Posted in podcast

Podcast Episode 16 – Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever

Welcome to Episode 68 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Guy brings a Robyn's latest release 'Sexisitential'. In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, the theme is 'Sad Bangers'.           —— Part 1 | Album of the Month | Robyn |  Sexistential ——Robyn is a unique, iconic figure in contemporary music. She's been making and releasing music since 1995, her career spans 4 decades already and she shows no signs of slowing down. Her pop career started when she was 15, she's about to celebrate her 47th birthday, this is insane staying power!Sexistential is her 9th studio album if you count the Body Talk series as full albums? It's only 29 mins long, it doesn't mess about and no track or the album in full overstays it's welcome. There is lots to get into in the discussion, has she still got it? Is she doing new things? Is this still relevant and if so who for? How artists change and what we expect from them as they age?Have a listen, tell us what you think.Listen to the original album here.Watch some of her videos here , particularly the singles from this album.Buy this album or some merch here.  And listen to her talk about the album here.                 —————- Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | Sad Bangers —————- Robyn's biggest track is 'Dancing On My Own' is the archetype of a genre that Guy made up 'Sad Bangers'. This is our theme for Spin It or Bin It this month.  It's got to be sad, and it's got to bang. Simple (in theory).The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?David chose Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron.Joey chose 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack.Guy chose 'Lovesick' by Friendly Fires.Nolan chose 'Blue Monday' by New Order.What would you have chosen? What's missing from our playlist?We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP.68 | Robyn | Sexistential
  2. EP.67 | Eliza | The Darkening Green
  3. EP.66 | Jill Scott | To Whom This May Concern
  4. EP. 65 | Zach Bryan | With Heaven On Top
  5. EP. 64 | Rosalia | LUX

Episode 16 of This Is Not Happening goes as big as it gets with Billie Eilish’s new album, Happier Than Ever.  Following angular synth and guitars of Lonelady in episode 15,  we take an album that’s already one of the most talked-about of the year, and delve into what it means for us, and the music world. David is bringing us this album.

In the second half of the episode, we go for intros, and pick out some of our favourite opening tracks of the albums we love. It’s a mighty list, and we’ve also had some cracking shortlists from Guy here. The tracks we chose were:

Joey – Bjork – Human Behaviour from Debut (1993)
Guy – Etienne De Crecy – Le Patron Est Devenou Fou! – from Super Discount (1996)
David – Bill Withers – Harlem – from Just As I am (1971)
Nolan – A Tribe Called Quest – Excursions – from The Low End Theory by Tribe (1991)

October’s album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you’ll like what we’re talking about and if you do, we’d love to hear from you on the socials (links below).

Episode #17 arrives with a nod to the dancefloor from Nolan, who picks Dublin artist Mano Le Tough’s At The Moment. This next episode will be landing before the end of November ahead of our review of the year in December.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by JoeyNolanGuy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: thisisnothappeningpodcast@gmail.com
Reviews: www.ratethispodcast.com/thisisnothappening

Posted in Music chat

2016 and its music

If February the 3rd, 1959 was the day that music died when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson all died in a plane crash, then surely 2016 will be remembered as the year that music died. From David Bowie dying in the early days of January to the passing of George Michael on Christmas day, you’d be hard pressed to find a music fan of any genre or era in the last 50 years that didn’t loose one of their heroes. Some of us were lucky enough to be treated to one final swan song with he likes of Bowie and Tribe Called Quest (Phife Dawg) releasing arguably some of their best work ahead of their departure, whilst all of the lost artists left us with music that will stay with us for our lifetimes.

2016 for me as a music fan was a strong year with a mixture of new artists and familiar faces releasing some very strong albums, especially within Hip Hop and Soul. I did how ever find that over all the UK seemed to take the foot off the gas after very strong years in 2013, 2014 and 2015. 2016 also saw coming out parties for many artists that were on the cusp of great things with the likes of Chance the Rapper, Anderson Paak and Solandge making strong statements of intent.

2017 is already looking to be a fantastic year for music. But ahead of us turning to the next chapter, please find my top tens of the year.

Albums

Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service

Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate

NxWorries – Yes Lawd

Baio – The Names

She Drew The Gun – Memoirs Of The Future

Frank Ocean – Blonde

Lapsley – Long Way Home

Anderson Paak- Malibu

Common – Black America Again

Kendrick Lamar – Untitled Unmastered

Singles

Jules Et Spatz – Rotwii Lied

De La Soul – Exodus

Moderate – Running (AME Remix)

Lee Burridge & Lost Desert – Lingala

Christine and the Queens – Titled

Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis – White Privilege II

Natia Rose – Sqwad

Matronomy – Old Skool

DJ Shadow feat Run The Jewels – Nobody Speak

David Bowie – Lazarus 

  • I decided to leave any tracks that were in my top ten albums off. Essentially, listen to those full albums.

Happy New Year brothers and I look forward to 2017!