You can stream the playlist in full below, and read about each individual track further down the page. If you enjoy any of the songs featured here, we encourage you to support the artists by purchasing their music from your local record shop, or through online retailers.
The October 1998 edition features music from The Cardigans, Garbage, Rialto, Sparklehorse, Fatboy Slim, R.E.M., The Boo Radleys, Idlewild, Hurricane #1, Levellers, Grandaddy, Mansun, Catatonia, The Supernaturals, Beastie Boys, Jurassic 5, Mercury Rev, U2, Art Of Trance and Afrika Bambaataa vs Carpe Diem.
Listen here:
The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
Garbage - Special
This glorious single from Garbage reached number 15 in the UK charts. The song was taken from their multi-million selling second LP 'Version 2.0'. Containing an "interpretation" of 'Talk Of The Town' by The Pretenders, the song's lyrics concerned a friendship Shirley Manson had moved on from after her friend had let her down: "Ultimately it's about those feelings of betrayal you have for people when you set your sights too high and expect too much and how that can lead to disappointment in the end."
Rialto - Summer's Over
Number 60 in the UK singles chart. A lovely bit of late 90s indie from Rialto, with shades of Bowie, Suede and Oasis welded to drum loops and a rousing touch of melancholy. The song was taken from the band's self-titled debut album. The group were formed from the ashes of early Britpop frontrunners Kinky Machine, who disbanded in the mid 90s. Signed at a time when every label wanted an indie band on the roster, the hotly-tipped Rialto scored a few Top 40 hits but were unlucky enough to be dropped by their label EastWest not once but twice. They signed to another label and released a second album 'Night On Earth' in 2002 before splitting. Frontman Louis Eliot launched a solo career afterwards.
Sparklehorse - Sick Of Goodbyes
A fantastic moment from Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider album. This song reached number 57 in the UK charts when it was released as a single 20 years ago back in October 1998. Led by American singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous, Sparklehorse was active from 1995 until Linkous' tragic suicide in 2010. This would be his final, and highest charting entry in the UK singles charts.
Fatboy Slim - Gangster Trippin'
Repetitive yet infectious, this funky helping of loopy big beat from Fatboy Slim reached number 3 in the UK singles chart and was taken from Norman Cook's second Fatboy Slim album, the smash hit 'You've Come A Long Way Baby'. The song contains samples from "Entropy" by DJ Shadow, "Word Play" and "The Turntablist Anthem" by the X-Ecutioners, "Beatbox Wash" by the Dust Junkys and "You Did It" by Ann Robinson.
Afrika Bambaataa vs Cape Diem - Got To Get Up
The big hit and it's accompanying album were followed the next year with the loud, messy, weird 'C'mon Kids', seen my many as a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the lingering memory of 'Wake Up Boo'. The album sold poorly, while the most successful single from it could only just about scrape into the Top 20. "We didn't want to scare away the hit-kids, we wanted to take them with us to somewhere that we'd not been before" claims singer Sice (real name Simon Rowbottom). "All we wanted to do was try something new - to keep ourselves fresh and interested". Learning a lesson in how a huge hit single can set you back artistically, they soon found themselves in a position where some of the indie scene saw them as sell-outs who had lost their edge. Meanwhile, the mainstream pop audience couldn't care less about their other less commercial material. It's correct to say that their audience had become limited.
Finding themselves "back on the indie scrapheap" while labelmates Oasis were ruling the world, the band seemed to resign themselves to the fact that it was all downhill from there. With songwriter Martin Carr remembering the period as an uninspired time, and Sice quoting that they had "lost interest once a goal had been achieved", The Boo Radleys were at a low ebb when they recorded 'Kingsize", and their hearts weren't in it anymore.
A complete lack of support from the industry sank one of the most magnificent records of the 90s. Creation boss Alan McGee allegedly reckoned that the album had no appeal, asking the band "who exactly is going to buy this?" After being ordered to go back to the studio and record two singles to salvage the LP with, the band came back with the terrific 'Free Huey', which found civil rights era-funk flavours welded to supercharged breakbeats and riotous guitars. Back in 1998, Carr said "When you come back after a year-and-a-half you don't want to knock on the door all apologetic saying, 'Can we come back to the party please?' You want to barge in shouting, 'Where's the keg?" The track was reportedly inspired by Norman Cook's remix of Wildchild's 'Renegade Master', a single released earlier that year.
