Finally Woken (2004)

If you're going to embrace a one-named Brit songstress, please please please make it Jem rather than Dido. Though the gently swaying songs on Jem's debut full-length get a bit samey after a while, more often than not she succeeds in mixing the shuffle of languid hip-hop beats with intimate melodies -- ''They'' and ''Wish I'' are textbook lessons in how to pick samples, then smoothly build genuine pop songs around them. It's a harsh world out there, but Finally offers charming succor.