I've been listening to the Silversun Pickups lately. I fell in love with them after hearing their new single back in April, Panic Switch. Everything about them is awesome, not to mention their bass player, who I can't stop swooning over. The guitar solo about 3 minutes into that particular song really hits me.
Also yesterday I bought my first hip hop album. I had seen The Roots last year at a free concert without knowing anything about them and was completely blown away. I did some research and found that their most acclaimed album was Things Fall Apart. It's definitely not a pop album, and many of the songs are rooted in jazz, which reminds me of some of the songs Killa-Eyez has posted in this thread (which are all really nice btw).
Here's one of the better songs off the album. Apparently DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jazz from Fresh Prince) helped produce this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar3Pl...eature=related
Edit: Oh yeah, their guitar player is Goddamn amazing.