• Themes/Playlists
  • New Songs
  • Albums
  • Word!
  • Index
  • Donate!
  • Animals
  • About/FAQs
  • Contact
Menu

Song Bar

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Music, words, playlists

Your Custom Text Here

Song Bar

  • Themes/Playlists
  • New Songs
  • Albums
  • Word!
  • Index
  • Donate!
  • Animals
  • About/FAQs
  • Contact

Playlists: songs about lakes, canals, and smaller watercourses

April 15, 2025 Peter Kimpton

Songs will pour out …

Inspired by the hypnotic, relaxing and therapeutical flow of nominations for last week’s topic, guest playlister TatankaYotanka channels this joy into instrumental and sung streams. Water great idea!

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, experimental, folk, funk, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags lakes, water, streams, canals, Hermeto Pascoal, Cosmo Sheldrake, Brian Eno, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Lanterna, Dave Brubeck, Life On Mars, Neu!, Oregon, The Kathryn Tickell Band, Kathryn Tickell, Henry Texier, Wadada Leo Smith, The Cougars, Harry Choates, Leo Kottke, Jamaal Meeks, Peter Erskine, I Am Kloot, Fergus McCreadie, M83, Vashti Bunyan, Gilberto Gil, Taylor Swift, Felt, Gabby Young and Other Animals, Dengue Fever, Tower Of Power, war, The Meters, Tom Zé, The Cats, Guillermo Portabales, José Brito, The Joy Formidable, Altai Kai, Nancy Kerr, Yank Rachell, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Nickel Creek, Arctic Monkeys, The Band, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Makoto Kawamoto, Gary Shearston, Akiko Yano, Anita Carter, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Groanbox Boys, David Childers, Jackie Leven, Ralph Vaughan Williams, TatankaYotanka, Robert Louis Stevenson
Comment

Song Bar Birthday Special: Pieces of eight? Seeking songs about treasure

February 8, 2024 Peter Kimpton

Eight? How many pieces do you have?

Precious, rare, valuable, timeless? Monetary or something more intangible? How do you define treasure? This week we celebrate eight years of of Song Bar from a phase from a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and seeking songs on this theme

Read more
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, trip hop Tags songs, playlists, anniversaries, treasure, gold, coins, archaelogoy, books, art, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Walt Disney, Dale Carnegie, Rainer Maria Rilke, Charlotte Bronte, Dolly Parton, Johnny Depp, Film, film soundtrack, money, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Captain William Kidd, pirates, The Detectorists, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones, television, Tintin, Hergé, history, JRR Tolkien, Andy Serkis, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lao Tzu, Christina Aguilera, Thornton Wilder, Joseph Campbell, Friedrich Schiller, Audrey Tatou, Sergio Leone, Ennio Morricone, Clint Eastwood
Comment

Tip of the iceberg: songs about the id, ego and superego

September 21, 2023 Peter Kimpton

Freud’s famous paper was published exactly a century ago

It’s time to wrestle with the conflicts and complexities of the conscious and sub-conscious mind captured in song lyrics. From that famous paper published by Freud a century ago, there’s also inspiration here in film, literature, comedy, musicians and more …

Read more
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 Sigmund Freud, psychology, psychoanalysis, John Lennon, Alanis Morissette, Edward de Bono, Bob Dylan, Shannon L Adler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Barry Gibb, Robert Half, Socrates, Hugh Prather, Robert Louis Stevenson, Film, film soundtrack, documentary, Adam Curtis, Edward Bernays, advertising, propaganda, George Michael, Arlo Guthrie, Barbra Streisand, Kanye West, Jamie Hewlett, Michel de Montaigne, Adam Smith, Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman, The Simpsons, Alfred Hitchcock, Slavoj Žižek, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Christopher Nolan, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, David. Bowie, XTC, Andy Partridge, Paul McCartney, Prince, The New York Dolls, David Johanson, Sun Ra, Eminem, 2pac Shakur, NIcki Minaj
Comment

Bookmark this: songs about reading

September 14, 2023 Peter Kimpton

Voluminous …

It’s an essential part of life - defined as a cognitive, active process of decoding these symbols to arrive at meaning, perhaps for a purpose to direct or extract information, to focus a goal, to simply to discover and escape, but how does it come up in song?

