The other day I was sifting through the albums on my iPod Nano. I ran into the usual suspects — AC/DC, Arch Enemy, Black Sabbath, Lacuna Coil, Lamb of God, Metallica, Slayer, Opeth, Otep, Ozzy and Pantera.

But I also came across some old friends — the Police, Pat Benatar, Styx, Rush, Kansas, Yes, the Eagles, Nine Inch Nails, Loudness and Journey.

Shawn Mullins, Lyle Lovett, Dan Fogelberg, Barry Manilow (yes, that's right), Loreena McKennitt and Van Halen were also there.

The funny thing is, when I first tried to load my iPod, I ran into a problem. It holds 2,000 songs, and my list contained 4,123 songs.

So, I spent an hour shaving songs off the list, and I finally ended up with a perfect balance of metal, pop, rock, easy listening and folk.

Well, now I have a dilemma.

The other day I took Newton Faulkner's CD, "Hand Built By Robots" (Columbia), for a spin. Now I want to get it in my playlist.

There is a simple solution — get a bigger iPod. But that's really not an option, because I don't have an extra $249 + tax to spend on another music player.

That means I have to update the playlist and add the Faulkner CD, which was released last year in Britain and in the United States Tuesday.

Just adding a song or two to the playlist won't work either.

I want the whole CD on my iPod. And here's why:

"Hand Built by Robots" is a nice little collection of unobtrusive and laid-back compositions. Faulkner's acoustic-laced songs are like sitting in the shade of a hillside tree on a hot summer day.

In one way, it can be interpreted as a day in Faulkner's life.

The disc begins with the brief "Intro," which leads into "To the Light" and ends with another short, poignant work, "Lullaby."

Still, every song has the strength to stand alone in any playlist.

There is something nostalgic about the melodies in "All I Got" and "Feels Like Home."

His crafty syncopation is first heard during "To the Light" and pops up in "People Should Smile More," and he dabbles with the exotic on "Sitar-Y Thing."

The sing-a-long choruses come in the foot-stomping "Gone in the Morning" and the hand-clap anthem "She's Got the Time."

One of my favorite tracks is "Teardrop," with its moody, acid-harmonies, mixed with bottom-heavy Led Zeppelin-esque rhythms.

At any rate, I'll have to go through my iPod this weekend and make some adjustments. It will be a hard task, but worth it.

---

E-mail: scott@desnews.com