Damien Rice

If you have not started listening to Damien Rice you're doing something wrong and should either go download his stuff from I-Tunes or seek immediate therapy.
I'm really not a music snob, but he rocks and not a little bit.
The song Amie might be the most beatiful song I've ever heard.
It opens up with a simple chordal strum that lays the musical framework for a simple lyrical conceit. Then he adds in something ethereal and weird to wake you up to beauty in song. He slowly adds strings in to lead you on a dance, and keeps the same tone in a folk whisper. He speaks soft truth and begs Amie to come back to a place when the sad soft sonnet played by chords with beauty and a hint of minor sadness was normal.
He sings along with the strings as the sound, structure, and dynamics remind you that a string quartet can frickin' bring it.
And then it's over.
Music good enough to drive me to simplistic literary devices.
Also he's irish, so my mom would approve.