The Distance (song)

1. "The Distance" - 3:00
2. "Multiply the Heartaches" - 2:49
3. "Jolene" (Live) - 8:25
4. "It's Coming Down" - 3:44

The song is based around Cake's standard guitar, bass, and drums setup, with flourishes of solo trumpet, and John McCrea's characteristically deadpan, driving vocals. The song does not employ McCrea's rhythm guitar, but does feature some overlaid synthesized and other non-traditional sounds. In the official music video, a glimpse of the melodica can be seen.

The video for "The Distance" features footage of the members of the band performing the song in a busy office lobby, mixed with footage of a businessman who inexplicably starts to run off into the sunset; first he runs from his office building (the same one the band is performing in) to the suburbs, then into the country and a forest, and finally into the sea. While the man is running, various people in humorous animal costumes cheer him on. It takes place in downtown San Francisco and other Northern California locations and first aired in September 1996.

• Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song as a bonus track on their 2007 video game Alvin and the Chipmunks.
• In 2011, Relient K covered the song for their cover album, Is for Karaoke.
• The song was also used in The Simpsons episode "Saddlesore Galactica".
• The song was used in trailers of the 2013 DreamWorks Animation film, Turbo.
• British TV network ITV used the track as backing music for the trailer to its coverage of the 2015 Tour de France on ITV4.
• A cover version of the track with a different unknown female singer was used in the trailer of the documentary Icarus.
• The song's opening lyric, "Reluctantly crouched at the starting line", is prominently featured in the remix "The Starting Line" by Neil Cicierega on his album Mouth Moods.[4]