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Grace notes: songs about mercy

April 3, 2025 Peter Kimpton

A surprising final act of mercy: Bladerunner (1982) with Rutger Hauer and Harrison Ford

From wars to trade tariffs, it’s arguably never been more absent and more required in the modern world. But here, with some cinematic inspiration, how is it expressed in song? With idioms or stories, calling for, or dispensing it, and much more …

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, comedy, 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, RnB, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional, trip hop Tags mercy, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Aquinas, Graham Greene, Susan Sontag, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mose Allison, US foreign policy, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Film, books, film soundtrack, Robert Bresson, Maurice Cloche, Victor Hugo, Charlie Chaplin, David Lynch, Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Gavin Hood, Rutger Hauer, Harrison Ford, Alastair Sim
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Stop making sense: songs about absurdity and absurdism

March 6, 2025 Peter Kimpton

Playtime: Jacques Tati’s masterpiece about modern life (1967)

Strange, surreal, ironic, absurdity very much part of life, and absurdism is all about embracing the freedom with its meaninglessness. Exploring influences from Camus to Tati, Milligan to Python to Lynch, how is it expressed 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, playlists, absurdity, absurdism, philosophy, MC Escher, books, art, Film, Miguel de Cervantes, Cervantes, Søren Kierkegaard, Soren Kierkegaard, Cicero, Albert Camus, Bertrand Russell, Karl Marx, Steven Wright, Spike Milligan, Franz Kafka, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Jean-Paul Sartre, second world war, Myth of Sisyphus, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jacques Tati, David Lynch, Joseph Heller, Monty Python
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Route notes: songs about paths, tracks, trails and roads

January 23, 2025 Peter Kimpton

Inca Trail, Peru

Timeless travelling, personal and universal, from the minor the major way, this topic less about about passing through, going somewhere, even if that destination may end up being an existential nowhere. It’s the romance of the road, the tantalising tread of the trail, the perception of the path

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In African, avant-garde, calypso, blues, 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, playlists, music, paths, trails, tracks, walking, Bruce Chatwin, Aboriginal, Australia, David Lynch, Muriel Strode, Søren Kierkegaard, Soren Kierkegaard, Robert Motherwell, Joy Division, Peter Saville, Africa, South America, South Africa, Himalayas, Nepal, Ireland, Scotland, Ancient Rome, roads, Hawaii, Appalachian Way, Colorado, Werner Herzog, Film, film soundtrack
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Can you feel it? Songs about touch

January 11, 2024 Peter Kimpton

Tactile pleasures ….

Tactile sensations are among our most primitive and deep-seated of the five senses, but how are they expressed in lyrics? From the gentle, sensual and pleasurable to the painful, it’s time the channel the somatosensory system in song form

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, music, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Petrarch, Plato, John Keats, Edmund Spenser, Santosh Kalwar, Anne Brontë, Amy Lowell, Grace Jones, biology, sport, religion, Babe Ruth, David Lynch, Paul Cezanne, Winona Ryder, Leonardo Da Vinci, Andy Goldsworthy, Grandmaster Flash, Elias Canetti, Film, Audrey Tatou, film, theatre
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Nothing? No, it's only ... songs about 'everything'

June 22, 2023 Peter Kimpton

Hot-dog! Fingers ‘n’ everything …

This week, from a previous idea of nothing, we go to ‘everything’ not literally, but the idea of it, from big promises of love, all-encompassing importance, the the whole shebang, totality, the full caboodle, enchilada, the big ball of wax, all within the prism of song

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags everything, nothing, philosophy, psychology, books, art, Film, religion, Buddhism, Steven Wright, Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Confucius, John Lennon, Thomas Pynchon, Sophia Loren, Stephen Crane, physics, mathematics, science, Michelle Yeoh, Eels, Mark Oliver Everett, multiverse theory, Winston Churchill, Philip K Dick, Carl Sagan, Pablo Neruda, poetry, Cicero, George Bernard Shaw, Haruki Murakami, Alan Watts, Yoko Ono, Woody Allen, Thomas Carlyle, Gustave Flaubert, Anton Chekhov, Thomas Huxley, Isaac Asimov, Oscar Wilde, David Lynch, Goethe, Hermann Hesse, Bob Marley, Napoleon Bonaparte, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Kennedy, John F Kennedy, Hedy Lamarr, Plato, Gustav Mahler, Henry Rollins, Elton John
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The feel of the wheel: ideal driving songs

