Link Digest: 4/7/26

Some Velvet Blog lists six songs that last more than 20 minutes but will still blow your mind;

JB at The Hits Just Keep on Comin' eulogizes CBS Radio;

On Repeat Records suggests some underrated New Wave albums that deserve your ears;

The Quietus traces the birth of modern heavy metal back to Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny;

Michael Chabon sends a long-overdue letter to a teacher who helped spark his love of writing;

New Directions in Music dives into what might be Stephen Foster's most enduring song;

Counting Atoms asks (and answers) how much regular people should be expected to know about science;

Nick DeRiso writes about a late-period Band song that pointed the way forward for them while also signaling the end of the original lineup;

Any Major Dude has a James Gadson mixtape for your groove-deficient ears;

Anil Dash reminds us that actually, people actively enjoy working — at least when the conditions of that work aren't punishingly lame;

and nobody writes more poignantly and profoundly about the value of that work — and labor in general — than Niko Stratis.