Just about every good world music release has gone underappreciated but I don't think thats what you're looking for so I'll throw out seconds and thirds in support of
Jon Brion, The New Year and Joe Henry
and add a few:
Joe Pisapia "Daydreams"
I've probably posted more about my love for this album more than any other on CMJ's BB over the last few years, but it still goes underappreciated. The few people that I know checked it out seem to like it (Billy R, MCaputo, & Poptodd) but I don't know if many others even checked him out. It even ended up making mcaputo's listmania.
I'd describe it as folky chamber pop. Not Lame reviewed it as the Left Banke meets Nick Drake which I'd say is a pretty good description of his sound.
You can check out a few of his songs on his website
here One of the clips, River song, is my least favorite on the album, but the others are very good.
Brendan Gamble "Heartless Moon"
RIYL: Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy
From AMG:
Unlike his old bands, the hard pop Poster Children or the dreamy the Moon Seven Times, Brendan Gamble's solo debut is a good old-fashioned piece of '70s-style singer/songwriter mopery, closer in mood to Joni Mitchell's Blue than Nick Drake's Pink Moon, though sharing similarities with both. All 13 of these songs were written during the breakup of Gamble's marriage to his former partner in the Moon Seven Times, Lynn Canfield, and lyrically, they're exactly the mixture of recrimination, resignation, sadness, black humor, and anger that usually accompanies the breakup of a relationship.
Two tracks including the excellent title track can be sampled
here
Tora Tora Torrance "A Cynic's Nightmare"
AMG:
Minneapolis' Tora! Tora! Torrance! follows in the footsteps of the city's greatest rock band — Hüsker Dü — with a collection of aggressive tunes that fuse hardcore punk and melodicism. A Cynic's Nightmare is an awe-inspiring set that adds a touch of classic rock to the unbridled fury of At the Drive-In. "Sapphire Jungle" rumbles to life amidst feedback, a slow stomp beat, and epic, ascending riffs even worthy of U2, until the distorted call-out vocals and experimental noise place the song in the Relationship of Command canon. The singing on "I Thought This Was a Punk Show" is all Blood Brothers, but the music is large-scale, arena-ready rock & roll complete with Guns N' Roses guitars. The beauty of A Cynic's Nightmare lies in Tora! Tora! Torrance!'s ability to let songs simmer — the band will go at a Led Zeppelin pace where its contemporaries might blast through with speedy punk aggression. It's spirited, exuberant, and passionate, with the pomp and aural theatrics of Queen ("I wanna smell your sweet, sweet sweat") but the D.I.Y. grit and delivery of a band like the Minutemen — a swell combination to say the least.
One track is available for sampling
here
Jonathan Pointer "Love Songs from the Outskirts of Bliss"
From AMG:
With his second record, Love Songs From the Outskirts of Bliss, Jonathan Pointer produces haunting portraits of love, self-doubt, and the passage time, all delivered with a wit, wisdom, and sense of craft and focus that sets him apart from the usual pack of singer/songwriters. Pointer's songs — dour yet droll, self-effacing yet confident — illustrate life's contradictions with candor and grace, whether caught up in self-examination, trying to mend a broken heart/home, or rationalizing the realizations of either...Pointer will occasionally go for the big emotional moment, but more often than not he settles for the smaller ones, and it's these which leave the most lasting impressions. Musically, it's these same sorts of subtleties that create the perfect aural atmosphere for the material, which is primarily built around his understated, superb guitar. Every little touch, from the Kurt Weill-like violin, guitar, and accordion interplay of "Washington St." to ambient electric guitars, or even a ukelele solo, is always in the service of the song. Pointer owns a hoarse baritone that brings to mind early Tom Waits, whose influence is apparent on one of the album's best tracks, the carney-inspired "Arcadia," with it's cast of sideshow freaks and whores. But it's another similarity to Waits that helps make Love Songs so good. Pointer draws inspiration from various points on the musical map to create something that is not only special, but his own. Self-produced, along with Crit Harmon, Love Songs From the Outskirts of Bliss is a truly impressive second outing — poignant, intelligent, and sophisticated.
You can check out mp3's
here
np: The Walkmen "Bows & Arrows"