They’re a great, sometimes romantic, sometimes tragic vehicle for human stories, and have nomadic culture of their own. This week we musically celebrate this freight transport, with all sorts of payloads and other services. Where better to listen to music?

Spring cleaning season is in full swing - tidying, cleaning or paring back, from belongings to unwanted relationships, guest of the week Severin clears the bar with some very neat work inspired by last week’s topic

With spring cleaning possibly on the to-do list, practical and creative decluttering, not merely in the house, but all kinds of editing out, paring back, chiselling, sifting, trimming, shaving, scaling or downsizing, all expressed in song. Check out some experts’ tidy tips too…

Strange goings on and off occur this week as the curtain opens for a theatrical absurdity featuring cast of random characters including this week’s guest guru, Loud Atlas, inspired by last week’s topic and Samuel Beckett. Fish. Wurlitzer. Balloon.

Strange, surreal, ironic, absurdity very much part of life, and absurdism is all about embracing the freedom with its meaninglessness. Exploring influences from Camus to Tati, Milligan to Python to Lynch, how is it expressed in music?

New album: A rite of passage to the senses, this short, sharp, experimental debut noise rock LP by the New York quartet feels like being dropped into a growling, stop-start pinball machine, but the experience is weirdly rewarding

New album: A fabulously uplifting soul, gospel and funk release the the family band who release their first LP four decades into their career, fronted by the supreme voice of West Point, Mississippi’s Annie Caldwell, alongside her daughters, husband and god-daughter

New album: A solo album by one half of the Long Island brothers band The Lemon Twigs, here channelling his many 60s and 70s influences, from The Beatles to The Hollies, Beach Boys to Byrds to Dave Clark Five, bringing balladic beauty and melancholy, and old-school vocal harmony pop

New album: South-east London’s Aria Wells returns her second album after 2021’s Man Made with a stylish, dark, smoky fusion of trip-hop, hip-hop, reggae, neo-soul, R’n’B, and indie rock, with a variety of timbres and themes, but overall one of self-renewal and change

New album: Rapturously crafted, literary, smart, dream pop by the Philadelphia band fronted by singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, this fourth LP also has a darker, more melancholic, introverted hue than her previous Jubilee, here inspired by myths, poetry and fiction on thematic cycles of temptation, transgression and retribution

Song of the Day: Leaping unexpectedly between sweet, gentle indie and raucous, explosive noise rock, this striking, otherworldly post-punk release by the Pittsburgh quaret is a weird and wonderful challenge to the senses

Song of the Day: A bright and sunny love song with a twist by the London-based British folk-pop singer-songwriter aka Isabella Sophie Tweddle, from Ripon North Yorkshire, heralding her forthcoming fifth studio album, Dog Eared, out on 18 July via Fiction Records

Song of the Day: The frontman of The National’s new solo single has his distinctive rich vocal tones, a warm, swelling indie sound and here some gently caustic, vivid lyrics about a tricky reunion. It heralds his second solo album Get Sunk out 30 May, on Concord Records

Song of the Day: Turn it up to seven! The likeable Newcastle-upon-Tyne heavy rockers return with their elemental, meaty, thunderous sound fronted by raucous voice of Matthew Baty, also joined by one half of American hip-hop outfit Run The Jewels, aka rapper

Song of the Day: Enthralling, inspiring, imaginative electronica and and analogue percussion by the New York singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian, with this latest single heralding the forthcoming album, Ready For Heaven, out on Fire Records on 9 May