Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 1998 poll

I love Frozen, but I hate the title track of Ray of Light so much.

i prefer "dud years" because "dud years" are more interesting. power vacuums enable the weirdos, which is good as long as you're talking about art.

I lovelovelove The 3 EP's. Mainly the lazy way it flows. I mean, the music is adventurous and great, but what's unique for me is the tripartite structure and sense of the album being a journey into the monolith and back to some sort of reality again.

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come is my choice. Such a seminal album, I remember being floored by it when a friend took it over to my then- hardcore bands' practice room. We didn't rehearse that evening. We just sat around our boombox listening to it over and over. Saw Refused live that summer twice, right before they were planning to go the USA and split up. They were raging. I sincerely thought it was the best hardcore band ever (for us Euro kids Refused was quite a big deal).

3EPs is great but it makes me feel a bit nauseous sometimes. Monolith is one of those great lost 90s epics.

This isn't actually as bad a year as I remember. Plenty to choose from. Gonna vote Hello Nasty. I don't listen to it any more, but it felt so momentous at the time and I still see it as a flagship album for the year. To me, it spearheaded that renewed interest in eighties ephemera that would come to epitomise the coming decade, but taking it from a golden age of hip hop POV rather than electro.

although I could easily vote for Air, NMH, Mercury Rev, BOC, Outkast, Beta Band, Elliott Smith, REM and others.

New year, same drill. I'll post a personalised addendum in a bit. For me, this was a better year than 1997, I think, and even this list has quite a bit of stuff I still love, although billstevejim is quite correct above

my write-in vote is LP5 by Autechre.

I was all over Gastre Del Sol's Camofleur in 1998, but would probably vote for Gas's Zauberberg in hindsight

Gastr

Never heard -- or heard of -- lots of these. Wasn't Adore 1998?

― Sam Weller, Thursday, August 20, 2015 10:23 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huh, i'd have thought that'd be in there.

never knowingly heard Gastr del Sol but whenever I hear the name, I just think 'trapped wind'

Lucinda, though I probably listen to Moon Safari more.
Has anyone actually heard the Costello? Thoughts?

I imagine it's like this = awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK2ABpZ4F3s

I was all over Gastre Del Sol's Camofleur in 1998, but would probably vote for Gas's Zauberberg in hindsight

― feargal czukay (NickB), Thursday, August 20, 2015 6:16 AM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I think I prefer Camoufleur to anything on this list. But I prefer Royal Trux - Accelerator to anything else that was released in '98. By like a country mile.

Oh, wait, christ...how is Moon Pix not in this list?!

Massive Attack, Boards Of Canada, Outkast, The Beta Band, Beastie Boys, PJ Harvey, and Mark Hollis are the only ones I care about. Maybe Air on a lazy day.

That Neutral Milk Hotel album will never not be horrific wailing to me.

It will never not be horrific either.

I don't know how long it's going to take for everyone to acknowledge that the first NMH album is the better NMH album. But it'll happen eventually. I can feel it.

I want to know how I was able to go almost twenty years without ever laying eyes on this amazingly incongruent cover art:

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/506/MI0001506241.jpg

1998 does feel like a weak year to me. As did 2008. I don't like the idea of 'weak' years - I suspect it means you weren't trying hard enough as a listener - but the fact that there seems to be a general consensus that they were weak is intriguing. Ontologically, how and why would this happen, both as a perception of lack of quality records and/or as an actual lack of quality (were it quantifiable)?

That NMH is indeed an acquired taste! The list has my #1, but my #2 is Arto Lindsay - Noon Chill. I guess a lost classic now? Or was it never found? See also Boredoms, Tom Zé, Cornelius. Cool to see the Mark Hollis in there. Didn't expect to see 'em that high but there's other rock beyond QOTSA - Turbonegro, Motorpsycho, Solstice, Blind Guardian, Afghan Whigs. I suddenly have the urge to listen to Long Fin Killie!

