Matisyahu "Vow of Silence"

Jewish Reggae artist Matisyahu is most famous for the super-positive simple rappish anthems, "King Without a Crown" and "One Day," while his latest album Akeda is more pop-informed although it's got a bit of reggae and gangsta rap in there too.  The indie-sounding "Surrender" is a single that will stick in your head, but I found "Vow of Silence" to be the most interesting confluence of gangster rap  and old testament fathers.

Manchester Orchestra "Girl Harbour"

Atlanta-based Alt-rock Manchester Orchestra's last few studio albums have floundered since the perfection of Mean Everything to Nothing, and while their acoustic version of Cope might not be quite "Wolves at Night" and "Colly Strings" but it's got a lot of the same feel and angst of their first work.  "Girl Harbour" is one of the best offerings from this acoustic rock-scape.  Whereas Cope lost Andy Hull's signature vocals under a hum of reverb and poor mixing, Hope brings things together beautifully.

Juanes "A Dios Le Pido"

Juanes has some of the most masterfully catchy canciones de desamor anywhere in the world outside of Adele.  This is one of my favorite tunes which shows some of his range, a song about how he asks God to always be close to his love, that his mother won't die, that his people would stop shedding so much blood, etc.   :) 

Aradhna "Namaste Saté"

I'm not going to pretend to understand Aradhna completely...but from what I understand, the main guy is a missionary kid who went through an intensive traditional Indian music internship and sings traditional Indian music with a Jesus bent on it.  Since I don't speak Hindi, I'll take their word for it and just enjoy the relaxing east meets west sounds.  :)

Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

One of the best NW indie acoustic folk songs of all time. 

Татьяна Соловьёва i Александр Блохин "Рэчанька"

Belorusian bard Tatiana Solovyova is hard to track down, but this folk song is a gorgeous acoustic masterpiece and I hope she does another album soon. Free downloads of her 2011 release can be found here at her website. 

Sleeping at Last "From the Ground Up"

It's hard to know where to start as far as recommending something from Ryan O'Neill's prolific genius.  Scratching out a niché as a "mail-order home studio musician" whose music is frequently featured in films and TV shows, his epic concept pieces of the last few years have been filled with gems of beautiful music and poetry.  The bridge from this song is one of my favorites, but there are 20 other songs that could have gotten honorable mention.  Sleeping at Last's cinematic and orchestral swells, quiet tone, and gorgeous lyrics all over Ryan's soft and unique vocal sets this guy's music in a league of its own.