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A special shared space: songs about unusual or unexpected friendships

July 17, 2025 Peter Kimpton

A commemorative model of Apollo-Soyuz on 17th July 1975

To commemorate the Apollo-Soyuz space link up, exactly 50 years ago today, on 17th July 1975, let’s celebrate strange, unusual bonds of friendship in song lyrics and shake hands with the unexpected …

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In African, avant-garde, blues, bossa nova, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, music, metal, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, RnB, rock, rocksteady, samba, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks Tags Apollo-Soyuz, space travel, Space, science, history, William Blake, WB Yeats, Henry David Thoreau, Socrates, Somerset Maugham, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Huxley, Abraham Lincoln, A.A. Milne, Russia, America, Alexei Leonov, Thomas Stafford, TS Eliot, Groucho Marx, Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe, Helen Keller, Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel Beckett, André the Giant, animal behaviour, animals
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Less is more? Songs about decluttering, reducing, purging and tidying

March 13, 2025 Peter Kimpton

How my living room does not look

With spring cleaning possibly on the to-do list, practical and creative decluttering, not merely in the house, but all kinds of editing out, paring back, chiselling, sifting, trimming, shaving, scaling or downsizing, all expressed in song. Check out some experts’ tidy tips too…

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, easy listening, electronica, exotica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, krautrock, lounge, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional, trip hop Tags songs, playlists, tidying, decluttering, editing, reducing, William Morris, Nathan W. Morris, Socrates, Henry David Thoreau, Film, Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, poetry, Jules Verne, hoarding, Samuel Beckett, Francine Jay, Joshua Becker, Marie Kondō
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Aye, there's the rub: itchy 'n' scratchy songs

February 22, 2024 Peter Kimpton

Bear with us …

Let’s satisfy the itch across many musical surfaces with a multi-pronged backscratcher, not just on lyrical flesh, but also the tight skin of drums, wires, guitar strings, resonant idiophones or the hollow or solid wooden bodies of stringed instruments, and of course, using vinyl turntables …

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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, trip hop Tags songs, playlists, itching, scratching, Ogden Nash, Kingsley Amis, Iggy Pop, Marilyn Monroe, Michel de Montaigne, Socrates, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, Yoko Ono, Robert Penn Warren, CS Lewis, Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Fischinger, Paul Arma, Christian Marclay, Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, Shuichi Obata, turntables, Technics, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, The Slits, Viv Albertine, animals
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Toxic warning! Songs about poison

November 23, 2023 Peter Kimpton

The classic poisoner’s choice …

Natural or handmade, animal or chemical, fast or slow, murderous or accidental, we inhabit a world of toxins and venoms, but how are they expressed in song? With inspiration here, the more specific and colourful the better but there’s also the mental and metaphorical …

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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, psychedelia, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags poison, toxins, venoms, Paracelsus, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, Robert Graves, Ancient Rome, history, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, August Strindberg, Thomas De Quincey, Ben Okri, Derrick Rose, Nancy Astor, Winston Churchill, Marshall Pinckney Wilder, Socrates, China, Germany, Adolf Hitler, Russia, KGB, Mary Ann Cotton, Tori Telfer, Graham Young, William Palmer, crime, Jim Jones, India, Bhopal, animals, Jonathan Swift, Pliny The Elder, Saint Augustine, Marianne Williamson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Aeschylus, Henry Adams, Noam Chomsky, Henry A. Wallace, Richard Flanagan, MJ Carter, food, food industry, Umberto Eco, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Gustave Flaubert, George RR Martin, Game of Thrones, Cary Grant, Film, television
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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 …

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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 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
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The comet is coming: songs about rare events and experiences

February 2, 2023 Peter Kimpton

Some activities are rarer than others … Thomas Rowlandson’s satirical work of 1811

Looking up or down, from sights of rare astrological bodies to unusual encounters with unusual or unique people or events, from birth to death, it’s time to capture the rare in song form, from personal or universal perspectives

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, comets, asteroid, Space, Mark Twain, rare events, Battle of Hasting, William The Conqueror, 1066, Halley's Comet, Carl Sagan, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake, Socrates, Aeschylus, Violet Jessop, Unsinkable Sam, second world war, history, Vesna Vulović
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Court in the act: songs about judges and trials

October 20, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Sing out the scales of justice …

It’s time for the musical scales of justice to sing out as we explore songs about trials, short or long, from or about any perspective of those present, accused or accusers, jurors or judges, or even lawyers, as long as as the action is in court

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, law, judiciary, Socrates, George Herbert, Charles Dickens, George Chapman, Roe v Wade, US Supreme Court, Lord George Jeffries, Judge Judy, television, Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Court Cam, Lord Denning, Lord Wilberforce, Lady Hale, Ketanji Jackson, Peter Fonda, Film
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Playlists: songs about the meaning of life

October 11, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Some of this week’s house band …

Aristotelianism to absurdism, cynicism to nihilism to stoicism and more, this week’s musings on our existence come no shortage of great musicians as well as philosophers, thoughtfully chosen and superbly described by guest playlister Uncleben from last week’s theme

