40 Alternative Rock Albums Turning 20 in 2018-Best Albums of 1998: SLIS and contributor Peter Marks look back at landmark albums hitting the two decade mark this year.
As the 90s began to wane, there was a cultural shift. Alternative rock, be it grunge or Britpop was winding down. Electronica never really reached past it’s niche audience. The music industry was ready to change course.
Asa a result, pop music roared back, thanks to boy bands, girl groups and the like. Hip-hop grew more prominent, and by extension, Nu-Metal dominated rock radio.
That isn’t to say alternative rock was dead. Not by a long shot. 1998 was full of great alt-rock, but for every release that drew critical or commercial acclaim, others went under the radar, or to diminished returns.
We’re here to give 1998 alternative music it’s full due here, with the best albums turning 20 in 2018.
Click here for my list of the best albums of 1997
NOTE: Given the sheer dearth of alternative rock that came out in 1998, I’m limiting this list to sub-genres that exist under the alt-rock umbrella. I say this, knowing full well how many amazing hip-hop, R&B and metal releases came out that year.
Otherwise this list would have run an insanely long length, and there are only so many hours in the day! But I’ll be showing my love for said genres in the honorable mentions at the conclusion of the list.
PS: Given how many albums are on this list, ranking them in order of best to worst would be a nightmare. Therefore we’re going in alphabetical order (solo artists are listed by first name), only breaking that rule when there’s a tie, grouping similar releases together. Hope that makes sense.
If you’d like to own any of these classics, simply click the album cover image to preview/buy on Amazon.
Without further ado.
1. Air Moon Safari
The French electronic duo’s début was full of sultry, cinematic soundscapes, perfect for bedroom listening, or zoning out in sunbeams. It’s unusual mix of lounge music, space rock and dream pop has resulted in an album whose charms are timeless and intoxicating.
2. Autechre LP 5
The British electronic duo’s aptly titled 5th album saw them fine tune and reinvent their glitch aesthetic with stunning results.
3. Boards of Canada Music Has The Right To Children
Distilling the wonders and nostalgia of childhood through a rich, disorienting mix of ambient, trip hop and psychedelia, the Scottish brother duo made one of the most influential electronic albums of all time.
4. Chaos A.D. Buzz Caner
While Pusha went jazz, this Ceephax Acid Crew off-shoot lost all control and abused their gear to such extremes that if you listened closely you could hear the cords and cables beginning to fry under the strain. Not an album for the clubs although I’m sure someone somewhere at some point probably tried to make people dance, if you can call a grand-mal seizure dancing.-PM
5. Tie: Coil Time Machines/Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter EPs
Even by Coil’s unorthodox standards, Time Machines is some weird shit.But that’s to be expected from an album with four lengthy, droning tracks named after hallucinogens. Even if you’re stone cold sober, this album will make you feel totally fucked up.-SLIS
I could not stand the spring release when it initially appeared but once the one for summer came into the world I was on board. People around me bought the colored vinyl 7”s but I took the CD route ensuring I got all the tracks, until they issued a bonus CD-r of additional work which wound up setting me back the combined (at the time) amount for both versions of these singles. These four beauties and I have a love/hate relationship but I’ll be burned with them regardless. -PM
6. Course of Empire Telepathic Last Words
The underrated Dallas goth/alt-rock collective released their swan song in 1998, and it felt especially unfortunate they would break up after such a stellar collection of songs. A group that always deserved a bigger shot at mainstream success.
7. Dance or Die: Dehumanizer
Their finest hour; you just don’t get this sort of dark electronic prowess these days and having singles like ‘Relationshit’ and ‘Teenagemakeup’ didn’t hurt, either. It has been a slow decline ever since and if their last album from 2011 is any indicator, the party’s over.
