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

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova Oscar Acceptance Speeches

Glen Hansard gave an acceptance speech when "Falling Slowly" won the Best Original Song Oscar, but as his partner Marketa Irglova stepped to the microphone, the orchestra swelled up and she was unable to say anything. After the commercial break, host Jon Stewart had Irglova come back on and give her thanks and her thoughts on winning the Oscar... a nice move by Stewart, or whomever made the decision to let her back on.

Below are the acceptance speeches by both Hansard and Irglova.

"Falling Slowly" from "Once" Wins Oscar

"Falling Slowly," the nominee from the movie "Once," has won the Oscar for best original song.

“Once,” a film about two singers making music on the streets of Dublin, was made for just $100,000.

The winners of the Oscar, songwriters Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, also played the lead roles in "Once" Both Hansard and Irglova are actual musicians, not actors.

Glen Hansard is best known in the U.S. as the leader of the Irish rock band The Frames. Marketa Irglova is a singer and songwriter from the Czech Republic.

Based on the popularity of “Once” in its theatrical release, Hansard and Irglova have toured together under the name The Swell Season, and have released an album of the same name.