New Good Song: What to Keep and What to Throw Away by Mary Chapin Carpenter

Here's a new good song -- "What to Keep and What to Throw Away" by Mary Chapin Carpenter

Two of the best new good songs are of very different genres. One is "Yoyo" by Pop Inc, and the other is the song above by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Both were featured a couple weeks ago on iTunes Indie Spotlight, and somehow neither has been uploaded to YouTube yet. So I am resorting to the Spotify embed, which I'm not sure works. The Pop Inc song isn't even there, though. Both are on iTunes, and I encourage you to check them out.

When I was moving into a new apartment in 2009, my roommate and I were putting up curtains, and I put my iTunes library on a random shuffle of songs while we did this chore. Some time later, I asked her whether she liked the music, and her comment was: "Everything you listen to is so sad."

I don't think that's necessarily true. "Yoyo" is not sad at all. But this Mary Chapin Carpenter song certainly is. Perhaps my taste does run toward the melancholy. But for a new song to be good, it must also be somewhat sincere, as I noted previously. Often, happy songs do not seem to be honest songs, while sad songs seem to be. This is because expressing sadness is often a confession, while expressing joy is often a put-on.

"What to Keep and What to Throw Away" is very simple and has no chorus. It repeats the same two chords and moves through verses. But the lyrics are so touching and nice, the melody so sweet, the production so gentle and the vocal performance so perfect, that the blend of these things creates one great song. It is sad, though.

For happy, go to "Yoyo" by Pop Inc. I have no idea what that song is not tremendously popular.

5 new good songs for running

My friend Denise wrote to tell me (a) that she has not been able to post comments on this blog, which has been a comment that others have made to me; I don't know what's wrong. And (b) she, an avid runner, wanted recommendations for new good songs for running.

As it happens, I keep an ongoing playlist on my iPhone called "Calisthenics," which is for when I work out. So I do have some thoughts about this. Note: The video above is for a song called "Run," by Matt Nathanson f/ Sugarland, and although it was a new good song earlier in 2012, it may not be ideal for running, since it's a ballad.

Here are five good new songs from 2012 that you might enjoy for a run:

1. "Yoyo" by Pop Inc. This is brand new and doesn't yet appear on YouTube, so you will have to either take my word for it or give the preview on iTunes a listen. Good for a burst of energy.

2. "Blood Pressure" by MuteMath. Good for burst of energy.

3. "Look Around" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Good for picking up the pace.

4. "Love On Top" by Beyonce. Good for building pace.

5. "Called Out In The Dark" by Snow Patrol. Good for keeping steady pace.