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What a carillon: songs and music featuring sounds of bells

December 19, 2024 Peter Kimpton

The bells! The bells! Handheld bells ...

They resonate through time, marking beginnings and endings, life and death, and have a host of meanings and contexts. Alone or in harmony, large or small, as instrument or sound effect, what tintinnabulum tickles your fancy in music?

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional, trip hop Tags songs, music, playlists, bells, Emil Nolde, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Charles Lamb, Frances Goodrich, Colin Meloy, Annie Dillard, Film, film soundtrack, insruments, idiophones, history, China, Lithuania, Liberty Bell, Big Ben, Alice Cooper, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Donne, Charles Laughton, Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell
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The whirring mind: songs featuring humming

August 22, 2024 Peter Kimpton

An Anna’s hummingbird at work

A hum-dinger, or at least a hum-singer of a topic, one in which we're seeking songs that feature that sound, perhaps mostly by the vocalist when not singing lyrics, but perhaps other effect and forms of vibrating hum, from rock and pop, famous classical operatic passages, jazz, R&B, reggae and much more

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, metal, music, musical hall, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional, trip hop Tags songs, playlists, DH Lawrence, Laurence Sterne, Pythagoras, Kurt Vonnegut, James Oppenheim, Jean-Paul Sartre, Douglas Adams, Neil Diamond, Albert Ayler, Virginia Woolf, Elvis Costello, Vladimir Mayakovsky, animals, birds, machines, computers, aircraft, Charles Darwin, Joseph Jordania, languages, evolution, Jeffrey Eugenides, Herman Melville, Alfred Lord Tennyson, HG Wells, Billy Collins, Barbara Kingsolver, William Burroughs, Englebert Humperdinck, Nikki Sixx, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Kina Grannis, Nadia Ali, Jack Johnson, Kiesza, Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler
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So, who's next? Songs about hope

January 20, 2022 Peter Kimpton

From 1920s speakeasy …

Even in the face of despair, it’s something in our DNA, focusing on the unknown immediate or distant future, where there's a feeling, a desire, a belief, or confidence that something good might happen that can be expressed in all sorts of lyrics and stories

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In avant-garde, African, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, instrumentals, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, hope, Hope & Anchor, Leonard Cohen, Anne Frank, Immanuel Kant, Emily Dickinson, John Cleese, Film, children, climate change, psychology, The Damned, The Stranglers, Yann Martel, John Lennon, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Leo Tolstoy, Percy Shelley, poetry, TS Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Francis Bacon, Arthur Wing Pinero, Albert Camus, Soren Kierkegaard, John Milton, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Eliot, GK Chesterton, Victor Hugo, Alain de Botton, Vaclav Havel, Frank Warren, Maxine Hong Kingston, Albert Einstein, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett
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Not just 45s: songs about being single

August 26, 2021 Peter Kimpton
Greta Garbo - a singular inspiration for many a song

Greta Garbo - a singular inspiration for many a song

Welcome to the special Song Bar Singles Night, where, with the help of many special guests who chat freely on the subject, we seek songs on the ups and downs of the single state, from loneliness to blissful solitude, dating and even giving yourself a helping hand …

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, comedy, classical, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, hip hop, gospel, funk, indie, jazz, instrumentals, music, metal, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, showtime, rocksteady, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, being single, solitude, Charles Bukowski, Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand, Mae West, Jean-Paul Sartre, Oscar Wilde, Woody Allen, animals, Greta Garbo, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Louisa May Alcott, Orson Welles, Henry David Thoreau, Lana Del Rey, Maya Angelou, William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas De Quincey, Martin Buber, Alex Karate, Christina Aguilera, Sue Grafton, Voltaire, Gloria Steinem, Chuck Palahniuk, Julie Delpy, Zsa Zsa Gabor, William Carlos Williams, Billy Idol, Katy Perry, Audrey Hepburn, Cyndi Lauper, Lily Tomlin, Christopher Hampton, George Carlin, Milos Forman, Sigmund Freud
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Goodbye 2020: songs for the spirit of 2021

