50. Moron Police - A Boat on the Sea (2019): from beginning to end on this arty rock record, there is very little that makes sense. Walls of guitar sound bounce off prog-style keyboard work, Nordic folk melodies and the occasional oboe solo. In another time it would be confusing. But then nothing made sense this decade, did it? We had people dying in the name of selfies, seagulls stealing dogs; thousands of people tried to elect a dead gorilla as president of the USA and that probably would have been better than what we actually got. And then four bearded Norwegians come in and start shouting about childhood pets (The Dog Song), social awkwardness (Captain Awkward) and, um, Norway's production and export of military drones for the US (Beware the Blue Skies) and you realise - yes, actually this all fits quite nicely.
49. Deltron 3030 - Event II (2013): the 2000 self-titled debut from this West-Coast collaborative hip-hop project has deservedly gone down in history as an album that legimitely redefined the genre - pushing the envelope in terms of production, narrative concepts and lyricism. This extremely belated follow-up doesn't come close, but there's still plenty of fun to be had thanks to adventurous orchestral arrangements courtesy of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Kid Koala's virtuoso turntable work and the surreal and satirical rapping of Del the Funky Homosapien. Like its predecessor, Event II is a concept album, set ten years later on and charting societal collapse, the perils of technology and hope for the future in the year 3040. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Cross and Amber Tamblyn provide spoken-word interludes, while guest spots range from Mike Patton and Damon Albarn to The Lonely Island. It's not perfect, but there's also nothing quite like it.
48. Chase & Status - No More Idols (2011): some of the best music out there is the music that has the ability to transport you instantaneously to a particular moment in time. This magnum opus from the London-based electronic duo was simply huge, garnering both commercial radio and club play - and it's a shame that it's not talked about more nowadays. The feature list alone is frozen in time: Tinie Tempah, Delilah, Sub Focus, Plan B... the latter's collaboration End Credits seemed destined to become a song for a generation, but like the vocalist himself has sadly faded into obscurity. Cee Lo Green appears too on Brixton Briefcase, fresh off his biggest solo success with Forget You, in case there was any doubt as to the legitimacy of the talent on show. And the album as a whole is a searing collection of drum 'n' bass and dubstep beats, occasionally sombre vocals and the kind of hits that leave you yearning for Cactus Jack's apple sours and Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League and being able to get away with wearing a shirt over a t-shirt on nights out.
47. R u n n e r s C l u b 9 5 - Panama Papers (2017): the information age arguably started a while ago, but it was during this decade that the general public fully began to feel its effects. With adverts for whatever you were thinking about five minutes ago being directly beamed to your phone, the ability to connect via video to just about anyone else in the world, and people making millions from YouTube videos, it seems there's nothing technology can't achieve, for better or worse. So too in music - at no point in history would it have been so easy for Pool House Ltd., an independent record label based in Hartlepool, to release this spacy, hazy slice of electronic delirium from Swedish production duo R u n n e r s C l u b 9 5. There are times when Panama Papers can feel like something of a parody of contemporary "plunderphonics" releases - the pan pipes on Troubles of Mind drip with cheese, Post School Sadness drives its minimalist beat straight into your head; even the album cover, with its mournful Greco-Roman statue, seems like an emulation of what has come before. And yet at its best, such as the jubilant Made For You ライト, or in the twanging guitar line of Devon, it represents the genre at its most intriguing. Not to mention it was created without using a single sample, elevating it above 99.9% of its inspiration by default.
46. Riff Raff - Neon Icon (2014): the bottom line in the kind of so-bad-it's-genius, tasteless, low-budget rap that cluttered up the mid part of the decade, Neon Icon represents the Texan rapper finally slipping into his groove. It's not completely devoid of the kind of ultra-basic novelty tracks that make his earlier work a vaguely irritating listen, and the spoken-word sections are just too bizarre; but listen closer and there are actually some seriously sharp tunes to be found. From fast-paced opener Introducing the Icon through the punk-rock beat of Kokayne and the abrasive How To Be The Man, there are more than a few genuine lyrical witticisms and it's all pretty musically unique. The likes of Cool it Down, Childish Gambino collaboration Lava Glaciers and the magnificently tacky-yet-classy Tip Toe Wing in my Jawwwdinz offer something smoother as well, and the way in which Riff Raff makes it all seem so effortless will never not be cool.
