Five Things

The D Man's iPod has been on shuffle. Early morning workouts are one way to rediscover the deep tracks that you love. Enjoy some great tunes that had me excited all over again. These five random songs are worth a listen.

• "Tell Me Ten Words" by Idlewild. The Scottish band's 2002 album, The Remote Part, is an excellent record of slightly-downcast anthems and post-punk yearnings. When the bass line comes in at thirty seconds, "Tell Me Ten Words" releases a nervous energy underneath all those pretty acoustic strums, and the song takes off looking for answers. "American English" was the band's U2/Coldplay moment, and "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction" a national symbol of sorts. But "Tell Me Ten Words" is the band carving out something of their own.
• "Streamside" by The Album Leaf. Jimmy LaValle makes radiant ambient music with a heft that is more than mere background pleasantries. His 2004 release, In A Safe Place, was recorded with the help of Jón Þór Birgisson and other members of Sigur Rós in their Iceland studio. While much of the record's sound is glacial beauty, "Streamside" is warmed by a northern sun and feels like the emerging possibility of verdant growth.
• "Love Don't Owe You Anything" by Strays Don't Sleep. A short-lived, one-album collaboration between Nashville's Matthew Ryan and Neilsen Hubbard, Strays Don't Sleep was a minimalist tour-de-force of pain, loss, and reconciliation. "Love Don't Owe You Anything" thrives by creating dark-hued spaces between the guitar strums and the singular, cascading piano line. And Ryan's plaintive vocals reaches for an epiphany: I thought I understood / Now I understand.
• "Your Arms Around Me" by Jens Lekman. Enter swirling harps. The song's premise is both mundane and ridiculous. But the payoff is a glorious vocal hook over a perfect marriage of R&B beats and high-minded violins. Two lovers are preparing for a picnic. The man cuts his finger while slicing avacados. He passes out and is rushed to the emergency room. All that matters? You put your arms around me. Thank you, Jens.
• "AAA" by Paul Westerberg. This scruffy tune takes me back to summers past. From a fine double-album of basement rock by the former Replacements frontman, the song is a desperate kiss-off, stranded in some parking lot. I aint got anything to say to anyone, anymore.