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Picture, practice and pitch: songs about perfection

February 17, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Evolution’s purest clickbait: kitten in field

Nothing’s ideal, no one’s impeccable, nothing’s completely pure, but this week it’s time to search for the beautifully formed, the perfectly pitched, the adorably flawless and more as the lyrical focus. Or that’s the plan …

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, drone, 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, songs, ska, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags perfection, songs, playlists, Immanuel Kant, David Berman, Silver Jews, Leonard Cohen, Aristotle, Margaret Atwood, Anais Nin, Oscar Wilde, Stradivarius, Bechstein, Les Paul, Martin Guitars, Blüthner, Bösendorfer, Leonardo Da Vinci, George Best, Ronnie O'Sullivan, football, snooker, sport, Bob Marley, Leo Tolstoy, Jeannette Walls, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, Salvador Dali, Voltaire, Taylor Swift, Ada Lovelace, Audrey Hepburn, Sylvia Plath, paul simon, Simon & Garfunkel
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Song Bar Fifth Birthday Special: Playlists – songs about jukeboxes

February 17, 2021 Peter Kimpton
Give it a Wurl

Give it a Wurl

Early blues juke joints to big band jazz, 1950s rock’n’ roll to disco, punk, pop and later experimental music, with the Landlord’s playlists picked from reader nominations, we celebrate five years of Song Bar with numbers about this mechanical mind palace

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In dance, country, disco, electronica, funk, folk, indie, instrumentals, jazz, music, musical hall, playlists, pop, postpunk, punk, rock, songs, soul, traditional, blues Tags songs, playlists, jukeboxes, Wurlitzer, Seeburg, John Barry, Boy Green, Teresa Brewer, Dixieland All Stars, Tammy Wynette, June Carter, Olivia Newton-John, Roy Orbison, Connie Francis, Silver Jews, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Stray Cats, Jackson 5, B-52s, David Lee Roth, J Jordenson Bluegrass Band, Van Halen, The Jam, The Fall, The Pogues, Ani di Franco, Shannon McNally, Joan Jett, Suzi Quatro, Tina Turner, Barry Blue, Dave Edmunds, The Rubettes, Adam and the Ants, Alan Vega, Jackie Leven, Saint Etienne, Pete & The Pirates, Rickie Lee Jones, Fred Buscaglione, Serge Gainsbourg, Dorothy Dandridge, Glenn Miller, Gene Pitney, Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, James Taylor, Ella Fitzgerald, Jason Molina, Ellis Paul, Penguin Cafe Orchestra
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Not playlists? Yes playlists: songs with misleading or incongruous titles

December 5, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Scott Walker. Wave goodbye to any Manhattan meaning

Scott Walker. Wave goodbye to any Manhattan meaning

Not a single song has anything to do with what it says on the tin. But after many wonderful wrongfooting nominations, brilliant guest playlister Olive Butler puts them in an entertaining form of order

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In blues, comedy, dance, country, disco, dub, folk, electronica, indie, instrumentals, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, songs, soul Tags songs, playlists, Badfinger, Robert Plant, Of Montreal, Throbbing Gristle, Scott Walker, The Beach Boys, Burning Spear, The American Analog Set, Silver Jews, Tom Lehrer, Joe Henry, Half Man Half Biscuit, Morrissey, Stereolab, Smashing Pumpkins, Steely Dan, The Monkees, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Prefab Sprout, Cabaret Voltaire, Brian Eno, English Dogs, Gary Moore, Joy Division, Olive Butler, Primitive Radio Gods, Thee More Shallows
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Take a deep breath: songs with arresting opening lines

July 27, 2017 Peter Kimpton
The art of the opening

The art of the opening

Profound statements to emotional exclamations, sexual provocation to oddball situation, suggest your favourite and outstanding starter lyrics as we examine a host of musical and literary examples at the bar

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Tags songs, lyrics, opening lines, books, Dodie Smith, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, Rose Macaulay, George Orwell, Stephen Crane, LP Hartley, Iain Banks, The Carpenters, Chuck D, Public Enemy, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Suede, Brett Anderson, Roy Orbison, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Silver Jews, LL Cool J, Beck, Julian Cope, The Teardrop Explodes, The Fall, Mark E Smith, Bob Dylan, The Bee Gees, Barry Gibb, The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello, Morrissey, The Smiths, Paul Simon, St Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner, Shaun Ryder, The Happy Mondays, Mucclusky, Prince, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, The Pogues, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, The Doors
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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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Playlists: songs about chance and coincidence

