ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1998
compiled from the critics' choices in the following publications: Uncut, Q, Select, Mojo, Melody Maker, the NME, The Face and Time Out
1
Moon Safari
Air
2
Deserter's Songs
Mercury Rev
3
Mezzanine
Massive Attack
4
This Is Hardcore
Pulp
5
Hello Nasty
The Beastie Boys
6
Bring It On
Gomez
7
The Boy With The Arab Strap
Belle & Sebastian
8
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
9
Mutations
Beck
10
The Three EPs
The Beta Band
11
This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
Manic Street Preachers
12
You've Come A Long Way, Baby
Fatboy Slim
13
International Velvet
Catatonia
14
Jurassic 5
Jurassic 5
15
Push The Button
Money Mark
16
Up
REM
17
The Royal Albert Hall Concert
Bob Dylan
18
The Good Will Out
Embrace
19
Ray Of Light
Madonna
20
Nu-Clear Sounds
Ash
21
Good Morning Spider
Sparklehorse
22
England Made Me
Black Box Recorder
23
Either/Or
Elliott Smith
24
Version 2.0
Garbage
25
Without You I'm Nothing
Placebo
26
XO
Elliott Smith
27
Sketches For My Sweetheart, The Drunk
Jeff Buckley
28
Painted From Memory
Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach
29
Psyence Fiction
UNKLE
30
Adore
Smashing Pumpkins
NOTES:
If these charts had been produced every year since the invention of the gramophone record, it's my guess that this would still have been the first ever occasion on which it was topped by a French act. Not only that, but it was actually the right choice for once. Almost as impressive was Elliott Smith's achievement in getting two albums in there.
Bubbling just under the top 30 were Fun Loving Criminals, Lucinda Williams, Eels and Mansun (again). Also there or thereabouts were former favourites Afghan Whigs (#37), Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (#38), Divine Comedy (#52), Hole (#53) and The Boo Radleys (#57).
Most bizarre of all, PJ Harvey's Is This Desire - flawed, but still fine - failed to make even the top 100.
Oasis and Spiritualized had proper excuses for missing out, since their releases were a b-sides compilation and a live album respectively.
