Top 5 - Niles Baranowski
1) Add N to X, On the Wires of Our Nerves (Mute). The only truly visceral thrill I got from music this year came from this record. Despite the complete lack of guitars, it rocked harder than any AOR band. Despite the limitations of human drummers (from such acts as Stereolab and High Llamas), its beats were faster and sharper than the electronic competition. Neglected singles like "The Black Regent" and "Orgy of Bubastus" are the next logical step beyond Devo, retro-futurist pop that sneaks in a little chaos. Elsewhere, the trio (who put on a curiously violent live show) reach a new high in analog synths with the 7-minute "Murmur One." Will I recognize the sound I want when I hear it? I think I already have.
2) Mercury Rev, Deserter's Songs (V2). America really doesn't have much in the way of intelligent, accessible balladeering like The Verve or Bernard Butler but Buffalo, NY's Mercury Rev seems to be out to start the tradition. Granted, they're still a bit too weird to be American Britpop but Deserter's Songs is a delight to hear, grand, sweeping and eccentrically charming. Their weirdness finally serves their songs, rather than vice versa. If "Goddess On a Hiway" doesn't become the breakout hit of the year, there is no justice.
3) Momus, Ping Pong (Le Grand Magistery) "Please put on your avatar masks, our game is underway" advises Nick Currie (alias Momus) at the start of Ping Pong. Indeed, the album is all about strange characters acting as even stranger ones; Japanese housewives that want to become rock'n'roll casualties, sexually repressed salarymen who call out in a dark subway, even Momus's own "Pervert Doppelganger," who steals his girlfriend with his debauchery. There is no character on the modern pop music scene like Momus, because he acknowledges his pervert doppleganger and gives him equal time. His music is at its best when its shallowest, which may be why he why he gets labeled as "disco" sometimes. He's most memorable when busting out a Pet Shop Boys beat or seething jealous threats against...small babies.
4) Creeper Lagoon, I Become Small and Go (Nickelbag). The rainy day record of 1998, I Become Small and Go shows the San Francisco group coming into their own as indie rock's One to Watch. More fully developed than the Elephant 6 camp, Creeper Lagoon make psychedelic pop that swirls its influences (allegedly as diverse as hip-hop and Latin music) into gorgeous, lazy songs that sound neither twee or lifeless. The best tracks combine shoegazer attitude with pop songcraft into a seamless new beast that will be fully showcased to the masses on next year's Dreamworks debut.
5) Massive Attack, Mezzanine (Virgin). I'm sure I'm not the first to ask the question, but what was all of this guitar doing here? "Angel" starts out with nothing but a nice calm beat, something that anyone could appreciate, then it wallops you with a blast of distortion like something straight out of Nirvana's "Bleach." Everyone's favorite Bristol collective were at it again this year, confounding expectations like always but they were darker and more concrete than ever. No, this was no Blue Lines, but these days trip-hop has become trip-pop, so what is an antisocial DJ collective to do? Sample the Velvet Underground and Cure (the Rhythm & Goth-fest "Man Next Door")? Enlist ex-Cocteau Twins waif Liz Fraser for two momentously pretty tunes to sate the faithful ("Teardrop" and "Black Milk")? Or just make noise as they did on "Angel"? Mezzanine is a vital and varied 'yes' to all of the above.
