AllMusic Loves 1998

It was, as they say, a transitional year. It was, in many ways, the year where the hangover set in, as the biggest rock forces of the '90s were in states of decline. Although there were some scuzzy sounds on the margin -- not to mention such distinctive voices as Neutral Milk Hotel -- American alt-rock had gone Hollywood, led by Hole's ode to Southern California, the ultraglossy Celebrity Skin, but this was the year post-grungers like Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind ruled U.S. radio. In Britain, the heady years of Britpop collapsed, captured brilliantly on Pulp's This Is Hardcore, but the U.K. had its own version of the slicked-up, straightened-out post-grunge in the form of friendly indie-guitar outfits like Catatonia, whose National Velvet topped Melody Maker's year-end list. As these sounds faded out, new styles bubbled up, notably electronica -- which had a banner year everywhere, with Air's Moon Safari crossing over and garage and big beat sweeping the U.K. -- and neo-soul spearheaded by the smash The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Then at the end of year came Britney Spears, whose "...Baby One More Time" wound up being Nevermind in reverse, pushing all these adventurous sounds back to the fringes.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Not my favorite year of the '90s, but 1998 did have some of my favorite music of the decade, notably the New Radicals' "You Get What You Give," a single that still gives me thrills whenever I happen to hear it. It wasn't the only great single but to my ears it was the best, coming very close to being a perfect record, eclipsing such otherwise addictive pop singles as All Saints' "Never Ever" and Jennifer Paige's "Crush," along with some of the last great Britpop singles (Super Furry Animals' "Ice Hockey Hair," for instance). And there were terrific albums too -- I still play my top three regularly and the rest all sound good whenever they're revisited.

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach – Painted from Memory
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Nick Lowe – Dig My Mood
Beck - Mutations
Original Soundtrack - Velvet Goldmine
Royal Trux - Accelerator
Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age
Kid Rock – Devil Without a Cause
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Public Enemy – He Got Game
New Radicals – Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too
Silver Jews - American Water
Sheryl Crow – The Globe Sessions
Neil Finn – Try Whistling This
Air - Moon Safari
Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

New Radicals – "You Get What You Give"
All Saints – "Never Ever"
Jennifer Paige – "Crush"
Britney Spears – "...Baby One More Time"
Super Furry Animals – Ice Hockey Hair EP
Fatboy Slim – "The Rockafeller Skank"
Cornershop – "Brimful of Asha"
Pulp – "Party Hard"
All Saints – "I Know Where It's At"
Madonna – "Ray of Light"
Air – "Sexy Boy"
Robbie Williams – "Millennium"
Pulp – "This Is Hardcore"
Beastie Boys – "Intergalactic"
Alanis Morissette - "Uninvited"
Natalie Imbruglia – "Torn"
Hole – "Celebrity Skin"
Jay-Z – "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)"
Shania Twain – "Honey I'm Home"
Everclear - "I Will Buy You a New Life"

Greg Heaney
Coalesce - Functioning on Impatience
Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5
Sloan - Navy Blues
Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star
Quasi - Featuring "Birds"
Silver Jews - American Water
The Afghan Whigs - 1965
Harriet the Spy - Unfuckwithable
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Make-Up - In Mass Mind
At the Drive-In - In/Casino/Out
His Hero Is Gone - The Plot Sickens
Converge - When Forever Comes Crashing
Pinback - Pinback
RZA - RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo
Fugazi - End Hits
Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosions - Acme
Shellac - Terraform

Matthew Garbutt
Air – Moon Safari
Andre Williams – Silky
Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty
Flat Duo Jets – Wild Blue Yonder
Goodie Mob – Still Standing
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Gorky 5
Holly Golightly – Serial Girlfriend
Madredeus – O Paraiso
Manu Chao – Clandestino
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
Morcheeba – Big Calm
OutKast – Aquemini
Portishead – PNYC
Saint Etienne – Good Humor
Sparklehorse – Good Morning Spider
The Brian Setzer Orchestra – The Dirty Boogie
The Detroit Cobras - Mink Rat or Rabbit
The Dirtbombs – Horndog Fest
Thee Headcoats – The Messerschmitt Pilot's Severed Hand
The Kaisers – Wishing Street