Hurricane #1 - Rising Sign
Reaching number 22 in the UK singles chart, this thumping remix of Afrika Bambaataa's 1990 track 'Just Get Up And Dance' was the creation of duo Carpe Diem, who comprised of Eddie Lock and Dylan Burns. They also released material under the alias Lock And Burns.
The Boo Radleys - Free Huey
This fired-up track by The Boo Radleys was released in October 1998. Reaching number 54 in the UK charts, this was to be the Liverpool band's final single. Rampant electronics do battle with savage guitars and a hectic, full-throated vocal on this song that should've got a lot higher in the charts.
When I first heard this on (Radio 1 show) The Evening Session in 1998, I was thrilled by it and surprised by the band's new sound, which couldn't have been further from what I would've expected from them at the time. Up until then I was only aware of their unavoidable 1995 summer smash hit 'Wake Up Boo'. Before that, they were acclaimed in alternative scene circles for their psychedelic shoegaze sounds after forming in the late 80s. The unstoppable wave of Britpop coincided with the release of the release of the joyous 'Wake Up Boo', which became a radio staple and stayed in the charts for ages. With its bright, bouncy optimism, fanfare horns and rise and shine lyrics, their big pop hit overshadowed everything the band followed it with.
The big hit and it's accompanying album were followed the next year with the loud, messy, weird 'C'mon Kids', seen my many as a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the lingering memory of 'Wake Up Boo'. The album sold poorly, while the most successful single from it could only just about scrape into the Top 20. "We didn't want to scare away the hit-kids, we wanted to take them with us to somewhere that we'd not been before" claims singer Sice (real name Simon Rowbottom). "All we wanted to do was try something new - to keep ourselves fresh and interested". Learning a lesson in how a huge hit single can set you back artistically, they soon found themselves in a position where some of the indie scene saw them as sell-outs who had lost their edge. Meanwhile, the mainstream pop audience couldn't care less about their other less commercial material. It's correct to say that their audience had become limited.Finding themselves "back on the indie scrapheap" while labelmates Oasis were ruling the world, the band seemed to resign themselves to the fact that it was all downhill from there. With songwriter Martin Carr remembering the period as an uninspired time, and Sice quoting that they had "lost interest once a goal had been achieved", The Boo Radleys were at a low ebb when they recorded 'Kingsize", and their hearts weren't in it anymore.
Incredibly, and despite all this, it resulted in what many including myself regard as their finest album, one of the most underrated records of the decade, and something that stands as one of the most sad, emotional and tune-packed farewells in musical history. With a more simplified songwriting approach, orchestral indie rock brilliance is imbued with a wondrous sense of introspection and resignation that is hugely endearing. Upon hearing it for the first time, I thought that once more singles were released from Kingsize, they would surely rise well above their perceived status as "one hit wonders". No further singles were released, and after appearing quietly on the shelves on 19 October 1998, the album flopped at number 62 in the charts. The group announced their split a few months later.
A complete lack of support from the industry sank one of the most magnificent records of the 90s. Creation boss Alan McGee allegedly reckoned that the album had no appeal, asking the band "who exactly is going to buy this?" After being ordered to go back to the studio and record two singles to salvage the LP with, the band came back with the terrific 'Free Huey', which found civil rights era-funk flavours welded to supercharged breakbeats and riotous guitars. Back in 1998, Carr said "When you come back after a year-and-a-half you don't want to knock on the door all apologetic saying, 'Can we come back to the party please?' You want to barge in shouting, 'Where's the keg?" The track was reportedly inspired by Norman Cook's remix of Wildchild's 'Renegade Master', a single released earlier that year.
A complete red herring that proved to be completely at odds with the rest of the LP, there's an argument that such a contrasting track has a perfect place on the album to give the overall picture a brief burst of energy. A question to raise is why were they singing about activist and Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton in 1998? Did they feel like prisoners in the music industry? Was it a veiled stab at Creation Records? "We're told to run towards the future while standing on our feet, and be content with the scraps that they throw us after promising a feast"
While I fully understand (and agree with) criticisms that 'Free Huey''s main lyrical hook is repeated far more times than necessary, this single still sounds utterly exhilarating 20 years later. Unknown by many, unloved by some, but one of my favourite singles of 1998.
