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Close your eyes, open your ears: songs about darkness

July 24, 2025 Peter Kimpton

Where would stars be without the dark…?

It’s a vast spectrum of a topic that occupies half of Earth’s rotation, filled with emotions, stories, assocations, and styles. With the recent death of one famous rock figure, what other forms of darkness come to mind in song?

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In African, avant-garde, blues, bossa nova, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, folk, experimental, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, RnB, rock, rocksteady, samba, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional, trip hop Tags songs, playlists, darkness, astronomy, Julia Cameron, Yousuf Karsh, Marshall McLuhan, Lady Gaga, Carl Jung, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, Friedrich Nietzsche, Dylan Thomas, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joseph Conrad, William Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd, JRR Tolkien, books, poetry, Ozzy Osbourne, Devil, Arca, Little Richard, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Jens Lekman, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, Francis Bacon, Tory Kennedy Martin, television, drama, Somerset Maugham, Elias Canetti, George RR Martin, Helen Keller, Haruki Murakami, Lord Byron, climate change, colonialism
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Concentrate! Songs about single-mindedness

November 9, 2023 Peter Kimpton

Moving moment? Anatoly Karpov …

Concentration, drive, relentless purpose and pursuit are needed for certain levels of achievement, but how is it expressed in song lyrics? In finding love or 'the one", to work, to gain acclaim, achieve fame, or a particular goal? For inspiration here are examples in music, film, sport and more …

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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 single-mindedness, concentration, psychology, music, sport, Film, books, chess, Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov, Susan Sontag, E.R. Eddison, Tim Wu, Alan Watts, Stanley Kubrick, Andrew Carnegie, Aldous Huxley, Focus, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, tennis, swimming, Diana Nyad, documentary
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Goth, gore and more: scary, creepy, horror-inspired songs

October 21, 2021 Peter Kimpton

Nosferatu, 1922

Whether inspired by fictional horror in books or film, or indeed horrors of the real world, physical or psychological, stylishly goth or gruesomely gory, this Halloween-inspired topic is all about songs that send a shiver up the spine

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In African, blues, avant-garde, classical, comedy, country, dance, drone, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, funk, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, ska, showtime, rocksteady, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, horror, Film, film soundtrack, books, fiction, Mary Shelley, Charles Baudelaire, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Truman Capote, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph Conrad, Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, Halloween, Bela Lugosi, architecture, Mervyn Peake, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, The Damned, Killing Joke, Theda Bara, Washington Irving, Georges Méliès, FW Murnau, Max Schreck, Kate Bush, David Byrne, Luis Bunuel, Bob Dylan, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Vampire Weekend, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Ramones, Robert Bloch, The Simpsons, Stanley Kubrick
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Just ignore this: songs about indifference

April 1, 2021 Peter Kimpton
How to putt it? Fiddling while Rome burns …?

How to putt it? Fiddling while Rome burns …?

Whether genuine or feigned, in love, politics or the natural world, it’s as all-pervasive as gravity, and with a pulling power just as immense. So tugging against it, what bigger form of attention-seeking is there than writing and performing a song? But how do songs deal with indifference?

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In African, avant-garde, blues, 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, indifference, apathy, laziness, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw, Steven Erickson, Walter Scott, Marty Rubin, David Mitchell, psychology, cats, Andrew Holleran, Stewart Lee, Ted Chippington, standup comedy, Oscar Wilde, PT Barnum, The Simpsons, advertising, Donald Trump, Kanye West, Kardashians, George Eliot, Paul Valéry, GK Chesterton, Amiri Baraka, Aldous Huxley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Kahlil Gibran, Jean Baudrillard, Juan Montalvo, Iris Murdoch, Edmund Burke, Irvine Welsh, Richard Dawkins, Rudyard Kipling, Haile Selassie, Martin Luther King, Robert M. Hutchins, Machado de Assis, Somerset Maugham, JK Rowling, Soccer96, Alabaster DePlume, Aysha Taryam, Helen Keller, Peter Marshall, Lionel Shriver, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Yukio Mishima, Elie Wiesel
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Highs and lows: songs about the tide

March 25, 2021 Peter Kimpton
The tide has brought in John Cooper Clarke …

The tide has brought in John Cooper Clarke …

Highs and lows to ebbs and flows, literal, littoral and metaphorical, specific locations, mudflats and estuaries, wildlife, mudlarking, shorelines and coasts, this week it’s all about the movement of water in and out, and what that is all about

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, tides, coasts, sea, oceans, marine biology, John Cooper Clarke, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Otis Redding, Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tommy Cooper, Chaucer, Nova Scotia, Australia, Sir David Attenborough, Thames, mudlarking, beachcombing, King Canute, Henry David Thoreau, Nikola Tesla, Victoria Carless, Sanober Khan, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Dylan Thomas, Shirley Manson, Johnny Cash, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville
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Enjoy the view: songs about edges, ledges and thresholds

January 21, 2021 Peter Kimpton
Norway’s popular Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen

Norway’s popular Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen

Actual or metaphorical, from windows to riverbanks, doorways to cliffs, to mental or physical extreme places, this week let’s go to a variety of precipices, stare into the abyss, but also find astonishing new perspectives in song

