Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 1998 poll

we are already up to 1998, this summer has been fast.

This Is Hardcore

BoC

Car Wheels

BoC

― austinato (Austin), Wednesday, August 19, 2015 9:27 PM

+1

A notable lull between '97 and '99.

or i should say, this summer has been flying by.

My fave of these years if we're going by just these lists alone. All of these are like A-range great:

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
OutKast - Aquemini
Madonna - Ray of Light
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Belle and Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Hole - Celebrity Skin

...and I may finally be coming around a bit on Miseduaction after all this time too!

lauren hill
aquemini
beta band

Mutations.

AQUEMINI

^^^^^^^^

Huh. Very possibly TNT.

This year was dud as fuck.

No it wasn't.

But if anyone thinks this list actually represents "the best of '98" they're out of their minds.

This year was dud as fuck.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, August 20, 2015 6:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

If I had to pick a least favourite year of the '90s for music, 1998 would be my immediate answer.

I suppose I agree but as far as "the worst year of the decade" goes it was still pretty good (compared to the worst year from other decades). Fugazi, Cardigans & Hum released their best albums this year. And hundreds of great singles that aren't represented in the OP.

Refused

Wait, there's a person who thinks End Hits is the best Fugazi album?

I'd been casually buying old records for a few years before 1998, but looking at this list reminds me of why I began doing it in earnest right around then. 1998, 99 and 2000 are all kind of blur to me re: new music at the time because I had my head buried pretty deeply in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Whenever I'd come up for air, people would be talking about fucking Neutral Milk Hotel and I'd back away slowly and go put on some William Bell or The Troggs or something.

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

Gotta be Mezzanine. I'm hoping Geogaddi will show up in 2002 so I can give BoC some love.

May have been a dud year, but there sure was a LOT of great albums:
Air - Moon Safari
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
OutKast - Aquemini
Madonna - Ray of Light
Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 - Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert

Voting Madonna, perfect late 90s album, great sound, coherence, emotion. Air/Dylan a close 2nd/3rd.

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

and that's leaving off the Ulver William Blake album (which is worth a listen despite being absurdly cumbersome)

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Gorky 5 <<<their first great album imo

uh.... nope

Gorky 5 was the drop-off, IMO, so obviously I disagree.

Bwyd Time and Barafundle are brilliant compared to Gorky5 - that album is patchy as heck.

much better pastoral folk band than scuzzy britpop band imo

xpost:

Truth be told, I don't actually mind Gorky 5 and think it's got some good songs on it, but for me it doesn't come anywhere near Patio, Tatay, Bwyd Time and Barafundle.

Almost voted for Godspeed though I think that particular album's kind of dull. Luckily I saw Mark Hollis. Would have voted for Six if it was there though in hindsight it's overproduced to fuck.

"CAAAAAAATCHING SIIIIIGNAAAAAAAAALS THAT SOOOOOOUND IN THEEEEEEEE DAAAAAAAAARK!"

*nails-on-chalkboard.gif*

oi, barafundle is not britpop you slanderous wretch

Looking at my iPod there is a ton of strong 1998 rock records not here:

Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
Myracle Brah - Life On Planet Eartsnop
Liz Phair - whitechocolatespaceegg
Sarge - The Glass Intact
The Glands - Double Thriller
Rancid - Life Won't Wait
Quasi - Featuring "Birds"
Pearl Jam - Yield
Local H - Pack Up The Cats
Nada Surf - The Proximity Effect
Johnny Cash - American 2
Drive-By Truckers - Gangstabilly
Cadallaca - Introducing Cadallaca
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me

oi, barafundle is not britpop you slanderous wretch

― feargal czukay (NickB), Thursday, August 20, 2015 3:47 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM, and neither are the three that came before it!

oi, barafundle is not britpop you slanderous wretch

― feargal czukay (NickB), Thursday, August 20, 2015 4:47 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ I'm actually really surprised by imago's take on this. Have you heard these albums? They're totally in your wheelhouse. Bwyd Time isn't exactly a million steps removed from a sort of folkier version of Cardiacs

manu chao's "clandestino" is superb, one of my favorite albums ever and is very important to me, too bad though that he never did anything else even close to the same universe as that one though. it has my vote.

