Get your kicks: songs about fun

April 29, 2021 Peter Kimpton

Jumping for joy? Goats. See the brown one? Reminds me of when I was a kid …

It comes in so many forms that this week’s topic has to mention fun, or its synonyms specifically, from getting your kicks to seeking your pleasure or leisure, frolic or merrymaking, carousing or joy. Let the games begin!

Going up? Songs about stairs, ladders, steps, elevators or escalators

August 2, 2018 Peter Kimpton

Perhaps these steps will lead you to the right key …

Steep, sweeping, stone, wood or metal? This week we're exploring how music give us a certain kind of lift – through lyrics that describe all ways to up or down, on foot or via mechanical means, actual or metaphorical

Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY

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DRINK OF THE WEEK
ROchester ginger

SNACK OF THE WEEK
crumpets with butter and Marmite

New Albums …

Featured

Nov 8, 2024

Primal Scream: Come Ahead

Nov 8, 2024

New album: Looking cool in shades, a 1960 photograph the father of frontman Bobby Gillespie decorates the band’s 12th LP, and their first for 8 years, serving very much as a inspiration with a Glaswegian phrase, but musically filled with 70s Philly soul and funk, and with the input of Belfast producer David Holmes, it’s one of PS’s most stylish for years

Nov 8, 2024

Soccer Mommy: Evergreen

Nov 8, 2024

New album: Wistful, melancholy, candid country-folk, but also punchier, passionate indie in this fourth LP by the American singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee – Sophia Regina Allison, with a release that goes back to her roots, but also adds some gentler acoustic guitars, strings and flutes

Nov 8, 2024

THUS LOVE: All Pleasure

Nov 8, 2024

New album: This second LP by the post-punk quartet self-style queer post-punk band from Brattleboro, Vermont, is pulsating, visceral, panache-filled, and themed about the so-called nourishing euphoria that comes from real-life experiences rather than easy-access digital dopamine hits

Nov 8, 2024

Nov 7, 2024

Tyler, the Creator: Chromakopia

Nov 7, 2024

New album: American rapper and producer Tyler Okonma’s eighth LP is an eclectic, electric, eccentric creation featuring his oddball masked persona, and addresses subjects such as fame, getting old, and with several songs featuring his mother Bonita Smith

Nov 7, 2024

Nov 6, 2024

Fionn Regan: O AVALANCHE

Nov 6, 2024

New album: A gorgeous sun-dappled, atmospheric seventh album recorded in Spain by the Irish singer-songwriter with a cinematic concept of songs of different sequences, moving backwards and forwards, and featuring actress Anna Friel on guest backing vocals

Nov 6, 2024

Nov 5, 2024

Peter Perrett: The Cleansing

Nov 5, 2024

New album: A golden late period by The Only Ones frontman continues with this third solo album, and having famously survived addictions, it muses on morbidity and other themes with a droll brilliance, aided guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie, and Carlos O’Connell of Fontaines DC

Nov 5, 2024

Nov 1, 2024

The Cure: Songs of a Lost World

Nov 1, 2024

New album: Powerful, moving and dark, on grief, loss and the passing of time, this milestone release by the British cult band of Robert Smith is their first LP of new songs for 16 years, but is worth the wait with its emotional depth and strength

Nov 1, 2024

Fievel Is Glauque: Rong Weicknes

Nov 1, 2024

New album: A beautifully quirky, unique cross-genre, melodic, meandering experimental release of surreal lyricism of jazz-folk-pop by the Belgian-US duo of Zach Phillips and Ma Clément joined by an ensemble of six other musicians

Nov 1, 2024

Oct 29, 2024

One True Pairing: Endless Rain

Oct 29, 2024

New album: A strikingly beautiful new LP by the Kendal singer-songwriter aka Tom Fleming, formerly of Wild Beasts, whose tender, high voice soars and also brings hushed tones across a gorgeous set of autumnal-feel songs, accompanied by inventive sounds on various acoustic instruments

