A new favorite

I've been digging this mellow folkish vibe lately and have recently discovered The Kings of Convenience, a duo from Norway. While I know they've been around, why has no one ever recommended them to me? They couldn't be more up my alley. I recently let myself purchase one of their four albums from iTunes and I'll tell you, a tough decision it was. I went with their second to last released album, Riot On An Empty Street, mainly because I read that Feist did some vocals on two of the tracks. The whole album flows from one track to the next in some sort of seamless mellow montage. This is a highly recommended album for a quiet day by yourself.

Kings of Convenience: Riot on an Empty Street

When you need to mellow...

Got in a fight with my significant other today. He's lacking emotion while I have too much of it. After getting back to my office, I was having a hard time concentrating. Angry words were flying all over my thoughts and I really needed to calm down and focus on my job. Enter Sufjan Stevens. He went solo in 2000, so he's been around for a while, but I've only recently discovered his folky acoustical sound. It was like a musical hug.

Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Song: Romulus
Album: Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State

Calm, Cool, & Collected

When I think of cool, mellow bands that have a great beat, but are not noisy and obnoxious, I think of the following artists:

1. St. Germain
2. Thievery Corporation
3. Gotan Project
4. Fila Brazillia
   

Technically, this genre is referred to as Ambient or Electronica, but I think it should just be called "cool beats".

If you like cool, but want something more exotic, try the band Pacifika (their latest album is Asunción).