45. Viagra Boys - Street Worms (2018): Sports deserves its place in my top 10 songs list, but the associated album is well worth a listen in its own right. Street Worms is a murky, almost jazzy post-punk album, packed with nervy guitar riffs and rasping baritone saxophone; lyrically there's an edge of dark comedy to it all, but also more than a hint of Swedish, noirish, melancholy. Tales of illicit affairs, broken dreams and the inevitability of death give everything a truly adult feel, but - they are Swedish after all - the depression is warded off by a succession of infectious, memorable hooks and choruses. Down in the Basement kicks things off at a furious rate, Worms chugs along with a slow blues groove and closer Amphetanarchy wouldn't be out of place on one of Frank Zappa's heavier works. Gloomy it may be, but you can still dance to every song.
44. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris (2013): it's easy to forget, less than a decade on, just how influential the Odd Future collective were for the underground hip hop scene. At the tender age of 16 in 2010, Earl Sweatshirt gained the kind of attention for his 25-minute, self-produced debut mixtape that most never see. His secret, unfortunately for everyone else, was astonishing raw talent, and his debut full-length album Doris goes above and beyond in that department. It's a moody, dank, dense record both musically and lyrically, a challenging listen at times but also a rewarding one in the end, and bursting with the kind of lyrical virtuosity that earned him such a reputation to begin with. Reading the words to Pre, Hive or Chum - saying them out loud can leave you tongue-tied, and yet Earl lays his lines languidly across the beat with disarming ease. Guest appearances from the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Mac Miller and Frank Ocean add some spice, and the end result is a far more enjoyable listen than his subsequent releases.
43. Ocean Wisdom - Wizville (2018): as a British rap fan, it would be remiss of me not to include my favourite British rap album of the decade. Many would point to ultra-slick releases from Stormzy or Skepta, or maybe Loyle Carner; I personally gave serious consideration to Rizzle Kicks - all good choices for sure. Ultimately, though, my vote goes to this slightly lesser-known record from Brighton MC Ocean Wisdom. Debut single Walkin' was cause for genuine excitement back in 2014, but the following album was patchy - this second release takes everything up several notches. The actual rapping is just ridiculous at times, openers Eye Contact and Don ratcheting up the pace to light speed, Ocean Wisdom's flow skipping around the beat and offering up new wordplay every time you listen; on Tiptronic he fills three minutes with nothing but metaphors about gearboxes and Burning a Bridge is the cleverest breakup tune I've heard for a while. Dizzee Rascal makes a welcome appearance on Revvin' and the likes of Pete Cannon and Leaf Dog step up on production. If there's a complaint, it's that at over 80 minutes it's just too long - but that's also testament to the limitless creativity on show.
42. Superorganism - Superorganism (2018): another group that would never have existed in another time, Superorganism came together online from across the globe in around 2015, as internet friends exchanged recordings and experimented with each others' clips. The band in their current form, though, are now based in London, and the development is actually plain to see on this concise, tight experimental pop album. Superorganism features some nicely inventive guitar work from Chistopher Young and extremely chill vocals by Orono Noguchi, but the real credit should go to the production trio of Young, Mark David Turner and Tim Shann. Something for Your M.I.N.D. literally samples a pigeon, urgent car horns on Relax make me jump every time and It's All Good has an almost grungy sound with its crashing guitar chorus and hazy verses. The Prawn Song is the standout track, though, providing a deceptively simple analogy for the human race that really goes quite deep. Sums up the album really.
41. Tommy Cash - ¥€$ (2018): rap music has been expanding since its inception in the '70s, but it has never been as global a phenomenon as it is now. The result is artists popping up from the unlikeliest of places - Russia, Israel and Indonesia producing some of the most interesting acts of the decade. But none are quite as interesting as Tallinn's Tomas Tammemets. Under his stage name Tommy Cash, he released some of the most intriguing and unique music videos of recent times - the result being that, while SURF, WINALOTO and LITTLE MOLLY are by no means bad songs, they work better with the visual concept art that accompanied them. ¥€$ works as an album because it cleanses the palette - by not including any of those tracks, the focus is brought back to the music. Which is good, as it's as eclectic and different as any of Cash's visual pieces. Intro WAIT A MINUTE announces the album's searing, choppy musical tone, and the likes of MONA LISA, BRAZIL and DOSTOEVSKY carry it on - but songs such as BLACK JEANS, WHITE T-SHIRT and NOT CARE offer a more measured approach, too. X-RAY is probably the most polished tune, drawing on the pounding beats of Eastern European dance music, and the video is up there with his best.
