Every weekday, NPR Music's Song of the Day features a new piece of music and gives users a chance to play the song, link to the artist's Web sites and read about what makes each one special.

But five songs a week can seem like a lot of music, so host Guy Raz recently brought in Song of the Day editor Stephen Thompson to help pare the past week's list down to a few highlights. They settled on A Hawk and a Hacksaw's "Foni tu Argile" (an instrumental mix of Eastern European folk and klezmer, with a few twists thrown in), John Forte's "Breaking of a Man" (detailing the rapper's long stint in prison, which ended with a George W. Bush pardon), and Volcano Choir's "Youlogy" (a beautiful experimental ballad sung by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon).

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