Oct 29, 2024

Oct 28, 2024

Underworld: Strawberry Hotel

Oct 28, 2024

New album: The veteran techno rave and electronica king pair Karl Hyde and Rick Smith return with one of their finest LPs of the 11 to date, a miasma of metronomic beats, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, ambience, energy and ecstatic elevation

Oct 28, 2024

Oct 27, 2024

Amyl and The Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness

Oct 27, 2024

New album: The Australian punk band fronted by the electric personality of irrepressible singer Amy Taylor return with another set of fabulous songs, with some new musical dynamic variation, plenty of humour, swearing, exposed flesh, but also self-aware, kick-ass feminism driven by great riffs and melodies

Oct 27, 2024

Oct 25, 2024

Laura Marling: Patterns In Repeat

Oct 25, 2024

New album: The popular British indie-folk singer-songwriter returns with her eighth studio LP, one of of gentle intricacy and delicate acoustic beauty, particularly reflecting on newly becoming a mother, as well as ideas and behaviours inherited down generations

Oct 25, 2024

Oct 21, 2024

Porridge Radio: Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me

Oct 21, 2024

New album: The London band fronted by the passionate singer-songwriter Dana Margolin return with a fourth indie LP of angst-ridden intensity, using her signature repetitive phrasing, vivid lyrics and emotional dynamics

Oct 21, 2024

Oct 20, 2024

Half Waif: See You At The Maypole

Oct 20, 2024

New album: Ethereal, shimmering, poetic, sensual delicate experimental folk and synth-pop in this substantial 17-track sixth LP, following 2021’s Mythopoetics, by the New York singer-songwriter and producer Nandi Rose Plunkett, with lingering release about pain, grief, but resilience and beauty

Oct 20, 2024

new songs …

Featured

Nov 10, 2024

Song of the Day: Låpsley - Church

Nov 10, 2024

Song of the Day: The singer-songwriter from York, Holly Lapsley Fletcher, returns with a beautiful, candid, autobiographical, acoustic finger-picking number about still waiting to find life’s directions, and with a Joni Mitchell namecheck

Nov 10, 2024

Doves - Constellations For The Lonely.jpeg

Nov 9, 2024

Song of the Day: Doves - Renegade

Nov 9, 2024

Song of the Day: The Manchester indie band return forthcoming album Constellations For The Lonely with a dark, powerful, cinematic number inspired by the film Blade Runner and the speech by Roy Batty speech on inevitable death, yet “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe”

Nov 9, 2024

Nov 8, 2024

Song of the Day: Oracle Sisters - Alouette

Nov 8, 2024

Song of the Day: Pacy but serene, perky, witty indie by the Paris-based trio of Lewis Lazar, Christopher Willatt, and Finnish musician Julia Johansen, featuring an entertainingly ironic, demonstrative video, and out on Wizard Artists

Nov 8, 2024

Nov 6, 2024

Song of the Day: Nitefire - Love Won't Tear Me Away

Nov 6, 2024

Song of the Day: Catchy, quirky, punchy post-punk by the young LA band with electo-pop ripples and echoes of New York’s LCD Soundsystem and the style of 90s Brit rockers Supergrass, taken from their new EP Ameripop!, now via Concord Records

Nov 6, 2024

Nov 5, 2024

Song of the Day: Bartees Strange - Too Much

Nov 5, 2024

Song of the Day: Soulful but spooky alternative rock and pop by the Washington DC-based singer-songwriter and producer with single about “this that scare me and being overwhelmed by life”, heralding his forthcoming LP, Horror, out 14 February via 4AD

Nov 5, 2024

Nov 4, 2024

Song of the Day: Cameron Winter - Vines

Nov 4, 2024

Song of the Day: “We live in dangerous times and this land is falling apart.” The lead singer of New York band Geese releases a beautifully tender, melancholy solo number that appears personal and prescient, out on Partisan Records/Play It Again Sam

