Familiar? It's a Christmas special: songs that sound like other songs

December 20, 2018 Peter Kimpton

Superb lyrebird - sounds like everything else, but nothing sounds like it.

The topic over the Christmas holiday season is a form of convivial, parlour game in which pairs of songs can be nominated that share musical or other echoes - but which came first and where are the comparisons? You decide …

Pack up your troubles: songs about determination

November 8, 2018 Peter Kimpton

Towards armistice: some of the First World War determined

On the eve of the First World War Armistice centenary, this week we look at songs about striving through extremely difficult circumstances, whether in conflict or peacetime, extreme or daily situations

Sing out, act on CLIMATE CHANGE

CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY

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DRINK OF THE WEEK
Butterbeer

SNACK OF THE WEEK
steak and ale pie

New Albums …

Featured

Jan 17, 2025

Ela Minus: DÍA

Jan 17, 2025

New album: A wonderfully eclectic, inventive, darkly ecstatic, introspective yet musically expansive electronica and dance music follow-up to 2020’s debut, Acts of Rebellion, on the theme of light and self-discovery by the Colombian singer-songwriter, musician and producer

Jan 17, 2025

Jan 10, 2025

Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out

Jan 10, 2025

New album: This feisty, humorous, angry, intelligent, kick-ass debut by the Brighton queer-punk band fronted by duo Lily Macieira and Phoebe Lunny is an explosion of artful, acerbic attitude and energy, and produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox

Jan 10, 2025

Franz Ferdinand: The Human Fear

Jan 10, 2025

New album: After a greatest hits tour and two recently new band members, the Glasgow art-rockers fronted by the sharp-witted Alex Kapranos return with renewed vim and vigour, with an unashamed air of going full-tilt on classic FF in their sound and style perky, pacy, hooky indie-pop

Jan 10, 2025

Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon

Jan 10, 2025

New album: Always infectiously fun and effervescently charismatic, the blue-haired South African star’s third LP bursts with witty, sex-positive braggadocio, sung in Xhosa and English, and spanning the rhythms and sounds of Johannesburg and Durban with electro-pop and cross-genre dance

Jan 10, 2025

Jan 8, 2025

Ethel Cain: Perverts

Jan 8, 2025

New album: Dark, challenging, otherworldly, experimental, ethereally oddball but at times alluring electronica and ghostly vocalisations? It’s the Tallahassee artist Hayden Anhedönia, who after the successful 2022 LP Preacher’s Daughter, pushes the musical envelope into most unusual territory

Jan 8, 2025

Alice Hebborn: Saisons

Jan 8, 2025

New album: Released last month, a vivid, stirring, experimental debut LP of piano and electronica by the Belgian composer in seven movements, exploring humanity’s relationship with the natural world

Jan 8, 2025

Jan 5, 2025

SAULT: Acts of Faith

Jan 5, 2025

New album: Released as usual without fanfare, and on Christmas Day, the London collective of by producer and musician Inflo return with an 11th LP – silky smooth, classy soul, funk and gospel, fronted by the voice of Cleo Sol

Jan 5, 2025

Dec 30, 2024

Favourite Albums of 2024 - Part 2

Dec 30, 2024

Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own

Dec 30, 2024

Dec 30, 2024

Favourite albums of 2024 - Part 1

Dec 30, 2024

Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 1. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but rich seams of originality and quality are certainly here to be enjoyed. Peruse away …

Dec 30, 2024

Dec 29, 2024

Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)

Dec 29, 2024

Album review: A decade since his last album, Syro, electronica’s brilliant British outsider and pioneer Richard D James returns with a surprise fan-pleaser, a mass compilation release of 38 numbers played at festivals, and previously only on limited-edition vinyl sold at the merch desk of select events

Dec 29, 2024

Dec 27, 2024

Juniore: Trois Deux Un

Dec 27, 2024

Album review: Released in September, the French band’s latest LP is another sparkling gem of 60s psychedelic and “yéyé noir” surf pop – whisperingly seductive, witty, wistful, stylish and sophisticated, from the breathless paced to the songs like a coil of smoke - moody, slow and pithily philosophical

Dec 27, 2024

Dec 27, 2024

Izumi 'Mimi' Kobayashi: Choice Cuts 1978-1983

Dec 27, 2024

Album review: Out of many compilations released in 2024, this Time Capsule collection is a highlight, picking some of the fabulously fun, inventive, hybrid jazz-funk-Latin-reggae-electronica pop of the innovative Japanese composer and pianist

Dec 27, 2024

Dec 23, 2024

Human Error: Human Error

Dec 23, 2024

New album: Ingenious, playfully inventive electronica by Jeremy Barnes, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, inspired by the idea of how errors lead to invention and discovery, written while teaching music to incarcerated teens at YDDC juvenile detention

Dec 23, 2024

Dec 20, 2024

Legowelt: A Field Guide To The Void

Dec 20, 2024

Album review: The Netherlands electronic artist Danny Wolfers returns with a delightful mixture of old-school-influenced synth pop, crafting textured soundscapes, nostalgic, futuristic, eccentric and eclectic, steering somewhere between robot voices, cosmic exploration and the dancefloor

Dec 20, 2024

new songs …

Featured

Jan 17, 2025

Song of the Day: Perfume Genius - It's a Mirror

Jan 17, 2025

Song of the Day: With this lead single, the US musical shapeshifter Mike Hadreas returns with a compelling Americana-style number about reflective horizons and paradoxes, heralding his seventh album, out on 28 March on Matador Records

Jan 17, 2025

Jan 16, 2025

Song of the Day: Joy Crookes - Pass the Salt (featuring Vince Staples)

