Coldplay has a new album coming out on May 20 called Ghost Stories, and you can stream the whole thing a week early via iTunes Radio today.

The nine-track record takes on a more stripped-down version of Coldplay, something we haven’t seen in a while. The band’s two most recent records, Mylo Xyloto and Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends showed the band moving in a more dramatic and at times theatrical direction, but Chris Martin’s recent “conscious uncoupling” with Gweneth Paltrow has seemingly pushed the band back to their calmed-down roots.

The idea of Ghost Stories, for me, was ‘how do you let the things that happen to you in the past – your ghosts – how do you let them affect your present and your future?’ Because there was a time when I was feeling like they were going to drag me down and ruin my life, and the lives of those around me. I was very lucky to meet a very good sufi teacher who started to introduce the idea of ‘if you sit with your experiences and the things you’ve been through, they alchemize.’ At the time he said that, I didn’t really know what that meant, but I trusted that it would work, and the more that I was learning about that, the more music just started flowing through.

Head over to iTunes Radio to stream the new record, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment down below. You can check out the official video for “Magic” after the jump.

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John Bazley

John Bazley was raised in central New Jersey by the romantic aura of the Asbury Park beachfront, punk rock, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. He is still trying to figure all of this stuff out.

In addition to UTG, John has contributed to Alternative Press and Full Frequency Media. Follow him on Twitter for pictures of his dog.

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