That's a question I'd reserve for DJ Shadow. The Stem/Long Stem monologue about parking tickets that sounds like it's from some sort of dystopian movie is from a stand-up comedy routine!
But yeah, Madlib's still in his prime, if you ask me. There's something about the Victory Laps beat that makes the little snippet of it infinitely listenable.
DJ Shadow is out of competition in general. Gotta agree with that Victory Lap sample. I think one of the reasons why I've never really gotten into rap is that as a non-native, I miss about half of the appeal of the lyrics. Sure, if I look them up, I'll understand their words, but I can't really get behind what they are saying. Analyzing always seemed like a stupid thing to do with what's essentially street poetry. It's direct, and I'm too slow at English to get all of it. So good music underneath really helps to get me into rap.
Radiohead's a rather overrated group. I get their appeal (and they get props for having the guy who does the Robin animated series do the Paranoid Android video), but I just can't get into them. Even if they are good, they're not #1 album of all time material, IMO.
Actually, I find their alleged "best" album
OK Computer to be rather overrated. Sure, it has great songs, but it also has some excruciatingly boring ballads (hi "No Surprises"). Also "Paranoid Android" leaves me cold.
Kid A is much better, but I don't listen to much electronica, so maybe I'm overrating them in that respect. Apart from that, I've only heard the
The Bends (some nice stuff but mostly typical britpop, which I don't like much),
Amnesiac (
Kid A leftovers, some great, some awful) and
In Rainbows, which, even if it's excessively whiny, is great. And I think that's the trait that makes them a "not for everybody" band. They're incredibly whiny. Actually,
Kid A circumvents that just fine by not letting Thom Yorke sing much.
#1 album of all time? Nah. But
Kid A is one of the better ones in recent times, and certainly one you should have heard, no matter if you like it or not. Hell, I don't like
London Calling much, but I know it's essential listening if you're really into music of different styles.
Haven't heard Hemispheres, but I've listened to Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, and they're both great. I'm going to have to check that album out.
I have
Moving Pictures, and it's my favorite.
Hemispheres and everything before that is much less synth-heavy, has much longer songs and much more hard rock influence. But if you aren't turned off by that, the songwriting is the same quality. Oh, and they also wrote shorter songs back then. Check out "The Trees".