40. Flamingosis - Flight Fantastic (2018): New Jersey producer Aaron Velasquez gets it all right on his astounding eighth fully-fledged album in just four years. The likes of Pleasure Palette and Bright Moments showed moments of brilliance in crafting neat, retro beats and jams, but Flight Fantastic feels much more like a proper LP. The actual tunes themselves are more structured, the basslines more solid, the drums crisper, the lyrics fitting more standard patterns. And the album as a whole has a genuine flow to it, starting with lush, soulful motown-style tracks in Return of The Love Jones and You Were Meant For Me, tightening into more straightforward funk on A Mile High and Bob Saget Gets New Real Estate before drawing on Velasquez's Latin roots with Bruncha Nova and Tumbao, and fading out nicely on Last Stop. It's a sunny, pleasant collection of tunes that feels both '70s and current, and one that, unlike a lot of similar music, demands a repeat listen.
39. The Jackets - Queen of the Pill (2019): here comes the fuzz... there's a lot of obscure music on this list, but arguably none on par with this ultra-rare album from Swiss rock outfit The Jackets. Eschewing the formulaic psychobilly sound of earlier releases, Queen of the Pill is a thunderous collection of '60s-style psych-rock tunes. The influences are obvious - Shocking Blue, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane - but it couldn't have been made without the edge of the earlier garage rock sound, the swagger of '70s punk and the snarl of '90s alternative. Frontwoman Jack Torera blends powerful vocals with a guitar sound drenched in valve distortion, matched with the melodic bass work of Samuel Schmidiger and clattering drums from Chris Rosales. It's slightly front-loaded - Dreamer and Steam Queen are the best tracks, perfectly-formed all-out rock songs - but crucially doesn't overstay its welcome, going out with a bang after 31 minutes of almost flawless, manic retro sounds.
38. Action Bronson - Dr. Lecter (2011): for all the expansion of hip-hop into the wider world, it's worth remembering that a lot of the best of the genre can still be found in its New York heartland. Ariyan Arslani - Action Bronson - rose to prominence in the city's underground scene at the tail end of the last decade, but his pinnacle came with this masterful jazz-rap mixtape; probably the finest ever inspired by the culinary arts. A chef by training, Bronson took up rapping as a hobby but decided to go full pro - and the two backgrounds come together here to impressive effect. With a sprinkling of food and cookery metaphors in among more standard hip-hop fare, all backed by a laid-back selection of jazz, funk and soul, the likes of Larry Csonka, Ronnie Coleman and Brunch are as fun as anything to come out in the last ten years. Bronson seems to be returning to his roots as a chef now - albeit one with his own TV show - but Dr. Lecter deserves to stand as testament to never giving up on your hobbies.
37. Colour Haze - In Her Garden (2017): there are more than a few people out there who claim that good music died in about 1979 - the advent of digital and automated aids in the mainstream killing off organic, artistic music that required actual talent to create. In fact, this decade provided plenty of evidence to shut them up, with conceptual rock scenes burgeoning all around the world. Cream of the crop is the 12th studio album from Munich-based veterans Colour Haze, a strung-out, intricate, symphonic slice of psychedelic, largely instrumental, rock that provides enough layers of complexity to keep even the most anal music theorist happy. Not that it's a difficult listen - the grooving riffs of Black Lilly and Magnolia nestle alongside the softer, organ-infused Arbores and chill prog track Labyrinthe. Tubas, trombones and clarinets give everything a hint of Oktoberfest swing, while the mantric chanting at the climax of Lotus can only be described as joyous. It all goes about as hard as a prog-influenced concept album inspired by flowers can be expected to, as well.
36. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin (2013): it is to my regret that there are only a couple of foreign-language albums on this entire list - for all my attempts to branch out into global music, I always seem to keep coming back to artists that write in English. But my goodness is this a good one - the debut from Biarritz's experimental-pop-rock-new-wave-garage masters rarely misses a beat. Antitaxi kicks things off with demented surf guitars, and Amour Dans Le Motu and Hypsoline ratchet things up with edgy, über-cool, extremely French grooviness. Things do eventually slow down, on bluesy suicide lament Saisis La Corde and ethereal other-woman revenge tale Le Blues De Françoise, but all in all this album makes it very hard to stay still while listening. Themetically things can get dark at times, but there are antidotal moments of irony to soften it up just a bit and the disarmingly sweet vocal delivery of Clémence Quélennec bounces off Sacha Got's jagged guitar work to splendid effect. La Femme will probably be best remembered for soundtracking a Renault advert, but there's so much more to them than that.
