Playlists: songs about strategic and dangerous waters

April 1, 2026 Peter Kimpton

Spinning the music: this week’s playlists is a swirl of superb stories

Yaaaaar, me hearties! Troubled waters to dire straits, the world is full of hazardous seas from bad weather to human folly and war. Inspired by last week’s topic nominations, guest Captain Marconius tells many a rich tale with his canticle pickings …

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    DRINK OF THE WEEK
Dangerous Waters Island Punch

  
    SNACK OF THE WEEK
Rocky road ice cream

New Albums …

Featured

Apr 1, 2026

MEMORIALS: All Clouds Bring Not Rain

Apr 1, 2026

New album: Innovative, eclectic fusion of psychedelia, folk, dub, krautrock, 60s soul, garage rock, prog, pop, electronica and 70s spiritual jazz by the Canterbury experimental duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms

Apr 1, 2026

Against the Dying of the Light by José González 2.jpeg

Apr 1, 2026

José González: Against The Dying Of The Light

Apr 1, 2026

New album: A gentle, reflective, meditative, but quietly defiant fifth LP by the Swedish-Argentine indie-folk guitarist and singer-songwriter, following his last, Local Valley, broadening his perspective in an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity as technology advances in ironically darkening world

Apr 1, 2026

RAYE: This Music May Contain Hope

Apr 1, 2026

New album: A highly entertaining, exuberantly stylish, cross-genre 17-track, 73-minute odyssey by the London popstar, with a huge musical show of a second LP, spanning swing-era jazz to soul, R&B, house music, pop, dance, gospel, classical and the full kitchen sink, with orchestral band, family members, Hans Zimmer, and even Al Green

Apr 1, 2026

Mar 30, 2026

Pitou: P2

Mar 30, 2026

New album: Brilliantly quirky, original second LP of experimental folk pop by the Amsterdam artist, who has the free spirited musical adventurousness reminiscent of Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus and Fiona Apple in this clever, playful, stop-start work with oodles of vocal loops and layering, electronica and unusual field recordings across themes of freedom and restlessness

Mar 30, 2026

Mar 29, 2026

Robyn: Sexistential

Mar 29, 2026

New album: After a break of seven years, the hugely influential 46-year-old Swedish pop star returns with a new burst of alternative, electro-pop bangers, in this ninth LP, now subverting themes of romantic love in another context since having gone through having IVF and becoming a single parent

Mar 29, 2026

IT'S THE LONG GOODBYE by The Twilight Sad.jpeg

Mar 29, 2026

The Twilight Sad: It's The Long Goodbye

Mar 29, 2026

New album: The Glasgow indie rockers fronted by vocalist James Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane return with a tempestuous, highly emotional and moving sixth LP, their first for seven years, with musical input from The Cure’s Robert Smith, fuelled by the illness and passing of Graham’s mother and his subsequent mental health struggles

Mar 29, 2026

Mar 28, 2026

Courtney Barnett: Creature of Habit

Mar 28, 2026

New album: The Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist returns after a five-year gap to bring more of her witty, indie-country-rock, but with a bittersweet flavour, and an emotionally resonant record that explores change and the central question: how to get out of your own way so you can truly feel your life

Mar 28, 2026

Mar 26, 2026

Ego Ella May: Good Intentions

Mar 26, 2026

New album: Beautifully crafted but effortlessly performed, a wonderful release of delicious, classy, smooth and smoky soul, jazz and RnB by the London singer-songwriter who has vocal and stylistic qualities reminiscent of Erykah Badu and Sade

Mar 26, 2026

Mar 25, 2026

Ellie O'Neill: Time of Fallow

Mar 25, 2026

New album: A gorgeous, delicate debut folk LP by the Dublin-based singer-songwriter from County Meath with an exquisite voice, not unlike that of Joni Mitchell, that hovers and rises with expressive control, with themes of memory, grief, desire, and self-reckoning

Mar 25, 2026

Mar 25, 2026

Ladytron: Paradises

Mar 25, 2026

New album: Following 2023’s Time’s Arrow, the Liverpool synth-pop band fronted by Helen Marnie, now a trio, return with substantial 16-track eighth LP that combines simplicity of chord progressions with rich textures, styles retro and futuristic with classic, catchy pop melodies

Mar 25, 2026

Mar 25, 2026

Grace Ives: Girlfriend

Mar 25, 2026

New album: Best known as a bedroom pop artist on her DIY produced first two LPs, the New Yorker returns with an expanded sound of eclectic, striking synth-pop, fuelled by a sense of personal and musical rebirth, inspired by some Californian sunshine where she recorded, and referencing an escape from addictions

Mar 25, 2026

Mar 23, 2026

Tinariwen: Hoggar

Mar 23, 2026

New album: After 2023’s Amatssou, the collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of southern Algeria and of northern Mali return with a 10th LP iteration of their signature desert blues style sung in Tamasheq, and joined this time by younger younger musicians from the bands Imarhan and Terakaft, as well as guests José González and Sulafa Elyas

Mar 23, 2026

Avalon Emerson - Written Into Changes album.jpeg

Mar 23, 2026

Avalon Emerson & The Charm: Written Into Changes

Mar 23, 2026

New album: A fabulous, bright, catchy and expanded, more live sound by the innovative New York multi-instrumentalist of experimental indie and synth-pop, moving on from the more bedroom feel of her first self-titled & The Charm LP, and here with lyrical themes of personal and relationship evolution

Mar 23, 2026

Mar 22, 2026

Anna Calvi: Is This All There Is?

