Three that come to mind, one a recent favourite, one slightly older, and finally a gendre-defining classic.
Camille, _Le Fil_
Femme vocal stuff, but not your typical jazz trio "audiophile music". Sung all in French, and the vocals are everywhere -- a lot of the background instruments are vocals too -- the "raspberry" as percussive element is an example of the fun in this album. Nice bass (electric and acoustic), nice dynamics, great voice, highly recommended.
Einstürzende Neubauten, _Silence is Sexy_
Those of you familiar with the artist's name probably remember them as a proto-industrial band (think punks gone "Stomp" and setting fire to things), but really they've gone and done something remarkable: this is an album of actual songs, and they are very good. Sung in a variety of languages (mostly German, some English), and yes it does get slightly raucous at times, but in a rock'n'roll kind of way. But every metal scraping, compressor blast, and rubber mallet thwack is done in the context of making music, and it is surprisingly well-recorded. Again -- nice use of dynamics in a contemporary "pop" context (as opposed to jazz or classical).
Talk Talk, _Spirit of Eden_
Probably the first "post-rock" album, this album has enough atmosphere for an entire career, but alas, they only did two albums like this (the other being [b][i]Laughing Stock[/i][/b]). You wouldn't think a band whose breakaway hit was the synthpop standard "Talk Talk" could do an album with such an unorthodox disregard for rhythm, and yet, here it is. Songs don't have the standard structure of verse/chorus so much as they ebb and flow to the tides of whimsy. Lots of cleanly recorded trumpet and highly distorted harmonica and a bunch of other instruments in between as well as scratchings and scrapings of who knows what and quite possibly the burbling of a nearby brook (alright, it's probably a rainstick, whatever).
And yet, not a single sound is out of place -- every single one is purposeful.
