Alternative Chill

Just when you were thinking that the domain of chill was by definition alternative, here comes a collection of tunes that force you to consider building a V.I.P. annex onto your existing chill-out room, which only the effortlessly cool shall enter. There, you can store Iron & Wine's delicate cover of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights." Collapse further into our sonic duvet of leftfield chill in Next Steps.

Country chill sounds like something of a contradiction, but you'll start to believe once you've lounged around to Loretta Lynn's jazz-inflected "Little Red Shoes." And why have we included the Whitlams' most successful single, "No Aphrodisiac," under the alternative banner? Well, those incredible backing strings penetrate the brain's chill cortex in a pleasingly sideways fashion. Now spread out among our Deep Cuts like a patient etherized upon a table.

Jason Pierce warrants extended periods of supine worship, for he is a god of alternative chill: His genius as the lynchpin of Spiritualized can be heard on "You Know It's True." And who would have thought of an alliance between folk and trip-hop, such as that forged by John Martyn as he covers of Portishead's "Glory Box" in an incredible, languid drawl.

The net for inclusion within our superlative batch of Alternative Chill sounds has been stretched wide, to include beguiling tunes from the Republic of Tuva in Southern Siberia (Yat Kha's "When The Levee Breaks"), a mellow blast of invective from Jarvis Cocker ("I Never Said I Was Deep"), Ali Farka Toure's charming Malian tune "Cousins," and Johnny Cash's poignant death-bed cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your face." Cue up these Essentials, and savour their sweet balm.