Thievery Corporation

The U.N. may be up the road in New York, but D.C.'s Thievery Corporation have always managed to convene a musical league of nations on their dub-inflected records. On their first studio album since 2005's The Cosmic Game, their cosmopolitanism turns cutting, with pointed guest shots from Afrobeat heir Femi Kuti, Brazilian singer Seu Jorge and D.C. go-go legend Chuck Brown. Conscious lyrics proclaim, "The people united will never be defeated," while lush, textured songs drawing from reggae, Latin and Middle Eastern music make good on that promise.