Welcome to another edition of our regular Monday stream-a-thon, wherein we hunt down the best and/or most notable records streaming for free over the Internet. This week, there’s the new Beach House streaming in full, so if like us you’ve avoided the leaked version, then the wait to hear it is finally over. Yay! There’s also a new record from Best Coast, Danny Elfman’s Dark Shadows soundtrack, the return of Garbage, and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, an album of Rod McKuen covers by Dean Ween. Click through and listen to your heart’s content!
Beach House — Bloom
As Gorilla Vs Bear — who kinda jumped the gun with this stream by linking to it last night — point out, this is for “the 7 of you that have managed to abstain from listening to the leak.” Curiously enough, that seven includes us — we generally feel somewhat soiled listening to leaked records, and as such we’re as delighted as anyone to finally be able to click here and hear Beach House’s fourth album in its entirety.
Best Coast — The Only Place
Also at NPR is the new album by Best Coast, which if you’re lucky enough to be feeling summery and beach-y and all such things on a Monday morning, is probably exactly what you need at this point. Conversely, if you’re all about existential angst and morbid depression, hey, maybe this is exactly what you need? Um. Anyway. Click here to listen.
Danny Elfman — Dark Shadows
While the new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp vampire comedy Dark Shadows looks pretty terrible, its score — by the ever-prolific Danny Elfman — is a more enticing proposition. It’s streaming at AOL’s Spinner site this week, and it’s a rather enjoyable orchestral pastiche of the incidental music from any number of classic horror films, all haunted-sounding vocals and portentous strings. Click here to add some atmosphere to your Monday.
Aaron Freeman — Marvelous Clouds
And now for something completely different — if you don’t recognize the name “Aaron Freeman,” well, he’s better known as Gene Ween. This is his debut solo record (Dean is too busy running his fishing trips, presumably), and it’s a surprisingly reflective and pretty piece of work. The album is a collection of cover versions of songs by Canadian poet and songwriter Rod McKuen, best known for “Seasons in the Sun” (quite possibly the most depressing song ever! Woo hoo!). The album is streaming at The New Yorker, of all places — click here to hear it.
Garbage — Not Your Kind of People
And finally, we’ve always had something of a soft spot for Garbage, so we’re glad to see them back after a long absence. Not Your Kind of People is their fifth studio album and their first in seven years. It doesn’t break any new stylistic boundaries — from what little we can tell from this “stream,” which despite being billed as a full advance stream, apparently consists of only snippets of songs, rather than the whole record. Still, even based on this evidence, we’re looking forward to getting hold of a copy. Click here to listen.