                                     — Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Duets —Steve Lacy's new album features 3 tracks where he collaborates with other artists. Are they duets? Are the collaborations? Are they 'Tracks that feature ….'. What's the difference? With this in mind we pick 'Duets' as this month's Spin It or Bin It Theme'. 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'?Nolan picks American Boy by Estelle and Kanye West.David picks Wedding Song by Anais Mitchell & Justin Vernon.Joey picks The Boy is Mine by Brandy and Monica.Guy picks Barcelona by Freddie Mercury & Monsterrat Caballe.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP.71 | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah?
  2. EP.70 | Olivia Rogrigo | You seem pretty sad …
  3. EP. 69 | Lykke Li | The Afterparty
  4. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential
  5. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green

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, David bravely returns to the scene a previous crime on our podcast. He brings the second St. Vincent album to a group of people who historically have not reacted well to St. Vincent. Wow. How might this one go? In all seriousness, this is a very different experience to ‘Daddy’s Home’ and a really good chat about the good, the not so good and our collective love of Pop Reggae.

This month, in Part 2, Spin It or Bin It, the theme is ‘Crying in Aldi’ or ‘music that makes you cry’. As the theme suggests, things got pretty emotional.

Part 1 | St. Vincent | All Born Screaming

I think the full continuum of emotions or lack of emotions is expressed in this review. David brings unconditional love for St. Vincent plus a thinly veiled threat that his wife might tell us off again if we say mean things. The rest of bring various thoughts and ideas to the table that range from the inquisitive to the annoyed.

  • Listen to the album here.
  • Watch some videos here including the Jimmy Kimmel live performance.
  • We reference the Tape Notes podcast (and also videos) which delve into the making of the album … this is seriously informative and entertaining discussion. Take a look at it here.

Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘Crying in Aldi’

The most ‘in’ of ‘in jokes’ is that Joey often cries to sad songs while doing the big shop in Aldi. He’s been banned from 3 stores now and is considering to switching to Lidl. In support of our brother, we’ve all been researching which songs make us cry and testing them out in various big-box supermarket chains.

See you on Episode 47 … where 4 old guys talk about Charlie XCX. What could go wrong?

Posted in Album of the Month, New Albums

JUNE: All Born Screaming – St Vincent

Posted on by David Allison

This year really has been an embarrassment of riches, music wise – after a slow start, the new releases starting popping out in Spring, and since then we really have been spoiled for choice. I could have easily chosen to review the Billie Eilish album, or the Waxatachee, or the Yaya Bey, and that’s just off the top off my head.

But there are two albums that, so far, have stood head and shoulders above the rest for me. The first of those is Vampire Weekend’s, which must be one of the finest collections of songs they’ve ever released. The second of those two albums is the latest album from St Vincent aka Annie Clark, her seventh.

I do so with quite a bit of trepidation – because as regular listeners/readers will know, I chose St Vincent’s divisive last album, Daddy’s Home, for a previous blog, and it’s fair to say that it went down like a bucket of warm sick. So I nearly didn’t. But then I thought what the blog and the pod is about, and that’s to communicate our love for music – and well, I REALLY love this music.

Though I really enjoyed Daddy’s Home sleazy 70s shtick, I can see why it didn’t land with some people. Annie Clark is unashamedly an art rock musician – she enjoys shapeshifting between albums and using different personas and is pretty open about her debt to David Bowie on that front. I’m a huge, huge fan of hers (as is my partner Caroline, who adores her), but I’m also pretty comfortable in that art rock zone – I like my music with a bit of style, edge and persona. I also get that, for some people, that can be a huge turnoff – that ‘persona’ thing can feel like an affectation, and barrier in the way of the artists and the listener.

So why have I chosen All Born Screaming after the mauling Daddy’s Home got? Well, perhaps I am a sucker for punishment. But I think this album is really, really special. The first thing to note is that Clark has completely dispensed with the persona – this is just her. She’s said in a number of interviews that she was finding it tiring reinventing herself and that she also wanted to try and channel a bit more honesty about what she’s feeling. That’s also reflected in the sound of the album – she’s a huge Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails fan and you can really hear it in songs like Reckless:

The other thing I love about this record is that, despite its incredible musical breadth – grunge rock, electro pop, ballideering and even reggae (!), it flows SO well as a unified piece of work. If you want to talk about the Art of the Album, then surely this would merit a piece? What a journey this record goes on. Opening with the ethereal Hell is Near, and then segueing into the dark, foreboding and brilliant Reckless, and then – boom! – you get right between the eyes with the single Broken Man, surely one of the strongest out and out rock songs she’s ever made.