aquemini is outstanding, my favorite outkast album

miseducation is amazing

i'm not really a belle and sebastian fan but "arab strap" is their best album imo

i don't really care about NMH, i enjoyed that album in college a lot but i don't have much use for it anymore
i like BoC but i think are totally overrated in general, i had all their albums but eventually sold off every one except that "in a beautiful place" EP. they are great at ambiance and mood but their beats are corny and wack imo

that dylan bootleg series is all-time but i don't think it really counts as a "1998" album

QOTSA and all associated acts are the most boring garbage to me

is that the godspeed with "dead flag blues"? if so that is a good album

Wait, there's a person who thinks End Hits is the best Fugazi album?

me

I've sort of skim-listened both Bwyd Time and Barafundle - they've both got cool moments but it doesn't quite come together until later for me - perhaps I should give both albums another go.

Trust you all to take the corniest thing off my amazing list and make a big deal out of it. Pfah!

That Air album came out of nowhere and was massive that year. I'm sure I dismissed it at the time for being "coffee table music" or "yuppie sex music". I like it now though. That Massive Attack album might be their best. I remember smoking weed for the first time around Xmas 98 and I listened to 'Risingson' and I felt like I was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I'll go for 'Deserters Songs" tho. It lacks the wildness the made early MR so great but it's a beautiful album for various different reasons.

I've sort of skim-listened both Bwyd Time and Barafundle - they've both got cool moments but it doesn't quite come together until later for me - perhaps I should give both albums another go.

― Yul Brynner playing table tennis with a deviled kidney (imago), Thursday, August 20, 2015 4:10 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You should give Patio and Tatay a go.

I think I'm in the minority here but I think 10,000hz the legend is Air's best album. so proggy compared to moon safari, which is a nice chill record but also sounds a bit 'brie' in places

I'm with you on that one tbf

10,000hz Legend is great. I like a lot of Moon Safari but have never fully connected with it. I looooooove Premiers Symptômes, though.

Talkie Walkie is the only Air album I ever have any desire to hear.

aw, it's nice enough but it's only got like 2 or 3 songs i'd call classics (cherry blossom girl is *extremely* classic, though, i'll grant, alpha beta gaga great too)

btw heads up, i've looked at the '99 list and hoo boy i'm gonna have a list of like not exaggerating 30+ albums i'd genuinely prefer to virtually all of them. get stoked ilm

I mean, compared to '99, this year's list is really, really solid & a good selection that represents its year well. Might even vote in this one! But yeah, '99 is a year of genuinely insane riches - I won't be doing any list of my own choices from 2000 onwards because it just felt like music exploded in 1999 and after that there was too much to keep track of, or something

Since Rhythm-al-ism isn't on the list I'll go w Aquemini.

PJ Harvery > Boards of Canada > Massive Attack > Air

Erm....Harvery?

harvey made you think harvester which made you think carvery imo

For albums that made me reconsider what music could be, this poll is between Refused, Beck and GY!BE.

(Remember I was 16 at the time.)

this list needs more Green Pajamas

and Push Kings

oh shit, super ae was this year? would have voted for that in a heartbeat

have boredoms been represented in any of these polls? some days when i feel like they basically won the 90s

they will show up next year.

I'll be interested in the '99 poll cos in my head that's an extremely weak year.

I was exaggerating when I said I'd have thirty '99 faves to prefer to the AM list. But there are about ten unbelievable highs which aren't even on the longlist

I'm going to probably vote in this one, validating everything that's wrong with ILM. But for what? Plenty suggests itself.

Good shout on 6x7, imago.

1999 is a funny one; looking at the AM list there are a handful I liked a lot at the time but don't revisit now (Flips, Sigur Ros, Death In Vegas, Kelis), some I passed over and have since rediscovered (Mos Def, Underworld, Low), a couple of weird outliers (Make-Up, Jim O'Rourke), and a few I still really, really like (SFA, Boredoms, D Plan, Orbital). I feel like there's quite a few things out of my peripheral vision though, that I can't quite recall, or which I don't associate with being from 1999.

