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Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932)
The opposite to loneliness, this week songs are all about seeking, finding or enjoying being solitary in a happy, meditative, creative, or restorative state from the practical to blissful
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Miles Davis, 1973
Across the centuries and the genres, it’s been a loud, distinct and expressive instrument sounding events as well as many emotions. This week, from classical to jazz, pop and beyond, what does a great solo bring to song? Suggest your examples …
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A purr-fect day for comfort songs …
After last week's blast of Antarctica, it’s time to come in from the cold, with a lyrical and musical mood theme, focusing on anything - objects, clothing, food, drink or stories - that expresses feelings associated with cosiness and comfort
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Emperor penguins have quite a few stories to tell …
A place of brutal remote beauty, its icy vastness packed with extraordinary stories of exploration, endurance, bravery, tragedy, cruelty and irony, a cornerstone of scientific research, and of course of the hardiest survivors of the natural world – penguins and more. But what of song inspired by it?
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Buzzer time …
Deadlines are pressure points of human timing — social, romantic, political, existential. They define us, scare us, push us to move. With a clever crafted playlist picked from last week’s topic, guest Maki clocks what it all means
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But this one really can’t be put off, can it?
They are forced upon from an early age, and a key driver of human behaviour, a trick we play upon ourselves or others to get things done, but in song they have range of contexts and inspire all kinds of emotions
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Ageing gracefully in nature’s autumn cycle: Japanese maple
Getting older happens at all stages in life. Is it down to perception? And is age just a number? Hopefully yes, a musically number at least, as we invite your song suggestions on this theme …
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Doctor Steel and his robot band
How does it all add up? Is there any logic to it. There are thousands of songs that include numbers, but what about the very specific ones? Inspired by last week’s topic, see how it all took shape in this alternative Fibonacci sequence
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Fibonacci sequence is found in music and the natural world, but there are even stranger numbers out there …
From bingo to pi to Fibonacci and beyond, share, as well as vote for, your favourite as well as unknown and newly discovered, strange, obscure numbers as found in song lyrics and titles, highlighting the exact and untypical
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The following songs will teach us a few things about popularity, but this film has nothing to do with any of them …
Nominations came, and votes were cast. It’s something dreamed about in school, but can also bite back at you. Love, being in a band, to local or global fame, and its paradoxes, here are the results in playlist form …
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Venezuala’s Hugo Chávez, whose story is a colourfully flawed tale of popularity and popularism …
It’s something we might crave when young, but then find it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. But some pursue it all their lives. With stories packed with plots and emotion, it’s time to suggest, but also vote for others’ suggested songs to see what come out as the most popular …
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A pearler of a song with a space filled by Mitski …
Empty vessels of all kinds a waiting for contents - heads, hearts, bottles, places and many more besides, with a truly fulfilling, insightful and entertaining result in playlists supplied by guest Nicko from last week’s topic theme
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This week is not a quiz, but these are among many kinds of blanks that might be filled …
A page or a canvas, a mind to facial expression, there are all sorts of blanks in life, but paradoxically they can be drawn into something very creative. This week it’s time to fill in the voids and spaces with songs on that subject
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Feel it …
It comes in many forms - spiritual, emotional, physical, induced by social, chemical or other stimuli, and therefore can be expressed by many musical genres. Inspired by last week’s topic nomininations playlister MussoliniHeadkick takes us on a trip of blissful connectedness
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The face of ecstasy: detail from Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1652 sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa in Rome, and an acid house party in 1993
Whether its chemical and recreational to sexual, spiritual or even religious, music can take you back to an extraordinary high. This week’s theme a musical mood and feeling topic, but can also be a lyrical one …
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Gregory’s Girl (1980)
Distinctive smells, sights and stories, anxiety and awkwardness, comfort and routine, ambition and ordinariness, this week it’s time, after the holidays, to return to settings of routine and familiarity captured in song …
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Into the mix …
Midnight sun to marmalade skies, octarine to racing green, it’s a who’s who of hues - with guest playlister Loud Atlas mixes up inspiration from last week’s topic into something a shade different
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Fancy a game of colours? Vincent Van Gogh’s The Night Cafe, 1888
Alabaster, almond or amaranth, to zarqua, zinc or zomp? ‘Rhythm’ is also a colour name. This week it’s time to enjoy the music, poetry and imagery of obscure hues in lyrics. Feast your eyes and ears, and paint your imagination with suggestions …
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Who the Puck? A 1629 depiction of the traditional English and Celtic trickster
It’s everywhere in the modern world, particularly in politics, but the dark arts of the trickster have been around in folklore and mythology for thousands of years, so a starting point, let’s back to go forward …
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Songs pour out …
A fluid topic, fountains strike a deep emotional chord, while sometimes reflective and philosophical, cover a range from loneliness and sorrow to exaltation and celebration. Marco den Ouden turns on the the tap, inspired by the past week’s nominations
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