Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden

I originally came across this excellent Nashville group on a mix by Charlie Lowell of Jars of Clay (who, it turns out, has a taste for electropop music which is very similar to mine).  Since the recent demise of grooveshark, I had a hard time finding any of their music to listen to for free, but I found their album on rdio, and I must say it's quite good.  I think you can also listen to most of their stuff on soundcloud site.  I particularly recommend the song "Hangover", it's so awesome.  I love the style of the music, with orchestral and highly melodic instrumentation behind the girl's crazy ethereal voice.  Presumably that's Kate Tucker.  In any case, you should definitely listen to their one album "The Shape the Color the Feel".

The Golden Hippie

This is another one of those artists that I can't remember how I came across.  I would describe the music as poppy alt-rock, although the lyrics and beats seem influenced by soul and R&B.  She has a pretty compelling voice.  I would recommend her soundcloud site to see if you like it.  Right now, the only release is a namesake EP, but according to the soundcloud site a full-length album is coming out soon.

The Vespers

I came across this group on noisetrade.  They are hard to describe...I guess it's poppy folk.  The girls who sing have an amazing voice, they are super tuneful.  And it works really well with the backing instrumentation, which is sometimes minimalist and sometimes really big.  You can listen to a ton of their music on their bandcamp.  I highly recommend checking them out.  Apparently they have some new music coming out too, since they recently posted on noisetrade.

Vanessa Carlton

Everyone between the ages of 15 and 40 probably knows Vanessa Carlton's song "1000 Miles", which came out in 2002.  I actually didn't know any of her other music up until very recently, but she just release a new EP on noisetrade in advance of a full length album coming out in October.  I was very impressed.  The piano she plays is slightly out of tune, which adds to the cool atmosphere.  Her voice and the backing instrumentation work together really well.  It sometimes sounds like there is a full orchestra playing behind the piano.  I would classify the style of music as indie/folky pop; some of the songs are pretty dark/heavy.  Her EP is still available for downloading on noistrade for right now; you should get it.

Sufjan Stevens

Everyone who is reading this blog probably knows about Sufjan Stevens.  His earlier state-themed albums "Illinoise" and "Michigan" were massively popular and ground-breaking, and "Seven Swans" was exceptionally good.  Many of Sufjan's loyal fans were initially intrigued with the new, more electronic direction that his music started to take with his EPs "All Delighted People" and especially "the BQE", then his LP "The Age of Adz", but it as the years went on and his music grew less and less melodic and more abstract, I think a lot of people checked out and stopped following what he was doing.  In this context, Sufjan recently released a new album "Carrie & Lowell", which is sort of a memorial for his mother who died in 2012.  The musical style is polar opposite to the Age of Adz; it's generally acoustic guitar and piano.  The guitar riffs and the melodies are extremely simple, but unbelievably compelling and powerful.  It's a super dark album, and fundamentally depressing, but the musical skill and genius behind it is just unbelievable.  It's the best album I've heard in a long time.  If you haven't yet heard it, by all means buy it.  Apparently Sufjan is going on a limited tour with this release, too.