April 6, 2023 Peter Kimpton

It’s an open road for songs and music that capture the experience of driving and the journey …

This is not so much songs about roads and cars, instead those that best accompany the journey, shows not tells, enhances the sensations and capture that strangely magical movement of human and vehicle through a landscape. Enjoy here some road movies for inspiration …

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, Film, film soundtrack, road songs, cars, travel, Jack Kerouac, Douglas Adams, Edgar Wright, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, Talking Heads, The B52's, Roxette, The Cardigans, The Cars, Steppenwolf, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Wim Wenders, Terrence Malick, Carl Orff, Ridley Scott, Hans Zimmer, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Roberto Rossellini, French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, Sufjan Stevens, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, Mad Max films, Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie, David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti
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Gut instinct? Songs about the sixth sense

February 3, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Cross my palm with song suggestions, and I see a future where there will be wonderful new playlists …

Do we have one, or is it fake? Both. But either way, this week’s theme, inspired by approaching the Song Bar’s Sixth Birthday as all about intuition, a gut instinct, a feeling in your bones, notions of unknown source, sensing something without knowing why

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, playlists, musicals, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, songs, ska, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags sixth sense, perception, psychology, physionomy, Amit Kalantri, Albert Einstein, Holbrook Jackson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bill Hicks, animals, animal behaviour, dogs, cats, birds, Jane Goodall, third eye, Amy Leigh Mercree, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Henry Reed, David Bowie, Sia, Arlo Parks, Brian May, Flea, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alan Turing, Malcolm Gladwell, Johann Kaspar Lavater, psychics, clairvoyance, Uri Geller, Guillermo del Toro, William Lindsay Gresham, M Lamar Keene, Cyril Henry Hoskin, The Sixth Sense, Film, books
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A whole heap of dreams: songs about Hollywood

April 16, 2020 Peter Kimpton
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It’s the most famous town in the world. This week our songs are about the place itself – its famous streets, landmarks, studios as well as the fascias, finery, or fakery of its people – their hopes, dreams, triumphs, failures, feuds and fantasies

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In avant-garde, blues, 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, showtime, rocksteady, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags songs, playlists, Film, film soundtrack, Hollywood, John Huston, Marilyn Monroe, Kevin Bacon, Dorothy Parker, Bernardo Bertolucci, Lionel Barrymore, Groucho Marx, Alistair Cooke, John Schlesinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monic Boulevard, Paramount Pictures, Capital Records, history, Christopher Ames, Max Lerner, Marlon Brando, Alan Arkin, Kimball King, Raymond Chandler, Angela Carter, La La Land, Erica Jong, Kris Kidd, WC Fields, Johnny Carson, James Baldwin, Billy Wilder, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton, Cecil B. DeMille, Erich Von Stroheim, The Artist, Robert Altman, The Player, Tim Robbins, L.A. Confidential, James Ellroy, David Lynch, Mulholland Drive, Ethel Barrymore, Lily Amis, Andy Warhol, Fred Allen, Kermit, Kermit The Frog, The Muppets, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Rita Rudner, William Goldman, William Faulkner, Michael Houbrick, Sophie Kinsella, Rachel Weisz, Lana Turner, Ben Hecht, Woody Allen, A.K. Kuykendall, Paul Newman, George A Romero, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Pynchon, Eric Cantona, Coen Brothers, Barton Fink, David Mamet, Caroline Kepnes, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, Julia Phillips, Me Cheeta, John Waters, Terry Gilliam
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Take your pick: songs about collecting, cataloguing and lists

