I didn't explain my purpose for using Audacity.  I
use it to play MP3 files, but also
 to change their tempo while preserving the pitch so I can learn drum and guitar parts
 for complicated riffs.  It's excellent for this purpose.  I've tried a few other
tempo
 control apps before but they were excessively choppy.  It's been a while so if anyone
 can recommend one that works better than Audacity these days, I'd love to hear it.
good old mplayer again:
$ mplayer -af scaletempo -speed 0.7 file.mp3
speed can then be altered on the fly with [ ] and { }