I liked the idea of Tims list, and decided to do one myself, seeing as our musical tastes probbaly couldn't be more different.
10. Boy In Da Corner by Dizzee Rascal
“I'm just sittin' here, I ain't sayin' much I just gaze
I'm looking into space while my CD plays”
Released back in '03, Dizzee's first album still sounds incredibly futuristic. As a record it couldn't be further from his current chart-friendly output, and is a grating, hard-hitting account of his teenage years in East London. completed by the time he was 18, it made Dizzee the youngest ever person to win the Mercury Music Prize. Tracks such as 'Sittin' Here' (describing the monotomy and boredom of a life spent sitting on street corners, stoned) and 'Jezebel' (about the multiple lives ruined by teenage pregnancy) make me hard pressed to think of a grittier, more depressing album. Guns and bitches this ain't.
8. Hail To The Thief by Radiohead
“I was there, it wasn’t like that
You’ve come here just to start a fight”
Not often touted as their best, this album recieved a lot of critical indifference, possibly because it's not as experimental as Amnesiac/Kid A or as straightforward as The Bends. Seriously though, it rocks. HTTT stands out as one of the few examples of a crossover between rock and electronica that doesn't attempt to have anything to do with the dancefloor. It quite simply shows Radiohead getting the balance between tunes and experiments spot on.
7. A Grand Don’t Come For Free by The Streets
"And then of course the mandatory car drives by and splashes me"
The Streets seem to split a lot of people. The spoken word dialogue that sounds like a square peg just fitting into a round hold. The unfortunate accent that lies somewhere between London and Birmingham. I get what puts a lot of people off them. But they’re missing the genius lyrics, and in the case with this album, a superbly contructive narrative. AGDCFF tells a story. Broadly, it’s about a bloke who loses a grand, finds a girl, loses the girl but finds the grand again. However it’s told in a way that improves with each listen. Lyrics that seem sad become heartbreaking when listened to in the context of songs later down the line. After being shocked by the revelation on an affair towards the end of the album, you realise the evidence has been staring you in the face since the start. Finally he gets the language of the man in the street spot on. “Yeah well your not so y'xa'uuk, you know.. Yeah you know, that thing that you do... Well I can’t remember when you last did it can I? You know, that thing...”
6. Felt Mountain by Goldfrapp
"My baby cherry slipped,
Pass me through your fingertips"
Musically I don’t know where to place this album. I suppose you could file it under electronica, but the bass and drums frequently give it a jazzy feel. I can picture listening to this in a smokey underground club somewhere, but also shrouded in mist on the top of a moor. But either way the songs are haunting, beautiful and different to anything else.
5. Come With Us by The Chemical Brothers
"IT BEGAN IN AFRIKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA..."
For the record, The Chemical Brothers are the best thing in dance music. I’ve had many drunken, bitter arguments about this in pubs before, but as far as I’m concerned if you love dance music, you love the Chemicals. They have easier albums to get into than this one, but this is probably their most inventive musically. A perfect example of how their trademark combination of live sounding bass, guitars and drums mesh with repetitive beats, the highlight is the final track, The Test featuring Richard Ashcroft of The Verve, which manages to sound urgent, ethereal and spaced out at the same time.
4. Elephant by The White Stripes
"Maybe I'll put my love on ice, and teach myself maybe that'll be nice yeah"
For me this is basically the rock’n’roll album of the decade. I’ve always said that Jack White is arguably the best guitarist on the planet. Not necessarily because of technical prowess (although, he is very very accomplished technically) but for the way he can make a riff drip with sex and testosterone (see Ball And Biscuit or Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine) or make a guitar sound the definition of innocence and fragility (I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart, You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket). This, coupled with an ear for a tune, and some stunning lyrics make the Stripes the collossus they are. Elephant was recorded in just two weeks as well, neat huh?
3. Different Class by Pulp
"If you could close your eyes, and just remember that this is what you wanted last night"
This is the most politically charged album on this list. Different Class (another Mercury Prize winner) essentially comprises of indie-pop belters filled with witty if depraved lyrics that make you realise you’re not the only one with such a dirty mind. Not one for romantics, it strikes a chord with those for whom love “is not chocolate boxes and roses, no it’s dirtier than that. I see flashes of the shape of your breasts, and the curve of your belly.” With songs such as I-Spy and Common People it also sneers at rich people trying to look poor and tells us how sex can be used as a weapon in the class war.
2. Melody A.M. by Royksopp
"And everywhere I go,
There's always something to remind me"
I suppose this fall under chill-out, but really it has too many upbeat tracks for that. It’s awesome mix between funky numbers and beautiful instrumentals that sound like scandinavian tundra and pine forests in music form. Melody A.M. is best listened to after dark, with or without a cheeky spliff. There are lots of different ideas on this album, and they all come off fantastically.
1. Screamadelica by Primal Scream
"Just what is it that you want to do?"
"Well we wanna be free. We wanna be free to, to do what we wanna do."
"Then that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna have a party."
Ah, Screamadelica. The first winner of the Mercury Music Prize (I go on about that a lot don’t I?) and my favourite album of all time. Containing what is definatly the best 10 minute long indie/country/gospel/acid-house track in the world. Screamadelica is a concept album, with each track representing a stage in a drug trip. Musically it sounds a bit like a Klaxons album if it was made in 1992. Except rather than a novelty pastiche of rave music, it is rave music. Or possibly it's a rock album? Screamadelica manages to sit comfortably in both camps without sitting on the fence. As it's put in Come Together: "Gospel, Rhythmn and Blues, and Jazz, all those are just labels, we know that music is music".
