(FORTUNE Magazine) – Cassandra Wilson Belly of the Sun Blue Note

She's got a voice as luxurious as creme fraiche, but in the past Cassandra Wilson's music has lapsed into a starchy formality.So let's be thankful that she headed for the Mississippi Delta last summer to cut tracks in an old train station. The result is lovely and loose and refreshing--a cool jar of sun tea.

Cornelius Point Matador

The darling of hipsters from Osaka to Oslo, Cornelius is a Japanese studio wizard who sews threads of aural debris (tweeting birds, burbling water, shavings of metallic guitar) into trippy, silky tapestries of sound. Strap on your headphones; that long flight to Hong Kong will feel like intergalactic hopscotch.

Elvis Costello This Year's Model Rhino

You don't tend to think of Elvis Costello as a rap pioneer (especially when he's schmoozing with string quartets and Burt Bacharach), but listen to the wordplay on the reissue of this 1978 classic. With all those corkscrew rhymes and spitfire verbal grenades, he could be Eminem's long-lost uncle.

Felix da Housecat Kittenz and Thee Glitz Emperor Norton Records

Felix conjures up the blank, blase, decadent world you used to find in Bret Easton Ellis novels, Patrick Nagel paintings, and the sexy-robot synth-pop of the Flying Lizards. The way Felix sees it, the '80s were an Ice Age: His beats are cold. Miss Kittin's heart-of-glass vocals are even colder.

The Blasters Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings Rhino

These ducktailed Los Angelenos took their burning love for Eisenhower-era rockabilly and zapped it with the vitality of Reagan-era punk. (Weird, how Republican Administrations generate great music.) Pick up this anthology if you want to do something patriotic; the Blasters were as American as a band could get.