5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: M. Ward, Graham Coxon

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Monday morning is evil. There’s no two ways about it. Thankfully, there’s always coffee, and also a fresh selection of streaming albums for your listening pleasure. This week we’ve got a fine selection of music to ease the pain — the new Graham Coxon solo album, along with gentle alt-folk from M. Ward, non-gentle prog lunacy from The Mars Volta, the proper non-2,700-hour stream of Bear in Heaven’s new record, the return of the Chemical Brothers, and, as a bonus, an absolutely killer DJ mix from Flavorpill faves Raime. It’s all awaiting you after the jump.

Graham Coxon — A+E

We’ve long been fans of Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s solo work, in all its shambolic glory — from the occasional song on Blur’s albums (cf. “You’re So Great,” in particular) to the pleasantly anarchic nature of albums like The Sky Is Too High and The Golden D. He’s mellowed a bit in recent years, but there’s still plenty of raucous action to be found on A+E, as well as self-effacing humor: “We’re writing new songs,” he sings on opening track “Advice,” “[and] they sound the same.” Which is perfectly OK with us. Listen via the Guardian .

The Mars Volta — Noctourniquet

We have to say that we’re a whole lot less excited about this record than we would be about a new At the Drive-In album, but sadly, it looks like the latter is never gonna happen. You know exactly what you’re going to get with The Mars Volta, and if listening to Cedric Bixler-Zavala shrieking lines like, “Because I’m a laaaaaaaaaaaaand mine and I can blossom in the portals of an ECG!” is how you like to blow away the cobwebs on a Monday morning, well, knock yourself out right here.

M. Ward — A Wasteland Companion

Having been rather partial to M. Ward’s work over the years, we’ve always been of the opinion that it’s a bit of a shame he’s ended up being best known for being the one who isn’t Zooey Deschanel in She & Him. Hopefully this, his seventh solo album, will help redress the balance — it’s more of the quietly understated folk he’s done so well over the years, and it’s fine listening to start the week. Hear it via NPR.

Bear in Heaven — I Love You, It’s Cool

After streaming this album at radically slowed-down pace over the course of 2,700 hours, Brooklyn hopefuls Bear in Heaven drop the real thing next week, and a sensibly-paced version of the record is streaming via NPR all week in advance of the release. We joked when the slowed-down stream was released that we’d probably prefer that version, but this isn’t bad — very ’80s, very New Order, but pleasant enough. Hear it here.

Chemical Brothers — Don’t Think

Ed ‘n’ Tom’s soundtrack for the film Don’t Think is streaming via The Guardian — it was recorded at a show the duo played in Japan last year as part of the Fuji Rock festival, and it’s suitablyepic. The show’s basically a greatest hits set, and the crowd goes suitably batshit — if you want to feel like you were a part of the action, click here. It’s nice to pretend you’re not at your desk for a while, eh?

Bonus link:

Slash — Apocalyptic Love

If you’re interested in what Slash is up to these days, samples of all the tracks from his new album are streaming right here.

Bonus bonus link:

Raime — Boiler Room mix

Here’s about where our head’s at on a Monday morning — a dark, ominous and thoroughly excellent 60-minute mix by Blackest Ever Black faves Raime for Boiler Room. Listen here.