Bwyd Time and Barafundle are brilliant compared to Gorky5 - that album is patchy as heck.

OTM! And the singles around that time... there's a couple of collections ("20" and "Introducing") and they have p. similar tracklistings but are great

(my copy of "Introducing" mysteriously appears to end halfway through a track but perhaps it is supposed to?)

Anyway I guess I'm voting for BoC above TNT, 3 EPs, Aquemini. Might have voted for Zauberberg or the Notwist's "Shrink" (sort of my at-the-time pick, though I didn't hear it until '99) if present. Glad imago reminded me of Quickspace and Ganger. I suppose for me this was a year not of mindblowing revelations but a lot of understated signposts down interesting paths

TBF Gorky 5 redeems itself with 'Hush the Warmth' which is my favourite song by them and the song that got me into them.

I know Smashing Pumpkins' Adore is divisive but if you whittled it down to like ten songs it's great. For Martha, Once Upon a Time, Blank Page are gems.

it is good. like you say, could do with a trim around the ears but still got some great moments.

Pulp over NMH/Elvis Costello/Outkast/Lauryn/Elliott Smith/R.E.M./etc.

NMH for me. I go through phases with this album, but it's sounding really great right now.

it's an album's album, whatever that means

Voted for Lauryn Hill. I seem to love that record more and more as the years go by.

Finalists:

Outkast
Hole
PJ Harvey
Pulp
Bragg-Wilco

The Lucinda Williams and Lauryn Hill albums have to my ears the same number of dud songs. I like'em though.

Mark Hollis

Ray of Light in 2nd place

Would vote for Super Roots 7 in a hot second over everything though.

Loved Gastr's Mirror Repair, Crookt Crackt or Fly, Upgrade & Afterlife and The Harp Factory on Lake Street but man I HATED Camofleur bitterly

Fuck an NMH

Why does Cameron Diaz's hair stick up like that? 90s thing?

That's the something about Mary. Her hair sticks up.

Ummmmm, you should probably just watch the movie, andrew.

Loved Gastr's Mirror Repair, Crookt Crackt or Fly, Upgrade & Afterlife and The Harp Factory on Lake Street but man I HATED Camofleur bitterly

I guess I get this, inasmuch as Camoufleur is occasionally pretty and tuneful? Which is not a dig on the earlier, noiser, more experimental and atonal stuff, which I also love.

This is absolutely In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. This Is Hardcore and Mutations would be my next two.

BoC just over NMH

Have repped for a lot of these at one point or another, but none of them that I'd still say are just all-time super-classics except maybe Aeroplane. Voting Mutations, of which I'm the fondest. Just sounds good. Fun to sing along to, probably his most consistent record.

Why does Cameron Diaz's hair stick up like that? 90s thing?

Ummmmm, you should probably just watch the movie, andrew.

lol, something about male body fluids...

Voted NMH but my two favourite albums of '98 aren't on the list - Fugazi's End Hits and Sunny Day Real Estate's How It Feels to Be Something On.

Ooooh, good call on the SDRE record, one of my all time favs.

Acclaimed Music is updater their site today, glad there is only one year left but the change seems to be minor. he has added Genres and the list is moving around a bit on the Albums side.

Songs of the 1990's will start around Halloween, would be great if there is no update to Songs by then.

xp The Argument is actually my favorite Fugazi record, but I know a handful of people who love EndHits the best.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Aquemini without looking at the other options

(But shoutouts to Elliott Smith & QOTSA) (also A Thousand Leaves, Accelerator, Super Roots 7, Adore, Rhythm-a-lisms, How It Feels to Be Something On, they all deserved to be on here)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/moonrockmambo/jewlietattoo.jpg

In an Aeroplane... is the most wretchedly awful record I try to listen to every time I see all the love for it. I think I've never made it past the first two tracks so it might get better afterwards but I somehow doubt it.