Mar 22, 2026

New EP: A powerful, passionate, dynamic return by the extraordinary singer-songwiter and guitarist on a four-track EP, in which she duets with Iggy Pop, Perfume Genius, Laurie Anderson and The National’s Matt Berninger, and the first of a trilogy

Mar 22, 2026

new songs …

Featured

Apr 1, 2026

Song of the Day: Jessie Ware - Automatic

Apr 1, 2026

Song of the Day: Infectiously catchy, funk-soul-disco pop by the charismatic singer-songwriter featuring a deep-voiced spoken intro by actor Colman Domingo, and the latest single heralding upcoming sixth album, Superbloom, out on 17 April via Interscope

Apr 1, 2026

Mar 31, 2026

Song of the Day: Mount Palomar ft. Enola Gay - Feeding Frenzy

Mar 31, 2026

Song of the Day: Pulsating, dark, hard-hitting dance and hip-hop by the Northern Irish music producer, DJ and live electronic hardware artist Neil Kerr, joined by the Belfast indie-noise-punk quartet, on this title track of a new four-track EP, out on Ursa Minor

Mar 31, 2026

Mar 30, 2026

Song of the Day: Jungle - Carry On

Mar 30, 2026

Song of the Day: Swoonful, beautiful, but also bittersweet and vulnerable, old-fashioned soul-pop by the British band featuring the vocals of Lydia Kitto in a number co-penned with producer Joshua Lloyd Watson, heralding the upcoming album, Sunshine, out on 14 August via Caiola Records / AWAL Recordings

Mar 30, 2026

Mar 29, 2026

Song of the Day: The Ocelots - Motor Hotel

Mar 29, 2026

Song of the Day: Beautiful, reflective, uplifting alternative folk with banjo, guitar, flute and more by the Wexford Irish twin brothers Brandon and Ashley Watson, from their new five-track EP, Revisions, a mix of new and re-worked, re-recorded numbers

Mar 29, 2026

Lee Scratch Perry and Mouse on Mars.jpeg

Mar 28, 2026

Song of the Day: Lee "Scratch" Perry & Mouse On Mars - Rockcurry

Mar 28, 2026

Song of the Day: A stylish, eclectic, cross-genre single from the late, great, legendary Jamaican producer and performer’s ongoing legacy, heralding his last official album - the project in Berlin with electronic pioneers Mouse on Mars (aka Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma) and the LP - Spatial, No Problem on on 5 June via Domino Records

Mar 28, 2026

Mar 27, 2026

Song of the Day: Soulwax - Perfect We Are Not

Mar 27, 2026

Song of the Day: Following last October’s album All Systems Are Lying, Belgium’s Dewaele brothers David and Stephen return with a vibrant electro-pop dance standalone single with droll lyrics, from their recent Abbey Road After Hours project which included a live event at the iconic London studio

Mar 27, 2026

Mar 26, 2026

Song of the Day: Lykke Li - Lucky Again

Mar 26, 2026

Song of the Day: Bright, uplifting, singalong, big sound pop in this welcome return from the enigmatic Swedish singer-songwriter and model, heralding her upcoming new album The Afterparty, out on 8 May via Futures Music Group

Mar 26, 2026

Mar 25, 2026

Song of the Day: Model/Actriz - Glassman

Mar 25, 2026

Song of the Day: Violently sensual, truly alternative and viscerally arresting experimental noise/ industrial rock with guitar sounds unlike any other band, all conjured up by the Brooklyn quartet from their new EP Swan Songs out on Dirty Hit Records

Mar 25, 2026

Mar 24, 2026

Song of the Day: Death Cab For Cutie - Riptides

Mar 24, 2026

Song of the Day: With a gradual, powerfully growing intensity, this new indie-rock single about personal and universal challenges by the Washington band fronted by Ben Gibbard, heralds the upcoming 11th album, I Built a Tower, produced by John Congleton, and out on 5 June via ANTI- Records

Mar 24, 2026

Mar 23, 2026

Song of the Day: Ed O'Brien - Blue Morpho

Mar 23, 2026

Song of the Day: An orchestral, atmospheric, textured, gently serene new number with background birdsong by the Radiohead co-founder and guitarist with the title track heralding his second solo album, out on 22 May via Transgressive

Mar 23, 2026

MRCY and Yazmin Lacey - Better Days.jpeg

Mar 22, 2026

Song of the Day: MRCY - Better Days (featuring Yazmin Lacey)

Mar 22, 2026

Song of the Day: Fabulous, uplifting, classic soul by the British duo of producer Barney Lister and vocalist Kojo Degraft-Johnson, joined by the soaring voice of the London singer, out now on Dead Oceans

Mar 22, 2026

Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine.jpeg

Mar 21, 2026

Song of the Day: Eaves Wilder - Mountain Sized

Mar 21, 2026

Song of the Day: Stirring, dynamic indie-shoegaze by the breathy, sensual-voiced North London artist, expressing a fomenting anxiety morphing into a cathartic, explosive chorus to escape real-world restrictions, and after a series of singles and EPs, heralding her debut album Little Miss Sunshine, out on 17 April via Secretly Canadian

Mar 21, 2026

Word of the week

Featured

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

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

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

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