Who’s your devil in disguise? Who has all he best tunes? This week, in a fun week leading up to Halloween, let’s explore songs that mention, in whatever form, the Devil, Satan and any other names he takes
Read morePlaylists: songs about equality
Conflict to the Equals, Peggy Seeger to the Pointer Sisters, Kamasi Washington to John Coltrane, this week’s playlists chosen by guest pejepeine from a wonderful week of egalitarian-spirited nominations, are a dream come true
Read moreStand up for your mics: songs about equality
Whatever the platform, the genre or message, this week we’re exploring the issue of equality, if not being the same, from gender to race, politics to work, how to get and if it’s even possible, all through lyrics
Read morePluck up courage: songs and music with harps, lyres and zithers
From the serenity and complexity of fingers sweeping strings to the twanging of the Jew’s harp, from the lyricism of the lyre to the zing of the zither, let’s stretch out with suggestions featuring these instruments
Read morePlaylists: songs using idioms, common phrases and expressions
How do you reduce more than 1,000 song suggestions into two perfectly phrased playlists of just 26 songs? If that feels beyond the pale, then the play’s the thing for this week’s superb guest ShivSidecar
Read moreGoing for a song: lyrics using idioms, common phrases and expressions
Feeling on song? They may be derived from literature, media or historic, regular usage, but this week we’re looking how common phrases can jump out at you in lyrics, and ideally are used creatively or cleverly
Read morePlaylists: songs about England … and the English
This is England. It began with a journey on the A roads and B roads, but instead of taking a geographical journey, this week’s guest barbryn travelled to the heart of identity, ascending beautiful heights, led by the lark
Read moreMerry? Divided? Dreaming? It's songs about England
Let’s take a musical trip around this strange, sceptr’d isle, this land of eccentric frontmen, this place of punk and flourishing fashion, to pick up lots of place names and perhaps also define the nature of being English
Read morePlaylists: songs about fractions and portions
How do you separate so many great nominated songs into two playlists? This week’s guest, ParaMhor, divided and conquered hundreds of suggestions into two brilliant divisions, from Beatles to Steely Dan
Read moreCheeky half? Semi-quaver? Songs about fractions and portions
The world is divided, but not always in a bad way. This week we look for songs with lyrics that mention halves, thirds, quarters, eighths and smaller, and any words that pertain to fractions that make up the whole or one …
Read morePlaylists: song lyrics with strange, rare or unlikely words
From antirrhinums of Jake Thackray to the pretentious Pet Shop Boys to the hyperbolic hippopotamus of Sparks, this week’s guest EnglishOutlaw articulates wonderfully wordy playlists from last week’s topic
Read moreGrandiloquent to gavotte: song lyrics with strange, rare or unlikely words
This week let’s delve deep into the musical lexicon for instances where unusual, oddball, inappropriate, funny, pretentious, antiquated or obscure words jump out, sometimes working well, or otherwise
Read morePlaylists: songs about authenticity and fakery
Got a problem? Sex and relationships? Work? Retail choices? All your questions will be answered by this week’s problem-solving guru Uncleben, who turns from agony uncle into ecstasy-inducing music playlister
Read moreThe real thing? Songs about authenticity and fakery
Being true to yourself or others to genuine article in objects, this week we’re seeking songs that, in lyrics, are about searching for authenticity, but might sometimes find the opposite from forgery to falsehood, bootleg to bullshit
Read morePlaylists: songs about brevity
It only takes a minute (or a second) to click on this link, but once you do, your brief encounter with these pithy, witty playlists by guest picker Severin will make you linger on lyrical gems about love’s fast passing and much more
Read moreTime is short: songs about brevity
Fleeting romance to brief encounters, the transient to the terse, the brusque to burnout, the concise or condensed, our time is limited on Earth, but there’s still enough to suggest songs on this universal subject
Read morePlaylists: songs about oddballs, outcasts and outsiders
Bunny Wailer, Blind Melon, Beastie Boys, Blur … there all here, you know, and very different. And that’s just a few of the Bs. This week’s guest playlist writer amylee gives you a whole lot more than fantastic playlists inspired by last week’s topic.
Read moreLet them all in: songs about oddballs, outcasts and outsiders
Eccentric historical figures to those who are currently out there, black sheep to persons offbeat, songs that express the outsider/insider paradox, this week let’s open our doors to songs about difference
Read morePlaylists: songs about silver and other non-ferrous metals
Things are hotting up at the Song Bar foundry, as guest alchemist TatankaYotanka, filled with treasures from last week’s nominations, smelts up a priceless recipe of musical riches ready to play to you
Read moreShiny, shiny: songs about silver and other non-ferrous metals
Leaving aside gold, steel and iron, let’s dig out songs that lyrically refer, in literal or metaphorical terms to the poetic or practical qualities of silver, copper, brass, tin, aluminium, tungsten, magnesium and much more
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