December 31, 2020 Peter Kimpton
And this bird must sing …

And this bird must sing …

Hope, fear, dreams, resolutions, giving the finger to 2020, but a welcome thumbs up to 2021? However you feel about this new chapter in the calendar of our lives, it’s time to express it in the form of song suggestions

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In African, blues, avant-garde, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, new year, 2020, 2021, Emily Dickinson, TS Eliot, Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Covid-19, green energy, environment, racism, Black Lives Matter, Dr Seuss, Dale Carnegie, CS Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Johnson, George Eliot, Frank Sinatra, Socrates, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Coehlo, Vaclav Havel, Pliny The Elder, Cyril Cusack, James Brown, Bill Withers, Beak, Bing Crosby, Charles Brown, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, The Zombies
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Game of Tones? Songs about deceptive appearances

May 16, 2019 Peter Kimpton
It’s dragon on a bit. But how will it end? Gratuitous picture that has nothing to do with music

It’s dragon on a bit. But how will it end? Gratuitous picture that has nothing to do with music

Sex, love relationships, work, politics, and war, appearances all play apart in the game of life, and this week with a huge cast of talent coming to visit the Bar, we discuss and explore the art and topic of false or true in song lyrics

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In avant-garde, blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, metal, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, ska, soul, songs Tags songs, playlists, Game of Thrones, TV, drama, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, George RR Martin, quantum physics, philosophy, psychology, books, Film, art, Alexandre Dumas, Marvel, Starsky and Hutch, David Soul, Merv Griffin Show, Sia, Frank Sidebottom, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, Michael Jackson, Chris Sievey, Boy George, Beethoven, Oscar Levant, Jo Brand, comedy, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Marty Rubin, Samuel Butler, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Abraham Lincoln, Will Durant, history, Machiavelli, Vauvenargues, Christopher Lasch, John F Kennedy, Arthur Schopenhauer, Blaise Pascal, Brexit, Donald Trump, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Kurt Vonnegut, Henry David Thoreau, Aesop, Jane Austen, Disney, CJ Carlyon, Will Rogers, Joseph Conrad, Aristotle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sun Tzu, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Icke, Al Wilson
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Pluck up courage: songs and music with harps, lyres and zithers

October 11, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Harpo’s serious moments …

Harpo’s serious moments …

From the serenity and complexity of fingers sweeping strings to the twanging of the Jew’s harp, from the lyricism of the lyre to the zing of the zither, let’s stretch out with suggestions featuring these instruments

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In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rocksteady, rock, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags Songs, playlists, harp, zither, lyre, Harpo Marx, George RR Martin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Igor Stravinsky, William Billings, Petrarch, poetry, John Lydon, Dorothy Ashby, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Derek Bell, The Chieftains, Bjork, The Beatles, Zeena Perkins, Joanna Newsom, William Butler Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Thomas Moore, Henry Longfellow, Marx Brothers, PJ Harvey, Orson Welles, Anton Zaras, Johann Albrechtsberger, Beethoven, Uutai, The Who
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Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

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CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY

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DRINK OF THE WEEK

Galaxy Lemonade


SNACK OF THE WEEK

Orange twiglets from Jupiter


New Albums …

Featured
OUTTANATIONAL by Pigeon.jpeg
May 5, 2026
Pigeon: OUTTANATIONAL
May 5, 2026

New album: Hugely enjoyable, stylish, playfully eclectic debut LP of indie, electronica and Afro-disco and krautrock grooves by the Margate band fronted by the multi-lingual artist Falle Nioke from Guinea Conakry, West Africa, with songs about identity and ancestry, and a sound somewhere between New Order and William Onyeabor

May 5, 2026
KNEECAP - FENIAN.jpeg
May 3, 2026
KNEECAP: FENIAN
May 3, 2026

New album: Still the scourge of the establishment after 2024’s debut LP Fine Art, a hugely entertaining second LP of punchy, slick, defiant Irish Gaelic rap by Belfast’s Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, and beatmaker DJ Próvaí, with an expanded sound aided by innovative producer Dan Carey and an appearance by Kae Tempest