Hurricane #1 - Rising Sign
This magnificent moment from R.E.M. reached number 6 in the UK singles chart. Charming pastoral flavours guide the song's gorgeous melody through spells of introspection and joy. One of their best and most underrated singles. From their eleventh album 'Up', also released 20 years ago this month.
Michael Stipe explained: "I was in New York, putting together a book of haikus that I worked on with several dear friends of mine over the course of a year, and I was walking down the steps of this building. It was probably four o'clock in the afternoon, and I come to a door—it's apartment 3-D or something—and there's a sign on it that says "Daysleeper," and I walked a lot more carefully, quietly down the steps, thinking about that poor person who's trying to sleep, and me and my big old boots interrupting her sleep. So I wrote this song about a daysleeper that's working an 11–7 shift and how furious the balance is between the life that you live and the work that you have to do in order to support the life that you live."
The song "The Lifting" from R.E.M.'s 2001 album Reveal is a prequel to "Daysleeper" and features the same character.
Levellers - Bozos
This rather unusual techno-punk single by the Levellers was recorded for the Brighton folk-rock outfit's best of compilation One Way Of Life, and reached number 44 in the UK singles chart.
After scoring a number of big selling albums and hit singles in the 90s, as well as becoming legends on the festival circuit, the Levellers had released their Mouth To Mouth LP the previous year in 1997. The album went to number 5 in the UK charts and spawned another three Top 40 singles, with 'Too Real' reaching number 46. However, the group's mainstream success had peaked, and by 1998 they found themselves at a crossroads. A press release detailing the 2014 Levellers movie 'A Curious Life' refers to the band disappearing "in a train wreck of drink, drugs and creative drought" at this point, yet to the outside world things seemed to be so positive at the time.
But maybe this explains why the band were relatively quiet during 1998 and 1999. China Records wanted them to release a Best Of album in order to keep the momentum going, so they grudgingly agreed to record two new tracks. They opted to cover an obscure 1988 track by Flik Spatula, another band who were signed to Hag! Records around the same period. Adapted from the original 'We're All Bozos On This Bus', I can recall seeing adverts in the music press for the single, and bought it from HMV in Bath without even hearing the song once in advance due a complete lack of radio support. A hectic blast of punk rock peppered with drum n bass beats, the band's new change in direction didn't please hardcore fans, and 'Bozos' went unheard by the mainstream pubic. Although I love it, it does stick out like a sore thumb on the Greatest Hits.
Levellers - Shadow On The Sun
The other new track recorded for the package was the superb 'Shadow On The Sun', another darkly infectious folk-rock treasure which bizarrely never got a release as a single.
A couple of years later, the group would return with the strange and hugely divisive 'Hello Pig' LP, a fantastic and underrated record that split fans but received more critical acclaim than any other Levellers album. Celebrating their 30th anniversary with this year's John Leckie-produced acoustic album 'We The Collective', the folk punk heroes will be touring the UK next month in November.
Read an interview with frontman Mark Chadwick from a few years ago HERE, where he looks back at the the history of the group. Chadwick also recently played a superb acoustic solo show in Trowbridge on October 19, and a review can be found HERE.
The Supernaturals - Sheffield Song
This incredibly catchy slice of indie pop went to number 45 in the UK singles chart. It also features some of the most comical comparisons in lyrical history... Best known for their big 1997 hit 'Smile', this was the second single to be taken from the Scottish band's second album 'A Tune A Day', an album which also features many other indie pop gems. Listen to it in full HERE. The Supernaturals were dropped by their label Parlophone shortly afterwards, and released their ill-fated third album a few years later on a small independent label, to very little attention or success. After splitting, the band returned in 2015 with the low key '360' album, and have recently been back out on tour playing all the old hits, as well as working on their fifth studio album.
Idlewild - I'm A Message
Grungy yet melodic, this reached number 41 in the UK singles chart.
