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From 1920s speakeasy …
Even in the face of despair, it’s something in our DNA, focusing on the unknown immediate or distant future, where there's a feeling, a desire, a belief, or confidence that something good might happen that can be expressed in all sorts of lyrics and stories
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Round and round: a timeless track coming up from Signs of Life by Penguin Cafe Orchestra …
Space, time, the rhythms of life, expressions of the divine, love? Eternity in its many permutations is to be found in these captivating playlists picked by guest ajostu, inspired by the near-endless nominations from last week’s topic
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Forever falling upwards down MC Escher’s stairs
How to we capture or express it? Through love, art, death, heaven, hell or other forms? Particularly song. This week’s largely lyrical topic ponders on the forever, the permanent, the endless and goes to infinity and beyond …
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Evelyn Glennie in action. She makes an even younger arrival on this week’s lists …
Marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, balafon and more, from 1930s jazz heyday to the present, from full fusion to bare bones tradition and across every imaginable genre, guest Nilpferd feels the vibes with a wonderful range of playlists picked from last week’s topic
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Marimba or xylophone vibes? Name that instrument ….
What ideas strike you? Let’s explore the prominent playing of hand hammer- or mallet-hit idiophones, metallophones and chordophones, from xylophones, vibraphones, glockenspiels, balafons, marimbas, including hammered dulcimers and steel drums
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Earth, Wind, Fire and a whole lot more to be thankful for …
A truly upbeat and positive way to start off 2022, a deliciously mix of disco, funk and pop, folk and more from Detroit to Scotland, Chile to Africa and beyond, picked by guest DJ PopOff! from last week’s many song suggestions
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This week it’s half full
From formal politeness and etiquette to the deeply unexpressed and private, it’s time to find all forms of thankfulness in song form, covering a range of subject matter, from the self to others, simplicity in nature to wider society
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What’s eating you, eh? “Uh-oh, here we go again,” says the ouroboros
This week it’s time to look back at 2021, and with a wry introduction here, various events, stories, and experiences, and so to share favourite music that came out, was newly discovered, topics enjoyed and thoughts on 2022
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British and German troops buck tradition, but also honour it, during the Christmas Day truce of 1914, to play football instead of war
Ancient religions to strange festivals, drinking rituals to counting sheep to chasing cheeses, small slices of history to long formed social behaviour, enjoy wonderful stories and playlists picked by guest Marco den Ouden from last week’s topic
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The Unthanks
Canny! Champion! Famous sons and daughters of Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and beyond bring a beautiful, humorous and moving portrait of this charismatic region, picked with a huge write-up, rich in historical and musical reference, by guest playlister Alaricmc
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Central Newcastle with the Gateshead Sage music venue on the left
Songs that capture the character and style, landmarks, culture, people and history for the area that’s defined by the likes of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Durham, Darlington, Northumberland and more
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La Foule: Edith Piaf sings to an enraptured gathering in 1951
Forming an orderly queue or going mob-handed in an unruly bunch, it’s time to join the throng in enjoying these fabulous selections by guest Loud Atlas, picked from an even bigger crowd of numbers from last week’s topic
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It’s Coney Island, baby
Good mass gatherings to bad, random or organised, peaceful marches to riots, gigs, sports events, and even songs that feature crowd noises, join the in-crowd and suggest your songs that describe and capture the behaviour of the collective conscious
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Put your hands together for these tasty playlist treats ….
Coconuts to nutmeg and kandy corn, peanuts to pistachio to pecans, the seed store has been filled up to the brim with tasty musical treats from last week’s topic, picked and served up in a delicious set of lists by clever top nut Tatanka Yotanka
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Time to get nutty
What’s the crack? This week we’re taking on a tasty topic of these edible forms of shelled fruit, from peanuts to coconuts, pecans, pistachios to walnuts, pumpkin seeds and more, as the primary subject or prominently mentioned in lyrics
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She’ll wait, but it finally brings her turn: Rhiannon Giddens
When is it coming? When do you want it? Now? After waves of nominations, tomorrow comes in many parties and parts, in imagination, on the clock, in emotions, and more, in a mammoth collection of clever categories chosen by guest playlister Nicko
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Tomorrow’s World - 1970s science TV programme from the past about the future
It’s linked to today and yesterday, but the anticipation or idea of tomorrow is the focus, and in this theme, not just word that appears somewhere in lyrics, but plays a central or prominent role or within it, expresses in many ways
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Flash, brash and bulging with talent: Grandmaster Melle Mel with the Furious Five
Bombastic braggadocio to self-applauding swagger, sexual prowess and stamina to super-clever slick, non-stop self-description, guest playlister ShivSidecar picks supremely sharp and entertaining sets of songs from early rock’n’roll to soul, hip hop and beyond
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Look no further. The greatest. Muhammad Ali
This week, from lyrical non-ironic self-proclamation to nuanced false narrators, a brimming edition of self-aggrandisement with a dash of arrogance, of big-headed and bombastic braggadocio, of cockiness, conceited crowing and crazed confidence, with a dollop of self-delusion …
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We are family …
Huge size, unusual grace and beauty to how humans behave towards them, reggae to rock, pop, folk and jazz, classical and traditional, guest Severin took on a mammoth task from all the nominations to create great playlists to trumpet about
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