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Monarch butterfly metamorphosis
It’s time for not temporary or partial, but radical change - here reflected in lyrics from lifestyle to career, to triggering experiences, love and relationships, fortune or tragedy, a sudden huge idea or even spiritual revelation, sudden or gradual
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The magnificent Sister Rosetta Tharpe
It may be a term that sets up a situation in which one person or entity has power over another, but somehow it has inspired oodles of great music. Guest playlister MussoliniHeadkick picks favourites from last week’s topic
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The fabulous Nicholas Brothers
Foot stomping and clogging to the click of fingers, flamenco and castanets, these playlists, picked by guest Marco den Ouden from last week’s topic, take a tour of the world from Canada to Mexico, Spain to Japan, with music that’s right on tap
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Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Trousers, pants, hotpants and other leggings, not to mention even a couple of legless numbers, from the beautiful to the bawdy, this week’s music definitely doing the talking and walking is picked by guest Marco den Ouden from last week’s topic
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Calm looks: from Beyoncé’s Lemonade:designs based on Yoruba culture by Brooklyn Nigeria-born designer Laolu Senbanjo
From Arican itutu to European sprezzatura, American jazz and poetry to hip hop, and a lot more besides, how do you define coolness, whether in lyrics, or expressed in the music itself? It’s time to compose yourselves with some cultural inspiration …
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Not lesser known, but definitely a revealing and true original …
This week it’s time to dig deep for those original songs overshadowed by hit or well-known covers. We can also include remixes and other reworkings, as well as lesser known songs so heavily sampled they make a prominent core more famous version
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Blue tales? The magnificent Millie Jackson will always find out …
Saucy musical hall to broken-hearted blues to soaring heart-wrenching soul, guest magicman reveals all the ins and outs of secret liaisons, setting all affairs in order with three supreme playlists to capture the huge response by readers
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Deep breaths: Sweet Honey in the Rock
Inhale! Exhale! Sexy to smoky, exercise to sighs, plus bigger breaths from nature, this week’s playlists, compiled by breath-of-fresh-air guest Hoshino Sakura from a hurricane of nominations, will make you gasp with pleasure
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Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci
‘The heart’s a muscle. I pull it constantly’. Stretching not only the body, but also the mind and musical boundaries, these week’s playlists, expertly exercised by guest TatankaYotanka, help find parts we didn’t even know we had
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Made of soft rock? Far better to come on this week’s musical shoreline …
Songs about sand is a lot more than soft rock. These playlists, picked by skilful guest beachcomber George Boyland from waves of nominations, features a beautiful coast of styles from rock to reggae, postpunk to flamenco and electronica
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Sound the foghorn! What’s on this week’s playlists?
Alarm clocks to church bells, foghorns to sirens, this week let’s sound the alert - two fantastic playlists featuring these sounds and more are on the musical horizon, picked by this week’s lighthouse keeper pejepeine
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The fabulous Supremes
It’s a group dynamic. This week we celebrate landmark, iconic or noteworthy songs by groups of exclusively female artists of three or more, spanning genres from early classical to jazz and swing, 60s soul, to 70s, 80s, 90s and 21st century pop
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Enter the key of … The Fifth Dimension
Through twists and turns of love, from cleverly hidden changes to sudden stepped surprises, drawing from last week’s topic, guest philipphilip99 moves us through the emotional keys with two perfect playlists that illustrate this songwriting skill
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Michael Jackson had more than his fair share of changes. In one instance he takes a breath before sharpening his G
No technical knowledge required. Michael Jackson to the Beatles, they've all done it. From a single step up to lift or alter the mood, to more complex modulations, if you can feel or hear a significant change in the song, it could be a key one
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Over the moon with Smashing Pumpkins
What a production! Cartoons to big-screen movie references, emotional stories, quirky comedies and extraordinary dancing, from a massive choice, this week’s guest Marco den Ouden chooses two perfectly eye-popping playlists
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Guitar and singing legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Big flamboyant, expressive voices to call-and-response choirs, praise and looking for answers? This week we soul search into gospel’s musical styles infused into other genres, from soul to R&B, hip hop to rock, folk and indie
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England is dreaming? … Who? Keith, Roger, Pete and John
Let’s take a musical trip around this strange, sceptr’d isle, this land of eccentric frontmen, this place of punk and flourishing fashion, to pick up lots of place names and perhaps also define the nature of being English
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Perhaps these steps will lead you to the right key …
Steep, sweeping, stone, wood or metal? This week we're exploring how music give us a certain kind of lift – through lyrics that describe all ways to up or down, on foot or via mechanical means, actual or metaphorical
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Irreplaceable: The Modern Lovers
Replacements for players, soldiers, husbands, lovers, even robot sex – it’s all going on this these superb playlists chosen by our guest lister Marco den Ouden, who also replaces some of his words with those by nominators
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Beyoncé. She's in Formation
Dance, hip hop, jazz, soul, indie, rock or pop, music is alive and kicking in new directions this century. Kendrick Lamar to Beyonce, Dizzee Rascal to Sleaford Mods, this week’s playlister Nilpferd picks out some pertinent themes
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