40 From 40: 1998

In retrospect, something appears to be coming together around 1998. Three of the year's biggest music stories - George Michael's arrest, Elton John's knighthood, Geri leaving the Spice Girls - feel like the first stage of coalescing into the next superstar clique, with Madonna on the outside waving her Kaballah red string (for newcomers, Kaballah was the Scientology of its day) at passers-by. The slow demise of the Spice Girls phenomenon left quite a bit of room to fill in its wake too, 1998 being the year of All Saints' rise, Billie Piper, B*Witched, Boyzone's peak (with Westlife newly formed in the wings), the irresistable rise of 1997's Angels, and in America the release of Baby One More Time and the launch of TRL. And yet if you look at the year's biggest selling worldwide singles - My Heart Will Go On, Believe, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, It's Like That, You're Still The One - a story far from youth is being told, especially when you remember Jane McDonald had three weeks at number one. This is the year we came closest, we think, to being able to put out an entirely different reserve list, and even now we're not sure it's as strong as it can be. Sod it, it's up now. Apart from Derrero, whose track isn't on Spotify.



Refused - New Noise
Asian Dub Foundation - Free Satpal Ram
UNKLE feat. Badly Drawn Boy - Nursery Rhyme
Royal Trux - Liar
Six By Seven - Candlelight
Sonic Youth - Sunday
Swell - Make Up Your Mind
Clinic - Cement Mixer
Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
The Olivia Tremor Control - Hideaway
Quasi - The Poisoned Well
Sparklehorse - Sick Of Goodbyes
Eels - Last Stop: This Town
Derrero - Radar Intruder
Beck - Tropicalia
Boards Of Canada - Aquarius
Black Star feat. Common - Respiration
Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps
Mercury Rev - Opus 40
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
The Delgados - Pull The Wires From The Wall
The Beta Band - She's The One
PJ Harvey - The Wind
Cat Power - Cross Bones Style
Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO)
Black Box Recorder - Girl Singing In The Wreckage
Silver Jews - Random Rules
Vic Chesnutt - Maiden
Songs:Ohia - This Time Anything Finite At All
Arab Strap - Soaps
Mogwai - Xmas Steps
Hefner - The Sad Witch
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
Kenickie - Run Me Over
Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
Jurassic 5 - Jayou
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Spearmint - A Trip Into Space
Dawn Of The Replicants - Candlefire
Quickspace - Quickspace Happy Song #2

Previously on 40 From 40: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009