Mogipbob’s Anything but Me is an album that’s very much about the inherent absurdity of life. It’s an album that draws its inspiration from the everyday oddities, the odd characters you meet, the self-reflective moments and the kind of humour that can actually make you feel comfortable with the uncomfortable. Released 20th October 2026 via Mogipbob Records, it’s a 16 track record which draws on country-soul, folk-rock, blues, funk, retro-soul and western in its musical make up. It’s a very broad musical canvas on which to paint songs that are going to be looking at the world from a very particular and often very unorthodox perspective. It’s not going to be a record that’s going to be about one thing or one emotion. It’s going to be a record that will jump from the absurd to the observational to the more reflective. The track titles alone are a clue to the direction of travel with things like ‘Hell’s Bell Bottoms’, ‘The Fleas of Hercules’, ‘Umpire Vampire’ and ‘Livery Delivery’ immediately suggesting a very curious and mischievous mind at work. It’s not just a record that’s got a load of odd titles and oddity for its own sake though. There’s a real interest in the contradictions of the everyday and the way that the ridiculous can actually be a way of getting to the truth. “Life can be ridiculous, uncomfortable and unexpectedly beautiful and sometimes the truth makes the most sense when you laugh at it first” is the essence of the album. It’s an album that’s quite happy to move between the light and the serious without one having to dominate. It’s an album that’s a collection of stories in a way, all of which are linked by a shared interest in the human condition. The range of musical influences gives it the freedom to not be confined to any one genre, drawing on the traditions of country and western storytelling as well as the wider character of soul, blues, folk-rock and funk. It’s a record built on variety, personality and the freedom to go wherever the idea takes you.
The track listing is actually quite interesting in terms of how it opens up the world of the album. “Set-Back Out Back”, “As Is Where Is” and “Modern Person, Ancient Solutions” all point to an interest in the situations, the attitudes and the contradictions of the modern world. “Walking Bass” and “Solid as Metal” are titles which immediately invite you to go and find out what direction Mogipbob is taking on those particular tracks. “First Degree, Second Decree”, “Impartial Marshal” and “The Fleas of Hercules” continue that same vein of the imaginative, suggesting characters and scenarios that sit very comfortably in the world of the album (the western world, the dry wit, the odd observation). There’s no attempt to make every track part of one grand narrative. Each track is given the space to establish its own identity and the listener is encouraged to discover how each of those individual ideas contributes to the whole. The more reflective side of the album is very much on show in “Some Things Never Change”, “The Old Me Was the Young Me” and “It’s the Little Things That Matter Most”. These are titles which immediately suggest very familiar human experiences (the persistence of certain habits, the relationship between the old and the new self, the importance of the little things when life gets complicated). They are the counterpoint to the more playful side of the album. A song can be very memorable for the humour but it’s the reflection that can give it longevity, particularly when it’s a familiar experience viewed through a lens that makes you think again. “Sunday Drive” and “Anything but Me” are also particularly interesting in a track listing which is so consistently concerned with identity, perspective and the stories we tell ourselves and others. There’s no need to force a single message across all sixteen tracks. Mogipbob is perfectly happy to move between the strange and the familiar, the funny and the thoughtful. The western influence provides a natural link to the tradition of storytelling where the character, the situation and the observation are the song. The wider genre palette allows the album to go beyond the confines of the traditional country narrative. Each title is an invitation to go and explore another facet of Mogipbob’s creative universe, where the apparently absurd premise can sit alongside a very real truth about everyday life.
Another very specific feature of Anything but Me is the use of AI as a production tool. Mogipbob is very clear that the concepts, the lyrics, the song structures and the direction of the record are all the work of a human. That’s absolutely central to the album’s identity and is what defines it. It’s not an album where the AI is doing the songwriting and the human is just a conduit. It’s an album where the human is making the decisions and the ideas, and the AI is just a tool in the production process. The result is sixteen original tracks which are all very much in the spirit of experimentation, a wide variety of subjects and a willingness to mix and match influences that wouldn’t normally be in the same musical space. The album is a real mix of country-soul, folk-rock, blues, funk, retro-soul and western storytelling which enables that freedom of exploration. At its core it’s about the complexity of being human: the routines we get into, the identities we take on, the ridiculousness of some of the situations we find ourselves in and the small things that can change our perception of what’s important. The humour is there as a gateway into the record but the titles are very much indicative of the fact that there is space for the listener to see themselves in some of the observations. You don’t necessarily need a big revelation in every song. Sometimes an odd premise, a familiar irritation or a particularly clever phrase is all it takes for an idea to really hit home. With sixteen tracks Mogipbob has the space to play with that idea in a number of different ways. Anything but Me is ultimately an album that celebrates creative independence, thematic diversity and the freedom to approach a familiar subject in a non-conventional way. Its real strength is the juxtaposition of the wildly inventive with the recognition of very human truths. It’s an album where the unusual can be just as valid as the familiar and where looking at things from a different angle can actually be more illuminating than looking at them in the traditional way. For anyone who likes songwriting that’s unafraid of the odd idea, the unusual story and the broad spectrum of musical influences, Anything but Me is a very distinctive collection where the oddness is the point and where looking at life from a different perspective can be more revealing than looking at it from the usual angle.
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