What I think is brave is that it doesn’t try and disperse the different styles across the record – more that you head from territory to territory, starting slowly then hitting the hard rocking trio of Broken Man, Flea and Big Time Nothing (another absolutely belter!). Violent Times moves the album into a whole new section with the Bowie-esque Violent Times followed but the gorgeous art-rock ballad The Power’s Out. Both explore Clark’s long held fascination with the ‘end of the world’ vibes in her lyrics.

And then the album does another extraordinary left turn. Sweetest Fruit is almost a straightforward pop banger (with a slight kink in it), but you can almost imagine it as a stadium ballad. If that doesn’t push the envelope enough, So Many Planets is a – I can’t believe I’m writing this – pop reggae track that is – I also can’t believe I’m writing this – an absolute triumph (others views are available of course, but I LOVE it!).

Things round up after only 41 brisk minutes and 10 songs with the funky and surprisingly chirpy All Born Screaming, that despite the dark lyrically content somehow feels like an upbeat climax to the album. And in that 41 minutes, Annie Clark has exhibited the full range of her incredible songwriting (and guitar playing, obvs) in a record that, for me, hangs together better than anything she’s ever done. I think it’s her finest hour. And that, brothers, is why I had to pick it for this month.

So, he says nervously….over to you…?

Posted in Album of the Month

JANUARY – N.E.R.D. – No One Ever Really Dies

Posted on by GuyHornsby

 

Ok, so some disclosure here first off: I was always a fan of N.E.R.D. back in the day, but honestly, never a die-hard. I loved In Search Of… and Fly Or Die but it feels like a long, long time ago that I listened to much beyond the hits. And I think it’s fair to say it was a different time. Back in 2001 and 2004 (when those came out) they seemed pretty much like something totally new: they were hip-hop, but they had guitars, they were cool, good looking, ridiculously talented, and of course, alongside this, they were The Neptunes. For all the brash, boisterous records they released as N.E.R.D., they were also one of the production outfits of the decade. Their Clones album had everyone on it, all produced with their slick, gossamer-like studio skills, and brought some of the best hip-hop of those years. Kelis, Snoop, N.O.R.E., Nelly, Busta, Ludacris… they sprinkled their gold dust on everyone. And so, well, I gravitated away from N.E.R.D. to the Neptunes.

So, fast-forward to 2017, and it’s been 7 years since their last long-player and the world’s changed. Have N.E.R.D.? I’ve certainly changed, and this was an album of the month that I’ve come to pretty much totally cold.  Given Pharell’s polymathic skills, its’ a question that will it work or will it prove an ill-fated comeback. This is enough to give me the cold sweats, especially where it’s a genre I’m less than enamoured with than the rest of you gents. So, is No One Ever Really Dies (yes, that’s what the initials mean) really a step forward? Looking at the (inevitable) guests it certainly feels very 2017: Kendrick, Gucci Mane, Rhianna, Future, and Ed Sheeran. Yes. Him. Then there’s Andre 3000, an interesting nod to the past.

I’m three listens in, and I have to say, my first reaction is that I FEEL OLD. I know I am old, but really, for a man that’s pretty mired in the old school sound of samples, turntablism, and classic hip-hop, this feels so alien. It’s not like I don’t like new stuff – Kendrick is brilliant, Frank Ocean likewise, and there’s new records that still shake me (A Tribe Called Quest’s new record is one of my favourite albums of the last ten years, already) – but the new production style that sits somewhere less grinding than trap, but still with percussive, nervous tics and few melodies that open Lemon is way out of my comfort zone. In fact, the first listen almost makes me feel like I’ve tried to watch the news in a foreign language. Or use Snapchat.

But…. but…. it’s not all dad jokes and cliches. As I revisit, things start to gel. Lemon is a ballsy opening track, with Rhianna’s words and voice suiting its bombast well. Andre 3000’s golden skills on Rollinem 7s makes you wish he’d actually make a new album of his own. The brash melodies of Deep Down Body Thurst are bright and bouncy. It starts to emerge out of the mist, and I feel less like the new dad I am, trying to listen to Radio 1. Kendrick makes reading the phone book interesting, so he’s always listenable on Kites, and on Don’t Don’t Do It (though do they have to really overdo it on everything, rather than just make a perfectly-pitched record?). The overriding feeling so far is that there’s an album waiting to get out, if I just give it more time. It’s a much more coherent beast than some of their patchwork earlier albums, and much better for it.  But it’s also an obvious truth that the modern style of hip-hop they’re swiping just isn’t my bag, so either I’ll end up liking it in spite of that, or going off it because of it. Pharrell didn’t need to make this album, and he certainly didn’t need the money, so while only time will tell, it’s good to have them back.