March 1, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Turning a final corner … George Michael

Turning a final corner … George Michael

Crossing The Streets and serendipity, to turning different corners with George Michael, this week's guest writer Maki takes his chance with not entirely random nominations to create inevitably perfect playlists 

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Tags songs, playlists, chance, coincidence, The Streets, Peter Hammill, Dory Previn, Barenaked Ladies, Jake Thackray, Lise Hvoslef, George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Public Enemy, Paris, Big Country, Megson, Al Stewart, Silver Jews, dBs, John Martyn, Momoiro Clover Z, The Grateful Dead, Guy Clark, Brother to Brother, Funkadelic, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, Strangelove, I Am Kloot, U2, Maki, Bill Bryson
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Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

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CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY


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DRINK OF THE WEEK

Prune juice


SNACK OF THE WEEK

celery sticks in guacamole dip


New Albums …

Featured
Gia Margaret - Singing.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Gia Margaret: Singing
Apr 28, 2026

New album: Gently profound, and full of wondrous, mesmeric, slow, delicate experimental songs, this simple title has a powerful resonance – it is the Chicago artist’s first vocal album since 2018’s There’s Always Glimmer (there have been two instrumental LPs since), having suffered and recovered from a severe vocal injury, she returns with a delicate, candid, whispery but hauntingly beautiful delivery

Apr 28, 2026
Angel In Plainclothes by Angelo De Augustine.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Angelo De Augustine: Angel in Plainclothes
Apr 28, 2026

New album: A beautiful, delicate fifth LP from the Los Angeles singer-songwriter, friend and collaborator with Sufjan Stevens with whom he shares a stylistic resemblance, here with themes on life's fragility, second chances, and picking up the pieces after an undiagnosed illness forced him to re-learn basic abilities

Apr 28, 2026
Carla dal Forno - Confession.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Carla dal Forno: Confession
Apr 28, 2026

New album: This lo-fi, darkly minimalist but also oddly candid fourth LP by the Australian, Castlemaine-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist centres on the conflicted, obsessive feelings about “a friendship that became emotionally charged in an unexpected way”, and “an album about closeness that arrives late and unexpectedly. About stability rubbing up against desire.”

Apr 28, 2026
Friko - Something Worth Waiting For album.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
Friko: Something Worth Waiting For
Apr 26, 2026

New album: Passionate, powerful, dynamic indie rock in this sophomore LP by the Chicago-based quartet that gallops forwards with a driving momentum, some elements of early PJ Harvey and Radiohead, and is produced by John Congleton

Apr 26, 2026
White Denim - 13.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
White Denim: 13
Apr 26, 2026

New album: This 13th LP in two decades by the Austin, Texas rock band fronted by James Petralli has a particularly mischievous experimentalism, spreading styles far beyond breathlessly paced prog rock, with wrily humorous, surreal, personal and passionate numbers across heavy funk, dub, soul, psyche, country, dirty blues and more, joined by host of outstanding extra musicians

Apr 26, 2026
Asili ya Mama by Hukwe Zawose Foundation.jpeg
Apr 24, 2026
Hukwe Zawose Foundation: Asili ya Mama
Apr 24, 2026

New album: Wonderfully evocative field recordings release of Wagogo, Waluguru and Wasambaa Tanzanian women singing traditional songs in their villages, rarely heard outside of their own circles, the title is translated as The Origin of Mother, rich in stories and capturing the place where song is first learned, first felt, first shared

Apr 24, 2026
They Might Be Giants - The World Is To Dig.jpeg
Apr 23, 2026
They Might Be Giants - The World Is To Dig
Apr 23, 2026

New album: Four decades since their self-titled debut, Brooklyn alternative rockers John Flansburgh and John Linnell return with their 24th LP, packed with of punchy, pacy, wistful, whimsical, clever wordplay and indie rock-pop, buoyantly satirical and also a little world weary at times, they remain oddball, lively commentators on the ongoing absurdity of life

Apr 23, 2026
Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine.jpeg
Apr 22, 2026
Eaves Wilder: Little Miss Sunshine
Apr 22, 2026

