Sleepmakeswaves - In Today Already Walks Tomorrow (2008)

This, dear readers, is one of my personal favourite albums of all-time. It's a musical journey through your own thoughts and feelings. Your own emotions. You'll be confronted with them all throughout this album and you'll make peace with them for as long as you'll allow it. It's got an amazing atmosphere, one that'll make you dream your problems away. The entire world doesn't exist and doesn't matter anymore from beginning to end. Please, allow yourself to let time stand still for about 40 minutes and download this to find your own self.
You're welcome.

Sample: "I Will Write Peace On Your Wings And You Will Fly Over The World"
Download
Bandcamp

- Alessandro

Tortoise - It's All Around You (2004)

I don't know anything about this band and don't even know how this ended up in my music library, but I decided to listen to it and was blown away. The album begins with a jazz-ish tune and some hints of post-rock, and then just blasts into this incredible landscape-like post-rock/jazz journey. It's really, really well done and a huge pleasure to the ears. One of those albums that completely lives up to their cover. Great stuff!

Sample: "Salt The Skies"

- Alessandro

mewithoutYou - Ten Stories (2012)

Probably my all-time favorite band, mewithoutYou's latest album Ten Stories signifies some interesting changes for the band. Foremost, a step away from their former label Tooth & Nail records and releasing this album independently, as well as another departure in sound. 2009's It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream It's Alright may have been a major curveball for fans not expecting the folk-as-fuck direction the band took, but it was definitely a necessary measure: they've returned to the sound they developed through Catch for Us the Foxes and the triumphant Brother, Sister (sorry, A to B fans, if you're looking for the harsh post-hardcore of their debut), but now utilize the lyrical themes and vocal melodies played with on It's All Crazy. Such is demonstrated on opener "February 1878" , while new styles are explored on "Cardiff Giant" which may very well be the happiest song they have ever recorded. Whatever the sound may be, however, Aaron Weiss' songwriting is as strong as ever, telling the story of a trainwreck, releasing circus animals into the wilderness and using these characters as a means of telling introspective parables relating to Weiss' own personal struggles.

The end result is the perfect culmination of how the band has grown for over the past ten years together serving as both a flawless testimony to their music and also the most accessible album they have ever made. Definitely one for newcomers to try out and figure out what parts they liked and where that should take them next in their rich discography. As mentioned before, this is the band's foray into independently releasing music, so I cannot recommend enough that--if you liked the samples or love the band--by all means, support mewithoutYou by purchasing Ten Stories if you can.

Sample: "Fox's Dream of the Log Flume"

- Jake

Shakira - MTV Unplugged (2000)

Marking her crossover to American audiences, pre-Laundry Service, Shakira's MTV Unplugged performance is full of delightful twists, like a full-blown mariachi rendition of her single "Ciega, Sordomuda" or a kicked-up version of "Estoy Aquí" complete with note-sustaining caterwaul. Definitely a must have for fans of the singer, and a standing testimony to late 90s pop-rock

Sample: "Si Te Vas"

- Jake

radex - trip beats (2012)

Radex is a trip-hop/electronic/broken beat producer and "trip beats" is his latest project. The free album consists of exactly what the title implies: trip beats. Boy, these beats are trippy. Sounds like acid-influenced noises with some great sampling and trip-hop/electronic elements to it. With a beat underneath everything to make it catchy despite its weirdness, this album hits like a bomb and makes its stand in the music world, though its voice might not be as loud as it deserves to be. So go get it!

Sample: "trip the beat"

Download

Bandcamp

- Alessandro

Au Revoir Simone - Still Night, Still Light (2009)

Dreampop to the extreme. "Still Night, Still Light" by Au Revoir Simone consists of addicting tunes with dreamy sounds and a female voice that sucks you into an entirely different world, singing well-thought lyrics so you can listen to the album passively or actively and be impressed in both ways. Lots of variation throughout the album but doesn't change its pace in a way that it'll bother you. Relaxing as hell.

Sample: "Another Likely Story"

- Alessandro

Björk - Vespertine (2001)

Vespertine is arguably the best album she's released. It's filled with quiet, magical instruments and eargasmic vocals that is mostly whisper-like. It's an electronic downtempo pop-ish album with an experimental tint and a winter-like atmosphere that goes really personal at times. Really unique stuff and I've never heard anything quite like it. The only way to really describe this album is "Björk-ish", so really, just go get it. Your life might or might not change forever and ever and ever and ever.

Sample: "Aurora"

- Alessandro