1998 in music. • Page 2

1. Dave - BTCS
2. 112 - Room 112
3. Kid Rock - Devil without a cause

 

1. Castor - Tracking Sounds Alone
2. Air - Moon Safari
3. Hum - Downward Is Heavenward

The Castor record is well worth checking out if you like bands like Hum and Failure. Slightly more emo, with some trippy time signature change-ups. I've actually been listening to this album a lot in the last couple of weeks. It has my heart.

Moon Safari is the most beautiful experience. Could be thought of as mere background music but the more you listen, the more it demands attention. So warm and romantic sonically that what few lyrics there are, quite often either obscured by vocoder or in French, are secondary to the way they add to the sound of the song.

Downward Is Heavenward is the best Hum album, Isle Of The Cheetah is an all-timer as an album opener.

Honourable mentions:
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (if I had listened to this more it would probably make my top three)
Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come
Tortoise - TNT
Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Far - Water and Solutions
Massive Attack - Mezzanine

 

1. Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
2. Massive Attack - Mezzanine
3. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F#A# ∞

The Shape of Punk to Come is my favourite "heavy" album of all time, an absolutely thrilling post-hardcore record, that shifts between genres and completely blows me away everytime I hear it. It wears it's influences proudly on it's sleeve, but even a decade later when everybody else began copying it, nobody gets close.

Mezzanine is a chilling trip-hop record, that saw Massive Attack delve further into ambient sounds, doing it uncomfortably slow, and just building this fantastic atmosphere and sense of dread - without any of the funkier or poppier stuff in their earlier records. "Angel" is an all time great opener, the refrain of "Love you love you love you" echoing over aggressive industrial sounding guitar and drums.

Another atmospheric album with a palpable sense of dread is Godspeed's first album (confusingly released in two different versions in two years - the longer record is 1998 though), the catchily titled F#A#∞. Opening track The Dead Flag Blues might be the most post-apocalyptic piece of music ever written.

Honourable mentions;

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: Very unlucky not to make the top three, a brilliant album blending soul and hip-hop impeccably.

Black Star - Black Star: Mos Def and Talib Kweli together making incredible, political and socially conscious "alternative" hip-hop, with jazzy and funky beats.

Elliott Smith - XO: A beautiful Elliott Smith album, who made writing these little folky-pop songs seem to easy and effortless, but nobody could do it better.

Cap'n Jazz - Analphabetapolothology: Gave up spelling this from memory and just copied and pasted from Wiki. This is their full discography, and really I should have included their ludicrously titled only album from 1995, as that's by far the best thing about them - when it's great, it's a great little twitchy emo record.

Alkaline Trio - Goddamnit: Alkaline Trio's debut, and just a brilliantly executed piece of melodic punk rock, with some of their absolute best songs.

Arab Strap - Philophobia: Forgot these when the 96 thread was here, but this is a great little oddball blend of spoken word and slow-indie rock. Great and often vulgar tales of life, including one of my favourite tracks of theirs, "New Birds", a masterclass in simple storytelling.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over The Sea: The Tweet earlier in the thread is very funny, but this is a lovely lo-fi collection of folky indie rock, that a lot of bands copied in the following years.

Idlewild - Hope is Important: Debut album from the great Scottish indie rock band. This is them at their roughest and punkiest, but they can't hide their poppier instincts and talent.

Alanis Morissette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie: The album as a whole I think is okay, but I can listen to "Thank U" over and over and over again.

 

GYBE was listed as 97 for me hmm

 

It is. The cd was released in 98

 

It's both - the original record, which is the first two tracks came out on a very limited self-published vinyl only release in 1997. It then got re-recorded and added the final track, Providence, in 1998 on CD when they signed to a label. They altered the track lengths, movements and track names between the two releases too - so they're different records.

The likelihood is the version you're familiar with is the 1998 one - I'm not sure if the 1997 version is available easily anymore.

 

ah okay, gotcha

 

This entire project has been about listening to hip-hop releases I didn't know about. Definitely my blind spot there.

1. Alkaline Trio - Goddamnit
2. All - Mass Nerder
3. The Offspring - Americana (Possibly the most influential album for me as a child, for better and for worse)

Honorable mentions:
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty (My fav Beastie album by a pretty wide margin)
Superdrag - Head Trip in Every Key
Pearl Jam - Yield (Ok fine, THIS is the last "classic" Pearl Jam album lol)
Bad Religion - No Substance (Their worst album, but some bangers still)

 

The Beastie Boys don’t have a bad album (though Licensed To Ill is an acquired taste), but I haven’t seen too many that rank Hello Nasty on top. That being said, my favourite is To The 5 Boroughs, which definitely gets ranked less high than Hello Nasty usually.

 

Nice

 

I think I have the original record, but I don’t know. Bought it a long time ago.

 

In the book, there's an entire chapter called "Why I Think Hello Nasty Is Our Best Album," so it's straight gospel haha

 

There’s only 500 of the original record, so it’d be worth a pretty penny if you do have one! Straight on EBay!

 

it comes with a train flattened penny

 

That book is on my list. I want to get the audiobook, the narrator list is wild.

 

1. Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

I am shocked this doesn't have more votes. It's magic.

2. Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap

Pitchfork originally gave this a 0.4 or something ridiculous. This album is fantastic throughout and contains, arguably, the two finest Belle and Sebastian songs. The title track is, I think, the happiest sounding song I have ever heard.

3. Elliott Smith - XO

It's not my favorite ES record, but it's a very good ES record.

Honorable Mentions: Something About Airplanes, In/Casino/Out, Letting Off the Happiness. Three very different albums, but almost identical in their place in their respective discographies - good out of context, but more importantly full of potential that would be delivered on tenfold a single album later.

 

title track of boy with the arab strap is perfect

 

I put it on my honourable mentions. I wholly agree.

 

Fuel is probably the worst band to have one incredible song

 

I mean the rest of the record is actually pretty good but

 

01. Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview
02. Reel Big Fish - Why do they Rock so Hard
03. Hum - Downward is Heavenward

Honorable Mentions

Unwritten Law - Unwritten Law
Swervedriver - 99th Dream
Catch 22 - Keasby Nights
The Hippos - Forget the World
Braid - Frame and Canvas
ALL - Mass Nerder
Strung Out - Twisted by Design
Snuff - Tweet Tweet My Lovely
Mad Caddies - Duck and Cover
Local H - Pack Up the Cats
Knapsack - This Conversation is Ending
Lagwagon - Let’s Talk About Feelings

 

Yeah - it's crazy how quickly they trudged into butt rock territory.

 

i was gonna say, the whole album is good, but yeah i’ve never listened to anything outside of sunburn

 

Never heard it but I like The Campfire Headphones

 

As always, this is my plug to get into the New Radicals album. So overlooked and underrated. These top 6 are all-timers for me

1. New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
2. The Offspring - Americana
3. Barenaked Ladies - Stunt
4. Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way Baby
5. Orgy - Candyass
6. Eve 6 - Eve 6
7. Marvelous 3 - Hey! Album
8. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
9. Eagle-Eye Cherry - Desireless
10. Air - Moon Safari
11. Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come
12. Unwritten Law - Unwritten Law
13. The Wiseguys - The Antidote
14. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
15. Propellorheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
16. Ozomatli - Ozomatli
17. Hoobastank - They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To
18. Far - Water & Solutions
19. Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview
20. Outkast - Aquemini