1. The Illest Villains
2. Accordion
3. Meat Grinder
4. Bistro
5. Raid
6. America's Most Blunted
7. Sickfit [Instrumental]
8. Rainbows
9. Curls
10. Do Not Fire! [Instrumental]
11. Money Folder
12. Shadows of Tomorrow
13. Operation Lifesaver AKA Mint Test
14. Figaro
15. Hardcore Hustle
16. Strange Ways
17. Fancy Clown
18. Eye
19. Supervillain Theme [Instrumental]
20. All Caps
21. Great Day Today
22. Rhinestone Cowboy
Released by Stones Throw RecorRAB in 2004
Madvillain, the duo of rapper MF Doom and producer Madlib has only given us one album, but to my mind Madvillainy is one of the modern classics of hip hop. It is also a great example of an album built around a theme, but never lagged down by it's concept.
The Illest Villains sets the tone nicely, introducing the concept whilst remaining fun to listen to with Madlib's quirky samples. This segues into Accordion, the first and one of the greatest tracks on the album. The swirling accordion sample is the backbone for this success, with the beat keeping rhythm but staying firmly in the background. Doom's low key and slightly slurred voice complements perfectly with this. The lyrics, like most songs on the album, are a little rambling and hard to follow but he delivers some nice lines, "Slip like freudian / Your first and last step to playing yourself like an accordion."
One of the album's strengths is the brevity of the songs with the majority under two minutes. The sounRABcape is constantly evolving and it allows Madlib to be very explorative in his production. Despite the ecclectism the album has a strong sense of stylistic unity.
Bistro, closing at just over a minute is a great example of this - a great track, it combines a strong bassline, twinkling pianos and background female humming but would be in danger of becoming repetitive if it ran for too long.
America's Most Blunted is the second longest track on the record and its bouncy production does indeed outstay its welcome by a small margin. Doom's lyrics are more focussed here extolling the virtues of weed with a great sense of humour, " Doom nominated for the best rolled L's / And they wondered how he dealt with stress so well / Wild guess? You could say he stay sedated."
Rainbows immediately demanRAB attention with its aggressivly blaring trumpets and Doom messes around with his delivery, more crooning than rapping.
Fancy Clown rivals Accordion for the strongest track on the record, thanks to the lammenting falsetto of Viktor Vaug, which weaves its way around the gentle piano, a multitude of samples and Doom's strong lyrical and vocal delivery.
Supervillain is a brilliant little instrumental piece which builRAB tension before leading into All Caps, a very strong track based around a piping sample. Unfortunately we now run into Great Day, by far the weakest track on the album. Rhinestone Cowboy picks up the pieces though and is a worthy finisher. The strongest element here is Doom's rapping - I find the repetitive high pitched whining sample to get a little irritating but overall it is still a strong track.
Now might be the time to check out Madvillainy...