Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1998

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet

1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid (14 votes)

2nd Place: The Beatles - Let It Be (13 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (12 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
5th Place: 3 albums tied with 9 votes

This is the first year in which a Beatles album has been available, but hasn't won the poll! Of course, it took probably the greatest and most important heavy metal album of all time to do it - but still, I'm definitely a little surprised! Such an amazing year - 15 albums received at least 5 user votes. Good stuff.

I think it's safe to say that 1998 doesn't have quite the same top-end heft or even distribution throughout - but it is still a year that is imminently deserving of your time. Some hidden gems, along with some hip-hop and indie mainstays.

Should also note that, for scope, I've decided to make the modern cut-off at 2015 (with the polling starting at 1965). That gives us a full, even, nicely-rounded 50 years of best albums. I think 5 years separation to the 2015 mix is enough space to make reasonable assessment. At the end of the 50 polls (not for some time), I'll also likely do a cumulative vote for best album of each 5 year increment (ie. 1965-69), and then take the winners of each of those, and do a grand finale vote-off. Think we seem to be having a lot of fun with these, and I've been getting a metric shit-ton of fantastic recommendations. So thank you for participating and making these fun, folks.

9/4: 2002
9/6: 1989
9/9: 1979

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[plank]

1. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
2. Yield - Pearl Jam
3. Boggy Depot - Jerry Cantrell
4. Wide Swing Tremolo - Son Volt
5. Step Inside This House - Lyle Lovett
6. Weird Tales - Golden Smog
7. Blackjack David - Dave Alvin
8. American Water - Silver Jews
9. Bring It On - Gomez
10. Teatro - Willie Nelson
11. Half Mad Moon - Damnations Tx


HM:
Angry Johnny & The Killbillies - What's So Funny?
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Calexico - The Black Light
Cigar Store Indians - El Baile De La Cobra
Cracker - Gentleman's Blues
Drive-By Truckers- Gangstabilly
Frank Black & The Catholics - s/t
Gillian Welch - Hell Among The Yearlings
Songs: Ohia - Impala
Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

1) Annie Gosfield – Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires
2) Boredoms – Super æ
3) Diamanda Galas - Malediction and Prayer
4) Les colocs – Dehors Novembre
5) Massacre – Funny Valentine
6) Miossec – À prendre
7) Melt-Banana – “Charlie”
8) Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come
9) Sean Lennon – Into the Sun
10) Secret Chiefs 3 – Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws
11) John Zorn – The Bribe (variations and extensions on Spillane) (The Circle Maker is Zorn's most well known and respected album from 1998, and it is a truly great one, but I prefer this unnecessary return to Spillane, which was one of my all-time favorites by Zorn ; Zorn worked on at least 8 albums through the year, Music For Children was another very good album from 1998)
12) Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
13) Beck – Mutations
14) Weird Little Boy ‎– Weird Little Boy (This thing was pretty rare and I remember how happy I was when I got a copy through trades at the time - Trey Spruance hates this album and will talk trash on it every chance he has!)
15) John Spencer Blues Explosion – Acme
16) Medeski, Martin & Wood – Combustication
17) David Krakauer – Klezmer, NY
18) The Legendary Pink Dots – Nemesis Online
19) Eels – Electro-Shock Blues
20) Sonic Youth – SYR3: Invito al ĉielo / Sonic Youth – A Thousand Leaves / Sonic Youth – Silver Session for Jason Knuth (in this order!)
21) Mark Lanegan – Scraps at Midnight

HMs:
The Lounge Lizards – Queen of All Ears
Ruins – Symphonica
Blurt – Celebrating the Bespoke Cell of Little Ease (music is amazing, but weaker vocals on quite a few tracks got it out of my top-20, still a very interesting album)
Royal Trux – Accelerator
Les Joyaux de la princesse – Exposition Internationale Paris 1937
Bodychoke – Cold River Songs
Swans – Swans Are Dead / The Body Lovers – Number One of Three (The Body Lovers and The Body Haters were Michael Gira's follow-up projects to Swans)
Time Machines (Coil) – Time Machines
Sutcliffe Jügend – When Pornography Is No Longer Enough
Merzbow – 1930
PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?
Bright Eyes – Letting Off the Happiness
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Cows – Sorry in Pig Minor
Pulp – This Is Hardcore
The Locust - The Locust

Curiosities:
Makigami Koichi – Electric Eel
Slapp Happy – Ça va
Hefner – Breaking God's Heart (just because I like Hefner, it's not really much of a curiosity)
Der Blutharsch – Der Sieg des Lichtes ist des Lebens Heil!
The Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop

 

[Saturated Fats]

OMG I forgot to put Godspeed in there??

Checked, F#A# is a 1997 release. Phew.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

OMG I forgot to put Godspeed in there??

Checked, F#A# is a 1997 release. Phew.

Oh well, I had it as from 1998: https://www.discogs.com/Godspeed-You-Black-Emperor-F-A-/release/54141

Took it out of my HMs!

 

[Langdon Alger]

Uggh, the late 90’s was not a great time for popular music.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Uggh, the late 90’s was not a great time for popular music.

And thus a great time for music.

 

[Saturated Fats]

For me, Aquemini is one of the three greatest hip-hop albums of all time. It is an absolutely transcendent release. Outkast may be better known for the two albums that came after it (at which time they achieved their deserved commercial success), but Aquemini - to me - is their magnum opus. Every time I listen, it climbs higher and higher up my all-time rankings. I think it sits third only to Illmatic and Three Feet High and Rising in terms of hip-hop records.

