Top 50 Albums of 1998:

1. The Boredoms - Super Ae
2. Big Punisher - Capital Punishment
3. Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
4. Amon Tobin - Permutation
5. Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright
6. Sixteen Horsepower - Low Estate
7. Mos Def And Talib Kweli - Mos Def And Talib Kweli Are Black Star
8. DJ Quik - Rhythm-al-ism
9. Pulp - This Is Hardcore
10. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
11. Busta Rhymes - E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front
12. Juvenile - 400 Degreez
13. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
14. Goodie Mob - Still Standing
15. System Of A Down - System Of A Down
16. Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach - Painted From Memory
17. DMX - It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot
18. Outkast - Aquemeni
19. La Lengua Asesina - Hotel Opera
20. E-40 - The Element Of Surprise
21. Soul Coughing - El Oso
22. 8Ball - Lost
23. 4Hero - Two Pages
24. R. Kelly - R.
25. Pearl Jam - Yield
26. Jay-Z - Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life
27. Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
28. Buffalo Daughter - New Rock
29. Los Amigos Invisibles - The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera
30. Cat Power - Moon Pix
31. The Posies - Success
32. Luaryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
33. Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos - The Prosthetic Cubans
34. Elliott Smith - XO
35. The LOX - Money, Power, Respect
36. R.E.M - Up
37. Sonic Youth - Silver Session (For Jason Knuth)
38. A Tribe Called Quest - The Love Movement
39. Fugazi - End Hits
40. Lee Ranaldo - Amarillo Ramp (for Robert Smithson)
41. Rocket From The Crypt - RFTC
42. Money Mark - Push The Button
43. Loren Mazzacane Connors - Evangeline
44. Two Dollar Guitar - Train Songs
45. Jeff Buckley - Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk
46. Scarnella - Scarnella
47. Ozomatli - Ozomatli
48. The Rock*A*Teens - Baby, A Little Rain Must Fall
49. UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
50. Sonic Youth/Jim O'Rourke - SYR3

While I was kind of conflicted about 1999 when I started this series a couple months ago, I feel much more viscerally enthusiastic and perhaps even nostalgic about 1998. I was 16 that year, and I started my first job and didn't have any real life expenses yet, so my CD buying habit probably hit its all-time high, which is why it was really easy to hit 50 albums for this year (and there are still albums I really like by Sloan, Tricky, the Nels Cline Trio, Squarepusher, Timbaland, Garbage, Grand Lee Buffalo and others that didn't quite make the cut).

Late 1998 was the first time I made a year-end list of my favorite albums (although for at least a couple years before that I'd made up my mind about what my album of the year was). I posted my top 10 on some of the newsgroups and AOL message boards that were my main outlet for talking about music at the time, when that hobby was in its infancy, and I wish I'd kept a copy, but of course it's long gone now.

That said, 1998 was a good year but not a great year for albums. A lot of stuff hasn't aged especially well, or even if it remains great feels somehow dated or of its time. A lot of great bands that defined the '90s were winding down around then and releasing their last or one of their last really good albums, but few of them really released their best album that year. It was also the height of my Sonic Youth obsession, and one of their most productive years, in terms of an album, some EPs and several side projects.

One thing memorable about 1998 is that September 29th was one of the biggest release date Tuesdays ever, especially for hip hop. The albums 7, 16, 18, 21, 26, 38 and 49 on this list were all released then, and my brother and I went to the store and bought several of them that day. I was reading Decoded recently and Jay-Z had this to say about September 29th and the year in general:

1998 was an important year for hip-hop. It was two years after Pac had been gunned down, and just a year after Biggie was killed. DMX dropped two number one albums that year. Outkast released Aquemini, a game-changing album lyrically and sonically, but also for what it meant to Southern rap. (Juvenile's 400 Degreez, also released in '98, was a major shot in the growing New Orleans movement. I jumped on a remix of his single "Ha," which was a great mix of regional styles.) Mos Def and Talib Kweli had their Black Star album, one of the definitive indie rap records of all time. The prototypical "backpack rappers," A Tribe Called Quest, released their last album, The Love Movement. And the biggest album of the year in any genre was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

It was a beautiful time all the way around in hip-hop. The album I released that year, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, was the biggest record of my life. The opening week was unreal for me--we did more than three hundred thousand units, by far the biggest opening number of my career at that point. The album moved Lauryn Hill down to number four, but Outkast's Aquemini was right behind me, and The Love Movement was number three. Those four albums together told the story of young black America from four dramatically different perspectives--we were bohemians and hustlers and revolutionaries and space-age Southern boys. We were funny and serious, spiritual and ambitious, lovers and gangsters, mothers and brothers. This was the full picture of our generation. Each of these albums was an innovative and honest work of art and wildly popular on the charts. Every kid in the country had at least one of these albums, and a lot of them had all four. The entire world was plugged into the stories that came out of the specific struggles and creative explosion of our generation. And that was just the tip of the iceberg of what was happening in hip-hop that year.



