In an effort to make myself focus on music other than what Spotify tosses me every Friday in "Release Radar" (which is reliably great), I thought I'd pick a year and revisit my favorite albums, as well as what the critics thought were the highlights.
I decided to start with 1998. Which was twenty years ago. Wow.
I bought about 50 CDs that year, near as I can tell now. My favorite albums:
- Kruder & Dorfmeister, The K&D Sessions (not available on streaming services, but you can hear pieces on Bandcamp and a few tracks on this Spotify playlist)
- Cat Power, Moon Pix (the best thing she's ever done, IMHO)
- Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (she was 45 when this came out)
- Elliott Smith, XO (musically happy, lyrically so depressed)
- Amina Alaoui, Alcantara (you missed this Moroccan singing Andalusian classical music?)
- Tori Amos, From the Choirgirl Hotel (the last truly great Tori Amos album)
- Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions (just because she sold millions and won scads of Grammys doesn't mean she's bad!)
All of those were on my list back in 1998, except for K&D Sessions, which was more of an honorable mention in the electronica category. I now amend that and put them at the top of the list.
Albums I didn't buy, but in retrospect should have bought, in 1998:
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Beastie Boys, Hello Nasty
Boards of Canada, Music has the Right to Children
Albums that critics think I should have bought in 1998, but I'm still not buying:
Massive Attack, Mezzanine
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Belle and Sebastian, The Boy with the Arab Strap
Outkast, Aquemini
Best album title: The Propellerheads, decksanddrumsandrockandroll
What else was going on musically in 1998:
Electronica: "Trip hop" was petering out. "Big Beat" was dominating dance floors. The critics pick was Massive Attack, Mezzanine. The public's choice was Fatboy Slim's You've Come a Long Way Baby. Debut albums from Cornelius, Air, Boards of Canada. But none of those held my attention then like Kruder & Dorfmeister did with The K&D Sessions. This stoned out album of groove-driven remixes was among the first electronica albums I ever purchased, after reading a staff recommendation card at a store in Seattle. I still love it, and I just caught them here in SF for a 25th anniversary DJ set. Gateway drug, for sure.
Singer-songwriters: Lucinda Williams' remarkable Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was an easy choice for me, and a consensus favorite among critics that year, too (see Pitchfork's retrospective review this year). And I will also defend Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions. Seems to me she gets a bad rap, probably because she was such a monster mainstream success and busy winning Grammy Awards through the 90s. Other albums I bought that year included Patty Griffin's Flaming Red, ani difranco's Little Plastic Castle, Richard Buckner's Since, Cry Cry Cry's eponymous album, Gillian Welch's Hell Among the Yearlings, Natalie Merchant's Ophelia, and Bonnie Raitt's Fundamental.
Indie: So the biggest oversight of my 1998 was probably Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which is kind of an indie rock station of the cross now. Revisiting it, I like it, impressed by his unbelievable confidence and sincerity, while sounding like a marching band on acid. But the winners for me (and for many critics, as well) were Elliott Smith and Cat Power, who released perhaps their strongest albums in 1998. I also bought, and still appreciate, Pedro the Lion's It's Hard to Find a Friend, Gomez's Mercury Prize-winning debut Bring It On, MaryLou Lord's Got No Shadow, Beck's Mutations, PJ Harvey's Is This Desire?, and Pan American's eponymous debut.
Other stuff: Willie Nelson released Teatro, his Daniel Lanois-produced album. And The Donna's released their label debut, American Teenage Rock'n'Roll Machine (though I didn't discover it until years later).
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