How will you leave it, or be left? It’s a profound idea to think of how we’ll be remembered, or forgotten, as material, ethereal and emotional remains, or what others might leave to us. So let’s widen our musical legacy with some more song ideas on this topic …
Read moreNot following? Spin this fish, biscuit: songs with non sequiturs
Often poetic, strange, vivid, but definitely illogical, this week we explore lyrics that don’t really follow what preceded it, but somehow their meaninglessness masquerading as meaning, can also end up being something highly musical
Read morePlaces to breathe: songs about wide, open spaces
City squares to vast wildernesses, parks and stadiums to commons, fields of solitude to peaceful demonstrations, to locations of violence, revolution and change, this week we find space to breathe in songs about places where society expresses itself
Read moreGet cartography: songs about maps
Accurately marked with facts and perfect proportions? Or fuel for fantasy and the imagination? Maps make stories, and stories make maps, and their fascination leads to where X marks the spot. So let’s go there and start digging …
Read moreCurrent topic: songs about electricity
Capacitance, or resistance? This week on the circuit it’s time for bright sparks to plug in and make lyrical connections with songs that refer to electricity in all literal or metaphorical forms, from famous inventors to natural forces
Read moreTune up for 2019: songs about fixing, repairing and solving
From cars to people, mind and body, clocks or guitars, the world at large or little local difficulties, let’s start 2019 by fixing up and looking sharp with skills and toolkits on this topic
Read moreMerry? Divided? Dreaming? It's songs about England
Let’s take a musical trip around this strange, sceptr’d isle, this land of eccentric frontmen, this place of punk and flourishing fashion, to pick up lots of place names and perhaps also define the nature of being English
Read moreCheeky half? Semi-quaver? Songs about fractions and portions
The world is divided, but not always in a bad way. This week we look for songs with lyrics that mention halves, thirds, quarters, eighths and smaller, and any words that pertain to fractions that make up the whole or one …
Read moreElephants and more: songs about the obvious
What, or who is the elephant? Is anything obvious? Is it obvious when we're in love? Who is the right person to be leader? Is winter coming? This week we examine all these questions and more with lyrics and music …
Read morePlaylists: songs about chance and coincidence
Crossing The Streets and serendipity, to turning different corners with George Michael, this week's guest writer Maki takes his chance with not entirely random nominations to create inevitably perfect playlists
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