If you can't wait just one more week to hear M. Ward's new album More Rain, worry note. Ahead of the album's March 4 release date, the full LP is streaming now via NPR First Listen.

Despite its seemingly dreary title, More Rain is filled with some of the bounciest music from M. Ward in quite some time, influenced by doo-wop music and simple '50s beats.

The rainy title yet optimistic music comes from a modern American dichotomy. "I think one of the biggest mysteries of America right now is this: How are we able to process unending bad news on Page One and then go about our lives the way the Style section portrays us? There must be a place in our brains that allows us to take a bird's-eye view of humanity, and I think music is good at helping people--myself included--go to that place," Ward said in a statement when he announced the record.

No stranger to teaming up with other artists, M. Ward rounded out the More Rain tracklist with some guest spots from Neko Case ("Time Won't Wait"), k.d. lang ("Little Baby") and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck ("Phenomenon," "Temptation").

M. Ward More Rain Tracklist:

01. [More Rain]
02. Pirate Dial
03. Time Won't Wait
04. Confession
05. I'm Listening (Child's Theme)
06. Girl from Conejo Valley
07. Slow Driving Man
08. You're So Good to Me
09. Temptation
10. Phenomenon
11. Little Baby
12. I'm Going Higher

More Rain will be released officially on March 4. The album is M. Ward's first release since 2012's A Wasteland Companion.

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