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.