I'd say 1998 was solid, not weak. Just not as many career peaks from certain artists as other years.

Just looking down this list and it's a pretty stellar year for me: GY!BE, BoC, Beta Band, Hollis, the Necks, Gastr Del Sol, Tortoise, the Rev, Gas, Gang Starr, Cat Power, B&S, Dirty Three, Sparklehorse, Plastikman, Sophia, Bang on a Can/Eno...

I'd probably go with the GY!BE from this list, though the Dylan bootleg is the obvious standout.

Best albums not featured here:

Royal Trux - Accelerator
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Gastr Del Sol - Camoufleur
Oval - Dok
Spinanes - Arches and Aisles
Solex - Solex Vs. The Hitmeister
Spoon - A Series Of Sneaks
Sugar Plant - Happy
800 Cherries - Romantico
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Luxury
Jeff Buckley - Sketches From My Sweetheart The Drunk

...and Goldie - Saturnz Return which, yes, I do actually like and which, yes, I do realize invalidates my opinion on everything else I listed so get off my case already jeez.

This has me listening to Mansun's Six at the moment. I doubt if I like any other rock from 1998 as much.

Load of pretentious nonsense by a load of artless Britpop wannabes

(it's my album of the year too, it or Super Ae)

Numbnuts edit: I meant this list: http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1998/1

Soul Coughing - El Oso

If we count Super Roots 7 as an album, mind you, then sheesh. Almost any year would be decided by that one

Aquemini in the easiest vote so far

TNT is a very important record to me

As meh as this year was for albums, at least the most-acclaimed single of the year was one for the ages.

http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/Current/1998s.htm

Mezzanine in a walk. My God what an amazing album.

That Neutral Milk Hotel album will never not be horrific wailing to me.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, August 20, 2015 12:38 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It will never not be horrific either.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, August 20, 2015 12:40 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

all of these are fantastic and I could vote for any one of them:

1 119 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
5 326 Massive Attack - Mezzanine
7 435 Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
8 449 OutKast - Aquemini
9 453 Madonna - Ray of Light
10 475 Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby
15 881 The Beta Band - The Three EP's

These are very good:

13 794 Pulp - This Is Hardcore
24 1531 PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
30 1838 Hole - Celebrity Skin
32 2049 Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

I think the NMH album is good, and I'm allergic to abrasively-strummed acoustic guitar and nasal caterwauling.

I went with XO even though I think it's the weakest out of either/or though Figure 8.

Is this desire is possibly my favourite album of all time (top three on any given day anyway), but I wish I could vote for Madonna too.

As a cohesive album that I find really moving, the NMH hits the mark for me. That being said, I can see how many people would find it unlistenable. I voted for it...

Yeah same as Sam.

i can see that too, although i don't get the how it's 'entry level alternative/indie', which is the complaint i often hear about it.

The complaint I make about it is that it's fucking horrific nails-down-chalkboard screaching and banging.

Having never heard them before (and only being tangentially aware of them because of a Raygun article on Elephant 6), I saw NMH open for Superchunk in '97 or '98, and it's still one of the most amazing live performances I've ever seen. That said, the albums (Aeroplane in particular) are a pale shadow of the live show, and in terms of E6 albums NMH's are lower-tier for me.

"EYEEEEE LOVEEEE YOUUUUU JESUUUUS CHA-RIIIIiiIIIiiIiiiIIiiIIiIIiIIIiIIiiiIiiIIiiIIiIIST! JEEEEEESUS CHRIIIIIST EYEEEEEE LOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOU YEAAAAYSSS EYEEEEEEE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooDOOOOOOOOOOO!"

*guy-with-hands-over-his-ears.jpg*

that's like, 20 seconds of the whole thing.

"KEN LEEEEEEEEE! TULIBU-DIBU-DOUCHOOO!"

