Winter is dying and spring is in bloom. With all those blossoming flowers and sprouting lawns comes another installment of hecklerspray's musical recommends. We'll tell you what your ears should be craving, and you find out if we're right or not – by digging up these tracks pronto. Well, after lunch anyway.

Here's a fun first page sampler, featuring Fun Lovin' Criminals, I Am Kloot, 
Mew,
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, The New Pornographers and The Postal Service.

Fun Lovin' Criminals: Big Night Out off 100% Colombian
(Those Fun Lovin' Criminals, not only are they overly concerned with conserving the world's G's while depleting its apostrophe overabundance – they make great music in their down-time. This track's like two distinct songs – the first one being hip-hop/funk, and the second one is crazy-catchy chorus filled gospel. We find ourselves quite converted to whatever it is they're pushin'.)

I Am Kloot: No Direction Home off Gods & Monsters
(Nice lyrics, rockin' tune, and your mother doesn't approve. Our mother does though, she's awesome. We can set you up if you want. Anyway, this track's what we're gonna start jogging to the first of next month. We swear.)

Mew: Why Are You Looking Grave? off And The Glass Handed Kites
(They may have named themselves after a Pokemon character, but don't let that damper your enjoyment.  This one's slow rock with winding lyrics and a question mark in the title – we love all signs of inquisitiveness.)

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: Somewhere Over The Rainbow off Alone In IZ World
(Have you ever seen a picture of this guy? He's an absolute mountain of a man. He's so big, that it takes a while to wrap your head around the fact that that delicate voice is coming out of that huge body. If you ever see us use the word delicate again, throw us in something boiling, and then tell people we didn't even scream. We've reps to protect.)

The New Pornographers: The Bones Of An Idol off Twin Cinema
(There's a lot less 70's boom-boom disco than we thought here, given their name and what not. They're kind of new to us, but so far we're quite fond.)

The Postal Service: Brand New Colony off Give Up
(The Postal Service is a literal hybrid between Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. It was all the rage on America's west coast a year or two back, but for no good reason it seemed to stop there. The whole album is great, and this is one of our favorite tracks off it.)

Want these songs in your ears and not on your eyes? Napster is your 30 day free friend.

[story by Shawn Lindseth]