Cat Power · 1998 · She wrote these songs after a night of screaming, sang them once, and never played them the same way again.

Cowboy Junkies · 1988 · They went into a Toronto church with one microphone and made an album that sounds like the room itself is listening.

Mary Margaret O'Hara · 1988 · She sang like a woman trying to remember a song she'd only ever heard in a dream.

Pharoah Sanders · 1971 · The album that proves Pharoah Sanders could make a horn sound like a prayer without ever raising his voice.

The Pyramids · 1974 · A lost spiritual jazz-funk masterpiece from an Ohio commune that sounds like the sun coming up.

Cat Power · 2006 · She walked into Ardent Studios with the Memphis Rhythm Band and a stack of broken-hearted songs — no safety net, no lo-fi hiding place.

A Girl Called Eddy · 2004 · She sat on the follow-up for fifteen years. This one record made the wait almost worth it.

Sarah McLachlan · 1993 · She turned piano ballads into stadium-filling anthems without losing the whisper.

The Sundays · 1992 · This album proves that you don't need to shout to fill a room. Harriet Wheeler's voice and David Gavurin's guitar create a silence you can fall into.

Wild Strawberries · 1994 · You pulled this CD from a sale bin in 2001 and it sounded good. Tonight, with the right headphones, it sounds like a secret.

Andy Shauf · 2016 · Andy Shauf made an album where every character at a party gets their own song, and you'll swear you've met every single one.

Jenny Lewis · 2014 · Produced by Ryan Adams at his home studio, this album sounds like the last honest record to come out of that strange era.

Natalie Prass · 2015 · The producer of the album also runs Spacebomb Records, and this is what happens when you let a 23-year-old with punk roots write a soul record for a 40-piece orchestra.

Yo-Yo Ma · 1983 · Solo cello. No overdubs. No audience. Just Bach and a man who has spent forty years trying to get it right.

Gary Clark · 2014 · The Scottish songwriter who gave us Danny Wilson finally made the quiet album he always had in him.

Bedouine · 2017 · Folk songs built from intuition rather than rules.

Neil Young · 1974 · The one where he stopped trying to make friends and started making records that sounded like the inside of his head.

Ahmad Jamal · 1970 · Ahmad Jamal playing like he's solving a puzzle in real time, and the puzzle keeps changing shape.

Minnie Riperton · 1970 · Charles Stepney gave her an orchestra and she sang straight through the ceiling.

Kadhja Bonet · 2016 · She plays harp and sings like a lost session singer from 1972—but the record came out in 2016.