Jan 16, 2025

Song of the Day: With a big, meaty, menacing bass and drum sound, the serenely smooth-voiced Brixton British singer returns, following her acclaimed 2021 LP Skin, with a spicy, bitch-back number expressing anger at someone telling lies about her, with added verse by the American rappe

Jan 16, 2025

Jan 15, 2025

Song of the Day: Everything Is Recorded - Swamp Dream #3 (ft. Mary in the Junkyard)

Jan 15, 2025

Song of the Day: A beautifully odd, ghostly, eclectic track by the producer and XL Recordings founder Richard Russell, joined by the south London experimental rock trio, and heralding his forthcoming album Temporary, out on released 28 February via XL Recordings

Jan 15, 2025

Jan 14, 2025

Song of the Day: Albertine Sarges - Girl Missing

Jan 14, 2025

Song of the Day: The title track from the forthcoming album by the innovative Berlin indie artist is beautifully upbeat and serene and style, but is inspired by deeply personal and sorrowful story from her life. Girl Missing is due out on 21 February via Moshi Moshi Records

Jan 14, 2025

Jan 13, 2025

Song of the Day: Helen Ganya - Fortune

Jan 13, 2025

Song of the Day: A Thai-dulcimer (khim) decorates this beautiful track by the Singapore-raised, Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai singer-songwriter inspired by her heritage, her mother, and “all the diasporic mums out there”. It’s the latest track heralding her forthcoming album Share Your Care out on 7 February via Bella Union

Jan 13, 2025

Jan 12, 2025

Song of the Day: Tunng - Snails

Jan 12, 2025

Song of the Day: Delicious, delicate, detailed and poetic, it’s a beautiful acoustic new single by the British folktronica pioneers, heralding their new album Love You All Over Again, which in part celebrates 20 years of making music, out on 24 January on Full Time Hobby

Jan 12, 2025

Jan 11, 2025

Song of the Day: Sports Team - Bang Bang Bang

Jan 11, 2025

Song of the Day: Infectiously catchy yet with a darkly satirical subject, the British band return with new song inspired by the whistling spaghetti western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, but reflecting on American gun culture, heralding their next album Boys These Days out 24 May on Bright Antenna & Distiller Records

Jan 11, 2025

Jan 10, 2025

Song of the Day: Fat Dog - Peace Song

Jan 10, 2025

Song of the Day: Following their hit 2024 album, WOOF. the south London alternative post-punk band fronted by Joe Love return with a fabulously strong melody and an entertaining video featuring an pub-based alien figure and Godzilla-sized invading dog, out on Domino Records

Jan 10, 2025

Jan 9, 2025

Song of the Day: DARKSIDE - S.N.C

Jan 9, 2025

Song of the Day: Instantly stylish, hooky, engaging funk and experimental rock with a distinct cavernous sound by the New York trio of Nicolás Jaar, Dave Harrington, and new member Tlacael Esparza, heralding the band’s forthcoming third LP, Nothing, out on 28 February on Matador Records

Jan 9, 2025

Jan 8, 2025

Song of the Day: Avalanche Party - Shake The Slack

Jan 8, 2025

Song of the Day: Panache-filled post-punk with a fierce, electrical energy and sharp lyrics by the five-piece band from the North Yorkshire Moors in a new single heralding their forthcoming album, Der Traum Über Alles, out on 7 February via AMK/ Kartel Music.

Jan 8, 2025

Jan 7, 2025

Song of the Day: Brooke Combe - This Town

Jan 7, 2025

Song of the Day: Breezy, escapism-themed, uplifting classic soul by the charismatic, golden voiced Scottish singer, heralding her forthcoming album, Dancing At The Edge of the World, out on Modern Sky UK

Jan 7, 2025

Jan 6, 2025

Song of the Day: Panda Bear - Ferry Lady

Jan 6, 2025

Song of the Day: Trumpets, a beautifully serene melody, with an eclectic, catchy Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry clip-clopping vibe and syncopated rhythm? It’s none other than the Animal Collective drummer and vocalist Noah Lennox, who returns with a new single, taken from from his forthcoming first solo album for five years, Sinister Grift, out on 28 February via Domino Records

Jan 6, 2025

Word of the week

Featured

Jan 16, 2025

Word of the week: yepsen

Jan 16, 2025

Word of the week: A timeless noun emanating from Middle English ȝespen and first used in around 1325, meaning a unit of measurement being the amount of that can be held in two hands cupped together

Jan 16, 2025

Jan 9, 2025

Word of the week: zingiberaceous / zinziberaceous

Jan 9, 2025

Word of the week: Two alternative spellings, spicily evocative and colourful, they are adjectives pertaining to the Zingiberaceae family of flowering plants that variously bring that distinctive flavour of, and are a rather fancy way of saying – ginger

Jan 9, 2025

Dec 12, 2024

Word of the week: aquabob

Dec 12, 2024

Word of the week: Sounding like some water-based children’s TV superhero, it’s actually a particularly apt and descriptive word for wintertime, being an 18th-century English Kent dialect noun meaning icicle

Dec 12, 2024

Nov 27, 2024

Word of the week: broticolous

Nov 27, 2024

Word of the week: Mice, rats, spiders, foxes to raccoons, this obscure adjective, connected to the French noun broticole, this relates to any animal and insect species with a tendency to live around and alongside humans and their dwellings perhaps as scavengers, but also showing adaptability

Nov 27, 2024

Nov 15, 2024

Word of the week: circumbendibus

Nov 15, 2024

Word of the week: Not a snaking elongated piece of public transport but still a very evocative 17th-century word for a circuitous, long-winded route or way of doing something or telling a story …

Nov 15, 2024