albums of the decade - 40. MF Doom - Mm.. Food?

40. MF Doom - Mm.. Food? (2004)

Akin to a good meal, Doom cooks up a great record with, of course, an edible concept. The production here is just delicious. I walked through the streets today with it on phones and laughed out loud, clicked my fingers, did a shimmy, got hungry and plenty more. His rhymes are again off-kilter, unorthodox and invigorating in their wit and ingenuity. Most heads will point to the Madvillainy project that Doom collaborates on with Madlib but for me, this is the zenith for his talent, it's all Doom and it's all food. Yum fucking yum.

Exc. 'Rap Snitch Knishes'

A little grease always keeps the wheels a spinnin / Like sittin on twenty threes to get the squealers grinnin / Hittin on many trees, feel real linen Spittin on enemies, get the steel for tin men / Where no brains but gum flap / He said his gun clap, then he fled after one slap / [Pat!] son shut your trap, save it for the bitches / Mmm...delicious, rap snitch knishes

albums of the decade - 41. Outkast - Stankonia

41. Outkast - Stankonia (2000)

The influence of Parliament and Funkadelic on Outkast is too incredible to be true. If there is a more fun and relevant force in music today, then I'm a duck's Daddy, I'm an anteater's Auntie, I'm a cuckoo's second cousin. They mix up 70's soul, 80's electronics and 90's politics on a 2000 release that set the bar not for hip-hop, but for the party overall. In general, Big Boi and Andre 3000 are generous. Their follow-up double-album 'Speakerboxxx / The Love Below' could also be on this list, it's all over the place, but like eating too much chocolate, it gets a little too rich. My favourite dream of all time though was my life as a musical, I must have been in love at the time but Andre 3000 came and said "Happy Valentine's Day!" and roses flew everywhere, it was like something from Moulin Rouge and it lasted a good hour. An even better hour though would be if 'Stankonia' could soundtrack one night soon, if it did it would be popcorn and party-poppers flying everywhere.

albums of the decade - 42. The Antlers - Hospice

42. The Antlers - Hospice (2009)

At the time of writing, this is so fresh in the memory as another great band from New York have made a modern classic. This one is about loss, mourning, bleakness and trying to make the most of things in tough times. The music is very cathartic and it directly addresses the pain of someone deteriorating to the point of no return in a poignant grace that demands candles and your total attention. This has been one of the best discoveries of recent times, and The Antlers seem to have everything to come because while this concept records may be one the most delicately arresting rock records made in an infinity, their horizons will gather even more scope soon, I can really feel it.

Exc. 'Kettering'

But something kept me standing

By that hospital bed

I should have quit but instead

I took care of you

You made me sleep and uneven

And I didn't believe them

When they told me that there

Was no saving you

albums of the decade - 43. Jay-Z - The Blueprint

43. Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)

Braggadocio (rap)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Braggadocio is a type of rapping where the MC is bragging about his rap skills. Braggadocio can refer to physical badness, fighting ability, lovemanship, or coolness.^[1] Rap's braggadocio—unlike other bragging by young men about sex, wealth, and physical strength—can also be about the rapper's artistic or poetic ability.^[2]

albums of the decade - 44. The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike

44. The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike (2005)

A mixture of Sesame Street, ice lollipops and party-poppers, only party-poopers could resist this album. So many samples, so little time, 'Thunder Lightning Strike' clocks in at just over half an hour. My main memory of this album was teaching school-children in Italy and putting this on in the classroom while they were doing arts and crafts and they would just perk up and start dancing around. At the end of those summer camps, we'd have to put on some theatre to the parents to show just how much - or little - English they'd learnt. I was a pretty lenient teacher and I had a very rumbustious class and the show 'American Space Idiots' that the children wrote, was equally inspired by Greenday, John Lennon's quest for peace and wacky superhero sci-fi. A postmodern shambles. Luckily 'Thunder Lightning Strike' tied everything together and everyone went home absolutely buzzing.

albums of the decade 45. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup

45. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (2007)

A drunk American teenager went travelling around Europe and staggered into a Hungarian barn-dance and became instantly captivated. With a sore head in the morning, Zach Condon also realized that the whole culture of this historic continent was worth pouring into his art. Upon his Stateside return, he got to work and his sterling debut 'Gulag Orkestar' dropped in 2006, focusing its broad scope on Europe as a whole. In 2007 however, Zach released 'The Flying Club Cup, Gulag's French and more sophisticated cousin. Opener, 'Nantes' lilts luxuriously as the artist manages to thrill and comfort the listener in one neat little package. Then, 'A Sunday Smile' is even more refined with the brass coming out in one glorious folk, trademark ditty. And so it goes, harpsichords, trumpets, triangles follow before the gorgeous standout 'Cherbourg' arrives. So, you name it and Beirut has it. Oh! How it must feel to have it all!

alnums of the decade - 46. M83- Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

46. M83- Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003)

When I first heard this in my teens I felt a pang in my heart like when you feel love for the first time and your heart does all jittery beats and when hairs stand upright on your arm when you get out of the hot shower into the cold and when you feel a citrus buzz on the tip of your tongue. The music swirls, the soundscapes build and slap you silly eventually, but it's lovely so that's alright. M83 went quite poppy after this and that's alright too but this is great to hear as it puts things in context, like gives you an idea of the foundations that the then duo laid down for Anthony Gonzales to go sugary solo in the future. Oh sugary solo. This album though mixed influences of shoegaze and electronica to astronomical proportions. Or if you prefer Planet Earth, it's the aural equivalent of swimming down a waterfall.