On the playlist, or need more workout music

New job + workout inertia = 10-lb. gain.

August is no month to be working up a sweat in Austin, because thirty seconds outside will do that for you. So I opted to skip the gym for that entire month. But a slight change in my workout schedule managed to throw off my eating habits, and in due time, I packed on 10 pounds in the span of a summer.

So I’ve been hitting the elliptical machine mighty hard since September, which has staved off the gain but has not promoted any weight loss.

This past month has been following something of a new music theme, which is not conducive for thirty minutes at 160 strides per minute. So I need some new workout music because I need something other than Tokyo Jihen’s Sports to mark my pace.

  • ACO, devil’s hands After years of electronica pop, ACO finally releases the rock album she’s always had in her. Best of all, it’s available in the US through digital outlets.
  • Antony and the Johnsons, Swanlights The Crying Light was underwhelming, but this album is simultaneously weird and half-baked.
  • BONNIE PINK, Dear Diary This is on my playlist?
  • Duran Duran, Big Thing and Notorious (Special Editions) This odd remastering — which actually subtracts from the original masters — works better for Notorious than for Big Thing. But hey, at least now I’ve got the videos for "Do You Belive in Shame?" and "Meet El Presidente"
  • Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, De Profundis An interesting mix of centuries-old classics with some very Eastern European modern works.
  • Joan Jeanrenaud and PC Munoz, Pop-Pop I would have never thought 10 years after leaving Kronos Quartet, cellist Joan Jeanrenaud would record a pop album.
  • LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening Well, I liked that "Drunk Girls" video.
  • Lin Tosite Sigure, still a Sigure virgin? Recommended by Kyle in comments, this album has been a mainstay in my recent workouts. Not sure if I’m a convert, but their sound throws together some incongruous influences in a good way.
  • Mark Ronson and the Business International, Record Collection I just wanted to get a preview of what the next Duran Duran album might sound like, but wow — Boy George sounds like a 70-year-old soul diva.
  • Nick Lachey, "Ordinary Day" There won’t be a third Nick Lachey solo album — at least not on Jive — but judging by the digital singles released, it was gearing to be another faux rock opus of over earnestness.
  • Nico Muhly, A Good Understanding and I Drink the Air Before Me There’s a pejorative in the fan community for label Barsuk Records — "super pop and gay!!!" Does jumping to a major label have that affect on composers?
  • Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come I’m so familiar with "Lonely Woman" and John Zorn’s Masada, there was no reason for me not to get this album.
  • R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant I think this will do it for me in terms of early R.E.M. Never did warm up to Reckoning or Fables of the Reconstruction.
  • Robin Holcomb/Talking Pictures with Wayne Horvitz, The Point of It All Which is, there sometimes is no point.
  • Steve Reich, Double Quartet/2×5 (eighth blackbird, Bang on a Can All-Stars) Double Quartet won the Pulitzer Prize, but it doesn’t strike me as essential on the level of Different Trains or even New York Counterpoint. Then again, Reich’s pieces requiring pre-recorded ensembles never translate well in actual recordings.
  • the brilliant green, BLACKOUT Victoria Goldenberg at purple SKY describes this album as another Tommy heavenly 6 work. I don’t know — wouldn’t it be more emo?
  • The Decemberists, Castaways and Cutouts I call bullshit on anyone who recommends Microphones if you like Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Microphones annoy the fuck out of me. Give me the Decemberists instead.
  • The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta One of many Lala streams I never translated into a purchase. Till now.
  • VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, PRINCIPLE It’s not Halan’naca Darkside but at least it’s not ANDROID ~like a house mannequin~.