The Hold Steady’s latest album uses some familiar imagery for its cover. Turns out I’ve got about a dozen albums in my collection featuring disembodied hands on their covers. So I’ve put together a list of my 5 favorite albums featuring disembodied hands. For totally arbitrary reasons, I’ve left out albums featuring two hands shaking – which is also a surprisingly common theme. Here it is, the five best albums featuring disembodied hands on their covers:

5. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever

The album that inspired the list almost didn’t make the list. This album is missing some of the raw energy and heartfelt stories that made The Hold Steady’s earlier albums so good. It’s like they’re a little too big for the scene their trying to sell. But I’m still buying. Number 5 in the disembodied hands list.

4. Creech Holler – The Shovel and the Gun

I’ve mentioned them before. But check out that original artwork. I almost didn’t include it because there’s so much more than just the hand going on here. But I couldn’t leave it out. If you’re not listening to this band, start.

3. Low – Trust

Low can’t be mentioned without talking about how slow they are. But on this album they start to rock. They’ve since dialed up the tempo a bit. But here, in the middle of their career the band puts together a heady mix of slow, trance-inducing drones with some serious crunch. Great album.

2. The Antlers – Hospice

Here’s another band I’ve mentioned before. And like the Creech Holler album it has an illustrated cover and I almost didn’t include it because there’s more than just the hands going on here. But it’s basically just the hands. This is an emotional headphone masterpiece. Do yourself a favor and set aside 45 minutes to just listen to this album. Words that come to mind: haunting, personal, symphonic, lush, simple.

1. Spoon -  Kill the Moonlight

Spoon is easily one of my favorite bands of the last 10 years. With Kill the Moonlight they began perfecting their cool sound. I distinctly remember this album making me think of dirty rainwater puddles reflecting buzzing neon lights. If you only know Spoon’s more recent work, check this older album out, you won’t be sorry.

So, what am I missing? What’s your favorite record featuring a disembodied hand on the cover?

Here is the running mix I promised earlier.

There’s a certain kind of song I like when I’m running. The music sets my pace, not in a strict sense, I don’t run to the beat — though when a song does sync up I love it. But it sets the tone. I want a song with moderate to low intensity or I end up sprinting and worn out before I’ve even started. But I don’t want anything too slow or I focus soley on my pain. It want to tilt my head back, with my eyes half open and settle in to a rhythm that feels like the pace of my body, like, I could run all day, comfortable but invigorated. These are songs that make me feel that way.

I’ve selected some of my favorites out of my iTunes running playlist and pared it down to a one hour mix. If you run that long, I’m impressed. I hope it works well as a mix if you listen straight through, with some good highs and lows to help keep you motivated. But if you shuffle it up, I think you’ll get a nice even tone that should help you along.

Track Listing:

1. “Miracle Drug” by A.C. Newman. Listening to this track made me think his latest album might not measure up. Here’s some energy to get you started.

2. “Brainy” by The National. This has the vocals and melody to help me settle into my running groove, and a drum line to keep me going.

3. “Keep the Car Running” by Arcade Fire. More rolling, on-the-move rhythm work with a melody to keep things mellow.

4. “Conjugate the Verbs” by Enon. A roaring chours here should help you kick off mile two.

5. “Heavy Heart” by Ghostland Observatory. At this point I need some intensity to keep me over that first hump.

6. “Good Man” by Archer Prewitt. This mellow song with the repetative guitar part really helps me settle into a solid rhythm after a couple of miles. This is the eyes-half-open mood I’m going for, feeling like I can run forever.

7. “The Devil Never Sleeps” by Iron and Wine. More of the perfect percussion/melody::driving/mellow vibe I’m going for.

8. “Forget Remember When” by Built to Spill. Dough Martsch’s soaring, roaring guitars could carry me for a couple miles. Plus, the strange background vocals make me think this song has some sympathy for my running struggle.

9. “Turn it On” by Sleater Kinney. Two words: hand claps. Here’s a punch to kick it back into full gear.

10. “Sunrise” by Yeasayer. Like “The Devil Never Sleeps,” it’s the perfect percussion/melody combo I’m looking for. World music for the indie-rock set.

11. “The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth” by Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah. A bassline that pushes, and guitar hooks that lift. The miracle bra of running.

12. “Miss Me” by The Wrens. Here’s some snarling intensity to push things at the end. Given this band’s once-every-seven-years release rate, we should be seeing a new record from them next year.

13. “I Need Your Love” by The Rapture. Here’s dance beat that should help you power into the last mile. Mellow’s just not going to cut it anymore.

14. “Ear Nose and Throat” by Troubled Hubble. A thumping beat and pounding guitars won’t let you slow down.

15. “Icky Thump” by The White Stripes. The nastiest track from a band known for nasty tracks. This is the devil taunting you. Run!