8. Dots&Dashes: S/T
Dots&Dashes: S/T – Drum and Bass had not (and hasn’t since) been so deliriously pummeled as it was on the one and only album this act produced. I still cannot predict where the loops are headed on here and if there’s ever a follow-up this set of ears will be first in line to purchase it. There were a pair of vinyl-only singles too, with tracks not on the album just to sweeten the deal; I’m still of a mind that a lot of what they did was performed manually. Two decades back this thing was shrouded in secrecy and it remains quite enigmatic, perhaps that’s why there hasn’t been anything further.
9. Eels ElectroShock Blues
The Eels Mark Everett made beautiful, unnerving and unforgettable melodies from pain and sorrow that were unique, even in a decade where artists were unafraid to wear their damaged hearts on their sleeve. Bracing and uncompromising, Electro Shock Blues is the definition a challenging listen, and it’s all the stronger for it.
10. Elliott Smith XO
Arguably the late indie rock icons finest work, XO is beloved by fans and critics for good reason, and feels all the more poignant in his passing.
11.Fading Colours: I’m Scared Of…
Another defining album from 1998, this time from a Polish band who’d been best known in goth circles. Trading in their guitars for keyboards and samplers, Fading Colours re-defined not only their own sound but kicked trip-hop in the ass at the same time. DeCoy’s vocals proved both alluring, alienating and exceedingly sensual whilst the music was smooth like dark, smokey glass. Anne Clarke even guested on vocals.-PM
12. Garbage 2.0
For Garbage’s sophomore effort, the group doubled down on their mix of pop smarts and experimental production, resulting in compositions like Push It, When I Grow Up and You Look So Fine that honed in on hormones and heartbreak.
13. Hooverphonic Blue Wonder Power Milk
The Belgian group’s sophomore release saw the act break free from their derivative, trip-hop beginnings, with songs like Battersea and Eden that came on like a teenage crush and the slight melancholy that peaks through the afterglow.
14. Imperial Teen What Is Not To Love
When Faith No More broke up the first time around, keyboardist Roddy Bottum joined this charming indie-rock group that were playful and ragged. Their sophomore album remains their strongest effort.
15. The Jesus and Mary Chain Munki
Many JAMC fans were dismissive of Munki at the time, and that disinterest, plus the continual discord between the brothers Reid led to the band’s demise. It’s a shame, because despite being a bit overlong, there’s plenty of noisy gems to groove on, from the beatific Birthday to Black and I Hate Rock’N’Roll. Give it another chance.
Click here for my list of JAMC albums ranked worst to best
16. Jeff Buckley Sketches of My Sweetheart The Drunk
This release is unusually cohesive for an odds and ends collection of previously unreleased songs from the late singer, resulting in a haunting sonic epitaph.
17. Love and Rockets Lift
Lift saw the New Wave/post-punk veterans continue to explore their fascination with electronica that began on their underrated 1994 effort Hot Trip To Heaven, and despite a cameo from Luscious Jackson’s Jill Cunniff and plenty of melodic hooks, it was equally ignored, and the group broke up shortly afterwards. It, and the band, deserved better.
18. Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals
Could Marilyn Manson survive without Trent Reznor? That was what many wondered after the two had a falling out. Mechanical Animals showed that the artist was more than just the NIN-mastermind’s protegé, on tracks like The Dope Show, Coma White and The Speed of Pain.
19. Massive Attack Mezzanine
The trip-hop pioneers’ unmatched masterwork, Mezzanine managed to be both soothing and unnerving thanks to hypnotic stunners like Angel, Inertia Creeps and Dissolving Girl, and their hit Teardrop, which featured Cocteau Twins vocalist Liz Frazer to stunning effect.
I’ll be forever arguing with myself whether this or Portishead’s Dummy is the best trip hop album of all time.
20. Meat Beat Manifesto Actual Sounds and Voices
Jack Dangers continued to push the envelope of his mix of dub reggae, trip-hop, industrial and techno on this dizzying, disorienting disc that is arguably his finest work.
Click here for my recent interview with Jack Dangers
21. Mercury Rev Deserter’s Songs
Beautiful, ghostly, timeless–Mercury Rev ditched their noisy roots for a pastoral, autumnal, subdued psychedelia, used to stunning effect on songs like Holes, Goddess on a Hiway and Tonight It Shows.