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, krautrock, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags books, reading, George RR Martin, Carl Sagan, Lisa See, Walter Mosley, Napoleon Bonaparte, JK Rowling, Steven Spielberg, Emily Dickinson, Ruth Rendell, Dr Seuss, Noam Chomsky, Alberto Manguel, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Laini Taylor, John Steinbeck, CS Lewis, Malcolm X, Jane Austen, Lemmy, John Waters, John Irving, Helen Keller, Harold Bloom, Ezra Pound, Stephen King, Virginia Wolf, Somerset Maugham, William Nicholson, Honore de Balzac, Paul Auster, René Descartes, Carol Joyce Oates, Anna Quindlen, Alan Bennett, Angela Carter, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Atwood, Fran Lebowitz, Woody Allen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edmond Burke, Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, Robertson Davies, Stephen Fry
Comment

Like a butterfly: songs about the meaning of life

October 6, 2022 Peter Kimpton

The monarch butterfly: a profound life cycle, and ‘a rainbow of chaos’

It’s a big question. But how might it be answered in song lyrics? Not merely through broad definition or metaphor, but also through philosophy, practical advice or experience. See many inspirational ideas here, but it’s also time to let your answers take flight …

Read more
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, meaning of life, philosophy, Bob Marley, Douglas Adams, Bob Dylan, Maya Angelou, Charlie Chaplin, Paul Cezanne, Marcus Aurelius, Keith Richards, Groucho Marx, Muhammad Ali, Arthur Conan Doyle, E.M. Forster, Craig Venter, science, biology, Joseph Campbell, Anais Nin, Socrates, Albert Camus, Mark Haddon, Irving Berlin, Lou Holtz, Woody Allen, Mark Twain, Elbert Hubbard, Jim Carrey, Will Rogers, Stephen Hawking, Jean Cocteau, Katherine Hepburn, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schopenhauer, H Jackson Brown Jr, William Wallace, Anton Chekhov, Thomas Hobbes, Vladimir Nabokov, Dale Carnegie, Leonardo Da Vinci, GZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Albert Einstein, Kenneth G Ross, Soren Kierkegaard, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Matthew McConaughey, Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, Jimi Hendrix, George Eliot, Emile Zola, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Bernard Shaw, Terry Pratchett, Jim Henson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Butler, Tom Lehrer, George Gershwin, David Bowie, Slavoj Žižek, Rufus Wainwright, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Roy T. Bennett, William Wordsworth, Thomas Aquinas, Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Morgan Freeman, Monty Python, Film, film soundtrack, books, art
Comment

What's the deal? Songs about playing cards

August 12, 2021 Peter Kimpton
But … who’s the ace?

But … who’s the ace?

Queens, kings, aces and jacks, jokers and dealers, tricks and games, winners and loses, gambling, risk, and making the best of the hand you’re dealt, this week it’s time to shuffle the musical pack and see what’s in hand on this theme

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playing cards, Robert Louis Stevenson, Laura Swenson, Amit Kalantri, Ambrose Bierce, Angel Moreira, Steven Wright, games, Tarot, Theodoor Rombouts, Paul Cezanne, Brian Eno, gambling, Paul Newman
Comment

Affairs in order: songs about adultery and infidelity

March 18, 2021 Peter Kimpton
Don’t kid yourself. Secret necking …

Don’t kid yourself. Secret necking …

Cheatin’ hearts to stray cats, liars and game players, this week it’s all about the drama, dalliances, the deceit, the sexy secrecy and risk, the partial or unfolding perspectives, repression, sacrifice, romance or the full tragic, explosive reveal

Read more
In classical, calypso, blues, avant-garde, African, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, funk, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, music, musicals, musical hall, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, infidelity, adultery, cheating, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Homer, William Blake, William Shakespeare, Paul Newman, Amy Winehouse, TS Eliot, Millie Jackson, Irma Thomas, Hank Williams, Abba, Agnetha Fältskog, Samuel Johnson, Stephen Frears, Christopher Hampton, Glenn Close, John Malvovich, Mike Nichols, Film, Brokeback Mountain, Dangerous Liaisons, Leo Tolstoy, animals, biology, Albert Camus, Alice Thomas Ellis, Alain de Botton, Olivia Wilde, Julian Lennon, John Lennon, Alanis Morissette, Georges Bizet
Comment