No, wait, that's a different track... easy to get mixed up, though.

so like,

Mansun - Six <<<fuck you alllllll
Boredoms - Super Ae / Super Roots 7
Earl Brutus - Tonight, You Are The Special One
Hood - Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys
Quickspace - Precious Falling
Dälek - Negro Necro Nekros <<<hip-hop taken to new levels iirc
Half Man Half Biscuit - Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Gorky 5 <<<their first great album imo
Gorguts - Obscura
Ganger - Hammock Style
Autechre - LP5 <<<not my favourite of theirs but it's still great
Six By Seven - The Things We Make
Shellac - Terraform

xp I get those opening 'Chang Chang Chang chakachaka Chang Chang' chords stuck in my head all the time

I just realized that Zeek Sheck's Good Luck, Suckers was a 1998 release. Maybe not my top pick but way up there.

for me it is The Boo Radleys Kingsize that is my favorite release from the year.

btw, 1999 won't be coming tonight as i'm taking the week off. it will come out in a weeks time.

sad to see only one other vote for Hello Nasty. That was such an important album for me and my friends. We'd only discovered how amazing the Beastie Boys were the year before and we were so psyched for it. Bought it the day it came out and just rinsed it to death. It's a really fun album - some days my favourite by them.

The Beasties were really fun...I miss 'em. One of a kind.

I don't honestly know how much time I would've given Aeroplane if NMH hadn't previously accrued massive goodwill from me for their amazing live show. But NMH were my gateway into Elephant 6, which yielded a lot of my favorite music from the late '90s, so they'll always be swell on that tip.

― Herbie Mann's Push Push Pops (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 25 August 2015 16:06 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like Olivia Tremor Control a hell of a lot. By comparison, NMH always sounded painfully ordinary to me and nothing particularly special... just painfully ordinary music with a woeful singer.

Had my 1998 playlist on random - Royal Trux, Swervedriver, The Black Heart Procession, Unwound, Yungchen Lhamo, The Loud Family, Rachid Taha, Eels, Fugazi, Northwinds, Sunny Day Real Estate, Zeke, Ui, Hector Zazou, Leila, Sixteen Horsepower, Plush, Sloan, Baaba Maal, King Sunny Ade, Talvin Singh, Pere Ubu, Amon Tobin, Monster Magnet, Rocket from the Crypt, Mark Lanegan, Spoon, Colour Haze, The Daktaris, Shellac, Calexico, The Handsome Family, Orange Goblin. More fun hearing a lot of this for the first time in years than listening to the top ten poll winners!

Arto Lindsay covering Prince (it's from the previous year's album Mundo Civilizado, but Noon Chill is just as great): https://youtu.be/tVRze5vJxD8

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 19
This was a shit album. Polls = hell. People are better off not knowing what the hive mind thinks (and if you have the hive mind I envy and pity you). I blame pitchfork for encouraging this behavior

FFS, that message was supposed to be merely a precursor to a post I had about Arto Lindsay but I can't find the youtube I was looking for.
All hail Arto!

I'm now imagining an actual hive filled with the buzzing of hipsters.

is one of the bees crying in the corner

I don't think NMH winning is anything to do with people following each other but due to their awful taste.

Darn would have voted either Mark Hollis or Calexico. Poor Calexico...

xpost:

Possibly both?

it really only makes sense that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea walked in this poll. not for everyone, agreed but always laugh when people go to great lengths to criticize it and put people down who love it. for me, it's one of the best albums if not the best album from the 90's. albums like this has people putting album art on their bodies, not many albums can say that.

drunk so = fuck off haters!

http://c0.thejournal.ie/media/2013/01/tatt3-319x500.jpg

(I love No Jacket Required though)

lol

you have a point.

Looks like Darth Maul has fallen on hard times.

catching up on this thread and kinda bummed that a handful of dismissive anonymous internet dudes with much better taste in music than me have successfully overthrown my 17+ years of loving Aeroplane :(

I cannot get into Aeroplane as an album much at all but I cant be too mad it walked because "Holland 1945" is still one of my all-time favorite songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAygQls6UNo