The raw edge of the early Idlewild material is something I was a massive fan of, as they released a fine string of singles. One of the B sides on this was Part 3 of the weird and excellent 'Mince Showercap', the other parts of which featured on the two previous singles. This was taken from their debut full-length 'Hope Is Important', also released on Food Records in October 1998. Mainstream success would loom as the band matured and expanded. Their most recent album 'Everything Ever Written' was released in 2015.
Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard
This punchy old school-flavoured, 90s hip hop classic was at number 35 in the UK singles chart. It can be found on the LA collective's debut album 'J5'. After four studio albums, Jurassic 5 split in 2007, only to reform a few years later in 2013. Their most recent release was the 'Customer Service' single from 2016.
Mercury Rev - Holes
A change from the usual classic and underrated singles from 1998. This track was not a single, but an outstanding moment from one of the year's most acclaimed albums. 'Deserter's Songs' was American combo Mercury Rev's fourth studio LP, released on 28 September 1998. 'Holes' was the album's glorious opening track, and contains one of the most beautifully haunting uses of theremin in musical history.
U2 - Sweetest Thing
This charming, breezy single from stadium giants U2 was released on 19 October 1998, reaching number 3 in the UK singles charts. The original version of 'Sweetest Thing' was a B side to the 1987 single 'Where The Streets Have No Name', and this re-recording was released on their compilation album 'The Best Of 1980-1990'.
The song was reportedly written by Bono as an apology to his wife Ali Hewson for having to work in the studio on her birthday during The Joshua Tree sessions
Grandaddy - A.M. 180
This contagious lo-fi anthem reached number 88 in the UK singles chart. It can be found on Grandaddy's debut album 'Under The Western Freeway'. After splitting in 2006, the band reformed a few years ago, releasing their fifth album 'Last Place' in 2017, shortly before the tragic death of bassist Kevin Garcia.
The Boo Radleys - Blue Room In Archway
Another track from one of 1998's best and most underrated albums. On 19 October 1998, The Boo Radleys released their final LP, the magnificent 'Kingsize'. Read a big article celebrating the album HERE. A symphonic indie rock album peppered with interesting electronics and thrashy, fuzzy guitar, it still sounds stunning 20 years later.
After a brief vocodered hidden track in the album's pre-gap, it begins as the chime of spindly, picked acoustic notes is joined by the urgent patter of drum machines, and a quiet rising of strings. The mood calms and broods as frontman Sice's vocal gently enters, then halfway through the first line, it suddenly bursts into life with a MASSIVE kitchen sink arrangement topped with stately brass sections. A masterclass in symphonic rock delivering huge melodies, 'Blue Room In Archway' is a bombastic plea for solitude that dips and peaks with brilliant effect. As an opener, it is simply stunning. Before 'Be Here Now', when we heard that Oasis were recording with a huge orchestra, this is the sort of thing the masses wished they would come up with. Instead, The Boo Radleys did it, and it sank without a trace.
Fatboy Slim - Soul Surfing
Another album released on 19 October 1998 was Fatboy Slim's second full length 'You've Come A Long Way, Baby'. Two decades on, it's still rated by many as a great party record. In reality, it hasn't aged well, and some of it is grating. It does still feature some fine moments though. My favourite is the terrific 'Soul Surfing', a fine example of late 90s big beat.
Norman Cook recorded the LP at his home studio "The House of Love" in Brighton. The album was a critical and commercial success, reaching number one on the UK albums chart. Four singles were released from the album: "The Rockafeller Skank", "Gangster Trippin'", "Praise You", and "Right Here, Right Now", each reaching the top 10 in the UK Singles Chart.
Art Of Trance - Madagascar
Brimming with awesome analog sounds, this trance classic was originally released back in October 1998, reaching number 68 in the UK charts. A remixed version of this became a dance chart number 1 in 2002. Art Of Trance is the alias of Simon Berry, who is also known as Poltergeist and Vicious Circles as well as being a member of the groups Clanger, Conscious and Union Jack. Berry was also the founder and head of Platipus Records.
The Boo Radleys - Kingsize
The sublime title track from 'Kingsize', the 1998 swansong from The Boo Radleys.
