Jam Sesh with Kevin, Vol. 3
MARCH 2025: Music to exercise to.
I write about a wide range of topics on This is a Newsletter!, and one of my goals over the last six months has been to broaden it to include areas of interest beyond current events, memes, Millennial culture, and lunch. One of the many possible options I’ve considered was “true crime,” which would undoubtedly please my girlfriend, but it ranked pretty low on my list of priorities. It’s not the energy I seek to cultivate, and scrolling through a comment section bursting with hordes of bored 30-something white women honking through the details of a high-profile unresolved incest cult would scuff the vibes regardless of what those specific details entail. So this month’s edition of Jam Sesh with
will cover our favorite music to exercise to—and since I’m a long-distance runner, this will be as close to true crime as I’ll likely get to.My Honorable Mentions:
A Deeper Understanding - The War on Drugs
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Violator - Depeche Mode
Kevin’s Honorable Mentions:
Doormatica EP - Paul Keeley
Ride the Lightning - Metallica
CHECK OUT ON REPEAT!!
MY PICK: Autobahn - Kraftwerk
Back when I lived in Chicago, this was my go-to album to jam out to when I was training for my first half-marathon. I remember running down the 606 after work and watching the sunset as the bright vocal melodies repeat We are driving on the Autobahn. Even if the opening track exceeds 20 minutes of runtime, it never feels overwrought or self-indulgent; it builds up nicely and the rhythmic and melodic textures are perfect to get lost in as your body warms up for a lengthy run. And to add some variety, there are arrangements where flutes and piano appear alongside the synths and vocoders. The rest of the album isn’t quite as memorable as the side-spanning title track, but they’re quirky enough to keep the juices flowing.
KEVIN’S PICK: Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
My Response:
Last time I listened to this album was in the theater, as I was one of six people for that specific showing of the A24 remastered concert. I had so much room for activities, like faintly mimicking David Byrne’s frenetic stage moves. I’m disappointed in myself for not even considering Stop Making Sense for this exercise, because Talking Heads ‘77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food have been in fairly consistent rotation for workout albums. This is a roundabout way of saying this is a great choice of music to run and exercise to.
MY PICK: Entroducing….. - DJ Shadow
I love running to this album because there are so many samples and loops and fragments of long-forgotten records jammed into here. It’s like a journey through the history of recorded sound. You bridge the segregation of genres and fuse the divide between rhythm and melody. Your heart pounds as strings and horns and synths glide into something that sounds pure. It is confounding. You aren’t listening to songs, they are compositions. The tracks are eclectic but spin out with flow. If you want to dial in, this is a must-listen.
KEVIN’S PICK: Technique - New Order
My Response:
I’m no historian, but I’m pretty sure Johann Wolfang von Goethe’s last words were “More synths,” and New Order took it to their hearts. Technique is pure Ibiza vibes, and it captures everything this band is about: Danceable, indie, jangle pop, delicious basslines, heartfelt, pisstaking. It’s a defining statement without saying anything specific. I can’t believe I’ve never played this while running, but that will soon change.
MY PICK: LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
This is an endlessly danceable record. I can’t think of a better song to kick off a run than “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” or even “Losing My Edge.” While there are some slower and more melancholic songs in the tracklist, there are plenty of uptempo indietronica and dance-punk that will get your heart pumping: “Tribulations,” “Movement,” “On Repeat,” “Disco Infiltrator,” Beat Connection,” “Give it Up,” both versions of “Yeah,” and “Yr City’s a Sucker.” It doesn’t even matter if some of the instrumental passages are drawn-out or long-winded, you’ll find yourself in a sugar rush of endless headbobs.
KEVIN’S PICK: For That Beautiful Feeling - Chemical Brothers
My Response:
As a listening experience, the tracks blend into one another into a journey that brings you to different stops and then takes you home at the end. The sounds are consistent but also keep things fresh and interesting. There are so many bursting loops and layers, it creates an atmospheric soundscape that makes me feel like I’m running across Rainbow Road. It’ll make you wish your workouts never ended.
That’s it for the March 2025 edition of Jam Sesh! Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments.
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One album I love to exercise to is King gizzard and the lizard wizard’s nonagon infinity album. It really helps that the album is essentially a one song loop where the music never stops. It’s also incredibly hypnotic, which is another essential factor to keep my brain from telling myself to give up early because exercise often feels like a chore to me. At least things like running and cycling. When I was in my 20s and running a lot more regularly, I used to love to play anything by the band Swans. I’m pretty sure I played the album Children of God quite a bit in the late 80s and early 90s.