May 3, 2026
Long Wave Home by Jesca Hoop.jpeg
May 2, 2026
Jesca Hoop: Long Wave Home
May 2, 2026

New album: Brilliantly inventive, eclectic, poetic, experimental folk and art-pop by the acclaimed Manchester-based Californian singer-songwriter and guitarist in her first self-produced album, variously about the end of relationships, life changes, technology’s social effects, Gaza victims and other contemporary issues with perhaps her finest yet

May 2, 2026
Sam Grassie - Where Two Hawks Fly.jpeg
Apr 29, 2026
Sam Grassie: Where Two Hawks Fly
Apr 29, 2026

New album: Beautiful debut LP by the London-based Glaswegian fingerstyle folk guitarist and singer-songwriter, with added saxophone, double bass, flute, clairsach and clarinet in a release of mostly the traditional, covers, sung or instrumental, and supported by the Bert Jansch Foundation

Apr 29, 2026
Irmin Schmidt - Requiem.jpeg
Apr 29, 2026
Irmin Schmidt: Requiem
Apr 29, 2026

New album: A strangely mesmeric, avant-garde and analogue-ambient, field recording-based experimental release by the last surviving founding member of experimental ‘krautrock’ band CAN, who, approaching the age of 89, has also written over 40 TV and film scores

Apr 29, 2026
Gia Margaret - Singing.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Gia Margaret: Singing
Apr 28, 2026

New album: Gently profound, and full of wondrous, mesmeric, slow, delicate experimental songs, this simple title has a powerful resonance – it is the Chicago artist’s first vocal album since 2018’s There’s Always Glimmer (there have been two instrumental LPs since), having suffered and recovered from a severe vocal injury, she returns with a delicate, candid, whispery but hauntingly beautiful delivery

Apr 28, 2026
Angel In Plainclothes by Angelo De Augustine.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Angelo De Augustine: Angel in Plainclothes
Apr 28, 2026

New album: A beautiful, delicate fifth LP from the Los Angeles singer-songwriter, friend and collaborator with Sufjan Stevens with whom he shares a stylistic resemblance, here with themes on life's fragility, second chances, and picking up the pieces after an undiagnosed illness forced him to re-learn basic abilities

Apr 28, 2026
Carla dal Forno - Confession.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Carla dal Forno: Confession
Apr 28, 2026

New album: This lo-fi, darkly minimalist but also oddly candid fourth LP by the Australian, Castlemaine-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist centres on the conflicted, obsessive feelings about “a friendship that became emotionally charged in an unexpected way”, and “an album about closeness that arrives late and unexpectedly. About stability rubbing up against desire.”

Apr 28, 2026
Friko - Something Worth Waiting For album.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
Friko: Something Worth Waiting For
Apr 26, 2026

New album: Passionate, powerful, dynamic indie rock in this sophomore LP by the Chicago-based quartet that gallops forwards with a driving momentum, some elements of early PJ Harvey and Radiohead, and is produced by John Congleton

Apr 26, 2026
White Denim - 13.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
White Denim: 13
Apr 26, 2026

New album: This 13th LP in two decades by the Austin, Texas rock band fronted by James Petralli has a particularly mischievous experimentalism, spreading styles far beyond breathlessly paced prog rock, with wrily humorous, surreal, personal and passionate numbers across heavy funk, dub, soul, psyche, country, dirty blues and more, joined by host of outstanding extra musicians

Apr 26, 2026
Asili ya Mama by Hukwe Zawose Foundation.jpeg
Apr 24, 2026
Hukwe Zawose Foundation: Asili ya Mama
Apr 24, 2026

New album: Wonderfully evocative field recordings release of Wagogo, Waluguru and Wasambaa Tanzanian women singing traditional songs in their villages, rarely heard outside of their own circles, the title is translated as The Origin of Mother, rich in stories and capturing the place where song is first learned, first felt, first shared

Apr 24, 2026
They Might Be Giants - The World Is To Dig.jpeg
Apr 23, 2026
They Might Be Giants - The World Is To Dig
Apr 23, 2026

