2004 : 40 "America's Most Blunted" by Madvillain

---

"They" say that every album has a particular drug that serves as the perfect accompaniment, accenting certain elements of the music in the same way that wine embellishes certain elements of a good meal. It's not hard to imagine examples: the twinkling polygons evoked in the mind when one listens to Aphex Twin probably look more vivid on Ecstasy, and I might understand the appeal of classic Rolling Stones more thoroughly if I were loaded on cheap beer. The quintessential example, of course, is marijuana, which has been involved in the production of so much music that one might reasonably feel the need to smoke up occasionally just to figure out what the hell is going on. Madvillainy, a 2004 album produced by the duo of hip hop producer Madlib and rapper MF Doom, is a prime example of an album that might benefit from the completion of this prerequisite: its cluttered yet warm production, lyrical obtuseness, unpredictable samples (including pontifications on time from Sun Ra), even its juvenile digressions and unfinished quality, all speak clearest to the mindset of somebody who is nicely toasted. So by the time we reach track six, "America's Most Blunted," the Madvillain dudes are pretty much double underscoring something that is dead obvious to begin with. But I'll be damned if every single second of it isn't pure delight. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Madvillain >> "America's Most Blunted"