New album: After 2023’s Hookey EP, a strong, passionate indie-dream-pop-shoegaze full debut by the London singer-songwriter, whose breathy voice intertwines with strong, stirring riffs and textured sounds, themed around cycles of nature aiming to explain and celebrate the mercurial nature of human emotional weather

Apr 22, 2026
Honey Dijon - The Nightlife.jpeg
Apr 22, 2026
Honey Dijon: The Nightlife
Apr 22, 2026

New album: The irrepressible, prolific and charismatic London-based Chicago DJ, musician, producer and vinyl lover returns with a flamboyantly fun celebration of club and queer culture through the prism of dance music from disco to house, with a wide variety of guest vocalists

Apr 22, 2026
Tiga - HOTLIFE.jpeg
Apr 21, 2026
Tiga: HOTLIFE
Apr 21, 2026

New album: Montreal’s acclaimed electronica/techno/dance artist Tiga Sontag returns with his fourth album - inventively packed with head-nodding, toe-tapping, oddly itchy, infectious grooves, cleverly crafted retro sounds recalling Kraftwerk to acid house and electroclash, insistent bold beats and synth riffs, with lyrics of the existential, droll and surreal

Apr 21, 2026
Tomora - Come Closer.jpg
Apr 20, 2026
TOMORA: Come Closer
Apr 20, 2026

New album: A striking, dynamic collaboration between Norwegian experimental pop sensation Aurora and Tom Rowlands, one of half of Chemical Brothers, with a sensual, otherworldly energetic fusion of mystical, sensual ambience, and block-rocking dance beats

Apr 20, 2026
Jessie Ware - Superbloom.jpeg
Apr 20, 2026
Jessie Ware: Superbloom
Apr 20, 2026

New album: Following 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good!, as well as the successful food podcast Table Manners she hosts alongside her mother, the British pop singer continues to ride the 70s disco ball train, catering to the clever, kitsch and catchy with an ironic wink, adding also a luxuriant garden metaphor

Apr 20, 2026
Evergreen In Your Mind by Juni Habel.jpeg
Apr 16, 2026
Juni Habel: Evergreen In Your Mind
Apr 16, 2026

New album: Exquisite, delicate, ethereal finger-picking folk by the Norwegian singer-songwriter in this third album, one that poetically and musically inhabits a mysterious half-dream state flitting between two worlds

Apr 16, 2026
Gretel - Squish.jpeg
Apr 16, 2026
Gretel: Squish
Apr 16, 2026

New album: After several years of excellent EPs and singles such as Drive, a much anticipated and strong rock-pop debut by the London singer-songwriter who delivers catchy, energising numbers, here themed around wanting the warmly craved feelings of love, lust and relationships, but also finding overwhelming of being squashed and consumed by them

Apr 16, 2026

new songs …

Featured
Jim Ghedi - The Hungry Child single.jpeg
Apr 28, 2026
Song of the Day: Jim Ghedi - The Hungry Child
Apr 28, 2026

Song of the Day: Dark, gripping, visceral folk by the Sheffield singer-songwriter, with a striking number based on an early 19th-century German poem about the fatal story of a child pleading for food, and, following last year’s acclaimed album, Wasteland, also out on Basin Rock, it heralds his upcoming soundtrack for the Hugh Jackman film, The Death of Robin Hood.

Apr 28, 2026
holybones with Baxter Dury - SLUGBOY.jpg
Apr 27, 2026
Song of the Day - holybones (with Baxter Dury) - SLUGBOY
Apr 27, 2026

Song of the Day: Dark, unsettling, sleazy and strange, this is arrestingly vivid new collaborative single between the clandestine London electronic collective and the downbeat, deep-voiced poetic Londoner, out on Promised Land Recordings

Apr 27, 2026
Hand Habits - Good Person.jpeg
Apr 26, 2026
Song of the Day: Hand Habits - Good Person
Apr 26, 2026

Song of the Day: Gentle, droll, humorously self-deprecatingly, and also delicately beautiful, this new experimental folk single by the moniker of Los Angeles singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Meg Duffy addresses the love-hate relationship with making music, out on Fat Possum

Apr 26, 2026
Pigeon - Miami.jpeg
Apr 25, 2026
Song of the Day: Pigeon - Miami
Apr 25, 2026

Song of the Day: Catchy, sunny, upbeawt indie synth-pop with an African twist by the Margate band fronted by Falle Nioke, with flavours of William Onyeabor, Hot Chip and New York 70s disco, heralding their upcoming album OUTTANATIONAL, out on 1 May via Memphis Industries