September 12, 2019 Peter Kimpton
Pick collection …

Pick collection …

Galleries to grand libraries, public or private, unusual or colourful objects, from the oddball to unhealthy obsession, this week we enter the extraordinary world of collecting, listing and cataloguing and everything that motivates it

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In avant-garde, blues, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, rock, ska, songs, soundtracks, traditional, rocksteady Tags songs, playlists, collectables, collecting, lists, John Connolly, Ray Bradbury, Umberto Eco, Bob Dylan, Alec Baldwin, David Lynch, Andy Goldsworthy, Sir David Attenborough, Neil Perryman, art, books, documentary, oology, animals, John Fowles, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Putin, Mikko Hyppönen, surveillance, technology, internet, Trinity College Dublin, libraries, Horniman Museum, Jorge Luis Borges, Penelope Lively, Walter Benjamin, Lynda Resnick, Julie Andrews, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Jeff Tweedy, Roisin Murphy, John Mayall, Anita Shreve, Howard Hodgkin, Cornelia Parker, David Elliott, Paul Mellon, Mackenzie Crook, The Detectorists, television, The Unthanks
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Herd this one? Songs about four-legged livestock

August 8, 2019 Peter Kimpton
Woolly thinking? Alpacas are in on the act, of course.

Woolly thinking? Alpacas are in on the act, of course.

From cows to horses, sheep, pigs, ox, goats, donkeys, alpacas, llamas and more, this week let’s look into songs about the farming and husbandry of quadrupeds, our relationship with them and also what they say about us

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In avant-garde, blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, rock, rocksteady, ska, songs, soundtracks, soul, traditional Tags songs, playlists, animals, livestock, farming, David Lynch, Johnny Mercer, Elvis Presley, Julian Cope, Gary Larson, religion, The Bible, Hinduism, George Orwell, Robert Plant, Grant Wood, Kate Bernheimer, art, books, Oliver Cromwell, Colin Wilson, Ray Davies, The Kinks, Alexander The Great, Thomas De Quincey, George Stubbs, John Miles (painter), Pigcasso, Matt Groening, The Simpsons, Zazie Beetz, climate change, kulning
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The gift of sound and vision: songs enhanced by impressive videos

April 25, 2019 Peter Kimpton
What will be your weapon of choice this week?

What will be your weapon of choice this week?

Music and film are often intertwined commercially, but where does a video become an artform to the level that the visual elements enhance, complement and become symbiotic with the song? Let the action commence …

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In avant-garde, blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, playlists, pop, prog, postpunk, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, showtime Tags songs, playlists, videos, Film, YouTube, MTV, David Lynch, Bessie Smith, Louis Jordan, Tony Bennett, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Jacques Brel, The Moody Blues, Kenneth Anger, The Beatles, Queen, Aretha Franklin, Lady Gaga, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jones, Spike Jonze, Michael Gondry, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Norman Cook / Fatboy Slim, Bootsy Collins, Christopher Walken, Electric Six, Peter Gabriel, Aardman Animations, Radiohead, Childish Gambino, Cate Le Bon, Fat White Family, Ibeyi, Arctic Monkeys, Philip Glass, Godfrey Reggio
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Let them all in: songs about oddballs, outcasts and outsiders

August 23, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Heading your way .. Julian Cope as Mr Squbbsy in London, 1990.

Heading your way .. Julian Cope as Mr Squbbsy in London, 1990.

Eccentric historical figures to those who are currently out there, black sheep to persons offbeat, songs that express the outsider/insider paradox, this week let’s open our doors to songs about difference

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In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul Tags songs, playlists, oddballs, eccentricity, outsiders, outcasts, Julian Cope, Captain Beefheart, Vivian Stanshall, Colin Wilson, Quentin Crisp, William Blake, Lady Gaga, Dame Edith Sitwell, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Lee Scratch Perry, Frank Zappa, Aphex Twin, David Lynch, books, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, HG Wells, TS Eliot, Vincent Van Gogh, George Bernard Shaw, Vaslav Nijinsky, TE Lawrence, Michael Jackson, Kevin Rowland, Tiny Tim, Gerald Tyrwhitt / Baron Berners, Francis Henry Egerton, William Buckland, Howard Hughes, Keith Moon, Oliver Reed, John Waters, Grace Jones, Meat Loaf, Janet Fitch, Joseph Conrad
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Bake-off? No, far better: songs about bread, cake, pastry and biscuits

