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/
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;
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.
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!
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/
Episode 14 of This Is Not Happening heads from hip-hop to pop with Japanese Breakfast‘s Jubilee. The creation of Korean-American Michelle Zauner, this is her 3rd album and sees her move from a more shoegazey, loose style into the full pop universe. Joey comes at us with it, but do we feel the same way he does? Find out! As usual, there’s playlists that run alongside the episode here.
In the second half of the episode, we head back to new music, with a favourite from us that’s been released in the past three months. Our longlist is here, see what we thought of the picks:
August’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 #15 hangs onto the summer with LoneLady’s Former Things. Guy’s bringing this slice of modern Mancunian synth and guitars to the gang. That next episode will be landing before the end of September.
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