163. Counting Crows - Across A Wire: Live In New York (1998)




This is one of the oldest cd's in my collection. I bought this when it came out and still own it. Mostly anything else I bought prior to or around age thirteen, I ended up selling. (See: Prozzak, Amanda Marshall, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, etc.) But I never really felt ashamed to own Counting Crows albums like with some of my early teenage purchases or felt like I had outgrown them as with many of the others.

This would be the first live album I ever purchased and I had only seen maybe two or three concerts before this. Headstones, Junkhouse, and someone else. So it had a fairly big affect on my perception and understanding of music.

The way the band strips down nearly all their electric numbers for the VH1 Storytellers gig amazed me. How the songs came out so different, almost like they weren't the same songs at all. How 'Mr. Jones' starts off with 'So You Wanna Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star?' before morphing into their signature number. And so on.

Disc two, MTV Live From The 10 Spot, is a more traditional concert but still a decent one. Not as interesting, but good for a fan. Which I very much was. And still fairly am.

164. Elliott Smith - XO (1998)




I discovered Elliott Smith through The Royal Tenenbaums. I bought this album off the strength of 'Waltz #2 (XO)', 'Independence Day', and 'Bottle Up And Explode!' Since purchasing this, I have listened to it maybe three times.

I just don't love it as much as I thought I would. After everything I've read and everything I've heard and two of those three tracks up there, I thought for sure this would be one of my favorite albums ever. Instead, I just get bored by it. I find too much of it to be samey and indistinguishable and that's really disappointing.

I'll still eventually pick up his other albums. I already have songs off those ones that I love. But hopefully they're more interesting than this one.

Your completism is scary. I mean, I like Elliott Smith, but if you don't, why buy more?

But I do. I was just disappointed by this album. There are still a number of tracks on it I like. And I'm assuming this isn't his best one. So therefore, I'll look into his other ones eventually.

165. Hole - Celebrity Skin (1998)




This is Hole polished.

Everything from their image to their sound has been shined up nice and purdy and put on display. I remember thinking how hot Courtney was around this time as she dolled herself up.

The music itself is maybe a tad bit overdone. While it could have benefited from a little less gloss, I can understand their wanting to sound less grunge, in 1998. Most of the time, the songs themselves are strong enough to pull through. All the singles, in fact, are tremendous. 'Awful', 'Malibu', and 'Celebrity Skin' are classics as is the majority of this disc.

It's maybe a good thing they broke up after this one, though. If the evolution from riot grrl to grunge to alternative rock was continued on, Hole could've wound up writing garbage radio pop a la Liz Phair.

You've crash-tested it with your dick, I see.

166. PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (1998)




It seems really odd to me that this came out within months of the Counting Crows and Hole. I distinctly remember those when they came out and I was thirteen. This album, on the other hand, I didn't hear until last year for the first time and Polly Jean I didn't discover until a couple years ago.

This isn't my favorite PJ Harvey disc. This isn't really in my top three either. But this is still a really good album and it includes 'A Perfect Day Elise' which is maybe my favorite song by her.

It's just a testament to her that this album is so good and it's still not in my favorite three. Most other artists should be lucky to write something this great.

That was my first PJ Harvey album. I got it round the time it was released. It's not my favorite, either, but I like it more than anything she's done since.

Jeezub frick, Harley, I was 32 in 1998.

I recently was commenting how PJ Harvey was one of the few artists where I had an established favorite (To Bring You My Love) and it was eclipsed by a later album (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea). Usually future albums by artists you like never live up to or beat your favorites. Regression to the mean and all.

My mom was 33 then, Uncle Frosty.

167. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues (1998)

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This is my favorite album by my favorite band.

The story behind it is terribly sad. Shortly after the success and exposure of their debut album, Beautiful Freak, Elizabeth Everett, the sister of frontman E, committed suicide. Destroyed by the experience, E chose to try and channel the intense emotions into his work, rather than let them drag him down as well. What he wound up sculpting was a beautiful, tearjerking tribute album to his fallen sister.

The album title is taken from poetry she had written and the lyrics of the title track are all taken from scribblings in her notebook. While upbeat numbers like 'Cancer For The Cure' and 'Last Stop: This Town' help keep the album from being too depressing, it's the slow, quiet numbers that make it. 'Climbing To The Moon' is gorgeous and '3 Speed' is especially heartbreaking. The last time I listened to that song, I was on the bus, heading to work, in the gray early dawn. His delivery of the line "why won't you just tell me what's going on?" nearly brought me to tears.

The artwork in the booklet was also my first introduction to graphic novelists like Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Chester Brown. I am a big fan of all of them now, with Tomine being a big idol of mine especially.

To go from a hit single like 'Novocaine For The Soul' to this disc really was the statement to the world that Eels and Mark Oliver Everett were not what you might expect and there was definitely more to them than you might be prone to think. The reflection, both backwards and inwards, the contemplation, and the weighing of heavy, heavy issues with the pop music and optimism have become a staple of Eels now and this album is a big piece of foreshadowing toward 2005's Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, the double album with E tackling his father, his mother, his place in the world, and his future.

This album deserves to be heard, understood, and appreciated by everyone.

Yes. This is how I felt too.

168. The Afghan Whigs - 1965 (1998)

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'66' was the first song I ever heard by the Afghan Whigs. I loved it, looked into their other material, and was surprised how different it was. But I loved it too. Gentlemen, especially.

By the time I got back around to purchasing this disc, they caught me offguard again with how soul and r&b influenced this is. But this album is now probably my favorite by them. '66' still remains one of my favorites by the group, but the best track on this album is definitely 'John The Baptist'.

