1998

Maybe all that time it took me to get to 1997 paid off as I almost left off a big one for this year!  Kinda just another year, but some real classics at the top.  I guess this one typifies "90s indie rock" the best even though a lot of the big names are absent from it.  What a time to be alive!

10.  Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Buffalo's greatest band gets more focused and a bit more bright on this release.  While the psychedelia and song lengths are cut down a bit, the drama is as high as ever but in a more classic sense.  "Goddess on a Hiway" may be their best song of all with the group focusing their big arrangements into the cinematic masterpiece.  The classic rock in their sound  is channeled better than ever with guest spots from Garth Hudson and Levon Helm, with the former's sax further setting apart Grashopper's personal "Hudson Line."  A usual, it is dense symphonic psychedelic rock, incorporating lots of instruments no one wanted to touch in the 90s.

9.  Spoon - A Series of Sneaks
Lots of people consider Spoon's one major label record one of their best, but for some reason it has taken me a lifetime to really absorb it in the same way as others.  Either way it's another album from one of the best bands of their time, and a noble contribution to some clueless execs' attempt at breaking the "indie rock" to mainstream America.  Of course it would take two more albums on Merge to do that for this  band, but as always it is full of great songs from Britt Daniel and production from Jim Eno.  Spoon does know how to rock, especially to the expectations of 90s hipsters and songs like "Reservations" and "No You're Not" are perfect examples of the style, though their best years were stil ahead.

8.  The Gerbils - Are You Sleepy?
With half of this band playing on a certain other Elephant 6 record released earlier this year, this one is overlooked by most who are not supremely dedicated to the E6 way.  Too bad as it is one of the best.  While simpler, and poppier than most of their Athens peers, the Gerbils made a perfect piece of lo-fi which had it been released 6 years earlier would stand side by side with the likes of Sebadoh, Pavement, and even Guided by Voices.  Brassman Scott Spillane's songs have a childlike innocence that borders on twee, but as usual Jeremy Barnes' drumming keeps these songs loud and heavy enough to really rock out.  Like a sweet teenage fan these songs give tribute to other bands like in "Crayon Box," and they're pretty much all about girls in some way, making it a the perfect substitute for emo during that style's era for this guy.  Teenage heaven, E6-style.

7.  The Butthole Surfers - After the Astronaut
Does this count?  I will say so because it's too good not to include.  Unfortunately, the record company disagreed, changed  things around, and forced them to work with Kid Rock, leaving the Butthole Surfer's final album The Weird Revolution a fucking embarrassment.  The same songs such as the title track, "Jet Fighter," and "They Came In" sound incredible here and their usual themes of paranoia and bizarre American tragedy sound more sincere than in 2001.  Even their further exploration of hip-hop succeeds, but they also go back to their roots with "Junkie Jenny in Gaytown," being the new "Kuntz" and the sludge metal of "Turkey and Gravy" having that good old fashioned redneck rage.  Their fascination with sampling, that became King Coffey's primary interest is at its peak on "I Don't Have a Problem," and they get tragically spacey on "The Last Astronaut," still ending with a laugh.  The one unreleased album on the list deserves its place in not only the Surfer's discography but in all their fans.

6.  PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
After a long break Havery comes back sounding like the seductive witch of her pervious album has been worn down and dragged through hell.  Many dismissed this at the time when the battle between electronic and "real" music was at its hottest.  While this may not be her best record, one can hardly blame the fact that she lets the keys sound like keys.  It is far from a dance record, opening with the blues of "Angelene" featuring some of her most beautiful vocals, showing just how wide her range is and how far it still has left to go.  In fact, this album takes all the darkness of To Bring You My Love and cuts out the wink that album had out completely, leaving one to wonder if Harvey is in fact one of the tragic, damaged women she sings about.  Perhaps it was all that time with Nick Cave which damaged him so explicitly on his work from the same time.  As usual, Polly asks some of the heaviest questions, and finds no conclusion.  It's another heavy rocker with "The Sky Lit Up" and "Perfect Day Elise," but it wouldn't be a PJ Harvey album without "The River."

5.  The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Strung Out In Heaven
Maybe too clean for some fans' liking, the BJM's big attempt at bringing the revolution to the masses actually turned out to be one of their strongest albums.  The opener "Going to Hell," has always captured most of what I love about Anton Newcombe and his band, and though they sound pretty together it is them at their DiG! peak, with so many of those lovable characters playing on this record.  In fact, the song about love called "Love" is on here and is one of the best tracks.  It is the band's most concise album without any extended jams or rambles, just thirteen of the great tunes that the band never had any trouble creating.  Though it's hard to tell Newcombe was at his most strung out and Hollywood picks up, best with "Jennifer," and in the case of "Nothing To Lose," the spokesman himself - Joel Gion can provide all the rhythm you need with his cigarette and tambourine.  The loose folky psych that defines them is not completely thrown out in favor of typical indie rock sensibility with "Lantern" and "Wasting Away" in addition to the subtle organ that keeps the 60s foundation as strong as ever.  It may not have blown up like TVT hoped, but it forever stands apart form those who did hear it.

