Hmmm. I'm a little torn between obscure and mainstream, so I'll go with both.
The former, I recently mentioned in the <i>What are you listening to right now</i> thread. She's a French pop artist called Camille and her album is <u>"Le Fil"</u>. Her sound falls somewhere around Feist and Sarah Slean, with a touch of Bjork. A sublime voice with sophisticated arrangements. A friend had it playing on her stereo in the background at a party last weekend, and I was immediately hooked.
Seeing as you're in Toronto, you've probably heard of Hawksely Workman, but I'd like to put his name out there anyways. My favourite album of his is <u>(Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves</u> Also check out his very creative Christmas album <u>Almost A Full Moon</u> Not a traditional carol on it!
All his songs are catchy, yet clever and he plays all the instruments on the album. A friend of mine once compared him to Elvis Costello, but Hawksely is more theatrical.
Wait, I mentioned Sarah Slean and Feist; both excellent as well.
Ooh wait again. Check out the website for <a href="http://www.mergerecords.com" target="_blank">Merge Records. </a>.
They have streaming audio of all their artists and there are plenty of interesting cuts there.