22. Monster Magnet Powertrip
Monster Magnet’s heady mix of stoner rock, psychedelia and comic book inspired lyrics always seemed too weird to breakthrough the mainstream, but thanks to a little ditty called Space Lord, their album Powertrip made inroads to the masses, and frontman Dave Wyndorf fully embraced becoming a hedonistic rock god.
Click here for my recent podcast interview with Dave Wyndorf
It’s more than that song though, filled with euphoric rockers like the title track, Crop Circle and Tractor, along with darker, experimental numbers like Baby Gotterdamerung and Goliath and The Vampires.
23. TIE: Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea /Belle and Sebastian The Boy With The Arab Strap
Full confession. I know very little about this band. I was always turned off to their name, which is a terrible excuse not to check out a group, but it happens (although I recently interviewed the former drummer!). But their fans are legion and I don’t want to get a bunch of nasty comments, okay?
The same falls for true B&S’s beloved release. Not my cup of tea, but I digress.
24. Numb: Language of Silence
The final entry in a discography wrought out of psychosis and masterfully applied technology. Don Gordon and Dave Collings left no avenue unexplored on this record, going so far as to issue a single for ‘Suspended’ which did precisely the opposite, especially when performed live. Though he’s since vanished into Vietnam, there are occasional sightings of Mr. G. The future remains an unknown.-PM
25. Phil Western: The Escapist
Where Phil and I met. Another random purchase at the record store; a gamble which has paid off with over 20 years of uncompromising, genre smiting releases. It had techno, it had space rock, it had hazed out drones; some refer to this record as a modern classic and are not wrong. Though he’s been quiet as of late, make no mistake, it’s bound to get Philthy again in a major way at some point. Western’s involved in a slew of others projects, too, from the well-known Download to the eerily mind-bending Frozen Rabbit.-PM
26. Photek: Form & Function
Photek: Form & Function – Rupert Parkes’ debut was a game-changer, without question but this collection of revised versions and unreleased pieces showed how much further out he was headed. When Photek returned in 2000 with ‘Solaris’ I don’t know how anyone could have been surprised. Rarely name-checked in the press, ‘Form & Function’ not only expanded on his abilities, I suspect it was the reason for a certain label’s name which came along later in the same year.
27. PJ Harvey Is This Desire
Is This Desire saw Polly Jean Harvey expand her indie rock aesthetic to include elements of trip hop and electronica to winning results.
28. Placebo Without You I’m Nothing
Placebo frontman Brian Molko distilled heavy alternative guitars with Goth alienation, making anthems for the strung out, horny and heartbroken on tracks like Pure Morning, Burger Queen and My Sweet Prince.
29. Pulp This Is Hardcore
This is Hardcore lacked a hit single the likes of Common People, and its dark, morose lyrics and feel alienated both fans and critics. Well fuck’em.
Jarvis Cocker brilliantly compared his delayed rock star status to the objectification of the porn industry, and songs like the title track, Help The Aged and I’m A Man are brutal, yet hilarious examinations on what it means to be a deeply flawed human trying to find one’s place in the world.
30. Queens of the Stone Age (Self Titled)
It lacked the bona-fide hits from Rated R and Songs For The Deaf, but QOTSA’s eponymous début shows the early magic of their unique dynamic: seismic riffs, sweet vocal harmonies, and their “robot rock” tight rhythms. Avon was my gateway drug to the band, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
31. Refused The Shape of Punk To Come
Refused’s third album was aptly titled, refining and redefining the limits of what punk and hardcore could be. It was so powerful, raw and accomplished that the group didn’t try to top it–breaking up just months afterwards. They would reunite with a 2015 follow-up, but solid as it was, The Shape of Punk to Come remains their defining achievement.
32. Smashing Pumpkins Adore
Many fans were underwhelmed by Adore’s abandonment of the group’s patented buzzsaw riffs and Billy Corgan’s nasal shrieks. In its place was a mix of dark electronica, folk, and more genteel dynamics.