Get cartography: songs about maps

May 14, 2020 Peter Kimpton
Living maps? Leo Belgicus by Hondius & Gerritsz, 1630

Living maps? Leo Belgicus by Hondius & Gerritsz, 1630

Accurately marked with facts and perfect proportions? Or fuel for fantasy and the imagination? Maps make stories, and stories make maps, and their fascination leads to where X marks the spot. So let’s go there and start digging …

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, instrumentals, music, musicals, playlists, pop, punk, prog, postpunk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags songs, playlists, maps, cartography, geography, history, books, Film, Nicholas Crane, Judith Schalansky, Roseanne Barr, Mark Haddon, Miles Harvey, Ptolomy, Da Ming Hun Yi Tu, China, Babylonia, Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Louise Penny, Charles H. Hapood, Lennart Meri, Muhammad Ali, Lech Walesa, Poland, European Union, Charles Darwin, Gerald Durrell, Marion Cotillard, Andrew Bird, Bill Bryson, Ken Jennings, Bill Dedman, Roisin Murphy, Google, GPS, Google Earth, Google Maps, Carlo Ratti, Eric Schmidt, Yuval Noah Harari, Catherynne M. Valente, Gilles Deleuze, Charles Frazier, Reif Larsen, David Mitchell, Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien, Stanislav Grof, psychiatry, Alexander McCall Smith, Nelson DeMille, Debbie Lee Wesselmann, Lisel Mueller, Mark Jenkins, Bea González, Amie Kaufman, Christopher Barzak, Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Gina Greenlee, Rebecca Solnit, Christopher Columbus, Noam Bardin, Dean F. Wilson, Bangambiki Habyarimana, John Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, Humphrey Bogart, Monty Python, Joni Mitchell, Bjork, Luke Abbott
Comment

The undercurrent world: songs about quiet

April 23, 2020 Peter Kimpton
Spring bluebells quietly getting on with it

Spring bluebells quietly getting on with it

Tranquillity, calm and serenity, or concentration, slow stirring, unrest, plotting and revolution? There are all kinds of quiet out there, and this week it’s time to explore these as described or captured in song lyrics

Read more
In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, gospel, funk, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, metal, music, musicals, playlists, pop, prog, postpunk, punk, reggae, rock, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, quiet, silence, Jane Austen, Charles Bukowski, Napoleon Bonaparte, Billy Joel, Robert Louis Stevenson, coronavirus, lockdown, environment, John Lydon, Sex Pistols, James Hetfield, Metallica, Pete Burns, Dead or Alive, will.i.am, Black Eyed Peas, Jodie Whittaker, Doctor Who, Kate Bush, Kurt Vile, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Grace Jones, Kesha, Euripides, Adlai Stevenson I, William Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Robert Greene, Mel Brooks, Henry David Thoreau, Noam Chomsky, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme, Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon, 2001 A Space Odyssey, New York, London
Comment

Just for the hell of it: songs about the Devil, Satan, Lucifer …

October 25, 2018 Peter Kimpton
The Devil does his thing in Tenacious D

The Devil does his thing in Tenacious D

Who’s your devil in disguise? Who has all he best tunes? This week, in a fun week leading up to Halloween, let’s explore songs that mention, in whatever form, the Devil, Satan and any other names he takes

Read more
In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, traditional, soundtracks Tags Songs, playlists, Devil, Satan, Oscar Wilde, George Harrison, Tom Waits, William Shakespeare, Goethe, George Whitfield, Little Richard, film, Ben Wheatley, Devil's Elbow, Niccolò Paganini, Robert Johnson, David Bowie, Henry Fielding, Gary Busey, Marilyn Manson, Aleister Crowley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Debbie Harry, Blondie, C.S. Lewis, Milton, Buckethead, Hieronymous Bosch, Emo Philips, Mercedes McCambridge, The Exorcist, Martin Luther, Thomas Moore, William Blake, Charles Baudelaire
Comment

World Cup? Not quite. It's songs about substitutes

June 28, 2018 Peter Kimpton
The real thing or substitutes? The Beatles at Madame Tussauds

The real thing or substitutes? The Beatles at Madame Tussauds

Are they meant to be better, or not as good, artificial or the real thing? From sport to food, people to plans, work to worries and distraction, let’s explore substitutions in life and music

