Pulp’s This is Hardcore was a hangover of a follow-up to their celebrated LP Different Class from two years before, and it’s emblematic of the time when it came out. Although never a single, “Dishes” instantly impressed me, and not just for its indelible opening lyric quoted above (only Jarvis Cocker would dare to make such a comparison.) Later, he sings, “A man once told me, beware of 33 / He said, ‘It was a not an easy time for me.’” I was 23 in 1998, but I could still relate—it was my first full year in Boston and I spent all of it in the graduate student interzone, with my life almost entirely focused on academia. Apart from my classes, I was alone most of the time.

As a film studies student, movies admittedly supplanted music as an art form to obsess over, although the latter barely diminished as a presence in my life. Not having cable/MTV and deliberately avoiding the top 40, I relied on Boston’s WFNX (by far the more diverse of the city’s two alt-rock stations) to discover some new music—I first heard “History Repeating”, “Lights are Changing” and “Slimcea Girl” there (and would likely never know the last one otherwise.) And with that, I was off on my own, feverishly awaiting new recordings from artists I already adored (Saint Etienne, PJ Harvey, Morcheeba, Tori Amos) and looking beyond commercial radio for new-to-me sounds from the past in the guise of college radio stations like WERS (an entirely different animal from what it is today) and WMBR.

Looking over this list now, I can’t find any rhyme or reason to it. I’ve gone on about alt-rock entering a rapid decline in the late ’90s, but this might be one of the last great years for top 40 pop as well: REM, Seal, Madonna and Sheryl Crow, as well as endearing electronica (remember that term?) novelties (Fatboy Slim, Stardust.) Note all the great one-offs too, from Komeda’s Stereolab-gone-pop to Billy Bragg and Wilco’s historic Woody Guthrie collab. I can even spot a few first-timers that will heavily figure into these playlists over the next decade and beyond: Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner with an anthem from her only major label album; fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright making quite the splash on his attention-getting debut; Calexico’s mariachi-inflected noir solidifying on a highlight from their second full-length.

Finally, one day I will write a longer essay on Massive Attack’s Mezzanine as I currently listen to it more than any other album from this year except for Good Humor. 

1998: I Am Not Jesus, Though I Have The Same Initials

1. Propellerheads feat. Miss Shirley Bassey, “History Repeating”
2. Emm Gryner, “Summerlong”
3. Rufus Wainwright, “April Fools”
4. Pernice Brothers, “Clear Spot”
5. Mary Lou Lord, “Lights are Changing”
6. Saint Etienne, “Sylvie”
7. Pulp, “Dishes”
8. Calexico, “Stray”
9. Lucinda Williams, “Right in Time”
10. PJ Harvey, “A Perfect Day Elise”
11. Depeche Mode, “Only When I Lose Myself”
12. Billy Bragg and Wilco, “California Stars”
13. Air, “You Make It Easy”
14. Morcheeba, “Part of the Process”
15. Komeda, “It’s Alright, Baby”
16. Black Box Recorder, “Child Psychology”
17. Tori Amos, “Black-Dove (January)”
18. Massive Attack, “Dissolved Girl”
19. Madonna, “Ray of Light”
20. Liz Phair, “Polyester Bride”
21. Amy Rigby, “All I Want”
22. Stardust, “Music Sounds Better With You”
23. Soul Coughing, “St. Louise Is Listening”
24. Mono, “Slimcea Girl”
25. Bonnie Raitt, “Spit of Love”
26. The Divine Comedy, “The Certainty of Chance”
27. Ani DiFranco, “Little Plastic Castle”
28. P.M. Dawn, “Art Deco Halos”
29. Garbage, “I Think I’m Paranoid”
30. Fatboy Slim, “Praise You”
31. Belle & Sebastian, “Slow Graffiti”
32. Seal, “Lost My Faith”
33. New Radicals, “Gotta Stay High”
34. R.E.M., “At My Most Beautiful”
35. Sheryl Crow, “My Favorite Mistake”