October 26, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Enjoy …

Enjoy …

This week it's less about the reality TV competition, instead a much tastier treat into the world of lyrical bagels and brot, cupcakes and buns, breadlines and Bourbons. Take your pick and dig in …

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Tags Songs, music, bread, cake, biscuits, pastry, politics, Seamus Heaney, Robert Louis Stevenson, history, Neolithic period, The Bible, baking, television, reality television, The Great British Bake-Off, The Magnetic Fields, Stephin Merritt, Paul Hollywood, Delia Smith, Peter Hook, Joy Division, John F Kennedy, Jesus Christ, religion, David Lynch, graffiti, Manchester, Juvenal, Ancient Rome, Mahatma Gandhi, Hovis, Ridley Scott, advertising, health, food, Alison Moyet, Ivan Pavlov, Mick Jagger, Benjamin Clementine, fiona apple, Ralph Waldo Emerson, WH Auden, Brian Greene, physics, multiverse theory
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What's going on now? Incidental music and songs …

July 13, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Buster Keaton in The General

Buster Keaton in The General

Silent or modern movie scenes to news footage, overture, underscore or background, suggest music or songs that suggests action going on, whether that's personal memory or a better known scenario

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Tags songs, Music, incidental music, scores, film soundtrack, Film, television, news, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, theatre, pantomime, Herb Albert, Henry Mancini, Johnny Morris, British Pathé, ragtime, Scott Joplin, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs, Blue Velvet, Deliverance, video games
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Playlists: songs about the strange, disturbing and surreal

May 3, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Feast your eyes on Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Feast your eyes on Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Fairy-tale dreams to strange train journeys, Visions of Johanna to Elvis Presley's lost Jesse, guest writer Severin takes us into weird and wonderful world inspired by last week's song nominations

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In playlists, music, songs Tags songs, playlists, Dickie Lee, Psychic TV, Genesis P Orridge, Let's Eat Grandma, Wire, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, This Heat, Suburban Lawns, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Scott Walker, X-Ray Spex, Vivian Stanshall, John Martin, Future of the Left, The Stranglers, Powersolo, Captain Beefheart, Mr Concept, De La Soul, Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Flotation Toy Warning, Sparklehorse, Sparks, Diamanda Galas, Elvis Presley, Severin, David Lynch, Martin Green, Dave Von Ronk
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My log saw something … songs about the strange, disturbing and surreal

April 27, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Time to log on …

Time to log on …

Log Lady to Blue Velvet, Beefheart and fantasy fish, doppelgängers and all-seeing owls, this week we delve in an alternative world where lyrics and music capture an area between dream and reality

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Tags Songs, Surrealism, Dada, Twin Peaks, David Lynch, Rene Magritte, John Lennon, Salvador Dali, David Bowie, Mark Frost, television, Film, film soundtrack, Andre Breton, art, poetry, lyrics, owls, animals, William Burroughs, books, Tristan Tzara, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Silver Jews, The Killers, Robbie Williams, Captain Beefheart, The Black Eyes Peas, The Beatles, Oasis, Noel Gallagher, The Who, Pete Townshend, The Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, Monsters and Men, Barnes & Barnes, Meret Oppenheim, Dorothea Tanning, Kikuji Yamashita, Alejandro Jodorowsky
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'DRINK' OF THE WEEK

Lucky 13 Seed Co. romulan ale


SNACK OF THE WEEK

Baker's Dozen (+) mini donuts


New Albums …

Featured
Kim Gordon - Play Me album.jpeg
Mar 13, 2026
Kim Gordon: Play Me
Mar 13, 2026

