Not so long ago, we were listening to M83′s glorious Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts album. The album’s not heavy on lyrics, but its widescreen soundscapes definitely reflect its evocative, dramatic title, and it got us thinking about the manifold different ways the world’s great cities have been immortalized in song — and about how different cities have inspired very different musical tributes. In view of this, we figured that it’d be an interesting idea to do a semi-regular series wherein we choose our five favorite songs about a particular city. The first stop on our whistlestop world tour? Why, right here at Flavorpill central in New York City. Hop on board after the jump.

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Mark this one down under things we’re a little concerned about. Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky — who’s currently wrapped up with his Noah graphic novel release and plans for an upcoming film epic — is going to direct a music video for Lou Reed and Metallica’s “Iced Honey.” The song hails from their recent collaborative album, which has broadly been described as a horny, ear-piercing mess. Lulu was inspired by German playwright Frank Wedekind’s work of the same name — and tells the story of a seductive dancer who sleeps her way through German’s social circle, only to turn to prostitution later in life. Aronofsky’s cinematography partner Matthew Libatique is also on board, and the always cranky Reed hopes the video “can be [Aronofsky's] next Black Swan.” We’re not entirely sold on all of this, but let us know what you think below. Click past the break if you’re brave (or bored) enough to listen to “Iced Honey.”

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Rejoice, because we’ve conquered our CMJ hangovers and got down to the serious business of our regular Monday roundup of albums streaming for free over the course of the coming week. And there’s a particularly exciting link to share this time around: the new Tom Waits album, Bad As Me, which is now available for your listening pleasure via NPR. Clearly, everything else that’s streaming this week is going to pale in comparison somewhat, but there’s still plenty of other goodness to be had: the new Justice album, along with upcoming releases from Florence & the Machine, and Joker. And, um, the Lou Reed/Metallica album. It’s all after the jump, so click through and get listening!

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For anyone who’s been waiting on the new Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration album Lulu, well, you’re in luck. Just a few days ago, and well in advance of the November 1 drop date, the band(s) made the full album available to stream on their website. Which is all very well and good, if you don’t know yet that the album isn’t very well or very good. However, we can wholeheartedly recommend this video that we spied over at Gothamist of the muppets performing (that is, manipulated to look like they’re performing) the album’s “Pumping Blood”, featuring Beaker as a very convincing Lou Reed. It’s just about as weird as Lulu is, and that’s saying something.

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1. Should you care to spend your morning listening to the full version of the Lou Reed and Metallica collaboration album Lulu before its official release on November 1, it’s now streaming at their official website. [via NME]

2. Justin Timberlake has a new music video you guys! Before you get too excited, you should know this: It’s actually for a new song from a rock/hip-hop band called FreeSol, whose album Timberlake produced. But still, here he is rapping! [via Vulture]

3. Warner Bros. has officially given the green light to a live action remake of Akira which will be helmed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown, House of Wax). According to reports Garrett Hedlund (TRON: Legacy) is the front runner for the starring role of Kaneda, the head of the biker gang. [via Slashfilm]

4. Ricky Gervais is in trouble again, this time for frequent use of the word “mong” (a shortening of “mongoloid”) on his Twitter. “I have explained, even during stand-up shows, that the meaning of words changes over time,” he explains. “Gay, for example, would never be used to mean happy any more. The modern use of the word mong means ‘dopey’ or ‘ignorant.’” [via Gawker]

5. Sad news for fans of the Impressionists: A strike by security workers protesting staff cuts at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay has postponed the long-awaited reopening of the museum’s newly revamped galleries, which have been closed for the past 18 months. [via ArtsBeat]

Bonus Buzz: 5 Traditions That Probably Constitute As Animal Abuse

Last week we ran a post on the people who we thought were rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated lyricists — artists who don’t get the credit they deserve for their writing, either because they’re better known as guitarists/producers/crazy performers, or just because they’re generally underappreciated. We got some great feedback, and some excellent suggestions in the comments section, and all was very congenial. But last week’s post does raise one obvious question: If those were rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated lyricists, who are its most overrated? We’ve taken the plunge and put together a list of the latter. Again, to be clear, this isn’t meant to be any sort of definitive list of worst lyrics or lyricists — Des’ree, your throne is secure — just those who we reckon don’t get enough scrutiny for being either a) not that great or b) not quite as great as people seem to think they are. So, what say you, readers? Are there more names you’d like to nominate? Or do we just need to join the witness protection program?

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A couple of weeks back, our redoubtable resident film expert Jason Bailey took a look at the most shameless paycheck performances in cinema history. They’re united by being pretty dreadful, and they got us thinking about similar situations in the world of music — specifically, albums that have been made to fulfill contractual obligations or other legal necessities. Curiously enough, while there have certainly been some terrible records made for such reasons over the years — either disinterested, lackluster or deliberately bad — there have also been some great ones, where legal wrangles and contract-related adversity somehow catalysed artistic inspiration. We’ve rummaged through our record crate and came up with some examples of each — let us know if you’ve got any more to add on either front.

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As loyal Lou Reed fans, we’re used to having him throw us for a loop regularly — his entire mid-’70s oeuvre is basically one big mind fuck, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how tongue-in-cheek the intentions behind many of his silliest post-Velvet Underground lyrics were. But his collaboration with Metallica crossed over from provocative to embarrassing around the time we heard the first single, “The View.” Now, Old Uncle Lou has humiliated his admirers yet again with the trailer for the album, Lulu. The clip consists mostly of an interview with Reed, Lars Ulrich, and James Hetfield that might as well be a Saturday Night Live parody of the project. Ulrich admits, “We don’t really know where it’s going,” and Hetfield declares, ”We got to stamp ‘tallica on it!” Finally, Reed opines, “It pushed me to the best I’ve ever been.” Oh, Lou. Once again, we can’t tell whether you’re joking or just batty.

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Mick Jagger hasn’t been in a movie since 2001′s The Man from Elysian Fields. Yesterday, Deadline reported that the Rolling Stones frontman may be in line to play a Rupert Murdoch-like character in Tabloid, which is being written by A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson. This got us thinking about other musicians who made the crossover into film. Jagger’s played everyone from Turner in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s excellent Performance, to a “bonejacker” (oof) in Freejack — which currently holds a shameful 15% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Here are other songbirds that also made the leap from stage to screen, in order from best to worst. Leave us your list in the comments.

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1. A surprising new twist in the ever-continuing Netflix saga: Dreamworks has decided to ditch its current deal with HBO and offer the streaming service the exclusive rights to its output, at about $30 million per movie — a $10 million increase in revenue. [via NYT]

2. Goodnight, sweet prince: Arch West, the Frito-Lay executive who invented Doritos back in the early ’60s, died last week in Dallas at the ripe old age of 97; according to his daughter, the family plans on “tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn.” [via The Daily Beast]

3. Here is your first look at Luck, the Michael Mann horse-racing drama that stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte and is set to air on HBO some time in January. Thoughts?

4. Lou Reed and Metallica have debuted the first full track off of their forthcoming collaboration album, Lulu, which is due out on November 1. Listen to “The View” here.

5. The world we live in: Can you believe that Dolphin Tale nearly beat Moneyball at the weekend box office — and that neither film could match the $22.1 million haul by The Lion King 3D? [via Vulture]

Bonus Buzz: A Visual History of Literary References on ‘The Simpsons’