Music for workouts, Oct. 14 update

I used to tell people I didn’t need an iPod because I didn’t live a life that requires portability. I don’t travel a lot, I don’t mind the CD player in my car and until recently, I didn’t work out. I eventually bought an iPod Nano because I went to visit family in Hawaiʻi, and I needed that portability for 12 hours of travel, one-way.

Since late August, I’ve started working out daily on the treadmill, so I’ve been using my iPod significantly more. I actually look forward to those workouts because I get to do nothing but (walk and) listen to music for half an hour or more. Of course, I’m limited to only heart-pumping kind of music — no Explosions in the Sky or Jean Sibelius, unfortunately — but it has allowed me to unearth stuff I haven’t listened to in a while.

Now I have a new angle by which to evaluate my listening choices — by appropriateness to a workout regimen.

Here’s what’s on the iPod this week. There are more albums to which I haven’t gotten to listening yet, but I did get through a few:

  • ART-SCHOOL, Love/Hate Some of the slower tracks in the middle of the album might clash if you’re going at a good clip, but the seamless programming of the album gives it a nice momentum for the treadmill.
  • Janet Jackson, Design of a Decade This collection actually focuses more on Control and Rhythm Nation 1814, which are perfect. The post-janet. stuff doesn’t have the hard beats of her first two albums, but they’re stashed so close to the end that you can start a cool-down session after an hour-long walk.
  • NUMBER GIRL, SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT and SAPPUKEI Both albums are only slightly more than half an hour long, so they’re only really good for 30-minute workouts, unless you play them back to back. But the pace of these albums insure a very thorough half hour.
  • OBLIVION DUST, RADIO SONG Best of OBLIVION DUST Perfect for an hour-long session.

  • Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf The songs on this album have unexpected silences which are great musically. On the treadmill, they might disrupt your pace, but they’re also good for re-establishing focus if it seems to be wavering.

  • Sleater-Kinney, The Woods There’s a radio in the workout room of my apartment, where I use the treadmill. Sometimes if someone else is in the room, my iPod needs to compete with that radio. The Woods does a very good job of drowning everything else out.
  • Utada Hikaru, Distance This album is good if the treadmill session in question doesn’t exceed 2.7 mph, the pace I set if I’m feeling a bit sluggish when I do my workout. Beyond that, the album isn’t really good at trying to maintain a quick clip.
  • Tokyo Jihen, Goraku (Variety) Despite its slower tempo, "Shiseikatsu" doesn’t interfere with the pace of a walking workout, but the rest of the album does a good job of establishing and maintaining a good rhythm.
  • Yaida Hitomi, daiya-monde This album can get really manic, and as such, it’s very good for a workout, but it clocks in at 38 minutes, so it’s better for shorter sessions.