New album: Following 2024’s The Collective, the former Sonic Youth frontwoman’s fourth solo LP continues her extraordinary experimental, innovative journey, moving to more melodic beats and shorter tracks with a motorik krautrock-style driven coloured by strange sounds, intense emotions and sharply angled, dark, droll social commentary

Mar 13, 2026
ELIZA - The Darkening Green.jpeg
Mar 11, 2026
ELIZA: The Darkening Green
Mar 11, 2026

New album: The London artist Eliza Caird (formerly under the mainstream pop moniker Eliza Doolittle) returns with more of the cool, slow, sensual, gentle, sophisticated experimental soul-funk style evolving from her 2022 album A Sky Without Stars, here with particularly polished, silky, stripped back grooves and vocals

Mar 11, 2026
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Mar 11, 2026
Andrew Wasylyk: Irreparable Parables
Mar 11, 2026

New album: The Scottish multi-instrumentalist and composer returns with a new selection of soothing, meditative mix of experimental classical and jazz, but this time joined with six different singers represented by the birds on the album artwork

Mar 11, 2026
waterbaby - Memory Be A Blade.jpeg
Mar 10, 2026
waterbaby: Memory Be A Blade
Mar 10, 2026

New album: A delicate, experimental, understated soulful chamber pop debut by the pure-voiced Stockholm-born singer-songwriter (aka Kendra Egerbladh) in 25-minute, eight-track release of lo-fi, lyrically semi-improvised numbers about heartbreak and self-renewal in a world of gorgeous musical sensations

Mar 10, 2026
Joshua Idehen - I Know You're Hurting ....jpeg
Mar 10, 2026
Joshua Idehen: I know you're hurting, everyone is hurting, everyone is trying, you have got to try
Mar 10, 2026

New album: With a strikingly long title, a euphoric and honest full debut LP by the British-born Nigerian poet, spoken word artist and musician based in Sweden, working with his musical partner Ludvig Parment’s sonic layers, packed pacy dance and hip-hop grooves, clever sampling, slower reflections, and articulate expressions of positivity through the ups and downs of grief and hope

Mar 10, 2026
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Mar 10, 2026
Gnarls Barkley: Atlanta
Mar 10, 2026

New album: Finally, after an 18-year gap since their last collaboration in the heady days of the hit Crazy, with the St Elsewhere and The Odd Couple LPs a third and supposedly final album from fabulous singer CeeLo Green and producer and musician aka Brian Burton with a mix of soaring soul, hip-hop, pop and RnB with songs filled with vivid lyrical memories and strong, emotive melodies

Mar 10, 2026
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Mar 9, 2026
Various: HELP(2) - War Child Records
Mar 9, 2026

New album: Not only a timely and topical milestone charity record following the first in 1995 to help bring aid and wide variety of support to children in war zones around he world, but an impressive double-LP array of stellar British and international talent and powerful, poignant 23 songs from Arctic Monkeys to Young Fathers

Mar 9, 2026
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Mar 9, 2026
Bonnie “Prince” Billy: We Are Together Again
Mar 9, 2026

New album: Just over a year after 2025’s The Purple Bird, but from parallel recording sessions and familiar co-musicians, the veteran Louisville-Kentucky singer-songwriter Will Oldham returns with another collection of exquisite, intimate, gently defiant lo-fi folk to troubled times, an ode to community with a beautiful array of acoustic instruments and his poignant, insightful lyrics and delivery

Mar 9, 2026
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Mar 5, 2026
DEADLETTER: Existence Is Bliss
Mar 5, 2026

New album: This second LP by the South Yorkshire/London six-piece expands their post-punk sound palette with a collection of arresting, thrumming songs, often dark and challenging, with richly exploratory lyrics across dystopian and existential questions, yet despite a climate of difficult, shows how gasping for life’s oxygen is essential

Mar 5, 2026
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Mar 5, 2026
Lala Lala: Heaven 2
Mar 5, 2026

New album: Moving from Chicago to New Mexico, Reykjavík, then London and now Los Angeles, the UK-born artist Lillie West’s experimental indie dream pop is a fascinating release about restless escapism while trying to stay where she is