New album: Four decades since their self-titled debut, Brooklyn alternative rockers John Flansburgh and John Linnell return with their 24th LP, packed with of punchy, pacy, wistful, whimsical, clever wordplay and indie rock-pop, buoyantly satirical and also a little world weary at times, they remain oddball, lively commentators on the ongoing absurdity of life

Apr 23, 2026
Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine.jpeg
Apr 22, 2026
Eaves Wilder: Little Miss Sunshine
Apr 22, 2026

New album: After 2023’s Hookey EP, a strong, passionate indie-dream-pop-shoegaze full debut by the London singer-songwriter, whose breathy voice intertwines with strong, stirring riffs and textured sounds, themed around cycles of nature aiming to explain and celebrate the mercurial nature of human emotional weather

Apr 22, 2026
Honey Dijon - The Nightlife.jpeg
Apr 22, 2026
Honey Dijon: The Nightlife
Apr 22, 2026

New album: The irrepressible, prolific and charismatic London-based Chicago DJ, musician, producer and vinyl lover returns with a flamboyantly fun celebration of club and queer culture through the prism of dance music from disco to house, with a wide variety of guest vocalists

Apr 22, 2026

new songs …

Featured
Cowboy Mouth by Sophie Royer.jpeg
May 5, 2026
Song of the Day: Sofie Royer - Cowboy Mouth
May 5, 2026

Song of the Day: A catchy, cool, stylish fusion of indie and electro-pop by the classically trained, California-born, Vienna-based Iranian-Austrian artist, inspired by reading Patti Smith and Sam Shepard’s play of the same title, reimagining the play’s characters as Angel and Cowboy, and out now on Stones Throw Records

May 5, 2026
Hodge - Wiggler.jpeg
May 4, 2026
Song of the Day: Hodge - Wiggler
May 4, 2026

Song of the Day: A hugely fun, energising, infectious, effervescent, repetitive electronic dance track by the Bristol-based DJ/producer (aka Jake Martin) featuring a 3D pipe bassline by Memotone, and released alongside another track,Trust, out on Local Action

May 4, 2026
Return to Sender by Ibibio Sound Machine.jpeg
May 3, 2026
Song of the Day: Ibibio Sound Machine - Return To Sender
May 3, 2026

Song of the Day: Fizzing with vibrant energy and intricate rhythms, a fabulous new single with a personal accidental backstory by the London electronic afro-funk band out of London fronted by vocalist Eno Williams, out Merge Record

May 3, 2026
The Puppini Sisters - The Birthday Party.jpeg
May 2, 2026
Song of the Day: The Puppini Sisters - Total Eclipse of the Heart
May 2, 2026

Song of the Day: A fabulous new version of the Jim Steinman-penned 1983 Bonnie Tyler power pop hit, arranged by Marcello Puppini in an entirely different style for her swing-jazz trio and band, part of their 20th anniversary celebrations and album, The Birthday Party, out now on Millionaire Records

May 2, 2026
Bleachers - Everyone For Ten Minutes.jpeg
May 1, 2026
Song of the Day: Bleachers - I'm Not Joking
May 1, 2026

Song of the Day: Featuring harpsichord, Hammond organ, Dobro and more, producer Jack Antonoff and his New Jersey rock band return with a heartfelt love song single heralding the upcoming album, Everyone For Ten Minutes, out on 22 May via Dirty Hit

May 1, 2026
Alewya - Saleh.jpeg
Apr 30, 2026
Song of the Day: Alewya - Selah
Apr 30, 2026

Song of the Day: Striking, stylishly agile electronica and dance with a rich African and Arabian influence by the London-based British singer-songwriter, producer, multidisciplinary artist and model Alewya Demmisse, heralding her upcoming album, Zero, out on 26 June via LDN Records

Apr 30, 2026
metric romanticize-the-dive.jpeg
Apr 29, 2026
Song of the Day: Metric - Crush Forever
Apr 29, 2026

Song of the Day: Uplifting, effervescent electro-disco-pop by the Toronto indie rock band, with a song vocalist/keyboardist Emily Haines describes as “my love letter to strong girls in this world”, taken from their recently released 10th album, Romanticize the Dive, out on Metric Music via Thirty Tigers

Apr 29, 2026
Jim Ghedi - The Hungry Child single.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Song of the Day: Jim Ghedi - The Hungry Child
Apr 28, 2026

Song of the Day: Dark, gripping, visceral folk by the Sheffield singer-songwriter, with a striking number based on an early 19th-century German poem about the fatal story of a child pleading for food, and, following last year’s acclaimed album, Wasteland, also out on Basin Rock, it heralds his upcoming soundtrack for the Hugh Jackman film, The Death of Robin Hood.

