I wasn’t going to bother with a music based list this year but then my friend suggested I list my top five albums of the last 10 years. Seeing as I always love to wax lyrical about the stuff I like, I didn’t really need an excuse to do it. Please note I am not a music critic in any way and will simply describe on how these albums make me feel, do not expect any in-depth analysis. So everyday for the next 5 days I will reveal another album that I really loved which was released this decade. Just to give an air of suspense to people reading this.

Taste the Secret – Ugly Ducking (2003)

“Meat and shake, that’s all I need, m-hm.”

There was a time when I believed that hip hop was all just people grabbing their crotch and screaming ‘WHAT’. That was before I listened to this album, it opened my eyes to the fact hip hop was not just guys acting tough and being mean. This is music that is simply about enjoying yourself.

The general feeling of the album seems to revolve around two things having fun and being slightly dissatisfied with life. Oh! It’s also about Meatshake too. This album just happens to be a concept album which revolves around working in a fast food restaurant (perhaps where the dissatisfaction part comes in) which is trying to shift some rather unappealing sounding meat based milkshake. That story often muscles it’s way into the songs but rarely does it seem to the detriment of the music. All the songs involving the monstrous sounding gruel are usually interesting, funny and offer a great change of pace to the rest of the album.

And what at a rest of the album it is, from the bombastic “Turn It Up” to the joyous “Pass It On” via “Mr. Tough Guy” it shows a band which really wants you to know what their world view is: Have fun, hip hop is definitely not about being a dickhead.

Thanks for that lesson chaps.

Best Tracks:
Turn It Up, Dumb It Down, Mr. Tough Guy.