seriously the most fantastic little-known artist i have ever come across. mercy machine are an orchestral pop band who play slow, powerful songs that almost defy categorisation - the only band i can even remotely compare them to are barbez, except even then it doesn't do mercy machine justice to do so. a common influence listed is leonard cohen - i've never heard him, but if you have, this might give you an idea.

have a listen at http://magnatune.com/artists/mercymachine (the songs are essentially nagware; you can listen to 128k mp3s of all their songs free as long as you don't mind a synth voice telling you what you've listened to at the end of every track. it's easily editable, though, if you have the software (http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/masters.html)). "in your bed" is the best one, probably, but they are all fabulous. you can buy the cds straight from magnatune (you can pay whatever you want for them) or cdbaby (the first two are $8 and the most recent is $12ish).

give them a try, as they are all sorts of brilliant. how these guys continue to slip under the radar is beyond me.