Actual or metaphorical, from windows to riverbanks, doorways to cliffs, to mental or physical extreme places, this week let’s go to a variety of precipices, stare into the abyss, but also find astonishing new perspectives in song
Read morePlaylists: Aeolian airs – songs with audible breaths and breeze
Inhale! Exhale! Sexy to smoky, exercise to sighs, plus bigger breaths from nature, this week’s playlists, compiled by breath-of-fresh-air guest Hoshino Sakura from a hurricane of nominations, will make you gasp with pleasure
Read moreAeolian airs: songs with audible breaths, breathing, wind or breeze
It's time to catch a breather. Singers or instrumentalists, acoustic sounds or artificial effects, inhaling or exhaling, this week it's all about the sounds, involuntary or otherwise, of air passing before, after or or sometimes during notes
Read morePlaylists: meta-songs or songs that reference themselves
In the spirit of Laurence Sterne’s wonderfully original novel, and inspired by a hive mind of nominations, guest guru Uncleben embarks on a marvellous meandering journey of deliberate divergence to explore a self-referential mirror-hall of lyrical meta
Read moreReflect back on this: meta songs
Songs about themselves. Does this sound loopy? You’re right. It’s all about the self-referential to any aspect of a songs’s own music, structure, instruments, format, lyrics and more. Droste effect? Mirroring? It’s all about the song
Read morePlaylists: songs for the spirit of 2021
From party bangers to soulful sensitivity, guest playlister DJ Bear aka PopOff! kicks off the new year with poignancy and positivity inspired by a tonne of nominations. After all what other way is there to go but up?
Read morePip-pip old chap: a tribute to John aka 9hairs9knots
Pull up a chair, pour a drink and soak in this extensive farewell, filled with anecdotes, quotes and songs to John, aka 9hairs9knots, mischievous, articulate, knowledgeable, funny, warm, sensitive regular here at the Song Bar for years. Rest in peace.
Read moreGoodbye 2020: songs for the spirit of 2021
Hope, fear, dreams, resolutions, giving the finger to 2020, but a welcome thumbs up to 2021? However you feel about this new chapter in the calendar of our lives, it’s time to express it in the form of song suggestions
Read moreNo words, just movement: dance instrumentals through the ages
No lyrics, all music and floor-filling movement. From formal to spontaneous styles, afrobeat to acid house, and anything in history all the way to zaouli, Zwiefacher, zydeco and zouk-Lambada, the musical dancefloor is all yours …
Read morePlaylists: songs about knots, ties and untying
Tied up, tied down, in difficulty, for practicality or pleasure, dreadlocks to complex knots, this week’s guest Marco den Ouden has untangled nominations to knit together two tremendous playlists to which any listener will feel attached
Read morePlaylists: songs about bodily motion, exercise and physiotherapy
‘The heart’s a muscle. I pull it constantly’. Stretching not only the body, but also the mind and musical boundaries, these week’s playlists, expertly exercised by guest TatankaYotanka, help find parts we didn’t even know we had
Read moreLet's get physio: songs about bodily motion and exercise
This could be a fine body of work. Everything from stiffness to full fluidity of exercise – bending, flexing, twisting, stretching, it’s time limber up and pick up on songs that capture corporeal movement in any context
Read moreCantata! Espressivo! Andiamo! Songs from or about Italy
From Ancient Rome to the Renaissance, sacred, classical, baroque or romantic, or anything from the pop era and beyond, this week let’s try to capture this country of contradictions referring to anything in culture, history, landmarks or more
Read morePlaylists: 'new normal'? Songs about what is or isn't regular, typical or natural
Finding the ordinary in the extraordinary to the straight in the straitjacket, this week’s playlists are anything but average, as guest playlister IsabelleForshaw entertainingly reveals that normality is all a matter of perspective
Read moreNotes on the new normal: songs about what is or isn't regular, typical or natural
Regular? Standard? Stereotype? Average? Typical? Natural? What does normal mean, and how might it be explored in song lyrics? From people to behaviour, families to jobs to towns, and any other context, it’s all a matter of perspective
Read morePlaylists: songs about eureka moments, realisation, discovery and enlightenment
Has it ever occurred to you that …. life, the universe and everything could be captured in playlists? This question is answered perfectly by guest ajostu, who picks some profound revelations inspired by last week’s nominations
Read moreEureka! Songs about realisation, discovery and enlightenment
Moments of realisation? From scientific to practical, physical, emotional, philosophical or spiritual, expressed in one lyrical line, one musical rush, or building slowly, and then suddenly and unexpectedly coming into focus in song
Read morePlaylists – two's company: songs by duos
Jazz to hip hop, classical, pop, folk and a whole spectrum of other music from around the world, this week guest playlister Nilpferd picks out some of the finest pairings in music where two individuals are greater together than apart
Read moreDynamic duos: songs with just two performers
What makes for a great duo and how does is that dynamic expressed? Perfect balance of sound? Unspoken understanding and harmony? Symbiosis of roles? Contrast in character? Fragility, insecurity and tension? It’s time for two’s company …
Read morePlaylists: songs about denial
There’s no denying it - this is a subject that is attached to every part of our lives, private and public, and from many nominations, guest playlister AmyLee picks amazing all-encompassing selections to uncover the musical truth
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