Top 100 Singles of 1998:

1. Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody?"
2. Juvenile - "Ha"
3. DMX - "Ruff Ryders Anthem"
4. 'N Sync - "Tearin' Up My Heart"
5. Busta Rhymes - "Gimme Some More"
6. N.O.R.E. - "Superthug"
7. Stardust - "Music Sounds Better with You"
8. Lauryn Hill - "Ex-Factor"
9. Wyclef Jean - "Gone Till November"
10. Next - "Too Close"
11. The Backstreet Boys - "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
12. Dru Hill - "How Deep Is Your Love"
13. Timbaland & Magoo - "Luv 2 Luv U (Remix)"
14. The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - "Blue On Black"
15. Jermaine Dupri f/ Jay-Z - "Money Ain't A Thang"
16. Robbie Williams - "Angels"
17. Monica - "The First Night"
18. Pras f/ Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard - "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)"
19. Big Punisher f/ Joe "Still Not a Player"
20. Mya f/ Silkk The Shocker - "Movin' On"
21. Missy Elliott f/ Magoo and 702 - "Beep Me 911"
22. Natalie Imbruglia - "Torn"
23. Pearl Jam - "Given To Fly"
24. Semisonic - "Closing Time"
25. Low Fidelity Allstars f/ Pigeonhed - "Battle Flag"
26. Metallica - "Fuel"
27. Sarah McLachlan - "Sweet Surrender"
28. Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
29. New Radicals - "You Get What You Give"
30. Puff Daddy f/ Busta Rhymes and the Notorious B.I.G. - "Victory"
31. Xzibit - "What U See Is What U Get"
32. Big L - "Ebonics"
33. Foo Fighters - "My Hero"
34. Three 6 Mafia - "Late Nite Tip"
35. DMX - "Get At Me Dog"
36. Jay-Z - "Hard Knock Life"
37. Silkk The Shocker f/ Mystikal - "It Ain't My Fault"
38. Gang Starr f/ Big Shug and Freddie Foxx - "The Militia"
39. Faith Evans - "Love Like This"
40. Fuel - "Shimmer"
41. Sheryl Crow - "My Favorite Mistake"
42. Rammstein - "Du Hast"
43. Janet Jackson - "I Get Lonely"
44. Harvey Danger - "Flagpole Sitta"
45. Big Punisher f/ Noreaga - "You Came Up"
46. Trick Daddy f/ Trina - "Nann"
47. Dave Matthews Band - "Stay (Wasting Time)"
48. Redman - "I'll Bee Dat"
49. Usher - "My Way"
50. Pearl Jam - "Do The Evolution"
51. Third Eye Blind - "Losing A Whole Year"
52. Garbage - "Special"
53. DMX - "How's It Goin' Down"
54. KoRn - "Got The Life"
55. Everclear - "Father of Mine"
56. Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz - "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)"
57. Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
58. Timbaland & Magoo - "Clock Strikes (Remix)"
59. Busta Rhymes - "Turn It Up (Remix)/Fire It Up"
60. The Black Eyed Peas - "Joints & Jam"
61. Ice Cube - "We Be Clubbin'"
62. Blink 182 - "Josie"
63. Jimmy Ray - "Are You Jimmy Ray?"
64. Jay-Z f/ Ja Rule and Amil - "Can I Get A..."
65. Will Smith - "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It"
66. Gang Starr - "You Know My Steez"
67. Beenie Man - "Who Am I"
68. Madonna - "Frozen"
69. Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"
70. Smashing Pumpkins - "Perfect"
71. Cam'ron f/ Ma$e - "Horse & Carriage"
72. The LOX f/ Lil Kim and DMX - "Money, Power & Respect"
73. Jennifer Paige - "Crush"
74. Destiny's Child f/ Wyclef Jean - "No, No, No (Part 2)"
75. Playa - "Cheers 2 U"
76. Destiny's Child - "No, No, No"
77. Puff Daddy f/ Ma$e and the Notorious B.I.G. - "Been Around The World"
78. Missy Elliott - "Hit Em Wit Da Hee"
79. Puff Daddy f/ Jimmy Page - "Come With Me"
80. Master P f/ Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X and Mystikal - "Make Em Say Uhh!"
81. Lenny Kravitz - "If You Can't Say No"
82. Big Punisher f/ Fat Joe - "Twinz (Deep Cover '98)"
83. Memphis Bleek f/ Jay-Z - "It's Alright"
84. DJ Quik f/ El Debarge and 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand"
85. Girls Against Boys - "Park Avenue"
86. Pearl Jam - "In Hiding"
87. Outkast - "Rosa Parks"
88. DMX - "Stop Bein Greedy"
89. Gang Starr f/ K-Ci & Jojo - "Royalty"
90. Ma$e f/ Total - "What You Want"
91. Brandy & Monica - "The Boy Is Mine"
92. Juvenile - "Follow Me Now"
93. Sarah McLachlan - "Adia"
94. The Cherry Poppin' Daddies - "Zoot Suit Riot"
95. Limp Bizkit - "Faith"
96. Timbaland f/ Jay-Z - "Lobster & Scrimp"
97. Outkast f/ Raekwon - "Skew It On The Bar-B"
98. Pearl Jam - "Wishlist"
99. Lauryn HIll - "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"
100. The Beastie Boys "Intergalactic"

Now, '98 was a really fucking awesome year for singles, that moment when Bad Boy was still riding high but Roc-A-Fella and Ruff Ryders were coming and making NY rap a little harder but still very commercial, and Cash Money was coming on strong, just a crazy charged year. That was a year when rock radio started to kinda suck, even more than it has in some recent years, but there was still some really good hard rock and alternapop here and there. In general, this is a year that seems way better if I look at it through these kind of selective rose-colored glasses.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 06, 2011 at 10:45 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.