Indie Chillout

So, last night was a little rough — so rough, you don't even remember seeing that band everyone's been talking about. A day of decompressing is in order, so take a deep breath and succumb to our soothing indie rock soundtrack, starting with the continental drift of the Shins at their softest and then meandering on to the heart-wrenching confessionals of Cat Power and a broken/beaten Beck to the feathery electronic pop of Air and the Postal Service. There, don't you feel better now? Click on that Next Steps tab and keep listening.

The thing that's nice about our checklist of key indie chillout cuts is the sheer variety of songwriting at work. What could have been a tepid tonic of acoustic tunes is instead open to the dark and dangerous film noir feel of trip-hop (Portishead, Massive Attack); the pint-slamming, tears-in-your-beer bloodletting of post-Blur Britpop (Elbow, Doves); and the stripped-down, sideways-glancing understatement of homegrown artisan-pop (Feist, Julie Doiron). While you're probably two seconds from slumber by now, don't close your eyes just yet. We've still got Deep Cuts to deliver sweet dreams.

Not to get too new age on you, but it's going to be all right. Don't believe us? You will — once that pounding headache stops and we're done massaging your sensitive areas with the kind of music indie record store clerks can't stop talking about. That includes the slow-burning incense grooves of Brightblack Morning Light, the sunset-scoping down-tempo of Zero 7, the shoe-gazing grandeur of Asobi Seks, and the affecting keyboard meanderings of Stars.

It'd be nice if that phone stopped ringing, wouldn't it? Ah, don't stress. We've got just the right blend of nightcap tracks to calm your nerves and wash your worries away. Not just big-time balladry from Coldplay or Elliott Smith, either; between artists like My Bloody Valentine, Nada Surf, Vetiver, Luna, Belle & Sebastian, and the Cure, we've got enough subgenres covered to fill the racks of any discerning record store and leave you feeling as though you've just been worked over with warm stones and eucalyptus oil. Night-y night.