If you're like me, then you really appreciate a good cathartic, down, low-key but earnest song. Here are my favorite artists in that vein:

6. Morphine
5. The Tindersticks
4. Serge Gainsbourg (& Mick Harvey doing Gainsbourg songs)
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2. Nick Drake
1. Leonard Cohen

It appears that male vocalists dominate this field. I'll throw in Portishead, even though I think I like it for different reasons.