In all the conversations around albums vs. single songs, there's rarely mention of a lost art: the standalone strong single or compilation track. The Beatles were the masters, of course, but Belle & Sebastian did it as well as anyone for a while: treating a non-album track as its own separate work, rather than a track pulled from it's album's context or a throwaway leftover.

The Decemberists, "Sleepless" (2009)

buy the Dark Was The Night compilation for a good cause

The Decemberists are one of the few artists around now (actually, the only one I can think of at the moment) whose non-album tracks are worth just as much attention as their full albums. Their single series last year was full of classic-sounding Decemberists stuff, and now they've put out the standout track on a standout compilation.

I can't be the only one whose reminded of "The Engine Driver" on hearing "Sleepless", but that's a good thing. A damn good thing. Like that song from Picaresque, it's a fairly drab verse with a glorious chorus and a maudlin hook that can make the words "drooping" and "plodding" turn into great compliments.

I can't really say I'm too looking forward to Hazards of Love, since all descriptions of it seem required to use phrases like "prog" and "rock opera" and reference bands like Heart and ELP. But if there's anything on that record as beautiful as this, it'll be worth every cent.