Read more
In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, gospel, folk, electronica, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags Songs, substitutes, The Beatles, Madame Tussauds, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Adam Savage, Somerset Maugham, Christmas, childhood, John Lennon, teachers, work, Elon Musk, Alaister PIlkington, Aesop, Carl Jung, psychology, Malcolm Muggeridge, Christopher Hampton, Saint Augustine, Rush Limbaugh, Mary Wollstonecraft, Iris Murdoch, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Burgess, Candice Bergen, computers, technology, Robert McNamara, Charles Dickens, Paul Cezanne, Mark Twain, Janet Fitch, Nick Nolte, Peter Falk, Ray Liotta, Goodfellas, The Sopranos, James Gandolfini, Liam Neeson, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Hanks, John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, film, food, Yotam Ottolenghi, cooking, sugar, gardening, football, Marlon Brando, sport, Yvonne Fair, Patsy Cline, Henrik Larsson, David Fairclough, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Paulo Coelho
Comment

Diary of a nobody? Songs about anonymity

March 22, 2018 Peter Kimpton
A scene from anonymous hacker thriller series Mr Robot, starring Rami Malek as the complex central figure

A scene from anonymous hacker thriller series Mr Robot, starring Rami Malek as the complex central figure

Whether feeling like a nobody, or actually being anonymous, from hackers to the lonely and helpless, from fame to unknown heroism, let's explore this contradictory feeling as expressed in lyrics, from spotlight to the shadows

Read more
In blues, country, dance, classical, electronica, folk, hip hop, indie, metal, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, punk, reggae, rock, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags Songs, playlists, anonymity, women's rights, Virginia Wolf, Bjorn Ulvaus, Abba, Lenny Bruce, George Eliot, Prince, Stephen King, Richard Bachman, George Grosssmith, Chaka Khan, Carly Simon, Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, Dory Previn, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Sam Shepard, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Benjamin Clementine, NHS, Robert Louis Stevenson, Coen Brothers, Billy Bob Thornton, Mia Farrow, Catherine Deneuve, Jeff Daniels, Joe Klein, journalism, The Bible, National Security Agency, Prism, surveillance, spying, Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks, Mikko Hyppönen, Anonymous, hacking, LulzSec, AntiSec, Bitcoin, Jeff Berwick, Cambridge Analytica, Donald Trump, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Robot, Sam Esmail, Rami Malek
Comment

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 …

Read more
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
Comment

Playlists: songs about pirates and piracy

July 5, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny in Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera (1928) 

Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny in Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera (1928) 

German cabaret opera to New York hip-hop, French chansons to Caribbean reggae, sailing in the full breeze of last week's topic, guest pirate commander ParaMhor steers us to open many a musical treasure chest

Read more
In playlists, songs, music Tags songs, playlists, pirates, financial industry, financial crisis, banking industry, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lawrence Lessig, Kurt Weill, piracy, Lotte Lenya, Beastie Boys, Ry Cooder, Richard Thompson, Flogging Molly, Joaquin Sabina, Nina Simone, Home T. Cocoa Tea, Shabba Ranks, The Viceroys, John Cale, Jacques Loussier, Neil Innes, Horrible Histories, Adam and the Ants, Lee Scratch Perry, Mad Professor, Louie Culture, Anthony Selassie, Chrome, Cadaver Club, Procol Harum, Joan Baez, They Might Be Giants, The Pogues, Tom Waits, New Model Army, Abney Park, Gilbert & Sullivan, books, ParaMhor, Monty Python
Comment

Arrr! It's songs about pirates and piracy

June 29, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach

Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach

Golden Age rogues from Blackbeard to Anne Bonny, Calico Jack to Treasure Island, from the Caribbean to modern marauders of Somalia, in folk to rock, metal to reggae, set sail with your song suggestions

Read more
Tags songs, Music, pirates, piracy, history, books, film, folk, metal, rock, reggae, indie, classical, Blackbeard aka Edward Teach, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Lessig, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Terry Pratchett, Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, Ian McShane, Scissorfight, Barbarossa brothers, Captain Kidd, Sir Francis Drake, John 'Calico Jack' Rackham, Henry Morgan, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Captain Pugwash, television, Tin Tin, The Night Pirates, Deborah Allwright, Peter Harris, Captain Charles Johnson, Somalia, pollution, environment, Steve Goodman
Comment
music_declares_emergency_logo.png

Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

Black Lives Matter.jpg

CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY


Donate
Song Bar spinning.gif

DRINK OF THE WEEK

Napue dark gin


SNACK OF THE WEEK

crudités platter


New Albums …

Featured
Spíra by Ólöf Arnalds.jpeg
Dec 5, 2025
Ólöf Arnalds: Spíra
Dec 5, 2025

New album: A gorgeous, delicate, ethereal first release in a decade by the Icelandic singer-songwriter, acoustic instruments and her gentle, high, pure voice, all in her native language, caressing this listening experience like pure waters of some slowly trickling glacial stream

Dec 5, 2025
Melody's Echo Chamber - Unclouded.jpeg
Dec 5, 2025
Melody's Echo Chamber: Unclouded
Dec 5, 2025

New album: A fourth album, here full of delicious uplifting, dreamily chic, psychedelic soul pop by the French musician Melody Prochet, with bright, upbeat, optimistic numbers and a title lifted from a quote by the acclaimed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, about achieving equilibrium

Dec 5, 2025
Devotion & The Black Divine by anaiis.jpeg
Dec 2, 2025
anaiis: Devotion & The Black Divine
Dec 2, 2025

New album: Following a summer Song of the Day - Deus Deus, a review of the autumn release and third LP by the London-based French-Senegalese singer-songwriter of resonantly beautiful, dynamic, sensual soul, gospel, R&B and experimental and chamber pop, with themes of new motherhood, uncertainty, religion, self-love and acceptance

Dec 2, 2025
De La Soul - Cabin In The Sky.jpeg
Nov 26, 2025
De La Soul: Cabin In The Sky
Nov 26, 2025

New album: The hip-hop veterans return with their first without, yet including the voice of, and a tribute to, founding member Trugoy the Dove, AKA Dave Jolicoeur who passed away in 2023, alongside many hip-hop luminary guests, with trademark playful skits, and all themed around the afterlife

Nov 26, 2025
The Mountain Goats- Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan.jpeg
Nov 26, 2025
The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
Nov 26, 2025

New album: An evocative musical journey of a concept album by the indie-folk band from Claremont, California, fronted by singer-songwriter John Darnielle, based on a dream of his in 2023 about a voyage to a fictional island by the titular captain, charting adventure, wonder and tragedy

Nov 26, 2025
Allie X - Happiness Is Going To Get You.jpeg
Nov 26, 2025
Allie X: Happiness Is Going To Get You
Nov 26, 2025

New album: A hugely entertaining, witty, droll, inventive, chamber and synth-pop fourth LP with a goth twist by the charismatic and theatrical Canadian artist Alexandra Hughes, who brings paradox and dark themes through sounds that include string quartet, harpsichord, classical and pure pop piano with killer lyrics

Nov 26, 2025
Tortoise - Touch.jpeg
Nov 25, 2025
Tortoise: Touch
Nov 25, 2025

New album: A welcome return with a cinematic and mesmeric groove-filled first studio LP in nine years, and the eighth over all by the eclectic Chicago post-rock/jazz/krautrock multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker

Nov 25, 2025
What of Our Nature by Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover.jpeg
Nov 24, 2025
Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover: What of Our Nature
Nov 24, 2025

New album: Beautiful, precise, poignant and poetic new folk numbers inspired by the life and music style of Woody Guthrie as the Portland, Oregon and New Yorker, now Portland, Maine-based singer-songwriters bring a delicious duet album, alternating and sharing songs covering a variety of forever topical social issues

Nov 24, 2025
Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never.jpeg
Nov 24, 2025
Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer
Nov 24, 2025

New album: Ambient, otherworldly, cinematic, mesmeric, and at times very odd, the Brooklyn-based electronic artist and producer Daniel Lopatin returns with a new nostalgia-based concept – constructing tracks from lost-then-refound Y2K CDs of 1990s and early 2000s royalty-free sample electronic sounds

Nov 24, 2025
Iona Zajac - Bang.jpeg
Nov 24, 2025
Iona Zajac: Bang
Nov 24, 2025

New album: A powerful, stirring, passionate and mature debut LP by the 29-year-old Glasgow-based Scottish singer with Polish and Ukrainian heritage who has toured as the new Pogues singer, and whose alternative folk songs capture raw emotions and the experience of modern womanhood, with echoes of PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Aldous Harding and Lankum

