Indie Chillout

So, last night was a little rough — so rough you don't even remember seeing the band everyone's been blogging about. A day of decompression is in order if you want to get anything done, so take a deep breath and succumb to our soothing Indie Chillout Essentials, which features the continental drift of the Shins at their softest ("New Slang"); the heart-wrenching confessionals of Cat Power, Elliott Smith, and Bon Iver; the reverb-drenched Neil Young leanings of Fleet Foxes; and the collection-capping brilliance of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars".

There, don't you feel better now? Not quite? Click on that Next Steps tab and keep listening, then.

The thing that makes our Indie Chillout Essentials a cut above is the sheer variety of mood manipulators and mope merchants at work. What could have been a tepid tonic of acoustic tunes is, instead, bursting at the grooves with the spaced-out psych of Sparklehorse ("Return to Me"); the Arctic Monkeys at their most beguiling ("505"); the exquisite rustic shuffles of the collab-track from Calexico & Iron & Wine ("He Lays In the Reins"); and the bittersweet and nostalgic paean to what once was, but is no longer, Belle and Sebastian's "Mornington Crescent". While you're probably two seconds from slumber by now, don't close your eyes just yet. We've still got a stack of Deep Cuts that'll deliver sweeter dreams than Annie Lennox.

Not to get too New Age-y on you or anything, but it's gonna be alright. Don't believe us? You will soon enough — once that pounding headache becomes a dull throb and we're done massaging your sensitive areas with cutting-edge indie chillout. That includes the enough downtempo to keep the martinis a-comin' in your favourite local lounge (Zero 7's acoustic-backed "Destiny"); the charming folk-pop of Laura Marling ("Cross Your Fingers"); the Dandy Warhols on a come-down ("Beast of All Saints"); and the gorgeous, soulful croaking of Ray LaMontagne ("Let It Be Me").

It'd be nice if that phone of yours stopped ringing, wouldn't it? Hey, we've got an idea: how about switching it off and tuning into nothing but the following nightcap cuts, all of which are guaranteed to numb your nerves and wash your worries away. Not just the big-time balladry of Coldplay or Feist, either; if anything, our Indie Chillout Essentials leans to the left side of the field with such stars and buzzed-about next-big-things as Bon Iver, Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, Yo La Tengo, and The xx. All things considered, we've covered enough sub-genres and scenes to fill the racks of any taste-making record store, leaving you feeling as if you've just been worked over with warm stones and tea tree oil. Night-y night.