It’s more than warm in here. Sexual arousal to hard labour, cold sweats to night sweats, picked from all the nominations from last week’s hot topic guest of the week pejepeine’s playlists will leave you perspiring with excitement
Read moreSweat bands: songs about perspiration
As heatwaves spread around many parts of the world, it’s time to turn the perspiration into inspiration. Sweating covers many contexts, from work, to exercise, fear to sex, but how are its process and emotions expressed in song?
Read morePlaylists: songs about swimming, bathing and showering
Come on in, the music’s lovely. Inspired by all the many excellent nominations from last week’s watery topic, guest of the week Severin makes big splash with a set of playlists perfect for all the rules of the pool. Take a delicious dip
Read moreWet legs: songs about swimming, bathing and showering
It’s time to dip into your music collections and then immerse more deeply. From bubbling tub soaks to cold water swims, Turkish baths to rubber ducks, hot springs to icy adventures, let’s soak up this topic in lyrics and sounds
Read morePlaylists: songs about awkwardness
Inspired by last week’s history of royal awkwardness and a host of songs nominated, guest of the week Loud Atlas presents a superb Musical Self-Help Guide on How To Be Awkward. Follow its 14 steps and beyond for further entertaining embarrassment
Read moreWe are not amused: songs about awkwardness
As Queen Elizabeth II reaches a record Platinum Jubilee, what has it all been about? Aside from any royal references, this week’s song theme is all about awkwardness, awkward moments, anything mortifyingly cringeworthy, or just a bit unseemly, bumbling, blundering and embarrassing
Read morePlaylists: songs about the invisible and unseen
What is revealed? From cloaks of invisibility to unseen superpowers, mysterious animals or scents to the people who are never spotted, guest playlister Noodsy picks some outstanding songs that are truly out of sight but well in earshot
Read moreTracks of more tears: songs about heartbreak
Sudden or slow-motion tragedy, from breakup to sudden loss of a loved one, or any other of life’s soul-destroying events, this week it’s time to drown all sorrows in the bar and find the most potent selection of heartbreak songs
Read morePlaylists: songs about bees
So what’s buzz? Literal or metaphor, and collecting nectar from a wide range of sources from last week’s topic, guest musical beekeeper Alaric gives takes on a world of the bluesy, folky and much more as his playlists fully bloom
Read moreWhat's the buzz, hive mind? Songs about bees
Time to get busy! From honey to nectar, pollination to special dance moves, lyrics literal or metaphor, or in sounds, with World Bee Day coming up, it’s time to feel the musical buzz of these inspirational insects in all that they mean to humans, and how we should protect them
Read morePlaylists: songs about higher education and graduation
Applications have been made, papers marked, but from last week’s many entries, which made the grade and will reach graduation to make the playlists? Examiner Marco den Ouden reveals the full results …
Read moreA matter of degree: songs about higher education and graduation
Days of college, university, polytechnic, art school, institute or more, this week we examine education after secondary or high school and graduation, what it all means, from learning to social experience, captured though the prism of song
Read morePlaylists: basement and underground songs
There’s a whole other life going on underground, but what form does it take? Unearthed from last week’s nominations, guest ShivSidecar digs deep to present a wondrous otherworld of fabulous music choices
Read moreBasement tapes: songs set below the ground floor
Dig deep: it’s time to go downstairs, take the lift and explore songs in an underground setting - basements or lower, from tube and metro stations from servants in the kitchen, to sewers and pipes, this is often where society is run
Read morePlaylists: songs that reference fairytales
Enchanting, mysterious, beautiful, crazy, or the downright cruel, the imagination doesn’t come any more vivid in fairytales. Woven from last week’s nominations, guest Loud Atlas spins a set of sharp tales into superbly absorbing playlists
Read moreCruel to be kind: songs that reference fairytales
They fuelled the fevered imaginations of our childhoods, and contain many adult themes of love and lust, violence and identity, but how are these characters and narratives used in song? Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin …
Read morePlaylists: songs about cetaceans
Tales of tragedy and adversity, death, survival and joy, from folk, rock, experimental and beyond, this week’s guest captain George Boyland steers us on a fabulous music journey, a deep dive to follow tales of whales and dolphins
Read moreA sense of porpoise: songs about cetaceans
Cetaceans are dolphins, whales and porpoises – familiar yet mysterious, those large, intelligent water mammals that have inspired oceans of songwriters, but in what way? On freedom, tragedy, slaughter, or wondrous, otherworldly sounds?
Read morePlaylists: songs about breaking things
Breaking: it happens suddenly, slowly, in many forms, and places – hearts, minds, bodies, objects, houses, relationships. Guest guru Uncleben picks up the pieces from last week’s many suggestions and puts them together with cracking results
Read moreA smashing idea: songs about breaking things
Hearts, bones, laws, bread, levees, glass, ice, records, lyrically as literal or metaphor, and so much more. It’s time to break new musical ground, from the destructive or creative, darker or lighter contexts of this topic
Read more