Aphrodite – "Wikki Wikki Plate"
Bis – "Eurodisco"
Bomb the Bass – "Bug Powder Dust (Kruder & Dorfmeister Remix)"
Busta Rhymes – "Turn It Up"
Cornershop – "Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)"
Krust – "Warhead"
Les Rythmes Digitales – "Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)"
MJ Cole – "Sincere"
Peshay – "Miles from Home"
PJ Harvey – "Angelene"
Rockers Hi-Fi – "Going Under"
Rocket from the Crypt – "When in Rome"
Shy FX - "Bambaataa"
Smoke City – "With You"
Stardust – "Music Sounds Better with You"
Super Furry Animals – "Ice Hockey Hair"
The Cardigans – "My Favourite Game"
The Flaming Stars – "Sweet Smell of Success"
Manic Street Preachers – "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next"
Wamdue Project – "King of My Castle"

Heather Phares
Air – Moon Safari
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
The Boredoms - Super Ae
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Cornelius - Fantasma
Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
His Name Is Alive - Ft. Lake
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Moloko - I Am Not a Doctor
OutKast - Aquemini
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age
Quickspace - Precious Falling
Royal Trux - Accelerator
Silver Jews - American Water
Solex - Solex vs. The Hitmeister
Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
Spoon - A Series of Sneaks
Tortoise - TNT

Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody?"
Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"
Beck - "Tropicalia"
Ben Folds Five - "Brick"
Green Day - "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)"
Garbage - "I Think I'm Paranoid"
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Hole - "Celebrity Skin"
Jay-Z - "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)"
Marilyn Manson - "The Dope Show"
Jennifer Paige - "Crush"
PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"
Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
Fatboy Slim - "The Rockafeller Skank"
Madonna - "Ray of Light"
Marcy Playground - "Sex and Candy"
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Stardust - "Music Sounds Better with You"
Spice Girls - "Spice Up Your Life"
The Verve - "Bittersweet Symphony"

David Jeffries
Juan Atkins - Wax Trax! Mastermix, Vol. 1
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Boris - Amplifier Worship
Junior Delgado - Fearless
Garbage - Version 2.0
Hieroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Infiniti - Skynet
Jay-Z - Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life
Killah Priest - Heavy Mental
Kruder & Dorfmeister - The K&D Sessions
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Mr. Vegas - Heads High
Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star
OutKast - Aquemini
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
RZA - RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo
UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
Various Artists - Chain Reaction...Compiled
Various Artists - Connected

John Bush
Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You
Buckfunk 3000 - First Class Ticket to Telos
Cut Chemist/Shortkut - Live at Future Primitive Sound Session
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Saint Etienne - Good Humor/Fairfax High
Squarepusher - Music Is Rotted One Note
Air - Moon Safari
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Beck - Mutations
Tortoise - TNT
A Tribe Called Quest - The Love Movement
4hero - Two Pages
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
System of a Down - System of a Down
Herbert - Around the House
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Richard Davies - Telegraph

Stardust - "Music Sounds Better with You" (YouTube)
Dem 2 - "Destiny" (YouTube)
Robbie Williams - "Millennium"
Saint Etienne - "Goodnight Jack"
Beastie Boys - "Super Disco Breakin'"
4hero - "We Who Are Not as Others [Jazzanova Mix]"
Massive Attack - "Inertia Creeps"
Beck - "Nobody's Fault But My Own"
Josh Rouse - "Dressed Up Like Nebraska"
Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"
The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice of Boston"
Braid - "The New Nathan Detroits"
Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha [Norman Cook Remix]"
Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"
Busta Rhymes - "Turn It Up [Remix]/Fire It Up"
Paperclip People - "My Peepz [Shot]"
The Beta Band - "Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos"
Terry Callier - "Lazarus Man"
Air - "Kelly Watch the Stars"
The High Llamas - "Glide Time"

