Don't look back in anger ... Lauryn Hill's 1998 album focused on break-up songs, some more cheery than others. Photograph: Mats Andersson.
War! Huh, good God y'all! What is it good for? Well, a fantastic playlist for one thing. Thanks for all last week's terrific nominations. I'd never heard the Eric B & Rakim, Pere Ubu and Pogues songs before and feel much better for having done so.
Breaking up, as the Walker Brothers once noted, is so very hard to do, and emotional devastation has been an incalculable boon to great pop. This week, though, I'm looking for those more unusual glass-half-full responses, whether it's sanguine good humour or a flourish of I-will-survive defiance.
In the latter category a sense of triumph rather than mere bitterness is required; Cher's Believe would qualify but Eamon's Fuck You (I Don't Want You Back) wouldn't. I like the idea of doing angry break-up songs and depressing break-up songs as separate playlists somewhere down the line, so do try and stick to the category. In short, fresh starts rather than broken hearts.
As promised, we've collected all the playlists to date into one page so everybody can browse them easily.
Deadline for recommendations is Monday 1pm.
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