Your Custom Text Here
Bouncy inappropriateness: The Smiths
Death, depression and other dark matter is given the jaunty, upbeat treatment by guest playlister DJ PP99, spinning superb and starkly contrasting styles and subjects from last week’s nominations
Read more
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
Read more
Ghetto blaster beach bag. What? You don't have one?
Welcome to the left luggage office. Baggage to boxes, trunks, baskets or handbags, look inside this clutch of music with two wonderful playlists by this week’s playlist writer takeitawayGuru opened from last week’s theme
Read more
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 …
Read more
A voice everlasting: Mahalia Jackson
Want to achieve immortality? After a fountain of youth of song nominations last week, guest playlist writer treefrogdemon takes amusing musical solutions via reincarnation to science, Neil Young, Bob Dylan to David Bowie
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
That's not us.
Who are you? Who are they? Hackers to the hidden, secret societies to strangers in crowds, masked meetings to sexual liaisons, this week's playlists are superbly assembled by a famous but Anonymous figure
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
Set the controls for 1972, but where next? It's the Mighty Two, Errol Thompson in Joe Gibbs' studio, and off on a musical journey from Kingston, Jamaica …
Who are the Mighty Two, and why are they in a tardis? Inspired by last week's nominations, guest playlist writer Uncleben takes us on fantastically influential musically journey through space and time
Read more
The Wailers that global star, Bob Marley
This week we're searching out the effect of these core styles of 1960s Jamaican music on other genres across the globe, from punk to pop and rock, African to dance, and how they evolved. It's a very sound system …
Read more
Multiverse or multiple verse? Read on to travel and transcend musical dimensions …
Multiverse or multiple-verse? This week our playlists, from last week's topic, are presented a by time-travel scientist, who with skilful manipulation of reality from guest writer EnglishOutlaw, puts on a timeless playlist gig
Read more
Who, what, where shall we go this week?
This week it's time to set the musical controls - to suggest songs that about time travel in the sci-fi sense, but also those that might move to another period in past or future in metaphor, memory and the imagination
Read more
Make your entrance here at the Bar. Strict door policy, obviously …
There's a big 2nd anniversary gig going on at the bar, but who will perform after all the songs and bands put forward last week? The Landlord invites you to witness the whole variety show, and also stay for a second stage afterparty
Read more
Bette Midler making a low-key appearance …
Song Bar 2nd Birthday Special: Suggest music that could emphasise or illuminate an individual's character in any setting, not merely in theatres, films or sports halls, but in a fantasy world of work, pub, home or street
Read more