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Oumou Sangaré
People, circumstances, oneself or even death, there’s a huge sense of calm, relief and relaxation around this week’s beautifully benign and wisely accepted playlists, chosen by guest tincanman from a massive influx of nominations
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Rising and setting …
Distant hillsides to sea sunsets, skylines and vapour. trails to massive events, this week’s playlists are a thing of timeless beauty, picked by guest ajostu from an ocean of nominations, stretching far and wide across the musical globe
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The open road … all the way the vanishing point …
It’s the inspiration for so many album covers, not to mention songs, and also an idea of infinity we never quite reach. From literal or metaphorical and lyrical, this week we reach for that imagined line where land, or sea, meets sky
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Velvet Underground, including John Cale and Lou Reed
It can be minimal, relaxing, and meditative, or disturbing, loud and challenging, but in its purest form or within any genre, drone music, played or sung, centres on a single sustained note or long chord that dominates the entire song or piece
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Roses of many colours decorate this week’s lists …
Whether wild or cultivated, on western plains to eastern mountains, country gardens or inner city, guest flower picker AmyLee creates a bloomin’ marvellous bouquet of music to display a fabulous selection of aural and lyrical colours
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Red and white Rosa Osiria
Romance, death, pain or beauty, petals or thorns? In titles or lyrics of song, literal or metaphor, as symbols or even as names, including also instrumentals, it’s time to gather musical blooms inspired by this particular flower
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Get on the retro (dance) floor …
This week we look back to look forward with artists who wrote new songs with a style from the past, ignoring their zeitgeist and harking back to a former era or decade though musical stylings, choice of instruments, lyrics and more
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The Happiest Days Of Your Life: Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell and Alastair Sim (1950)
Quiet please! Are you listening? It’s the last day of school, and at assembly headteacher Uncleben gives out advice to pupils departing the building for the final time. It’s a wealth of worldly wisdom, rich in detail, and perfectly delivered from a huge influx of song suggestions
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Handing out key advice …
Reported or direct, the practical or philosophical, the benevolent or biased, critical or contradictory, from parent to child, expert to novice, or general, this week it’s all about useful instruction, ignored or taken and ideally as detailed and unusual as possible
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Koko Taylor: fun at work …
From various locations – in the bar, on the beach, down the street, and many forms – reggae to soul, rock to new wave. From a huge wave of fun nominations guest picker Olive Butler has a blast with brilliant set of playlists
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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!
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The great guitarist Peggy Jones, aka Lady Bo - vastly underrated and in the shadow of her beau, Bo Diddley
Picked from a vast array of suggestions, 24 excellent artists from the past and present, hidden or strangely unsuccessful, emerge into our spotlight and become happily less undervalued, thanks to two superbly inspired playlists by guest Nilpferd
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Ignored and alone, down in the tube station at midnight
This week it’s time to dig deep and broad for new names that rarely get a mention, certainly never make the charts or win prizes, sell much or get the recognition they deserve. Let’s refresh the synapses of musical hive mind knowledge
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Now they all come together …
They’re big, and fierce, and beautiful; unpredictable, wild and exhilarating. And that’s not just those big, stripy cats. We’re also talking about this amazing ambush of playlists, picked from a wild jungle of brilliant suggestions by guest Severin
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Welcome to the Bar, says the Siberian
As myth or monster, pet or predator, symbol of beauty, death or power, tigers fire the imagination with their looks and behaviour. But how do they spring out of the musical jungle, literally or metaphorically?
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All is well …
After finding a rich source in last week’s topical excavation, guest George Boyland lowered his musical bucket and pulled out some of music’s deepest and stirring material, spanning blues to reggae, rock to gospel
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How to putt it? Fiddling while Rome burns …?
Whether genuine or feigned, in love, politics or the natural world, it’s as all-pervasive as gravity, and with a pulling power just as immense. So tugging against it, what bigger form of attention-seeking is there than writing and performing a song? But how do songs deal with indifference?
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Low tide on the Welsh coast
From Scottish rocks to smooth Australian shores and right across the globe, from a steadily rising sea of nominations, guest playlister Nicko charts the ebbs and flows, ins and outs, and highs and lows with a set of beautifully flowing choices
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The tide has brought in John Cooper Clarke …
Highs and lows to ebbs and flows, literal, littoral and metaphorical, specific locations, mudflats and estuaries, wildlife, mudlarking, shorelines and coasts, this week it’s all about the movement of water in and out, and what that is all about
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Blue tales? The magnificent Millie Jackson will always find out …
Saucy musical hall to broken-hearted blues to soaring heart-wrenching soul, guest magicman reveals all the ins and outs of secret liaisons, setting all affairs in order with three supreme playlists to capture the huge response by readers
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