34. Deca - The Way Through (2017): as should already be evident from this list, I listen to a lot of rap, in a lot of its many forms. Christian rap though? Not so much. But Deca is different. Unlike the histrionic, holier-than-thou Christianity of so many American Christian groups, the Denver MC preaches a much more introverted, self-fulfilling, spiritual side of the religion. I'm being serious when I say that Sailboats and Trains, which cropped up on 2013 release The Ocean, contains the best lyrics of all time - and The Way Through comes very close on every single track. Deca weaves poetic, sometimes abstract, lines about higher powers, mankind's purpose, self-belief and self-affirmation. It's hard not to be swept up by the positivity and clarity of it all - not enough to convert me, but I find it hard to disagree with anything he says. Skyward, Milk, Mammon's Mantra and 6th and A are all essential hip-hop tracks of the decade, and it's worth bearing in mind that, regardless of lyrical content, it all holds up musically as well.
33. Tyler, the Creator - Wolf (2013): has it aged well? Nah. Back when I used to do this on a yearly basis, I rated this album very highly - but just a few years on, and given what rap sounds like these days, the clunking synths and off-kilter beats of Tyler's third release already seem impossibly dated. It gets worse when you put it in the context of where his career has gone since, too: with Cherry Bomb effectively a conscious distancing from this album's whole vibe, and Flower Boy and IGOR the subsequent post-coming-out cooldown, Wolf, with its tales of summer camp and teenage lust, becomes almost laughable. And yet I will defend this album to the death. Listening to it again now cannot fail to produce almost overwhelming emotion in me, as it did for a lot of listeners at the time who were looking for something completely different. From the lyrical twists and turns of Jamba to the likes of Domo23 and Tamale, still among his most fun songs, to the heart-wrenching IFHY and Lone, a eulogy for his late grandmother, there was nothing quite like it at the time. I hate to bring things back to his sexuality again, but a lot of the more questionable lyrics can be forgiven knowing they came from a closeted young man - bear in mind he was just 22 at the time - struggling to express himself. And he wrote and played all of his own music! And designed his own clothes! And formed his own crew of rappers who hung out together in LA and appeared on each others' albums. I accept that I'm part of the problem he describes on Colossus, but Wolf really resonated with me. It's hard to listen to him practically scream at the end of Pigs, "I got 99 problems and all of them's being happy" - but I'm glad he's doing better now; I certainly am and I hope a lot of the people this spoke to are as well.
32. The Fat White Family - Serf's Up! (2019): ah, the internet. It's introduced me to a lot of good music over the years; one day, for instance, YouTube thought I might be interested in a band called The Fat White Family. And with a name like that, how could I resist? I was rewarded with this extremely polished collection of post-punk, post-britpop, post-ironic exercises in inventive songwriting. From the sweeping strings of Feet through the almost Kraftwerk-style beats on I Believe in Something Better and the incessantly needling bassline of Fringe Runner, to the softer Rock Fishes and Bobby's Boyfriend, there's impressive musical range on show. Frontman Lias Saoudi is everything punk frontmen should be but so often aren't: eloquent, provocative, not shy to satirise. His influence is felt on When I Leave, which sits somewhere between Blur and Monty Python, but best by a mile is Tastes Good with the Money, a deliciously sleazy indictment of Britain's persisting class segregation - and it doesn't just aim upwards. Here's to many more from this bunch of weirdos.
31. Skrillex - Recess (2014): it was surprisingly difficult to decide whether to even bother considering Skrillex for this list. Because while his influence on electronic music is totally undeniable, equally undeniable is the speed at which he became a punchline for the most easily-lambasted aspects of the genre; a hyperactive, noisy soundtrack for the age of internet memes and viral videos. Recess has aged infinitely better than his earlier work precisely because it falls back on what came before rather than trying to blaze a trail, and since what came before was so largely established by Skrillex himself, I'd say that's enough to qualify it. Anyway, it's a very enjoyable album, gathering together all of the festival-ready sounds of mid-decade EDM into a high-budget, polished package. The title track and Dirty Vibe bounce off the speakers, Stranger has more of a jungle vibe, and Ease My Mind and Fire Away are perhaps the most neatly-written dance tracks of the whole decade.
