1. The Red Hot Chili Peppers â?? By The Way<BR> Combining sunshine harmonies with desolate lyrical landscapes, By The Way is a cathartic blend of gutter grime, grinding guitars and furious funk all somehow conspiring into a feel-good summer-time rock masterpiece. <BR> <BR> 2. <BR> Eminem â?? The Eminem Show <BR> A never-ending slew of jaw-dropping punch lines delivered with more lyrical complexity than Biggie, more style than Jay Z and enough fearless energy to rival Tupac. <BR> <BR> 3. <BR> African Dope â?? Cape Of Good Dope <BR> Armed with more dope rhymes, edgy beats and funky flights than you can shake a stick at, independent Cape Town label African Dope are the undergroundâ??s official superheroes. <BR> <BR> 4. <BR> Norah Jones â?? Come Away with Me <BR> Slithers of smouldering jazz sensuality blends with subtle pop innocence. Think Billie Holiday meets Diana Krall meets Rickie Lee Jones. <BR> <BR> 5. <BR> Coldplay â?? A Rush of Blood To The Head <BR> Trembling guitars, stargazing lyrics, anthemic choruses and forlorn emotive vocals. Who could ask for more from a rock album? <BR> <BR> 6. <BR> Mapaputsi - Izinja <BR> Mapaputsi combines lyrical ghetto-savvy rhymes and a razor-sharp delivery with hard-hitting beats and rhythmic inflections that draw traditional Zulu sounds to create intimate, graphic, grizzly yet majestically poetic kwaito.<BR> <BR> 7. <BR> Royksopp - Melody AM <BR> At once cool and lush, austere and blissful, ambient and wildly detailed, Melody AM is a richly textured feast of late-night electronic food for the soul. <BR> <BR> 8. <BR> Tom Waits â?? Alice<BR> Waits' ravaged voice adds a pictorial emphasis and raw honesty to fiendish psychedelic melodies. The album Lewis Carol would have made if heâ??d been a musician and not an author. <BR> <BR> 9. <BR> Van Der Want & Letcher â?? Bignity<BR> Bittersweet electronic introspection interspersed with cocky guitar-driven glory from South Africaâ??s finest intimate rock duo. <BR> <BR> 10. <BR> DJ Shadow - The Private Press<BR> DJ Shadow adds a devilish dollop of irony to the existential lyrical sorrow of his normal down-tempo uneasy listening with heaped helpings of retro break-beats, prog rock assaults and assorted almost symphonic samples. <P>11. <BR>Missy Elliott - Under Construction<BR> Sassy, shrewd lyrics bleeding with breathtaking sincerity, bounce off seductive electro samples and meaty hip-hop beats to secure Missy Elliot the queen of hip-hop crown. <BR> <BR> 12. <BR> Sonic Youth - Murray Street<BR> Obliquely melancholic rock tunes are interwoven with cascades of intricate three-guitar noise to create a musical elegy that is equal parts daring, accessible and strangely beautiful. <BR> <BR> 13. <BR> Valiant - Swart Maanhare<BR> Laid-back road movie rhythms and intimate poetic ballads transport listeners straight into a fertile and hitherto unmapped musical landscape â?? the sound of 21st century boere-blues reconnecting with its global frontier roots. <BR> <BR> 14. <BR> India Arie - Voyage to India <BR> Arieâ??s lithe, ethereal vocals brim with raw emotion as she takes the listener on an intimate (if somewhat naïve) journey into the female mind, lingering majestically on themes such us feminine beauty and spirituality. <BR> <BR> 15. <BR> Andile Yenana - We Used To Dance<BR> The future sound of South African jazz: equal parts pensive reflection on a febrile heritage and elegiac flight into uncharted dimensions in sound. <BR> <BR> 16. <BR> Streets - Original Pirate Material <BR> UK garage gets a kick in the butt from the Streetsâ?? staggeringly eloquent and fearlessly honest aural adventure through street-level London. Raw as a bootleg, but bulging with sharp wit. <BR> <BR> 17. <BR> The Roots - Phrenology<BR> With guest stars like Nelly Furtado and Jill Scott adding spice, The Roots deliver a sweeping opus that shuns hip-hopâ??s obsession with battle rhymes in favour of meaningful raps and orchestrated battle music. <BR> <BR> 18. <BR> Mafikizolo - Sibongile <BR> Edgy beats and intelligent lyrics plough through the fertile sonic history of township pop in what is best described as Kwaito for the 30-something generation. <BR> <BR> 19. <BR> Vines - Highly Evolved<BR> Taking in everything from Nirvana, to the Beatles, T-Rex, and even the Beach Boys, the Vines cohere in an unrelenting aural assault best described as punchy post-modern rock/pop pastiche. <BR> <BR> 20. <BR> Hugh Masekela - Time<BR> Masekela's latest offering sees the South Africa icon returning to his political roots with an album that is at once a celebratory homage to the African experience and an indictment of the socio-political amnesia in the New South Africa.
