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Are you watching? The musical and visual chemistry of Breaking Bad
Sometimes the visual and audible become inextricable. From nostalgia to drama, guest of the week Loud Atlas channels nominations from last week’s TV topic into playlists that are must-sees and required listening
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Charlotte Moorman performing Nam June Paik’s TV Cello, New York, 1971
From themes to incidental music, it’s time to tune in for songs inextricably linked, either because it began life written for a TV programme, or later became indelibly associated with something on the box
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Go!: The Go! Team
It’s positive, infectious, subjective yet strangely magical in effect. Spread across the genres and inspired by last week’s topic, ParaMhor brings his superb selection of music that will brighten your day and put a spring in your step
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It's highly subjective, but we're throwing out there what songs, or pieces, give you that big physical or mental boost. So, what music puts a pep in your step? What pushes out the puissance, releases the pizzazz, flows the juice, brings vim, vitality, vigour, zest, zing or the zip?
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Captain Beefheart … of course
Prepare for a journey into the unknown and deeply strange. Whether in lyrics or musical sound or structure, guest playlister severin leads us through canticular caverns of wonder, inspired by last week’s topic
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Japanese gramophone puzzle
A two-fold topic: first we’re seeking songs that initially produce a mix of incomprehension, wonder, bafflement, bewilderment, mystification, and game-changer amazement, or those about puzzles themselves, jigsaws and other mental and physical solution-solving challenges
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Pizzicato Five
Sublime beauty to kick-ass cool, serene traditional to urban punk and pop, Japan’s got the lot. Inspired by last week’s topic and nominations, guest ajostu picks some personal favourites to capture the breadth of this country’s musical treasure trove
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Sleeve of Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll – by Julian Cope (2007)
It’s a huge market for the industry, inspired by outsider music, and this extraordinary land also delivers much of its own, but what songs captures the essence of Japanese people and culture? Here’s a tiny dish of metaphorical sushi to get your tastebuds tingling ….
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Palace of Versailles courtyard
Real, fictional or metaphorical, these grand buildings have found inspiration across musical genres, opening the drawbridge to many fabulous narratives and sounds. Inspired by last week’s topic, guest Marco den Ouden takes us on a grand tour
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Osaka Castle, Japan …
Locations of fairytales, but also history’s fighting, symbols of great power, wealth but also inequality, they exude permanence but invite invasion and crumble in time. Real, fictional or metaphorical, it’s time to lower the drawbridge, explore and find the right keys …
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Underdog under dog
From the financially underprivileged to the militarily outnumbered, sporting longshots to those barred by the race, from last week’s topic suggestions, guest Loud Atlas’ powerful picks show how the apparent minnows can become mighty
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Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, was complete underdog when he faced Sonny Liston in the shock defeat of 1964
You’ll find them in real life or fiction, history and myth, sport, music, school, prison, books or film, but the arc of the underdog always inspires emotions and makes for a great story. How is it conveyed in song?
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On your deck …
Comfort, solitude, danger, voyeurism, power, inspiration, work or versatility? They can mean many things, and inspired by last week's topic, guest DiscoMonster plays marvellous musical chairs that sit across all tastes and styles
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Lounge lizard
We live much of our waking lives in them – working and socialising, swivelling to dining to reclining, sofas and couches, ornate thrones to humble stools, beanbags, pouffes, to the office, barber’s, dentist’s and beyond, but how do they sit up in song?
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Funkadelic: forever expansive
They're almost alway more expansive than the 7-inch versions, and this week guest DiscoMonster chooses albums cuts is simply far more satisfying experience, musically and lyrically, inspired by last week's topic
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When does album version make for a more beautifu listen?
There may be many reasons – it might be length, the edit, mix, the build, coda, narrative arc, solos, sections, and overall sound experience or meaning, but where, when there's a difference, does the LP version of a song sound better than the its 7-inch version?
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Mush! The team all pulled together, leading to these splendid songs …
Stunning sights and sounds that will melt your heart, but hopefully not too much of the ice. From Siberia to Alaska, the Inuit to the Laps and beyond, Marco den Ouden takes us on a fabulous journey across the frozen north inspired by last week's topic
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WE are the walrus
Bleak and beautiful, songs of the North Pole and Arctic circle, Siberia, Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard and northern Canada, this week we're really up north, capturing, sights and sounds of a region where ice and snow are the norm
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Tricky Ricky …
Lookin' for trouble? Then you've found the right place. Lotharios, vamps, tramps and troublemakers are truly in force as guest of the week tincanman brings us a brilliantly badass selection inspired by last week's topic
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You simply don’t mess with Tura Satana, portraying Varla in 1965’s Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Ambiguous, mysterious, sexy, full of charm but also harm, they're the objects of obsession, as it's often unclear what the balance of good-bad may be. Fictional or real, famous or personal, let's find songs inspired by them ...
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