Nov 24, 2025
Austra - Chin Up Buttercup.jpeg
Nov 19, 2025
Austra: Chin Up Buttercup
Nov 19, 2025

New album: This fifth studio LP as Austra by the Canadian classically trained vocalist and composer Katie Stelmanis brings beautiful electronica-pop and dance music, and has a bittersweet ironic title – a caustically witty reference to societal pressure to keep smiling despite a devastating breakup

Nov 19, 2025
Mavis Staples - Sad and Beautiful World.jpeg
Nov 18, 2025
Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World
Nov 18, 2025

New album: A timelessly classy release by the veteran soul, blues and gospel singer and social activist from the Staples Singers, in a release of wonderfully moving and poignant cover versions, beautifully interpreting works by artists including Tom Waits, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen, and Gillian Welch

Nov 18, 2025
Stella Donnelly - Love and Fortune 2.jpeg
Nov 18, 2025
Stella Donnelly: Love and Fortune
Nov 18, 2025

New album: Finely crafted, stripped back musical simplicity combined with complex melancholic emotions mark out this beautiful, poetic, and deeply personal third folk-pop LP by the Australian singer-songwriter reflecting on the past and present

Nov 18, 2025
picture-parlour-the-parlour-album.jpeg
Nov 17, 2025
Picture Parlour: The Parlour
Nov 17, 2025

New album: Following last year’s EP Face in the Picture, a fabulously stylish, smart, swaggering glam-rock-pop debut LP by the Manchester-formed, London-based band fronted by the impressively raspy, gritty, vibratro delivery of Liverpudlian vocalist and guitarist Katherine Parlour and distinctive riffs from North Yorkshire-born guitar Ella Risi

Nov 17, 2025

new songs …

Featured
Flea - A Plea.jpeg
Dec 5, 2025
Song of the Day: Flea - A Plea
Dec 5, 2025

Song of the Day: A striking, powerful new single by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist (aka Michael Balzary), who brings a fusion of jazz and spoken word with a fabulous band on an impassioned number about the state of the US in a culture of hatred, social and political tensions, out now on Nonesuch Records

Dec 5, 2025
The Lemon Twigs - I've Got A Broken Heart.jpeg
Dec 4, 2025
Song of the Day: The Lemon Twigs - I've Got A Broken Heart
Dec 4, 2025

Song of the Day: Despite the title, this new double-A single (with Friday I’m Gonna Love You) has a wonderfully uplifting guitar-jangling beauty, with echoes of The Byrds and Stone Roses, but is of course the brilliant 60s and 70s retro sound of the Long Island brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, out on Captured Tracks

Dec 4, 2025
Alewya - Night Drive.jpeg
Dec 3, 2025
Song of the Day: Alewya - Night Drive (featuring Dagmawit Ameha)
Dec 3, 2025

Song of the Day: A sensual, stylish, dreamy electro-pop single by the striking British singer-songwriter, producer, multidisciplinary artist and model Alewya Demmisse, musically influenced by her rich Ethiopian-Egyptian heritage and early childhood upbringings in Saudi Arabia and Sudan

Dec 3, 2025
Rule 31 Single Artwork.jpg
Dec 2, 2025
Song of the Day: Radio Free Alice - Rule 31
Dec 2, 2025

Song of the Day: Stirring, passionate indie postpunk by the band based in Melbourne, Australia, with echoes of The Cure’s core sound, new wave, and 90s indie-rock influences, and out on Double Drummer

Dec 2, 2025
Sailor Honeymoon - Armchair.jpeg
Dec 1, 2025
Song of the Day: Sailor Honeymoon - Armchair
Dec 1, 2025

Song of the Day: Catchy, punchy, fuzz-guitar indie rock with a droll lyrical delivery and some echoes of Wet Leg come in this new single by the trio from Seoul, South Korea, out on Good Good Records

Dec 1, 2025
Ellie O'Neill.jpeg
Nov 30, 2025
Song of the Day: Ellie O'Neill - Bohemia
Nov 30, 2025

Song of the Day: A beautiful, poetic finger-picking debut folk single with a mystical, distantly stormy twist by the Dublin-based Irish singer-songwriter from County Meath, out now on St Itch Records

Nov 30, 2025
Danalogue.jpeg
Nov 29, 2025
Song of the Day: Danalogue - Sonic Hypnosis
Nov 29, 2025