4.  Beck - Mutations
At the peak of his commercial success, Beck put out this album without any hit singles and managed to only attract the attention of those who could really give it.  This album shows the unique artist's ability to embrace endless influences and put them together in ways that make him so distinct even from himself.  Here he returns to folk with its acoustic guitars and harmonicas, but it is a far cry from the lo-fi hip-hop of Mellow Gold as the blues, psychedelia, and, naturally "Tropicalia" inform the sound of this record.  As the cover would indicate it is one of his most personal releases and the songs darkest track "Nobody's Fault But My Own" shows that his "Bottle of Blues," is not merely just another musical adventure.  For those who had only heard the hits, before and after Beck shows that he does not need funk to flourish and at heart he has more in common with Leonard Cohen than the Beastie Boys, even considering their more bohemian tendencies.  It can appear stripped-down, but in truth it is as lush as ever, with the orchestral subtlety Hansen learned from Master Serge Gainsbourg.

3.  Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap
Following a trio of excellent EPs, the Scottish music machine expands and makes their third masterpiece.  Their orchestral folk-pop is stretched into every direction with the strings taking more of a classical lead in the melody and both faster sounds and psychedelia enter the heavy highland stew more.  Still it opens in the usual crescendo ballad, though in the most concise fashion to date with "It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career."  The growing presence of other members goes a long way too with "Is It Wicked not To Care?," "Chickfactor," and the famous rock nerd tribute "Seymour Stein."  The heightened diversity makes this album an even more fun listen than the ones preceding, but the band does not fix what isn't broken and a lot of their old tricks are still the highlights like "Sleep the Clock Around" and the title track.  With this growth (including a longer track list) the legend of B&S comes into fruition, with the definitive trilogy being complete and showing that there was a lot more to look forward, even if expectations had to be lowered slightly.

2.  AIR- Moon Safari
Leave it to the French to change it all.  As the war between rock and electronica rages on the masterminds Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel alter everything.  They started with their voices, appearing as a crew of nymphomaniacs on lead single "Sexy Boy," and then smoothly take the satisfied listener to the moon with the opening instrumental "La Femme D'Argent."  Like Stereolab, they embrace the retro-cool vision of the future with their analogue synths and tasteful use of vocoder.  Still these songs are based not on electronics but on pure humanity and these grooves ooze with Continental sexuality, with and without guest vocalist Beth Hirsch.  It is ambient pop more than anything else, though with an alternating funk and poetic vision which comes together best on closing track "Le Voyge de Pénélope."  These two men put their brains together to create a sound uninhibited by any trends at the time and managed to cross into such close-minded markets as the US and UK.  Live the two played acoustic guitar and keyboards respectively and were supported by Beck's band - a far cry from two men standing at a table.  So French it's German, what more could you want, they knew themselves it was "A New Star In The Sky."

1.  Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
What else could it be, but this heartbreaking and frightening album composed in a Victorian home snowed in in mountains of Colorado.  Like Weezer's Pinkerton, it has a discomforting quality as Jeff Mangum's love for Anne Frank and lyrics like "semen stains the mountain tops," give a clearer look into a tortured psyche than most would care to find.  The song writing does enough to carry it all with Mangum keeping the arrangements simple on the likes of "Two-Headed Boy" and "Oh Comely," but the arrangements are what make this album hit so hard.  As the cover implies it is like a mirror universe of the turn of the century with the Scott Spillane's prominent brass and all of Julian Koster's contributions, most famously his singing saw.  Even then if the intense lyrics prove too much the instrumentals "The Fool" and "The Penny Arcade In California" prove the perfect intermission without losing any speed.  The album's constant changes between soft and quiet and loud and hard make it one of the most pummeling records ever released with "The King of Carrot Flowers, parts 2 and 3" compressing it into a single track.  With the leadership of producer Robert Schneider and the participation of Mangum girlfriend/Elf Power Laura Carter it is certainly one of the definitive E6 records and with its apocalyptic old timey themes as worthy companion piece to the Olivia Tremor Control's equally abstract grand concept.  The album causes speechlessness and changes lives.  Always for the better.