David Gray Vinyl Records
British singer/songwriter David Gray had already built a respectable, if commercially overlooked career as a folk-rock artist in the mid-'90s before his innovative fourth album, White Ladder, brought his mix of acoustic instruments and electronic samples into the mainstream. Self-released in 1998, it was picked up by ATO in 2000 and eventually made its way to number one in the U.K. over a year later, by which time Gray's raspy, soaring vocals and introspective folktronica had become internationally ubiquitous thanks to singles like "Babylon" and "Please Forgive Me."