Podcast recommendation: Strong Songs
Sunday, March 30, 2025
I’m in a musical season of my life right now. One of my kids started taking violin lessons, which led to me sitting in on the lessons, which led me to getting out the guitar to accompany practice, and now I’m back to playing for myself.
All this led me to hunt down a podcast that I was enjoying a couple years ago: Strong Songs
Kirk Hamilton breaks down and analyzes songs with an eye toward both the music theory behind songs but also the larger context of the song. He approaches every song with an infectious joy and love for the music he’s helping us understand. This isn’t a music snob talking about all the things he hates, this is someone sharing all the things he loves.
The episodes do talk about music theory, but it’s approachable if, like me, you are still learning. Or you can gloss over the theory parts and enjoy Kirk pointing your ears to things you’ve listened to a million times but never heard.
Song Exploder is a big podcast in this genre but Strong Songs is more focused on understanding what a song is doing and why it works than the story behind the song. Strong Songs resonates a lot more with me, Song Exploder leaves me wanting more.
Kirk also used to be a writer for Kotaku and occasionally spends an episode on understanding video game music. I loved his explanation of the musical themes in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and how the music is tied to the story.
Some episodes to check out:
- “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone - the song is fantastic and Kirk shows how Nina’s classical music training and gospel roots built this song, and how it lives on in Hip Hop sampling.
- “Kiss” by Prince - Kirk digs up the history of this Blues song (yes Blues!) and highlights tiny details like the kiss noise Prince is making into the microphone, and also connecting a through-line from James Brown to Prince to Janelle Monáe.
- The Music of The Legend of Zelda - A deep dive into the music of Hyrule, understanding the motifs that connect the entire series. Listen to this one before the Tears of the Kingdom episode I linked above.
- “Fingertips” by They Might Be Giants - Kirk walks through the umpteen songs that make up this artifact of the CD shuffle age and how they never let us get our feet under us.