It might help if you know going in that 'King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3' is sung from the perspective of a frustrated boyfriend on the phone with his girlfriend: "I love you! Jesus christ!...Jesus christ...I. Love. You... Yes. I do. (heavy sigh)'

yeah it's a good album but the combo of really agressively strummed guitar + dude trying to sing as LOUDLY AS HE CAN (without yelling) is a real turn off

It took a full listen for me to warm up to it again this time. Now I'm on like my eighth listen in the last couple days. *cough*

I'm not sure if it gets better in later tracks, but the middle stretch is where the lyrics get particularly obsessive and sad.

i wasn't drawn to ITAOTS the first time i heard it. i think i was expecting some OTC-style psychedelic whimsy and all i got was a guy strumming acoustic way too hard and singing in this really off-putting voice. but after a bit of perseverance i found there was a lot more to it than that. i'm a big fan of some of the instrumentation on the album - those whistles and woodwinds are very evocative and it's got an enjoyable steam-goth storyline with some very unusual imagery going through it.

It might help if you know going in that 'King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3' is sung from the perspective of a frustrated boyfriend on the phone with his girlfriend: "I love you! Jesus christ!...Jesus christ...I. Love. You... Yes. I do. (heavy sigh)'

― One Wittle Wee-Wee (Old Lunch), Monday, 24 August 2015 14:54 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ugh.

I think I just have to accept it's really not for me and I'll always find the acclaim baffling.

That was a joke, btw.

Sorry, couldn't tell.

phew, i was a bit worried that was what it was supposed to be.

It's not for everyone. And I think the most baffling thing is how the conversation around it seems to be that it should be for everyone. That it's this whimsical nice indie-record about loss and outsiders like Anne Frank and Two-Headed Boys. It's not. It's deranged noisy shouting about the holocaust...

I hated it at first but somehow grew to really love it. I think it was that the melody of "Two-Headed Boy" kept sticking in my head even though I hated Mangum's voice originally and I'd go back to listen to it despite his voice. I think I started to appreciate his voice better when someone pointed out that he generally managed to keep his pitch pretty accurate no matter how loud and strained he got in his upper register or how long he held some of those notes.

In an Aeroplane... is the most wretchedly awful record I try to listen to every time I see all the love for it. I think I've never made it past the first two tracks so it might get better afterwards but I somehow doubt it.

― Hamsters of Misfortune (ultros ultros-ghali), Monday, August 24, 2015 1:46 PM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've heard it in full a couple of times and, truth be told, I don't see what all the fuss is about. It strikes me as being one of those hipster totems that people put on a pedestal to such a ridiculous degree and froth at the mouth over, yet whenever I hear it it's like "really, folks? this is what you're getting in a lather about?"

I still haven't voted, but that's because I'm torn between The Three EPs and Mutations. Go with the latter as the former isn't really an album…nah, go with the former as it's really & truly incredible

I DON'T KNOW

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

LOL hipsters.

was not expecting a landslide, wow.

haha negative campaigning always backfires in ilm polls

I was pretty much expecting a landslide. Whattayagonnado.

Glad to see there are four other people on the TNT train!

Only 2 for Pulp is a bit surprising. I figured that was a contender.

Jeez people really like this garbage don't they

voted Mutations in the end (his best imo) but if I'd voted T3EPs they'd have both gotten the saaaaame. aw

my feelings on NMH are that hey it's ok, the second half is actually kinda great (well, Ghost->Untitled is, the whole album shd have been like that) but i will never rly choose to hear it

Wow, I have never heard that NMH album. Maybe I should.

Wah way lower showing for MA than I would've guessed.

I can't get through the first song of NMH, it's quite antithetical to my taste in music.

I was thinking the same thing about Massive Attack. I definitely expected it to be in the top five.

I am listening to In the Aeroplane for the first time right now. Holy shit this guy's voice is annoying.

That's kinda the essential "first listen" experience with that album. I remember really raising my friends' hackles by just dismissing it out of hand, on that basis, from like sophomore year of college through graduation or something. Then suddenly it clicked. It never became a deep album at the core of my heart, and I never sat down and listened to it as a Concept Album (like, paying attention to and processing all the Holocaust material) but I think it's really solid and it's amazing how often "King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1" gets stuck in my head now. It's really sad and honest in remembering and honoring the beautiful moments of youthful intimacy right in the thick of wretched circumstances.

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.

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