Song of the Day: A full flavour of future-past with mesmeric, euphoric retro acid house and electronica in this new single by Daniel Leavers, producer and the founding member of The Comet Is Coming and Soccer96, out now on Castles In Space

Nov 29, 2025
Cardinals band.jpeg
Nov 28, 2025
Song of the Day: Cardinals - Barbed Wire
Nov 28, 2025

Song of the Day: Another striking, passionate, punchy, catchy single by the Irish postpunk/indie-folk-rock band from Cork, heralding their upcoming debut album, Masquerade, out on 13 February via So Young Records

Nov 28, 2025
Frank-Popp-Ensemble and Paul Weller.jpeg
Nov 27, 2025
Song of the Day: Frank Popp Ensemble (with Paul Weller) - Right Before My Eyes
Nov 27, 2025

Song of the Day: A strong, soaring, emotive, soulful release by the German artist co-written by British singer and former Jam frontman who here sings and plays guitar, the lyrics about witnessing the increasing injustices and demise of the world, out on Unique Records / Schubert Music Europe

Nov 27, 2025
Tessa Rose Jackson - Fear Bangs The Drum 2.jpeg
Nov 26, 2025
Song of the Day: Tessa Rose Jackson - Fear Bangs The Drum
Nov 26, 2025

Song of the Day: Using a musical metaphor, beautiful, crisply rhythmical, soaring piano and atmospheric indie-pop-folk about facing your fears by the Dutch/British singer-songwriter, heralding her forthcoming new album The Lighthouse, out on 23 January 2026 on Tiny Tiger Records

Nov 26, 2025
Melanie Baker - Sad Clown.jpeg
Nov 25, 2025
Song of the Day: Melanie Baker - Sad Clown
Nov 25, 2025

Song of the Day: Catchy, candid, cathartic indie-grunge-pop by the British singer-songwriter from Cumbria in a melancholy but oddly uplifting emotional work-through of depression, love and exhaustion, out now on TAMBOURHINOCEROS

Nov 25, 2025
Holly Humberstone - Die Happy.jpeg
Nov 24, 2025
Song of the Day: Holly Humberstone - Die Happy
Nov 24, 2025

Song of the Day: Luxuriant, breathy, femme-fatale dream pop with a dark, southern gothic, Lana del Rey-inspired, live-fast-die-young theme, and stylish video by the 25-year-old British singer-songwriter from Grantham, out on Polydor/Universal

Nov 24, 2025

Word of the week

Featured
Hangover.jpeg
Dec 4, 2025
Word of the week: crapulence
Dec 4, 2025

Word of the week: A term that may apply regularly during Xmas party season, from the from the Latin crapula, in turn from the Greek kraipálē meaning "drunkenness" or "headache" pertains to sickness symptoms caused by excess in eating or drinking, or general intemperance and overindulgence

Dec 4, 2025
Running shoes and barefoot.jpeg
Nov 20, 2025
Word of the week: discalceate
Nov 20, 2025

Word of the week: A rarely used, but often practised verb, especially when arriving home, it means to take off your shoes, but is also a slightly more common adjective meaning barefoot or unshod, particularly for certain religious orders that wear sandals instead of shoes. But in what context does this come up in song?

Nov 20, 2025
autumn-red-leaves.jpeg
Nov 6, 2025
Word of the week: erythrophyll
Nov 6, 2025

Word of the week: A seasonally topical word relating to the the red pigment of tree leaves, fruits and flowers, that appears particularly when changing in autumn, as opposed to the green effect of chlorophyll, from the Greek erythros for red, and phyll for leaves. But what of songs about this?

Nov 6, 2025
Fennec fox 2.jpeg
Oct 22, 2025
Word of the week: fennec
Oct 22, 2025

Word of the week: It’s a small pale-fawn nocturnal fox with unusually large, highly sensitive ears, that inhabits from African and Arab deserts areas from Western Sahara and Mauritania to the Sinai Peninsula. But has it ever been seen in a song?

Oct 22, 2025
Narrowboat.jpeg
Oct 9, 2025
Word of the week: gongoozler
Oct 9, 2025

Word of the week: A fabulous old English slang term for someone who tends to stand or sit for long periods staring at the passing of boats on canals, sometimes with a derogatory or at least ironic use for someone who is useless or lazy. But what of songs about this activity and culture?

Oct 9, 2025

Song Bar spinning.gif