Mar 5, 2026
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Mar 3, 2026
Iron & Wine: Hen's Teeth
Mar 3, 2026

New album: Timeless, poetic, gentle folk-rock in this eighth solo album by the North Carolina multi-instrumentalist and producer Sam Beam, in warm, tender album with a title that suggests the idea of the impossible yet real, and an earthier, darker, more more tactile companion to his Grammy-nominated 2024 album Light Verse

Mar 3, 2026
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Mar 3, 2026
Buck Meek: The Mirror
Mar 3, 2026

New album: The Brooklyn-based Texan guitarist of Big Thief returns with his fourth solo LP filled with tender, thoughtful, beautiful folk-country-rock, a tiny splash of analogue synths, joined by bandmate James Krivchenia as producer, Adrianne Lenker on backing vocals, plus guitarist Adam Brisbin and harp player Mary Lattimore

Mar 3, 2026
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Mar 1, 2026
Mitski: Nothing’s About To Happen To Me
Mar 1, 2026

New album: Following 2023’s acclaimed The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, now an eighth LP of sublime beauty, wit and melancholy and silken vocal tones from the American singer-songwriter, mixing pop, rock, echoes of Laurel Canyon era, and stories and metaphors of love and loss, insecurity, independence and solitude all set at home – and no shortage of cats

Mar 1, 2026
Gorillaz - The Mountain.jpeg
Mar 1, 2026
Gorillaz: The Mountain
Mar 1, 2026

New album: Released with an art book, new games, and extended videos, a multicultural, multifarious and multilingual return for the collective cartoon pop-hip-hop project led by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, with many intercontinental guest appearances, and a particular Indian musical and visual flavour centred on fictional Himalayan peak as metaphor for life’s journey and illusionary truths

Mar 1, 2026

new songs …

Featured
Jaakko Eino Kalevi 2.jpg
Mar 16, 2026
Song of the Day: Jaakko Eino Kalevi - Black Diamond
Mar 16, 2026

Song of the Day: A splendidly rousing eight-minute retro-style electro-pop baroque melodrama by the Finnish artist with the deep, rich voice, one that stylistically and in his own fashion, draws a pentagram between Goblin, Rondo Veneziano, Cerrone, Doris Norton and Lindstrom, out on Domino Records

Mar 16, 2026
Hannah Lew album.jpeg
Mar 15, 2026
Song of the Day: Hannah Lew - Sunday
Mar 15, 2026

Song of the Day: An appropriate day to highlight this classy latest single of shimmering 80s-style synth-pop with echoes of OMD, with themes about pain, love and grief from the upcoming debut album by the Richmond, California artist, out on 10 April via Night School Records

Mar 15, 2026
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Mar 14, 2026
Song of the Day: Mei Semones - Tooth Fairy (featuring John Roseboro)
Mar 14, 2026

Song of the Day: A charming cross-genre fusion of bossa nova, jazz, folk and chamber pop sung in English and Japanese by the Brooklyn-based American musician with a tale of losing a tooth on the subway and friendship, from the upcoming album Kurage, out 10 April on Bayonet Records

Mar 14, 2026
Robyn - Blow My Mind.jpeg
Mar 13, 2026
Song of the Day: Robyn - Blow My Mind
Mar 13, 2026

Song of the Day: Quirky, sensual electro-pop with a dash of Kraftwerk by the acclaimed Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Robin Miriam Carlsson, in this latest from the upcoming album Sexistential out on 27 March via Konichiwa / Young Records

Mar 13, 2026
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Mar 12, 2026
Song of the Day: Lava La Rue - Scratches
Mar 12, 2026

Song of the Day: The latest single by the London singer-songwriter is punchy, powerful psychedelic rock number with tearing riffs and lyrics about damage from troubled relationship, abuse and self-harm, from the forthcoming EP Do You Know Everything?, out on BMG

Mar 12, 2026
Alewya - City of Symbols.jpeg
Mar 11, 2026
Song of the Day: Alewya - City of Symbols (featuring eejebee)
Mar 11, 2026

