A couple of days ago, the floppy fringed chaps at NME voted “Is This It” by the Strokes as the album of decade. I think this actually means *their* album of the decade as such a grand award means different things to different people.

I guess if enough people agreed we could compromise and decide on something but I come from the school of Rorschach:

“No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.”

That album is pretty cool but there’s no chance it would make it into my top 20 let alone be #1. Chris had been telling me for a while that he was assembling his albums of 2009. I had considered picking my albums of 2009 but hadn’t given it much more thought than that.

Twitter was rife with discussion about the top album and I didn’t really wade in as I wouldn’t like to pick one. I thought about it and decided I could definately pick 5 with a bit of soul searching.

The hunt was on, I constructed the hashtag #00top5albums to earmark any tweets on the subject. This hashtag was taken on by Julian Gough to do something a bit more grand but I wanted to be selfish and focus on myself (good luck J man!).

I decided to make a shortlist of 20 albums for consideration. There’s a little bit of everything here but I think the prevailing trend is Hip Hop. Here are the first 5 nominations for my #00top5albums (in no particular order, I shall provide links where I can, sorry Yankee doodles x)

#1: Stepfather – People Under The Stairs

In my eyes, these guys can do no wrong, true genuine hip hop. Double K and Thes One are masters of their craft and Stepfather is a pure joy to listen to. As you listen you can tell they’d poured their heart and soul into it.

My favourite track on the album, Pumpin’, was a subject of contention for me for a while as I was convinced the sample was taken from Streets of Rage. Such is the nature of PUTS, I was able ask Thes One about it at a gig and he confirmed it was from a British track.

Listen to it when…
You want to listen to something genuine

Best track is…
Pumpin’ (click to play)

#2: Journey To Anywhere – Ugly Duckling

My intro to Hip Hop. I remember it was like yesterday. I was at a house party and two songs prevailed that night.

The first was the Ice Cube song “You can do it”. Two particularly “classy” girls were playing it over and over again grinding themselves against anything within a 2 metre radius. This is lovely but does tend to grow tiresome after the 10th spin of the record.

The second was the song “A Little Samba”. It was a revelation. Upbeat, fun and funky hip hop. Long story short I picked up a copy of Journey to Anywhere and I fell in love with it. The whole album is there to question Hip Hop cynics. It shows people who take the time to listen that there is more to Hip Hop than “puttin yo back into it”.

Listen to it when…
You need to be reminded that Hip Hop ain’t all guns & bitches

Best track is…
A Little Samba (click to play)

Spotify link

#3: Songs for the Deaf – Queens of the Stone Age

My mum knew about Queens of the Stone Age before I did. My mum is very cool. Mainly because of things like knowing about QOTSA before me. I was watching TV and an advert came on which had No One Knows as its soundtrack. I loved it but didn’t know what it was. It was at this stage my mum walked in and the rest was history.

This album is everything I want from a rock album, pace and energy. Not to be missed.

Listen to it when…
You need rock with clout

Best track is…
No One Knows (click to play)

Spotify link

#4: Quality Control – Jurassic 5

Jurassic 5 are one of the heavyweight groups of the old school Hip Hop movement such as it is. Along with People Under The Stairs they are great in all respects and this is a full blooded reflection of their musical consummation. Quality Control oozes class and guile.

Listen to this when…
You wanna hear music that feels effortless and whole

Best track is…
Jurass Finish First (click to play)

Spotify link

#5: The Mouse & The Mask – DangerDoom

To be honest, this is definately in the #00top5albums already so listing it as a candidate is somewhat of a formality. This album is a collaboration between MF Doom and Dangermouse who came together to make something involving characters from the Adult Swim cartoons.

I’m going to wax lyrical about this album when I announce the full #00top5albums so I’ll leave it for now, safe to say this is definitely a banker.

Listen to this when…
Shake says so.

Best Track is…
Shake’s answer phone messages (listen to the album)

Spotify link

Coming soon…

I shall be doing the #00top5albums 6-10 in the next few days along side some updates to the Toybox section. I’m quite happy with the sheer volume of stuff I wanna write. Just need to find the time!