My top 10 with HM's:

Outkast - Aquemini
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Silver Jews - American Water
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
Gastr del Sol - Camofleur
Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star

Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Afghan Whigs - 1965

HM's: At the Drive-In; Manic Street Preachers - This is My Truth Tell Me Yours; Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle; Massive Attack

 

[Ceremony]

This is Hardcore is the correct answer.

 

[End on a Hinote]

Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up The Girl

Simply a masterpiece and an extremely underrated one, at that.

 

[Teemu]

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
The Offspring – Americana

Dizzy Up the Girl really does hold up surprisingly well.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

For me, Aquemini is one of the three greatest hip-hop albums of all time. It is an absolutely transcendent release. Outkast may be better known for the two albums that came after it (at which time they achieved their deserved commercial success), but Aquemini - to me - is their magnum opus. Every time I listen, it climbs higher and higher up my all-time rankings. I think it sits third only to Illmatic and Three Feet High and Rising in terms of hip-hop records.

An extraordinary album. I'm a big fan of progressive rock (Yes, King Crimson, ELP, etc) and I'd almost describe this as progressive hip-hop. All of the superlatives (the interplay between Big Boi and Andre 3000, the live instrumentation, the thoughtful subject matter) have been talked about above and elsewhere. The longer, more creative songs (the guitar-based "Chonkyfire", the laidback storyelling on "SpottieOttieDopaliscious", and the immaculate "Liberation") are the highlights, but even the shorter, more straightforward songs are also strong.

There are only a few weaknesses (which are common in late 1990's rap). The album's a bit bloated - there are a couple of "posse" songs that don't add much, and many of the skits could be removed. But these points are minor. I'd also have this in my top ten all-time.

Another excellent (and largely forgotten) hip-hop album - "Steal This Album" by The Coup. Lyrically, they're a successor to Public Enemy - there's angry social commentary, but they also have a great (albeit dark) sense of humour. Musically, it's a typically 1990's West Coast g-funk album (bouncy with heavy bass) - but with a smart mix of live instrumentation. Listen to "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night" (extraordinary storytelling), "Cars & Shoes" (a funky and hilarious spoof of materialism in hip-hop), "Underdogs" (understated music with sad, angry lyrics) and "Piss on Your Grave" (hilarious while still having a message - with a bouncy beat and some great trumpet riffs).

 

[Trap Jesus]

I honestly feel like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea gets underrated because of stupid meme culture. I go back to that album over and over and over again.

 

[belair]

Boards of Canada stands alone here for me. But 1998 was a great year of releases.

OP is missing Queens of the Stone Age. Absolutely massive first album.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up The Girl

Simply a masterpiece and an extremely underrated one, at that.

So why don’t you slide?

 

[Eisen]

New Model Army - Strange Brotherhood
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth

 

[End on a Hinote]

So why don’t you slide?

Because I'm the young man sitting at the old man's bar waiting for my turn to die.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Because I'm the young man sitting at the old man's bar waiting for my turn to die.

They performed Broadway on Conan like 20 years ago. Awesome performance. It’s on YouTube for anyone who wants to check it out.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Blackstar for me. that's one of the best hip hop albums ever created, its a shame we only got 1 album out of Talib and Mos together.

SOAD is a very close 2nd. Arguably the most unique sounding band ever. Pretty awesome to mix social commentary with heavy metal and classic Armenian music

 

[Langdon Alger]

I’ll give a little love to R.E.M. for their album “Up.”

Not their best album, but the first R.E.M. album I ever owned, and I like it enough. “Lotus” is a song that deserves more love.

 

[Saturated Fats]

I honestly feel like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea gets underrated because of stupid meme culture. I go back to that album over and over and over again.

Completely agree. It's an amazing album, but the memes have reached the point where it's detracts from meaningful discussion and level-headed appreciation (or criticism) of it.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Sonic Youth - Thousand Leaves
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Duster - Stratosphere
Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
OutKast - Aquemini
Herbert - Around the House
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Air - Moon Safari

Trip Hop heaven for rockists, easily the best Sonic Youth record of 90s, two monumental hip hop classics, late bloomers and some great electronic music.

 

[Ouroboros]

Trivial choice for me...

Gorguts - Obscura [Death Metal/Avantgarde Metal]

Other good stuff...

GAS - Zauberberg [Ambient/Minimal Techno]
Burning Witch - Towers [Sludge]
Phonophani - Phonophani [Ambient]
Thomas Köner - Kaamos [Ambient/Drone]
The Chasm - Deathcult For Eternity: The Triumph [Death Metal]
Eliane Radigue - Trilogie De La Mort [Drone]
Incantation - Diabolical Conquest [Death Metal]
Rapoon - The Fires Of The Borderlands [Ambient/Drone]

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I honestly feel like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea gets underrated because of stupid meme culture. I go back to that album over and over and over again.

What's the story there? I don't like the album at all but I didn't know it was a meme thing.

 

[Trap Jesus]

What's the story there? I don't like the album at all but I didn't know it was a meme thing.

There's a lot of info in here:

In the Aeroplane over the Sea | Know Your Meme

It's just one of those things that has kind of become it's own thing, album cover parodies, lyrical parodies, just so much about it.