It’s partly perception, partly physical reality, an ongoing health and cultural issue affecting mind and body. So let’s go large on the lyrical portrayal of fat in people, with a dishful of tragedy, humour, self-consciousness, cruelty, pathos, and glory
Read moreWorld Cup? Not quite. It's songs about substitutes
Are they meant to be better, or not as good, artificial or the real thing? From sport to food, people to plans, work to worries and distraction, let’s explore substitutions in life and music
Read moreReflections on … songs about confidence. Is that OK?
It's cleverer and sexier than brains or beauty. Musicians and performers have it spades – but in equal measure to insecurity. So this week let's explore songs all about wanting it, getting it, using it or losing it
Read moreSpecial offer! Going for a song – about sales, selling and bargains
Step right up! This week we look into the psychology of selling and the heartbeat of bargains across our culture. Retail therapy to ripoff, suggest lyrics all about the intimacy and anonymity of commercial transaction
Read moreWould, could or should? Songs about alternative outcomes
Songs of regret, in retrospect or about the 'if only'? This week we look at lyrics that imagine other pasts, presents or futures caused by different decisions, actions, circumstances and chains of events
Read moreWho can't handle the truth? Songs about propaganda, liars and lying
Mass campaigns to crowd manipulation, political U-turns to personal deception, suggest songs about the art and artifice of changing facts for dubious or other purposes, but here to make truthful playlists
Read moreWinter is coming … in the form of song
Snow, ice, frost, storms, survival, and darkness? Well, it’s not all bad. Hunker down in the Song Bar snug, and get cosy with the culture and wonders of a musical winter
Read moreThe naked truth is nigh – again: songs about the apocalypse
Apocalyptic tunes? From calamitous elections to climate chaos, the world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but let's try and carry ourselves there with dignity, humour and music to match
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