30. Stoned Jesus - Seven Thunders Roar (2012): it was a turbulent decade for the people of Ukraine, for sure, and out of the maelstrom of Kiev came this brooding, bleak, meandering work of doom metal from the country's best power trio. Comprising just five tracks, some might dispute its status as an album, but clocking in at 48 minutes gives it a pass from me. Besides, it's just too good to leave out, thanks in large part to the guitar work of Igor Sidorenko who tempers his muscular riffing - defiant political statement Indian features the best riff of the decade, hands down - with melodic solo segments, atmospheric effects and the occasional well-advised switch to the acoustic. The result is a record evoking the mountains and forests of eastern Europe, even in its more standard rock tracks, Bright Like the Morning and Electric Mistress, and grooving closer Stormy Monday. The highlight, though, is definitely I'm the Moutain, a 16-minute slow burner with more musical twists and turns than most bands manage in their whole career.
29. Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016): the London-based soul-singer-songwriter followed up his pleasant 2012 debut Home Again with something from a different universe. Love & Hate lays out its intentions with ten-minute opener Cold Little Heart, an epic journey through orchestral strings, sparkling piano work, gospel choirs and mournful aesthetic, and the rest of the album follows on from there - track after track of masterful arrangements, vocal harmonies and musicianship. Danger Mouse pulls the strings on production and it shows - despite Kiwanuka's British-Ugandan roots, this sounds like it came straight from the West Coast of the US in the '70s, especially on the title track, Rule the World and the more uptempo One More Night. Kiwanuka croons along in a voice sounding decades older than his 29 years, but which can be deceptively powerful when it needs to be, and he's not afraid to let loose with the occasional searing guitar solo.
28. clipping. - Splendor & Misery (2016): on paper, the members of experimental rap trio clipping. seem wholly incompatible. Rapper Daveed Diggs has won both a Tony and a Grammy for his performance in Hamilton, producer William Hutson holds a PhD in experimental music, and other producer Jonathan Snipes came up through the LA electronic scene. But work they do, putting out some of the most interesting-yet-accessible music of the decade. Splendor & Misery combines this eclecticism into a coherent concept album, a space opera tale of a slave mutiny aboard a spaceship that leaves just one survivor, who then has to argue with the ship's AI for his freedom. It's a world away from most hip-hop, and that's true on the musical side as well. Long Way Away and Story 5 sound like futuristic sea shanties, Diggs is utilised more as a slam poet than a rapper, and it's not until around two-thirds of the way through on Air 'Em Out that we get something even approaching a traditional beat. Baby Don't Sleep teases an old-school boom-bap rhythm composed entirely of tuned static and A Better Place jangles with prog-style organs before fading into chaotic noise. One to stroke your beard to.
27. TV Girl - Who Really Cares (2016): the sophomore release from the San Diego indie pop band who describe themselves as something "you can sing along to, but wouldn't sing around your parents" is marketed as "an album about sex, or lack thereof". So far, so edgy. But that self-deprecating humour permeates and softens what is ultimately quite a sweet album, filled with tales of walks of shame, petty disputes over once-shared possessions and the awkwardness of bumping into your ex at a party. The likes of Safe Word and Heaven is a Bedroom even serve as a reminder not to let your sex life define the rest of your life - because ultimately who really cares? The musical side of things is equally charming, with the twin vocals of Brad Petering and Madison Acid - the latter might possibly just be Petering's voice pitch-shifted up - harmonising nicely over a backing of tuneful electric piano and a dreamy, washed-out rhythm section. It's adult, but not in the way you would immediately think - and that's what makes it work so well.
26. Hail Mary Mallon - Bestiary (2014): when it comes to rappers, very few are held in as high regard as Aesop Rock. A legend in the underground scene for his staggeringly verbose lyrics, he teams up here with fellow NYC MC Rob Sonic for a second stab at the duo's Hail Mary Mallon project - and the result is far closer to their full potential than debut Are You Gonna Eat That? Their lyrical skill is just breathtaking at times - I'm pretty sure no rap song had featured the word "tapenade" until King Cone - and they bat lines back and forth between each other with ease. The couple of tracks that actually mean anything - Krill bemoaning the urban rat race and Whales an increasingly OTT account of a pair of homeless men fantasising about future riches - are perhaps objectively best from a songwriting point of view but practically every line here represents wonderfully surreal, absurdist poetry, inventive rhyme and meter schemes and, all in all, far more astuteness than most would expect from the genre. Oh, and there are plenty of big beats too, from the funky Used Cars, to the creepy piano riff on 4AM, to the crooked waltz time signature of Dollywood. I know I've included a lot of rap albums here that "aren't your typical rap album" - but this one is as worth a listen as any.
So that's the back of the list broken. Up next is the really good stuff...
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