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, folk, experimental, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, playlists, postpunk, pop, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, philosophy, nihilism, stoicism, Aristotle, Diogenes, William James, Douglas Adams, existentialism, Epicurus, René Descartes, Socrates, The Weirdos, Clinton Fearon, Soul II Soul, Odyssey, Indigo Girls, Black Uhuru, The Shins, Rudy Vallee, Joy Ellis, Dr Alimantado, Propaganda, Liza Minnelli, Dionne Warwick, Buzzcocks, Villagers, Fontaines D.C., The Heptones, Penetration, Bruce Springsteen, Hitsujibungaku, Charlie Rich, Joe Higgs, Hex, Cabbage Boy, Band of Holy Joy, Blackalicious, The Wailers, Kurt Vonnegut, Plato, Abraham Lincoln, Uncleben, CLR James
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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 …

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, 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
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Spinal tap? Get back: songs about the vertebral column and neck

September 8, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Man Ray’s Le Violon d'Ingres (1924)

Human or animal, literal or metaphorical, spines slender, broad, sexy, defined, fat, muscular, hairy, strong, weak, in pain, broken, bent, tough, rough, rippling or tingling, in any context, it’s time to put our backs into this song subject

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, experimental, folk, funk, gospel, hip hop, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, musical hall, musicals, music, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, psychedelia, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, backs, spines, vertebrae, necks, biology, Man Ray, Socrates, Paramahansa Yogananda, Joseph Pilates, Agnetha Fältskog, Abba, Reba McEntire, St Vincent, Johnny Mercer, Eminem, evolution, apes, mammals, animals, slavery, American Civil War, Hippocrates, Denise Austin, Don Davis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Gabriel, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst, Don Henley, The Eagles, Kurt Cobain, Elizabeth Taylor, John Mellencamp, Flannery O'Connor, Angela Bassett
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There goes the neighbourhood: songs about the urban environment

March 17, 2022 Peter Kimpton

Urban jungle? A growing trend …

Ugly or beautiful, hostile or friendly, boring or dynamic, urban environments are where people live but they are constantly in flux. This week it’s time to get a different sense of place in this potentially vast subject that also can do into tiny detail

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, colours, country, dance, disco, drone, dub, electronica, folk, experimental, 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, cities, urban life, urban environments, urban sprawl, Italo Calvino, Charles Dickens, David Byrne, Socrates, Umberto Eco, Thomas Pynchon, Elliot Connor, Joan Didion, Cyril Connolly, John Steinbeck, Patrick Geddes, Christopher Morley, Philip K Dick, Bladerunner, books, Film, Bernard Herrmann, Toyko, Minoru Mukaiya
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Playlists: songs about wings

August 3, 2021 Peter Kimpton
Crane at sunset

Crane at sunset

Music on the magic of flight to the feathery movement of mythology and morality tales, beautiful murmurations to deadly war munitions, guest playlister Marco den Ouden marvellously spreads his wings from a vast array of song nominations

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In African, avant-garde, blues, calypso, classical, country, dance, disco, 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, soul, soundtracks, traditional Tags songs, playlists, Katrin Finch, Sekou Keita, Ziggy Marley, Elizabeth Mitchell, Hans Theesink, The Decemberists, Alan Parsons, Elton John, The D-Day Darlings, Cheap Trick, Joni Mitchell, Edgar Broughton Band, Morphine, Jimmy Buffett, Little Mix, Reverand Utah Smith, Everly Brothers, The Beatles, Barclay James Harvest, The Bells, Abba, Mr. Mister, Marlene Dietrich, Willie Nelson, Matt Anderson, Leon Russell, Malú, Julien Clerc, Peter Hammill, Anne Murray, BYU Women's Chorus, Eric Wiseacre, Nina Simone, Billie Eilish, Van Dyke Parks, Billie Jo Spears, Loretta Lynn, Anastacia, Tom Russell, Ruby and the Romantics, Patti Austin, Little Simz, Paul Robeson, Richard Thompson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Johnny Wiggs, Nils Frahm, Jean Luc Ponty, Mesa Music Consort, Johnny Hodges, Wild Bill Davis, Kitaro, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Socrates, Plato, Mohammed Ali, Salvador Dali, Marco den Ouden, Muhammad Ali
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Goodbye 2020: songs for the spirit of 2021

December 31, 2020 Peter Kimpton
And this bird must sing …

And this bird must sing …

Hope, fear, dreams, resolutions, giving the finger to 2020, but a welcome thumbs up to 2021? However you feel about this new chapter in the calendar of our lives, it’s time to express it in the form of song suggestions

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In African, blues, avant-garde, 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, new year, 2020, 2021, Emily Dickinson, TS Eliot, Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Covid-19, green energy, environment, racism, Black Lives Matter, Dr Seuss, Dale Carnegie, CS Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Johnson, George Eliot, Frank Sinatra, Socrates, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Coehlo, Vaclav Havel, Pliny The Elder, Cyril Cusack, James Brown, Bill Withers, Beak, Bing Crosby, Charles Brown, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, The Zombies
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Songs that contain words of wisdom, this week’s topic is

February 21, 2019 Peter Kimpton
Yoda. Seeing the lighter side

Yoda. Seeing the lighter side

This week we’re not being clever,, simply seeking wisdom in individual lyrics or across a whole song. From philosophers to musicians to authors, how is is it gained, through humility, experience, courage, or a just turn of phrase?