16. “Today my Heart Desires” by Sukhwinder Singh. This song is the black sheep of the mix. I have a soft spot for this Indian pop music. The heavy beats and soaring/chanting vocals always get my heart pumping. If you’ve made it this far on your run, hopefully the surprise of this energetic song will carry you to the end.

Download: With Eyes Half Open: a Running Mix by Tigers Walk Behind Me

Here it is, my obligatory “Best of 2008…” countdown. Hit the link below to download the whole compilation in countdown order.

Dirty Dozen: Best of 2008 – a compliation by Tigers Walk Behind Me

I listened to a lot of really great music this year. More than ever I really believe if someone claims “there just isn’t any good music coming out now” well, they just aren’t listening.

And, here we go.

12. Red of Tooth and Claw by Murder by Death

If Johnny Cash and Tom Waits wrote murder ballads while drinking whiskey at a 19th century carnival you might get a little something like this. The imagery of these songs carry throughout the album, weaving a dark, ink-mottled, tar-smelling rag of Americana.

11. Hlllyh by The Mae-Shi

Roaring guitars, tight backbeats, sung/yelled choruses, and soaring, idealistic lyrics made this noise-rock gem one of my favorites of the year. I wanted to dislike it, I really did, but I couldn’t help myself.

10. In the Future by Black Mountain

Nasty guitars will crush your eardrums while dirty organ lines pull you into the sky. Just try not to imagine yourself as a barbarian running across the open, unforgiving plains, rushing to destroy your enemy while you listen to this track.

9. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

Here’s a record that suffered from it’s own hype. It came out to much acclaim early in the year and quickly went from obscurity to ubiquity. Still, the catchy West African-inspired sounds and pretentious, ivy-league lyrics combined to make a tight, smart, most enjoyable record.

8. Don’t Be a Stranger by The Moondoggies

The spirit of The Band is resurrected by this outfit from Seattle. Great hooks get good airtime on the album’s short tracks, and christian imagery abounds. In short, there was no way I wouldn’t like this record. One of the most underrated of the year.

7. Microcastle by Deerhunter

Here’s a band I’ve neglected for too long. I can’t help but trace a line from my grunge favorites like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins through more recent acts like Modest Mouse ending with this album by Deerhunter. This is a band that should be getting radio play over My Chemical Romance.

6. Fate by Dr. Dog

Straw hats, tight harmonies, songs about animals, and lush, Beatle-esque arrangements make this a pop pleasure from start to finish. Never mind the horrible band name.

5. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! by Nick Cave & the Badseeds

I’m late to the Nick Cave party – this is the first of his albums that I’ve listened to. But I’m hooked. I know he’s Australian, but the sparse, dirty-like-an-hourly-rate-motel arrangements and Cave’s wild rants make me think of him as a profane, apocolyptic, American prophet – a modern day John the Revelator to Dylan’s John the Baptist.

4. Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes

I mentioned elsewhere that I think Fleet Foxes might be the standard-bearers for a new soft-rock movement. Their lush harmonies and English folk song sound are undeniably beautiful. They made a record that can’t be ignored. My only complaint is the lack of soul – the indescribable groove and heart that Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard launched onto the airwaves. But enough complaining. The album is an artistic masterpiece.

3. Everything that Happens Will Happen Today by David Byrne and Brian Eno

Only Brian Eno could do such a symphonic electronic album. And only David Byrne could sing such quirky, personal lyrics. This is a pop/rock album without an extra note or word. Subtlety is valued over volume. The end result is a rumination on life with a view from middle-age unlike any I’ve heard before.

2. Parc Avenue by Plants & Animals

This is my vote for most underrated album of year. Driving guitar rock, smart lyrics, effortless harmonies, and complex arrangements that make me think The Beatles or Queen or the smart end of The Beach Boys are what made this such an enjoyable album for me. I’m looking forward to hearing more from this band.

1. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver

This was easily the album I listened to most this year. I also know that technically this was a 2007 self release that was just made widely available in 2008. I only found it after the wide release so I’m calling it a 2008 album.

Bon Iver ventured outside the traditional pop/rock/folk framework and assembled an abstract folk sound unlike any I’ve ever heard. The fragile falsetto vocals are backed by haunting guitars and cluttered sound collages. Like the album art, the specific lyrics and images that make up this album can be hard to discern but the feeling and meaning are unmistakable.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a sucker for songs with religious or existential themes.  I’ve got a running playlist collecting songs I like to think of as the hymns of popular music.

This mix is the first compilation in what I hope will eventually be a nice collection of some of my favorites. They are hardly traditional hymns, but they bring me closer to god, or eternity, or whatever is out there – or not – than most of what I’ve heard as a regular church attender.

I hope you find some of the same inspiration from these tracks as I do. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hymns, Volume I – a compilation from Tigers Walk Behind Me