169. Bright Eyes - Letting Off The Happiness (1998)




Letting Off The Happiness is Bright Eyes back when Bright Eyes was a fairly obscure, indiemo band. It's not up to par with the next few albums but it's still mostly good. True, a lot of it is pretty amateurish. And Conor's trademark emo screams are everywhere, especially on 'The Difference In The Shades', but the lyrics are still pretty damn good for an eighteen year-old and some of the songs are really good. I enjoy 'June On The West Coast' and 'If Winter Ends' quite a bit myself.

Basically, it boils down to whether or not this is your thing. If it is, you'll love it. If it's not, you'll hate it. I can't imagine too many people falling in the middle.

170. Beck - Mutations (1998)




I know some people who list this as their favorite Beck album. I won't say they're crazy but I will say I have no idea why, because this album bores the fuck out of me.

It's like an album full of all the worst tracks from Sea Change. The only ones that come even close to provoking interest in me are 'Tropicalia' and 'Bottle Of Blues' and those two wouldn't rank in a top ten of Beck songs of mine. Probably not in a top fifteen.

I bought this disc because I was really into Odelay, Mellow Gold, Sea Change and Midnite Vultures so I naturally assumed I'd love this one too. But I sure don't. I never play this and I just hang onto it because I figure selling it wouldn't bring me in much money anyway.

171. Hard Core Logo soundtrack (1998)




It's painfully sad that the best Canadian punk band of all-time is fictional. Hard Core Logo was created for a book by Michael Turner before being turned into a fake documentary with the band being played by Hugh Dillon, Callum Keith Rennie, John Pyper-Ferguson, and Bernie Coulson. When it came time to record the music, however, Dillon was backed by members of the band Swamp Baby.

Famous as the frontman of Canadian alt-rock group Headstones, as well as his acting roles in other Bruce McDonald films, Dillon shows off his punk side on these songs, as he's in full Joe Dick mode. Tracks like 'Something's Gonna Die Tonight' and 'One Foot In The Gutter' are straight-forward ass-kicking punk rock at its finest. The group shows off their Canadian pride with references to the Commodore and song titles like 'Edmonton Block Heater'. They even slow it down for 'Blue Tattoo' and 'China White (Ten Buck Fuck)', their ode to addiction and overdose. And their cover of the Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer' might be better than the original.

The band's eight songs are filled out on the soundtrack with a couple of cuts from friends of HCL. Swamp Baby submit a solo number, the Ramones' classic 'Touring' is included, and Teenage Head and Chris Spedding get a song in each.

A great disc for a fan of the movie, the book, Headstones, Swamp Baby, or punk rock period.

172. Modest Mouse - Building Nothing Out Of Something (1999)

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Right smack between The Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon & Antarctica was pretty much the peak of Modest Mouse.

And rightfully so, this album is very good. Tracks like 'Neverending Math Equation', 'Baby Blue Sedan', and 'Interstate 8' all belong on a Modest Mouse best-of. 'Broke' is fantastic and 'Workin' On Leavin' The Livin'' is undeniably catchy.

Is this the best MM disc? Probably not. But it's up there. And must be looked into if you like them at all.

Me too.

Also, I wish I knew where the disc was for my copy of Building Nothing Out of Something; I have the case, but alas no disc.

If only 1965 had the track listing on the back of the jewel case, it would be the perfect album.

1965 bugs me because I feel that the band stretched the material a bit. I mean, one "track" is just a woman getting Dulli'ed and the last "track" is really just the rockin' outro to "Omerta." It's my least favorite Whigs because it feels simultaneously like a peak on a few songs and well running dry.

Nothing tops Black Love for me - feels more cohesive and has the signature darkness. But, man, Dulli was so fucked up on that record that his voice is shit.

173. Rushmore soundtrack (1999)




I remember seeing commercials for Rushmore when it was in theatres and thinking it looked neat. But, because my friends and I were fourteen and still interested in N64 and Weird Al, we went and saw Austin Powers instead.

I finally saw Rushmore years later and loved it, of course. The music really captivated me too. Prior to this, I had a pretty strong anti-soundtracks, anti-compilations stance. I figured why buy a cd of mixed songs when I could just buy proper albums from the artists whose songs on it I like? But I downloaded all the non-score tracks from this disc and loved all of them. And the more I listened, the more I loved, and the more I realised they fit really well together. So I finally bought the soundtrack.

I'm pretty sure this disc is the first thing I ever heard from Cat Stevens and the Faces and the first thing I heard from the Kinks, the Who, and John Lennon aside from their one big song that they always play on classic rock radio. Although I haven't liked what else I've heard from the Creation, Unit 4+2, or Chad & Jeremy I love their songs too. And the tracks by Zoot Sims and Yves Montand are great.

I thought the score was pretty neat too and imagine my surprise when I found out it was done by the Devo guy. And that he had also done the Rugrats cartoon.

174. Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999)




'Stolen Car' was the first song I heard by Beth Orton and the first that entranced me. It's still probably my favorite by her. And this album is probably my favorite album of hers.

She does still have the tendency to wander into boring adult-contemporary territory sometimes too often, and all her albums could due to be about fifteen minutes shorter. But when she crafts something like 'Stolen Car' or 'Love Like Laughter', the results are incredible and lovely.

She might be the kind of artist where you can pick up a single-disc anthology and be done, come to think of it. All of her albums are a bit uneven. But, until that becomes an option, at least check out the aforementioned songs.

Y'know, that sensei's not so bad.