Apr 28, 2026
holybones with Baxter Dury - SLUGBOY.jpg
Apr 27, 2026
Song of the Day: holybones (with Baxter Dury) - SLUGBOY
Apr 27, 2026

Song of the Day: Dark, unsettling, sleazy and strange, this is arrestingly vivid new collaborative single between the clandestine London electronic collective and the downbeat, deep-voiced poetic Londoner, out on Promised Land Recordings

Apr 27, 2026
Hand Habits - Good Person.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
Song of the Day: Hand Habits - Good Person
Apr 26, 2026

Song of the Day: Gentle, droll, humorously self-deprecatingly, and also delicately beautiful, this new experimental folk single by the moniker of Los Angeles singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Meg Duffy addresses the love-hate relationship with making music, out on Fat Possum

Apr 26, 2026
Pigeon - Miami.jpeg
Apr 25, 2026
Song of the Day: Pigeon - Miami
Apr 25, 2026

Song of the Day: Catchy, sunny, upbeawt indie synth-pop with an African twist by the Margate band fronted by Falle Nioke, with flavours of William Onyeabor, Hot Chip and New York 70s disco, heralding their upcoming album OUTTANATIONAL, out on 1 May via Memphis Industries

Apr 25, 2026
Tricky - Out of Place.jpeg
Apr 24, 2026
Song of the Day: Tricky - Out of Place (featuring Marta Złakowska)
Apr 24, 2026

Song of the Day: A pulsating fusion of beats, orchestral strings and the Bristol trip-hop pioneer’s distinctive, deep, croaky voice, with an emotional reference to his daughter Mina Topley-Bird (1995–2019), and heralding his first solo album for six years, Different When It’s Silent, out on 17 June via False Idols

Apr 24, 2026

Word of the week

Featured
Song thrush 2.jpeg
Apr 23, 2026
Word of the week: throstle
Apr 23, 2026

Word of the week: An archaic, evocative noun with two connected meanings, originally for the song thrush, then later a textiles industrial frame for spinning, twisting and winding machine for cotton, wool, and other fibres simultaneously

Apr 23, 2026
Undine - Novella.jpeg
Apr 9, 2026
Word of the week: undine
Apr 9, 2026

Word of the week: It might sound like the act of abstaining from food, but this noun from derived from undina (Latin unda) meaning wave, refers to mythical, elemental beings associated with water, such as mermaids, and stemming from the alchemical writings of the 16th-century Swiss physician, alchemist and philosopher Paracelsus

Apr 9, 2026
Veena player.jpg
Mar 27, 2026
Word of the week: veena
Mar 27, 2026

Word of the week: This ornate, curvaceous, south Indian classical instrument, the saraswati veena, is a special bowl lute with a rich, resonant tone, has 24 copper frets with four playing strings and three drone strings, and is used for Carnatic music

Mar 27, 2026
Snail on a wall.jpeg
Mar 12, 2026
Word of the week: wallfish
Mar 12, 2026

Word of the week: It sounds like the singing finned picture ornament Big Mouth Billy Bass that became popular in the late 1990s, but this is a much older noun, derived in Somerset, England, pertains to the climbing gastropod that can slowly climb up any surface

Mar 12, 2026
Swordfish.jpg
Feb 25, 2026
Word of the week: xiphias
Feb 25, 2026

Word of the week: Get the point? This is the scientific name for the swordfish, in full Xiphias gladius (from the Greek and Latin for sword), that extraordinary sea creature with the long, pointy bill. But what of it in song?

Feb 25, 2026

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