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NHS founder Nye Bevan visits Park Hospital, Davyhulme, Manchester, in 1948.
This week we’re giving it the special treatment to mark the NHS 70th anniversary, but also looking for music that mentions any kind of medical care, especially nursing, and its emotional effect in lyrics
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The real thing or substitutes? The Beatles at Madame Tussauds
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
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Meeting of metaphor or the literal? Well, it's all a question of scale …
No, it’s not the World Cup. Or is it? This week let’s delve into music’s interpretation of the murky world of imagined or otherwise undercover plots from Roswell to JFK, 9/11 to Russian interference, and er … lizards
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How does Two Suns end up? Bat For Lashes is joined by Scott Walker
Where will it all end? With medicine, moonlight, sleep or a starship? All of these and much more, as our guest playlist writer ParaMhor picks two superb sets of conclusions to hundreds of nominated songs
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Sunset ending? Not every ride goes so smoothly …
No – it’s not the World Cup. This week we’re looking at all kinds of ends of albums and other songs – from surprising, sudden, or summing up, to those that are ambiguous, serious, comical or take us to a new place
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Louis Armstrong liked a good blow now and then
Mary Jane to hash, pot to pipes, it's time to take a toke on songs that hit on this long-established recreational drug and painkiller, from its many names to the effect it has on mind, society and music
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London Olympic Stadium, 2012. An internet message, but does it also help define music-making culture this century?
This week we’re looking for songs or instrumentals recorded since 2000 that help define what the first 18 years of this century are all about: genres, landmarks, movements, trends, sounds and fusions
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Altogether now ....
The lyrics are about dark matters, but they are played with extremely contrasting upbeat music. This week let’s explore songs that, through stark contrast, can unlock humour, tragedy, comedy and empathy
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Cassettes? What a carry on.
Travelling to shopping, fashion houses to homeless hobos, suitcases to handbags, briefcases to guitar cases, bags are the performer’s constant companion carried out in many songs, but it’s also about the contents …
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The Immortal Jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, which can reverse the life cycle process
Gods to vampires, myth to religion, nature to the supernatural, or simply need to preserve yourself in song, this week we explore that age-old obsession with living forever, or at least a mighty long time
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Neneh Cherry's taking a confident Buffalo Stance
From the plucky and cocky to the bold and brave, Beyonce to Blondie, Sparks to Stevie Wonder, this week’s guest Severin has picked two superb playlists from the nominations that will have your striding down the street
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Paws for thought: is confidence is what you see in yourself?
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
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The Boswell Sisters
Armstrong and Astaire to the Boswell Sisters and Al Bowlly, Whispering Jack Smith to Sarah Vaughan, this week's guest playlist writer DiscoMonster digs out many a treasure in a golden age of discovery
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The silver-tongued Cole Porter entertains friends in the 1940s
Tin Pan Alley to the Great American Songbook, blues, jazz standards, show tunes, gospel or folk, this week we escape the modern era to find songs of exemplary craft, performance or pertfectly capture their era
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The paradise tanager, an exotic songbird
Cuckoos to chickens, geese to gulls, a host of exotic birds and ascending on high with the lark and nightingale, this week's aural aviary expert Hoshino Sakura spies a beautiful set of musical calls from last week's topic
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The nightingale. A star singer of the bird world.
Spring has finally sprung, and to celebrate, let’s look at, from science to poetry, how the most natural and winged songwriters have inspired humans to make reference to their work in their own through music or lyrics
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Don't be alarmed. Something to whet the whistle, darling?
From gloom to horny joy, scary or strange surprises to dire straits, this week let's explore all the lyrical and musical sides of regain consciousness in song, with some stimuli here from other forms – film and books
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A scene from anonymous hacker thriller series Mr Robot, starring Rami Malek as the complex central figure
Whether feeling like a nobody, or actually being anonymous, from hackers to the lonely and helpless, from fame to unknown heroism, let's explore this contradictory feeling as expressed in lyrics, from spotlight to the shadows
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Toots Thielemans
Take a deep breath – you are about to experience a selection of sublime and moving music from film soundtracks, blues and soul greats. Guest playlist writer magicman blows two beautiful lists from last week's nominations
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The sublime Stevie Wonder
It plays out like the voice, beautifully expresses emotion, can wail like a train and is popular across blues, rock, pop, jazz, classical and other genres. This week it's time to inhale deeply and get harmonious with the harmonica
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