Well kept or run down, large or small, opulent or modest, houses and homes come in all shapes and sizes and see all the ups and downs of life. Inspired by last week’s topic, guest writer Barbryn creates playlists that will make you feel right at home

They hold stories and emotions, habits, laughs, lives and deaths, but how are they portrayed in song? From the personal to the political, it’s time see see how our homes will play out when they are foremost in lyrics …

Empires rise and crumble, but few on a scale as that of Ancient Rome. Following last week’s topic, guest playlister Marco den Ouden is inspired to create a musical arc to match Gibbon’s famous historical magnus opus

Gladiators to gods, togas to street names, emperors to orgies, invasions to inventions, it’s the empire that arguably has the most lasting effect and resonance with the present, but how is it referenced in song?

Cooking to chemistry, seafaring to salty tears and a sprinkling of sounds from across the world, from Alabama to Japan to the Middle East and Australia, guest playlister Nicko concocts a truly seasoned and tasty set of selections from last week’s topic

New album: A diversely eclectic, genre-hopping, powerfully emotional LP of soul, funk, hip-hop, rock, indie, country, house and pop by the Washington DC-based artist, produced by Jack Antonoff, with songs facing fears as a young young, queer, black person in rural America, and inspired by the likes of Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac, Teddy Pendergrass, and Neil Young

New album: Blistering second album of glamorous rock by the trio from Boulder, Colorado, fronted by singer-songwriter Demi Demitro, and produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, with powerful numbers about heartbreak, but also the volatile truth of being an artist in the music industry while still clinging to the teenage joy of instruments

New album: The veteran Welsh rockers’ 15th studio album delivers everything you’d expect - direct lyrics on big social and political themes, huge, surging melodies and powerful choruses, variously wistful, playful, angry, sincere, and even includes a slanted dedication to the Smiths with one of their strongest for years

New album: The Hackney, east London producer-vocalist and model, who presents a persona as evasive, oddball, deliberately obfuscating “20,000-year old” “alien”, releases an esoteric, at times beguiling debut of offbeat trip-hop, filled with talking, stream-of-consciousness vocals mixed variously with guitar, assorted samples and electronica, also co-produced by Kwes Darko and Flume

New album: Twinned with last summer’s LP DAYLIGHT, the duo of Scottish musician and the English soul singer return with the darkside – an absorbing adventure from dusk to dawn, with evocative, cinematic, experimental, old-school synths and electronica and McAlmont’s extraordinary, wide-ranging voice

Song of the Day: After yesterday’s number by Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, further, dark, menacing, alluring, experimental grunge-goth rock, this time by by the Berlin artist Anika Henderson, heralding her upcoming album Abyss, out on April 4, 2025 on Sacred Bones Records

Song of the Day: Dark, smoky, gothy, simmering, bizarre and Bowie-esque, the Bauhaus singer joins forces with old friend and the frontman of Nine Inch Nails, relating to the state of performer and audience, and heralding his upcoming album Silver Shade out on 9 May via Metropolis Records

Song of the Day: A new single of catchy, punchy dynamic electro-pop-rock by the couple duo of Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon (also adding meaty saxophone), heralding their new EP Eternal, out on Transgressive Records

Song of the Day: Delicate, exquisite, but melancholic new single by the Norwegian Stockholm-based singer and composer about the beauty of the natural world, and the grief involved with watching it slowly be erased. It heralds her forthcoming album The Bell Tower due out on 25 April via Bella Union

Song of the Day: A mix of melancholy with an uplifting shuffle colours this engaging latest single by the Philadelphia experimental pop band fronted by singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner heralding their upcoming For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), out on 21 March via Dead Oceans