Apr 25, 2026
Tricky - Out of Place.jpeg
Apr 24, 2026
Song of the Day: Tricky - Out of Place (featuring Marta Złakowska)
Apr 24, 2026

Song of the Day: A pulsating fusion of beats, orchestral strings and the Bristol trip-hop pioneer’s distinctive, deep, croaky voice, with an emotional reference to his daughter Mina Topley-Bird (1995–2019), and heralding his first solo album for six years, Different When It’s Silent, out on 17 June via False Idols

Apr 24, 2026
Beck - Ride Lonsome.jpeg
Apr 23, 2026
Song of the Day: Beck - Ride Lonesome
Apr 23, 2026

Song of the Day: Beautiful, simmering, slow, melancholy and reflective, a surprise single and welcome return by the acclaimed US artist, evoking the haunting, sun-bleached landscapes and musical textures of his 2015 Grammy winning album Morning Phase, out now on Iliad Records/Capitol Records

Apr 23, 2026
Gelli Haha - Klouds.jpeg
Apr 22, 2026
Song of the Day: Gelli Haha - Klouds Will Carry Me To Sleep
Apr 22, 2026

Song of the Day: Described appropriately as somewhere between Studio 42 and Area 51, eccentric, effervescent, spacey, catchy and eclectic disco pop by the Los Angeles artist (aka Angel Abaya, co-written with Sean Guerin) out on Innovative Leisure

Apr 22, 2026
Leenalchi band 2.jpeg
Apr 21, 2026
Song of the Day: LEENALCHI 이날치 - Here Comes That Crow 떴다 저 가마귀
Apr 21, 2026

Song of the Day: Wonderfully catchy, funky, psychedelic and quirky new work by the seven-piece Seoul-based Korean pansori band led by bassist Jang Young Gyu with the title track of their new EP, out on 12 June via Luaka Bop, and heralding a European and North American tour

Apr 21, 2026
Jesca Hoop - Big Storm.jpeg
Apr 20, 2026
Song of the Day: Jesca Hoop - Big Storm
Apr 20, 2026

Song of the Day: Catchy, quirky experimental indie folk-pop by the innovative Manchester-based California artist, featuring a clever video that old footage and Hoop in various vintage guises, heralding her upcoming album Long Wave Home, out on 1 May via Last Laugh / Republic of Music

Apr 20, 2026
Gia Margaret - Singing.jpeg
Apr 19, 2026
Song of the Day: Gia Margaret - Alive Inside
Apr 19, 2026

Song of the Day: Delicate, dream-like, reflective experimental folk-pop by the American singer-songwriter and producer from Chicago, heralding her upcoming fourth album, Singing, out on Jagjaguwar

Apr 19, 2026
Prima Queen
Apr 18, 2026
Song of the Day: Prima Queen - Crumb
Apr 18, 2026

Song of the Day: Catchy, playful, gently humorous, self-deprecating experimental indie pop by the inventive transatlantic duo of Louise Macphail and Kristin McFadden, with a number about having a fragile crush on someone, and their first new music of 2026, out on Submarine Cat Records

Apr 18, 2026
Olivia Rodrigo - You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.jpeg
Apr 17, 2026
Song of the Day: Olivia Rodrigo - Drop Dead
Apr 17, 2026

Song of the Day: A bright, shimmering, effervescent, soaring new single by the American pop superstar, with stylistic parallels to Chappell Roan and ABBA, heralding her upcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, out on 12 June via Geffen

Apr 17, 2026

Word of the week

Featured
Song thrush 2.jpeg
Apr 23, 2026
Word of the week: throstle
Apr 23, 2026

Word of the week: An archaic, evocative noun with two connected meanings, originally for the song thrush, then later a textiles industrial frame for spinning, twisting and winding machine for cotton, wool, and other fibres simultaneously

Apr 23, 2026
Undine - Novella.jpeg
Apr 9, 2026
Word of the week: undine
Apr 9, 2026

Word of the week: It might sound like the act of abstaining from food, but this noun from derived from undina (Latin unda) meaning wave, refers to mythical, elemental beings associated with water, such as mermaids, and stemming from the alchemical writings of the 16th-century Swiss physician, alchemist and philosopher Paracelsus

Apr 9, 2026
Veena player.jpg
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
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

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