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In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, punk, prog, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, soul, soundtracks, songs, traditional Tags songs, playlists, wisdom, Confucius, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, The Beatles, Star Wars, Film, Yoda, philosophy, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, Aristotle, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Jane Austen, Patrick Rothfuss, Ernest Hemingway, George RR Martin, Leo Tolstoy, Voltaire, Mahatma Gandhi, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Isaac Asimov, Bob Dylan, Lao Tzu, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Dickens, Imam Al-Ghazali, Emerson, Rabindranath Tagore, Paul McCartney, Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Walter Lippmann, Frank Zappa, Charlie Parker, Cass McCombs, Molière, Francis Bacon, William Blake, Paulo Coelho
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All you need is: songs about platonic love

December 13, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Not so strange bedfellows: Eric and Ernie

Not so strange bedfellows: Eric and Ernie

The non-sexual, non-romantic sort is what makes up most of the love we experience in life, so whether that concerns real or fictional experiences, let’s define and explore it as expressed in song lyrics

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In blues, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, hip hop, indie, jazz, metal, music, musical hall, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul, traditional Tags songs, platonic love, love songs, Morecambe & Wise, Thyra Samter Winslow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oscar Wilde, relationships, friendship, family, animals, Plato, Socrates, philosophy, psychology, Georgios Gemistos (Plethon), Marsilio Ficino, William Davenant, Flight of the Conchords, The Mighty Boosh, Eddie Braben, Laurel & Hardy, Marx Brothers, The Likely Lads, comedy, Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, books, Film, Jane Austen, Jack Kerouac, Cervantes, Mark Twain, Withnail & I, Richard E Grant, Paul McGann, Easy Rider, Shaun of the Dead, The Odd Couple, Thelma & Louise, Star Trek, Mencius, Seneca, Euripides, Plutarch, CS Lewis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Marcel Proust, Jim Morrison
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Stand up for your mics: songs about equality

October 18, 2018 Peter Kimpton
Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 200m medal ceremony, Mexico 1968

Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 200m medal ceremony, Mexico 1968

Whatever the platform, the genre or message, this week we’re exploring the issue of equality, if not being the same, from gender to race, politics to work, how to get and if it’s even possible, all through lyrics

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In blues, classical, country, dance, disco, dub, electronica, folk, gospel, indie, instrumentals, jazz, metal, music, musicals, playlists, pop, postpunk, prog, punk, reggae, rock, rocksteady, showtime, ska, songs, soul Tags Songs, playlists, equality, politics, gender, race issues, sport, Black Power salute 1968, Tommie Smith, Olympic Games, Mexico, John Carlos, Peter Norman, Kurt Vonnegut, Keith Richards, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi, John le Carre, William Shakespeare, Mary Wollstonecraft, Bob Dylan, education, family, childhood, children, racism, Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, James Brown, suffrage, suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst, Millicent Fawcett, Charlotte Manning, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Ban Ki-moon, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Timothy Leary, William Golding, Socrates, Iris Murdoch, Pink, Peterloo Massacre, Manchester, Henry Hunt, Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy, Jimi Hendrix, Terry Eagleton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Harvey Milk, George Orwell, Winston Churchill, Waturu Watari, Honore de Balzac, Douglas Adams, Josh Homme
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Calm waters: songs about contentment and tranquility

March 16, 2017 Peter Kimpton
Cat contentment

Cat contentment

Want to escape from chaos to a state of stillness, simplicity and calm? This week we explore music and songs that aspire to, or express, a physical or mental place we can all yearn for

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Tags songs, happiness, contentment, calm, tranquility, animals, nature, Dale Carnegie, Socrates, Alfred Nobel, Lao Tzu, philosophy, Doug Larson, Donald Hall, poetry, William Wordsworth, James Thurber, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Florence Welch, Florence and the Machine, Buzz Aldrin, Earth, the moon, space, Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin, Erik Satie, piano music, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Greenwood, Radiohead, Film, film soundtrack, Scientology, religion, Jo Stafford, Elvis Presley, Artie Glenn
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Think on: songs about intelligence

December 1, 2016 Peter Kimpton

What does it mean and how does it feel to be clever, smart, savvy, canny, brainy, or have clout? Or the opposite? What is emotional and musical intelligence? It's time to play out these ideas in song

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Tags songs, intelligence, music, evolution, the brain, philosophy, science, animals, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Captain Beefheart, Happy Mondays, Socrates, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Ada Lovelace, Claudia Schiffer, Glenn Gould, JS Bach, Sherlock Holmes, Art Brut, ZZ Top, Barack Obama, Machiavelli, Salvador Dali, Charles Bukowski, George Orwell, Carl Jung, Carl Sagan, Maya Angelou, Mozart, Dinah Washington
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Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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