Free Album Previews: New CDs by Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, the B-52s, & Many More

Above: Peter Gabriel performing "Solsbury Hill" live, one of the songs on his latest release, "New Blood."

This is one of those "when it rains, it pours" weeks for online album previews. You can hear the new releases from a number of big-name veterans artists, including one who's no longer alive (that would be Johnny Cash, represented in the new "Bootleg Volume 3: Live Around the World"release).

Among the artists who are still with us (and have been for a long time), there are new albums for preview from Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, the B-52s, and even Erasure and Judas Priest. The Gabriel release, "New Blood," is a collection of songs from different eras of his solo career performed with an orchestra and some guest musicians—an arrangement he's been touring with this year.

The Paul Simon release is a two-disc retrospective, including live versions of songs including "The Sound of Silence" and "The Boxer."

And for fans of the Pixies and Frank Black (like me), there's a new album that Black has (under his Black Francis moniker) with Reid Paley, called simply "Paley & Francis."

Among the younger artists with new albums are the New Jersey band Real Estate, Ben Lee, Rachael Yamagata, and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. If you liked the music of The Swell Season from the movie "Once," you'll want to check out the debut album from the female half of that duo, Marketa Irglova. And The new Ryan Adams album is previewing on Spinner this week, in case you missed it at NPR Music last week.

I usually give multiple listens to new albums that I'm interested in, but that should to be quite a challenge this week.

NPR First Listen:
"Days" by Real Estate

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Songwriter" by Paul Simon
"Deeper Into Dream by Ben Lee
"Anar" by Marketa Irglova
"Norman (Music From the Motion Picture)" by Andrew Bird
"Paley & Francis" Reid Paley & Black Francis
"New Blood" by Peter Gabriel
"Liberty Bell" by Kate Miller Heidke
"The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective" by Ben Folds
"Chesapeake" by Rachael Yamagata
"Bootleg Volume 3: Live Around the World"by Johnny Cash
"With the Wild Crowd!" by the B-52s
"Tomorrow's World" by Erasure
"The Sound of His Voice" by John Wesley Harding
"Ashes and Fire" by Ryan Adams

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Evanescence" by Evanescence
"The Chosen Few" by Judas Priest
"Free EP" by Graffiti6 
"Gift Horse" by Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

Free Album Streaming: New CDs from Lucinda Williams, Devotchka, The Low Anthem, & More

Billy Preston's first solo album, getting its first release in over 45 years, is one of the albums available for free preview.  

New Lucinda Williams and rare Johnny Cash and Billy Preston are among the interesting new releases you can preview for free this week. There are many more albums than those listed here, especially on the AOL Music and Spinner sites.

KCRW Album Preview: 
"Blessed" by Lucinda Williams* (streaming until March 1)
"Smart Flesh" by The Low Anthem* (streaming until Feb. 27)
"100 Lovers" by Devotchka* (streaming until Feb. 27)

* Also streaming on NPR (below)

NPR First Listen:
"Anna Calvi" by London singer-songwriter Anna Calvi (streaming until March 1)
"Fading Parade" by Papercuts (which NPR calls "warmly psychedelic") (streaming until March 1)

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"From Memphis to Hollywood - Bootleg Vol. 2" by Johnny Cash (A compilation with "demos, unreleased songs and rare singles from the '50s to the late '60s.")
"Rachel Goodrich" by Rachel Goodrich

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Fixin' to Die" by G. Love
"The Color" by Yellowbirds (AOL says, "This is the debut album from the Brooklyn, N.Y. psychedelic sextet fronted by Apollo Sunshine's Sam Cohen.")
"16 Year Old Soul" by Billy Preston (Debut album by the late, legendary keyboardist who played with The Beatles and Eric Clapton, and had a long solo career. This album was released Feb. 22nd, marking the first time in 45 years that it has been available. See Billboard article on Billy Preston's "16 year Old Soul" here)

Also on AOL Music: reissues of albums by The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Darlene Love, as well as a Phil Spector retrospective.

Music Notes: Live Deerhunter Webcast Tonight, Pete Yorn on Leno, Imperial Stars Stop L.A. Traffic

* Just found out that a Deerhunter show will be webcast live by NPR Music tonight, Oct. 12th. The show is set to begin at 10 p.m. Eastern time.

* Pete Yorn will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Tuesday, Oct. 12th. And he's got a new video out, for his song "Sans Fear" (above).

* The Orange County hip-hop band Imperial Stars stopped traffic on an L.A. freeway this morning, and got arrested for it. The band played songs on a truck that was parked to block most of the 101 freeway in Hollywood. The stunt was apparently a promotional effort for the Imperial Stars song "Traffic Jam 101."

* Heard about this cool video on Twitter called "The Johnny Cash Project": a "global collective art project" that provides assembles countless user-created images for a visual backdrop for Cash's song "Ain't No Grave." And the creators encourage viewers to add their own contributions. It's hard to describe; check it out for yourself.