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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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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
Sam Grassie - Where Two Hawks Fly.jpeg
Apr 29, 2026
Sam Grassie: Where Two Hawks Fly
Apr 29, 2026

New album: Beautiful debut LP by the London-based Glaswegian fingerstyle folk guitarist and singer-songwriter, with added saxophone, double bass, flute, clairsach and clarinet in a release of mostly the traditional, covers, sung or instrumental, and supported by the Bert Jansch Foundation

Apr 29, 2026
Irmin Schmidt - Requiem.jpeg
Apr 29, 2026
Irmin Schmidt: Requiem
Apr 29, 2026

New album: A strangely mesmeric, avant-garde and analogue-ambient, field recording-based experimental release by the last surviving founding member of experimental ‘krautrock’ band CAN, who, approaching the age of 89, has also written over 40 TV and film scores

Apr 29, 2026
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

new songs …

Featured
Alewya - Saleh.jpeg
Apr 30, 2026
Song of the Day: Alewya - Selah
Apr 30, 2026

Song of the Day: Striking, stylishly agile electronica and dance with a rich African and Arabian influence by the London-based British singer-songwriter, producer, multidisciplinary artist and model Alewya Demmisse, heralding her upcoming album, Zero, out on 26 June via LDN Records

Apr 30, 2026
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Apr 29, 2026
Song of the Day: Metric - Crush Forever
Apr 29, 2026

Song of the Day: Uplifting, effervescent electro-disco-pop by the Toronto indie rock band, with a song vocalist/keyboardist Emily Haines describes as “my love letter to strong girls in this world”, taken from their recently released 10th album, Romanticize the Dive, out on Metric Music via Thirty Tigers

Apr 29, 2026
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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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