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In African, avant-garde, blues, 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, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, edges, ledges, precipices, thresholds, WH Auden, Martin Luther King, Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence, Haruki Murakami, William Shakespeare, Leonard Cohen, James Hansen, Sean Lennon, John Cleese, Malcolm Gladwell, Norway, Joan Lindsay, Peter Weir, Film, film soundtrack, MH Boroson, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Carl Jung, Jim Carrey, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Vertigo, The Truman Show, Bob Black, Flat Earth Society, Brazil, Stephen Hawking, Toba Beta, Bertrand Russell, Herman Melville, Winston Churchill, Goethe, Van Morrison, Brad Dourif, Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Haddon, Esther Hicks, Michel de Montaigne, architecture, Brutalist, Evel Knievel, Ada Lovelace, TS Eliot, John Keats, poetry, Josephine Jacobsen., Ricky Gervais, Ingmar Bergman, Rufus Wainwright, Gina Barreca, Steven Wright, Wu-Tang Clan, RZA, Eric B & Rakim
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I know why the caged bird sings: songs about or expressing empathy

August 15, 2019 Peter Kimpton
Maya Angelou: “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”

Maya Angelou: “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”

I feel for you. Reach out and I’ll be there. This week we’re seeking song-related understanding and connection the form of songs about empathy, and though it’s different perhaps also little secondary sympathy, in form or content

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In avant-garde, blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, metal, jazz, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, songs, ska, soul, traditional Tags songs, playlists, empathy, sympathy, relationships, Maya Angelou, William Blake, Leslie Jamison, Brené Brown, RIchard Louv, science, neurology, psychology, music, Brian Eno, Jay Griffiths, Gloria Steinem, Conor Oberst, Mary Gauthier, Viv Albertine, Anohni, Antony and the Johnsons, politics, Nathan Englander, Theodore Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Ben Harper, Steve Martin, Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, Margaret Atwood, Marty Rubin, Yann Martel, Morgan Neville, Film, books, Justin Simien, Roger Ebert, Harper Lee, Joseph Conrad, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Sterling K. Brown, James Baldwin, Mehmet Oz, John Connolly, Mohsin Hamid, Neil Gaiman, Rumaan Alam, Terry Pratchett, Nitya Prakash, Elizabeth Goudge, Paul Auster, Eric Micha'el Leventhal, Gustave Flaubert, Elizabeth Bowen, Walt Whitman, Jorge Luis Borges, William Shakespeare
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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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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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Late goals: striking song and album endings

June 14, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Sunset ending? Not every ride goes so smoothly …

Sunset ending? Not every ride goes so smoothly …

No – it’s not the World Cup. This week we’re looking at all kinds of ends of albums and other songs – from surprising, sudden, or summing up, to those that are ambiguous, serious, comical or take us to a new place

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In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, electronica, folk, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, punk, reggae, playlists, pop, postpunk, ska, songs, soundtracks Tags Songs, playlists, endings, albums, Film, books, death, Julian Barnes, Margaret Atwood, Orson Welles, Arthur Miller, Jim Morrison, The Doors, Dylan Thomas, poetry, relationships, Stephen King, George RR Martin, Game of Thrones, Samuel R Delany, Friedrich Nietzsche, Frank R Baum, The Wizard of Oz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Conrad, Truman Capote, George Orwell, JD Salinger, Haruki Murakami, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Blake's 7, The Sopranos, Journey, Casablanca, Alejandro Jodorowsky, John Lennon, Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles, Buster Keaton
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Don't read or listen to this: ironic songs

January 5, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Sign of the times? Bird is the word? Tweet that.

Sign of the times? Bird is the word? Tweet that.

From sarcasm to situation, dramatic twist to tragic consequence or perspective, let's take a wry look at songs that say one thing, but then reveal another

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Tags songs, irony, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Bibesco, Ellen Glasgow, money, Douglas Coupland, Bill Hicks, Private Eye, George Harrison, The Beatles, Nile Rogers, Chic, XTC, paul simon, Art Garfunkel, New Order, Peter Hook, Manchester, Alanis Morissette, Jonathan Swift, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, satire, Joseph Conrad, The Ladykiller, Film, Brexit, NHS, Steven Weber, Donald Trump, Mexico, Chris Rock, Academy Awards, racism, history, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, The Bible, religion, Alexander Graham Bell, telephone, Guinness Book of Records, condoms, Pietro Aertino, Bobby Leach, Nitaro Ito, Japan, Draco, Greece, Bobby Gentry, Freud
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Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

Black Lives Matter.jpg

CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY


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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 shorter tracks, and motorik krautrock-style driven coloured by strange sounds, intense emotions and sharply angled and abstract 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
Irreparable Parables by Andrew Wasylyk.jpeg
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
Atlanta by Gnarls Barkley.jpeg
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
War Child - Help(2).jpeg
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
Bonnie Prince Billy - We Are Together Again.jpeg
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
deadletter-existence-is-bliss.jpeg
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
Hen's Teeth by Iron & Wine.jpeg
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
Buck Meek - The Mirror 2.jpeg
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
Nothing's About to Happen to Me by Mitski.jpeg
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
Mei Semones.jpeg
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
Lava La Rue 2 new.jpeg
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
Against the Dying of the Light by José González.jpeg
Mar 4, 2026
Song of the Day: José González - A Perfect Storm
Mar 4, 2026

Song of the Day: A beautiful, delicate, evocative and profound new single about impending Earth disaster by the Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist from Gothenburg, heralding his fifth album Against the Dying of the Light out on 27 March via Imperial Recordings / City Slang

Mar 4, 2026
Jesus Cringe - Disastrology.jpg
Mar 3, 2026
Song of the Day: Jesus Cringe - Disastrology
Mar 3, 2026

Song of the Day: A striking collision and fusion of space rock, prog rock, jazz, and sci-fi cinema, with an orchestral, avant-garde, tumultuous interplay between violin and baritone saxophone by the Belgian artist Alexis Pfrimmer, expressing the characterisation of solitary figure witnessing Earth’s collapse before escaping into space, and out on Epictronic

Mar 3, 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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