This week: new albums from Fat Freddy’s Drop, Cam Cole and L’Orange x Namir Blade. Also: Disappearing acts, concert context, old bangers, bridging sets, unjustified mu-mus, contractually-obligated playlist additions, royal punishment, humblebragging about getting to have holidays, lorazepam, stacks and straps, cratedigger origin stories, beats without bars, the world is still chaos, it’s the vibe, Layne Staley on a crackly conference call, getting mutual, dropping furniture, acronym in-jokes, critical vs commercial, near-death metal, the Ty Segall Cinematic Universe, the secret life of breaking early-00s Melbourne indie-pop bands by using their music in hipster TV dramas, hiphop bias, downing tools, the Bucs almost stop, aging strawberry dodgers, content factories, smart-casual cases, reasons not to go to parties, Beeso talks to kids, and needless to say I had the last laugh. 

Next week: new albums from Meatbodies, Drapht, and most unexpectedly, Little Simz. Recent review albums are in our current album review playlist on Spotify, with earlier stuff in our 2021 review archive, along with our 2021 tripping balls mixtape featuring our favourite tracks from new albums we’ve reviewed this year. The full list of all the albums we've ever featured on the show and Beeso's playlist for his boys are also available elsewhere on the internet. BALLS and tripping balls are available on their own RSS feeds, as well as being found together on Omny Studio, Spotify and Apple Podcasts (feel free to subscribe, rate and review) - and we welcome your reckons via Twitter, Facebook and email.