Song of the Day: A stylish fusion of electronica, soul, hip hop and Ethiopian rhythmic influences centring on themes of heritage, family by London singer, songwriter, producer and multidisciplinary artist, with drums from eejebee and guitar from Vraell, heralding from the forthcoming new debut Zero out 22 June via LDN Records / Because Music

Mar 11, 2026
Huarinami - Carried Away.jpeg
Mar 10, 2026
Song of the Day: Huarinami - Carried Away
Mar 10, 2026

Song of the Day: Explosive, stylish, gritty, restless indie-psychedelic punk with angular, angry guitars, driving bass and wonderfully arresting vocals by Pauline Janier (aka Cody Pepper) fronting the French London-based four-piece in this single fuelled by the frustration of big-city life, and heralding their sophomore EP Nothing Happens, due for release on 6 June

Mar 10, 2026
Avalon Emerson - Written Into Changes album.jpeg
Mar 9, 2026
Song of the Day: Avalon Emerson & The Charm - Written into Changes
Mar 9, 2026

Song of the Day: Following the singles Eden and Jupiter and Mars, another stylish, experimental indie synth-pop release by the New York artist with the title track of upcoming second Charm moniker album, out on 20 March via Dead Oceans

Mar 9, 2026
Aldous Harding - One Stop.jpeg
Mar 8, 2026
Song of the Day: Aldous Harding - One Stop
Mar 8, 2026

Song of the Day: An enigmatic, oddly stylish, stripped back, piano-based new experimental folk single by the New Zealand singer-songwriter, namechecking John Cale, and from her upcoming album Train on the Island out May 8 via 4AD

Mar 8, 2026
Max Winter - Candlelight.jpeg
Mar 7, 2026
Song of the Day: Max Winter, Asha Lorenz & Rael - Candlelight
Mar 7, 2026

Song of the Day: A dark, stylish, striking fusion of hip-hop, trip-hop, spoken word, and jazz by the London-based rapper and friends, and the the first single from the collaborative mixtape Like the season!, out on Secret Friend

Mar 7, 2026
SPRINTS - Trickle Down.jpeg
Mar 6, 2026
Song of the Day: SPRINTS - Trickle Down
Mar 6, 2026

Song of the Day: The feisty, ferociously fun Dublin post-punk band return with a punchy, on-point angry new number about the flawed economic term, watching systems fail in slow motion, housing crisis, rising costs, culture wars, climate collapse, and frustratingly being told to stay patient while everything burns

Mar 6, 2026
Jordan Rakei - Easy To Love.jpg
Mar 5, 2026
Song of the Day: Jordan Rakei & Tom McFarland - Easy to Love
Mar 5, 2026

Song of the Day: Elevating, soaring soul with the high vocals of the New Zealand-Australian singer and songwriter joined by one half the British band Jungle, heralding the collaborative EP Between Us, out on 24 April on Fontana Records / Universal Music

Mar 5, 2026

Word of the week

Featured
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
Korean musicians in 1971.jpeg
Feb 12, 2026
Word of the week: yanggeum
Feb 12, 2026

Word of the week: A form or hammered dulcimer, this traditional Korean instrument, with a flat and trapezoidal shape, has seven sets of four metal strings hit by thin bamboo stick

Feb 12, 2026
Zumbador dorado - mango bumblebee Puerto Rico.jpeg
Jan 22, 2026
Word of the week: zumbador
Jan 22, 2026

Word of the week: A wonderfully evocative noun from the Spanish for word buzz, and meaning both a South American hummingbird, a door buzzer, and symbolic of resurrection of the soul in ancient Mexican culture, while also serving as the logo for a tequila brand

Jan 22, 2026
Hamlet ad - Gregor Fisher.jpg
Jan 8, 2026
Word of the week: aspectabund
Jan 8, 2026

Word of the week: This rare adjective describes a highly expressive face or countenance, where emotions and reactions are readily shown through the eyes or mouth

Jan 8, 2026

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