You know those album tracks — remember album tracks? — that you don’t think you like and don’t pay any attention to, and then you hear them on their own and suddenly realize you actually like them? This is one of those. I love the New Pornographers, but Challengers has never been my favourite of their albums. Nonetheless, some of its tracks have clearly got their claws in me without my noticing. Surprisingly, it’s not a Neko song, as is evidenced by this performance of it where she hits a tambourine sporadically while the keyboardist sings with Carl Newman. It’s also more like an AC (i.e., Carl) Newman solo song than some of the most popular and more typical New Pornographers songs. But I like its slow, somewhat contemplative structure and the title, having had many adventures in solitude myself. (There is a story by the late Laurie Colwin called “The Lone Pilgrim” that I loved for the same reason — not only is it a great story that I re-read every few years, but I adopted the title as a personal motto). If pressed, I could probably write a Song of the Day post every day on a New Pornographers song, but this will do for now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8M30MzbidM

(There was no Christmas Day Song of the Day post)