But while Adore was a commercial disappointment upon its release, time has been on its side, and its now seen as a difficult, yet rewarding listen, focused on Corgan’s grief over the loss of his mother, and discord of his continual estrangement from his band mates (including Jimmy Chamberlain, who was fired shortly before recording).
33. Squarepusher: Music is Rotted One Note
Jenkinson jazzed it up to the utmost and hasn’t been able to surpass what is on here since. Oh how the purists howled at him for abandoning his acid roots; a timely reminder of what one man with a bass guitar and sampler can do. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to unravel just how this was accomplished. He’s not telling.-PM
34. S’Apex: Audiodesign
I’ve written extensively about what this album did to its competitors and the scene it came out of; spacey, minimalistic electronics with the skeletal remains of electro and big beat seeping out from between its teeth. Recently re-issued digitally and ignored yet again, ‘Audiodesign’ lives up to the name it bears and is a masterful study in restraint borne out of misanthropic experimentation on the part of Haujobb’s Daniel Myer; I remember getting this like it was yesterday, how the hell has it been 20 years.-PM
35. THD: Watz Your Program
Transitioning from their textural masterpiece ‘Outside In’, THD gave out five new cuts alongside remixes which took them into territories yet unknown; I suspect those who provided the mixes were given the band’s new tracks to serve as a guide but who knows… it drew diddly for notice and by the time they released ‘Underneath A Statik Sky’ a year later I knew of two people outside myself who even gave a damn; 2009 saw a return in the form of ‘The Evolution of Our Decay’ which I loved to bits but found few others cheering for.-PM
36. The Church Hologram of Baal
A full line-up again at last and what was the thanks? Low sales, crappy turn out at the shows and middling press. I remember quite well going to see them on tour for this one and the crowd could not have been more listless. Admittedly, after ‘Magician Among The Spirits’ I’d become something of a lapsed fan but this record made me sit up and take notice again, even if it didn’t grab me at first it wasn’t long before it did.
Achingly beautiful songs like “Ricochet” and “No Certainty Attached” (read his book) sat alongside brooding monstrosities such as “The Great Machine” and gorgeously textured ear-worms “Louisiana” and “Another Earth’. When you purchased the limited version you were gifted an entirely instrumental bonus album named ‘Bastard Universe’, more than sufficient enticement I’d say.-PM
Click here for our recent interview with guitarist Marty Willson-Piper
37. Tortoise TNT
The indie rock mad scientist collective at the height of their arcane powers.
38. Turbonegro Apocalypse Dudes
It doesn’t get anymore politically incorrect than Turbonegro, and rock doesn’t get anymore righteous than Apocalypse Dudes, which sees the group cement their glam punk/metal aesthetic in all its envelope pushing glory.
39. Unkle Psyence Fiction
DJ Shadow and James LaVelle’s electronica project was a dour and dazzling delight, featuring vocal contributions from the likes of Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and Mike D.
40. Architect: Galactic Supermarket
DnB with an emphasis on the bass, sub-bass that is; aberrant and decidedly angular for 1998. Unlike Myer’s other explorations of the era, ‘Galactic Supermarket’ drew almost universal praise when it came out though not a lot of repeat listens. This record accelerated the very fabric of time, remaining the most experimental entry in Architect’s catalog; you got even more content if you purchased the ‘Galactic Edge’ LP which followed it less than a month later.-PM
That wraps up our list of the best alternative albums of 1998! Which albums would you add to the list? Tell us in the comments below.
Honorable Mentions: Beastie Boys Hello Nasty, Outkast Aquameni, System of A Down, Seal Human Beings, Pearl Jam Yield, Korn Follow The Leader, Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip, Lauren Hill The Miseducation of Lauren Hill, Spacehog The Chinese Album, Fatboy Slim You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, Hole Celebrity Skin, Manic Street Preachers This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, Silver Jews American Water, Semisonic Feeling Strangely Fine