Aneet Nijjar
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Beck - Mutations
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Mansun - Six
R.E.M. - Up
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Terry Callier - Timepiece
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Air - Moon Safari
Alex Gopher - You, My Baby & I
Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5
Kid Loco - A Grand Love Story
Rae & Christian - Northern Sulphuric Soul
Derrick May - Innovator
Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star

Stardust - "Music Sounds Better with You"
Les Rhythmes Digitales - "Music Makes You Lose Control"
I-F - "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass"
Cornershop – "Brimful of Asha"
Jungle Brothers – "Jungle Brother"
Clinic – "Cement Mixer"
Mercury Rev – "Goddess on a Hiway"
Hole – "Celebrity Skin"
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Cracking Up EP
Jurassic 5 – "Concrete Schoolyard"
The Cardigans - "Erase/Rewind"
Bis – "Eurodisco"
The Dandy Warhols – "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth"
Madonna - "Ray of Light"
Cosmo Vitelli - "We Don't Need No Smurf Here"

John Buchanan
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Autechre - LP5
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Pearl Jam - Yield
Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
Unsane - Occupational Hazard
Garbage - Version 2.0
Fugazi - End Hits
Mark Snow - The X-Files
R.E.M. - Up
Pole - 1
Appleseed Cast - End of the Ring Wars
Come - Gently Down the Stream
Far - Water & Solutions
Girls Against Boys - Freak*on*ica
The Jesus Lizard - Blue
Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
Shellac - Terraform
Therapy? - Semi-Detached

Madonna - "Frozen"
Natalie Imbruglia - "Torn"
Pearl Jam - "Given to Fly"
Celine Dion - "My Heart Will Go On"
R.E.M. - "Daysleeper"
Massive Attack - "Teardrop"
MJ Cole - "Sincere"
PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"
Brandy & Monica - "The Boy Is Mine"
Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"
Radiohead - "No Surprises"

James Christopher Monger
The Gourds - Stadium Blitzer
Captain Sensible - Universe of Geoffrey Brown
Komeda - What Makes It Go?
Brian Lillie and the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra - Rowboats
Lisa Germano - Slide
Paolo Conte - The Best of Paolo Conte
The Divine Comedy - Fin de Siècle
Jim Roll - Ready to Hang
Robyn Hitchcock - Storefront Hitchcock
Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age
Kathryn Tickell & Friends - Northumberland Collection
Danielson Famile - Tri-Danielson, Vol. 1 (Alpha)
Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright
Matt Wilson - Burnt, White and Blue
Pinetop Seven - Rigging the Toplights
Gillian Welch - Hell Among the Yearlings
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Triakel - Triakel
Original Soundtrack - Six-String Samurai

The Gourds - "Gin and Juice"
Air - "Kelly Watch the Stars"
Neutral Milk Hotel - "King of Carrot Flowers"
Beck - "We Live Again"
Madonna - "Ray of Light"
Jeff Buckley - "New Year's Prayer"
Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"
Grant Lee Buffalo - "The Shallow End"
Squirrel Nut Zippers - "The Ghost of Steven Foster"
Pernice Brothers - "All I Know"
Semisonic - "Gone to the Movies"
Värttinä - "Laulutytto"
The Tannahill Weavers - "The Great Ships"
Black Box Recorder - "England Made Me"
Elliott Smith - "Waltz #2 (XO)"
Pulp - "The Fear"
Mercury Rev - "Holes"

Andy Kellman
Urban Tribe - The Collapse of Modern Culture
OutKast - Aquemini
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
4hero - Two Pages
Burger/Ink - Las Vegas
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
Saint Etienne - Good Humor
Scrawl - Nature Film
Herbert - Around the House
Plastikman - Consumed
Theo Parrish - First Floor
Tortoise - TNT
Squarepusher - Music Is Rotted One Note
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Arab Strap - Philophobia
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Pole - 1

Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody?"
Shake - "Detroit State of Mind"
4hero - "Escape That"
OutKast - "Rosa Parks"
New Radicals - "You Get What You Give"
Isolée - "Beau Mot Plage"
Chaos - "Afrogermanic"
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Moodymann - "Mahogany Brown"
D'Angelo - "Devil's Pie"
Faith Evans - "Love Like This"
Aril Brikha - "Groove la Chord"
Next - "Too Close"
Solo - "Touch Me"
Total - "Trippin'"
Monifah - "Touch It"
Titonton - "Avenues"
Nicole - "Make It Hot"
Noreaga - "Superthug"
U.S. Alliance - "All I Know [Da Grunge Mix]"

James Wilkinson
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Elliott Smith - XO
Plush - More You Becomes You
R.E.M. - Up
Graham Coxon - The Sky Is Too High
Beck - Mutations
Pernice Brothers - Overcome by Happiness
Bernard Butler - People Move On
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Josh Rouse - Dressed Up Like Nebraska
Air - Moon Safari
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Quasi - Featuring "Birds"
The Sadies - Precious Moments
Pedro the Lion - It's Hard to Find a Friend
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Manu Chao - Clandestino
Lambchop - What Another Man Spills
Saint Etienne - Good Humor

Michael Head Introducing the Strands - "Somethin' Like You"
Beachwood Sparks - "Desert Skies"
Belle & Sebastian - "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song"
Super Furry Animals - "Ice Hockey Hair"
Grandaddy - "Summer Here Kids"
Elliott Smith - "The Ballad of Big Nothing"
Olivia Tremor Control - "Jumping Fences"
Olivia Tremor Control - "Hideaway"
Ian Brown - "My Star"
The Cardigans - "My Favourite Game"
Doves & Jane Weaver - "Seven Day Smile"
Fountains of Wayne - "Denise"
Paul Weller - "Brand New Start"
Doves - "The Cedar Room"
Bob Dylan - "Not Dark Yet"
Bob Dylan - "Love Sick"
Spiritualized - "I Think I'm in Love"
Smog - "Held"
James - "Runaground"
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - "Let's Get Together (In Our Minds)"

Richard Wilson
The Afghan Whigs - 1965
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Calexico - Black Light
Lambchop - What Another Man Spills
Mojave 3 - Out of Tune
Willard Grant Conspiracy - Flying Low
Buffalo Tom - Smitten
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Airplane Over the Sea
Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F# A# (Infinity)
Tortoise - TNT
Silver Jews - American Water
Seafood - Messenger in the Camp
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Monkey Mafia - Shoot the Boss
Adam Freeland - Coastal Breaks, Vol. 2
Freestylers - We Rock Hard
Hardfloor - All Targets Down

Mercury Rev - "Goddess on a Hiway"
Grandaddy - "Summer Here Kids"
Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"
The Crystal Method - "Keep Hope Alive"
Skeewiff - Absent Without Leave EP
Wide Receiver - "Breakbeat Sushi"
Freq Nasty - "Freqazoid"
Surreal Madrid - "Girls of the Night"
Deejay Punk-Roc - "My Beatbox"
Mucho Macho - "Rap Is Really Changing"
Germinating Seeds of Doda - "Upside Din"
Ceasefire vs. Deadly Avenger - "Evel Knievel"
Ils - "About That Time"
Krafty Kuts - Funky Elements
Beber - "Chief Rocka"

Jason Lymangrover
A Tribe Called Quest – The Love Movement
Air – Moon Safari
At the Drive-In – In/Casino/Out
Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty
Beck – Mutations
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Brand Nubian - Foundation
Cornelius – Fantasma
Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Make-Up – In Mass Mind
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
OutKast - Aquemini
Pinback – Pinback
Radiohead – Airbag/How Am I Driving?
Soul Coughing - El Oso
Tortoise – TNT
UNKLE – Psyence Fiction
Wagon Christ - Tally Ho!