Nov 4, 2024

Nov 3, 2024

Song of the Day: Ethel Cain - Punish

Nov 3, 2024

Song of the Day: Haunting, ethereal, dark, spiritual, otherworldly, and influenced by Georgian chant and Southern Goth, the latest single by the artist Hayden Anhedönia from Tallahassee, Florida, heralds her forthcoming new project, Perverts, out on Daughters of Cain Records

Nov 3, 2024

Nov 2, 2024

Song of the Day: LCD Soundsystem - X-Ray Eyes

Nov 2, 2024

Song of the Day: Infectiously catchy, stripped back, electro-synth-post-punk by the popular New York band fronted by James Murphy with a new single serving as teaser for an as yet unfinished new album, out on Columbia Records

Nov 2, 2024

Nov 1, 2024

Song of the Day: World News - Junkie

Nov 1, 2024

Song of the Day: Delightfully dynamic, stirring, melodic, jangly guitar work with a Stone Roses influence in this new single by the London-based indie quartet, out on Pie & Mash Records

Nov 1, 2024

Oct 30, 2024

Song of the Day: Richard Dawson - Polytunnel

Oct 30, 2024

Song of the Day: This warm, beautiful, tender, poetic new single by the British experimental folk artist evokes a gardener finding comfort in the the noble, calming, sometimes mysterious business of raising vegetables and heralds Dawson’s new album End of the Middle, to be released on 14 February 2025 on Weird World / Domino Records

Oct 30, 2024

Oct 29, 2024

Song of the Day: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - Afterlife

Oct 29, 2024

Song of the Day: Springboarding a new approach and sound with her band, the New York artist’s new single, despite the dark, grief-stricken subject matter, is euphoric, and heralds her forthcoming album Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, out 7 February on Jagjaguwar

Oct 29, 2024

Oct 28, 2024

Song of the Day: HotWax - She's Got A Problem

Oct 28, 2024

Song of the Day: Searing rock by the talented Hastings trio of Tallulah Sim-Savage, Lola Sam, and Alfie Sayers, and the first single taken from their forthcoming debut album, Hot Shock, out in March 2025 on Marathon Artists

Oct 28, 2024

Word of the week

Featured

Deoch an Dorus pub in Partick, Glasgow.jpeg

Oct 16, 2024

Word of the week: doch-an-dorris

Oct 16, 2024

Word of the week: From the17th-century Scottish Gaelic phrase, deoch an doruis (and also with the form deochandorus), this literally means “door-drink” – a toast made with, or to honour, someone about to depart

Oct 16, 2024

Oct 4, 2024

Word of the week: eel-skins / excruciators

Oct 4, 2024

Word of the week: Aside from the literal outer layer of the ray-finned slippery fish, this evocative, slightly suggestive 19th-century slang means very tight trousers, while this week’s bonus word, excruciators, points to the experience of wearing very tight shoes

Oct 4, 2024

Sep 19, 2024

Word of the week: flittermouse

Sep 19, 2024

Word of the week: With other variants such as flickermouse and flinder-mouse, this rather charming Tudor-period English noun is a rather evocative and onomatopoeically descriptive one for that quietly sonic-guided night creature – the bat

Sep 19, 2024

Sep 5, 2024

Word of the week: gnomon

Sep 5, 2024

Word of the week: From the Ancient Greek, γνώμων (gnṓmōn)this pointed noun literally means one that knows or examines, but it is specifically the part of a sundial that casts a shadow as well as referring to other mathematical terms

Sep 5, 2024

Aug 22, 2024

Word of the week: hederaceous / hederigerent

Aug 22, 2024

Word of the week: Two lesser known and very similar adjectives from the Latin word heder – hederaceous meaning resembling ivy, while hederigerent describing that which is dressed with or bedecked in ivy

Aug 22, 2024