It was when I first heard this magnificent track one night on The Evening Session that I immediately knew I HAD to get a copy of this album. The very appropriately titled 'Kingsize' is a genuinely majestic piece of work that once again recalls and outshines that big orchestral rock n roll sound that Oasis were aiming for. An inviting opening line like "the night is filled with stars that last a lifetime long" is exactly the gentle, melodic touch needed to contrast with the loud guitars and symphonic drama that follows. What at first appears to be a lovely chorus turns out to be a simple refrain, as its massive, heaving main part arrives, dazzling with defiance and passion, with Sice's stunning vocal performance, reaching higher and higher. Climaxing with a fantastic Beatles-like coda, it's quite simply one of the best songs of the 90s and yet frustratingly unknown of by the public.
Beastie Boys - Body Movin'
This track was released on 26 October 1998, reaching number 15 in the UK singles chart. Proving that old skool New York hip hop and steel drums are an enticing combination, this is one of many classic tracks that can be found on the Beastie Boys' wildly eclectic 1998 masterpiece Hello Nasty. A remix of the track by Fatboy Slim was released as the main A side on its release as a single in the UK, such was Norman Cook's popularity in this country at the time.
The two surviving Beasties have penned a book. 'Beastie Boys Book' is described as a "highly unorthodox memoir" that Ad-Rock and Mike D have spent the last four years writing together.
R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful
This majestic track was taken from R.E.M.'s 11th album 'Up', which was released on 26 October 1998.
I am hopeless at picking 'favourite' songs by bands with such vast back catalogues, but the R.E.M moment that has the biggest impact on me is the astonishing piano ballad 'At My Most Beautiful'. An album and career highlight, a big, Brian Wilson-influenced piece that was released as a single in 1999, reaching number 10 in the UK singles chart. Of the line, 'I found a way to make you smile', Michael Stipe later recalled, "I just thought, that's the most beautiful thing in the world." It took him a year to write the song's verse after putting his full thought into what could make a loved one smile. Known for writing ironic love songs, Stipe wanted a change, and delivered "the most romantic song I'd ever written".
Read an article revisiting the album HERE.
Catatonia - Game On
This reached number 33 on the UK singles chart. Welsh indie combo Catatonia were at their best when delivering sweetness with a venomous bite, and 'Game On' is a fine example. It was the second lowest charting of the singles taken from their second album 'International Velvet', which launched them into the mainstream. Band members Cerys Matthews and Mark Roberts wrote this track while they were in a troubled relationship. Two albums later and the band would split. Matthews is now one of BBC 6Music's top presenters, and pops up often on TV and radio.
Mansun - Negative
Released 20 years ago this week, reaching number 27 in the UK singles chart.
Against the backdrop of 90s Britpop, Mansun always seemed like a weird bunch. Their 1997 debut album Attack Of The Grey Lantern was undoubtedly one of the most unusual records to ever reach the number 1 spot. But it's 1998 follow-up 'Six' baffled even the most open-minded of critics, and probably offloaded a lot of the band's more pop-inclined fans.
Following the beautifully bleak 'Legacy' and post-punk riot 'Being A Girl' (which addressed the issue of toxic masculinity decades before many others), and without many other chart-friendly contenders for singles, the Chester band released the storming 'Negative' as the third single from 'Six'.
Out of all the tracks from the LP, 'Negative' is the one that immediately stands out in terms of brilliant guitar work, as Dominic Chad's sky high notes and spiralling riffs add to a stubborn tantrum of a rhythm, while Paul Draper's dynamic vocals increase the song's darkly rousing power.
In a blog a few years ago, Draper commented that "The backing track was worked out without me involved, at the legendary Olympic Studios. I edited it into shape and played the rhythm guitar on the chorus. We captured the live sound of the band for this track. I came up with a top line melody over the top and got the lyrics from my notebook. I'd keep a record of my daily activities in a notebook to get song ideas from. This was about the day I went for a mortgage application. 'Negative' is about taking a blood test for a mortgage application. I loved this lyric, nobody knew what it was about. Fucking hilarious being at Brixton Academy singing about a mortgage application with loads of kids in black eyeliner going apeshit, awesome! We all got mortgages after the first album and you had to do a blood test as part of the mortgage application. It was using the word negative as a positive. It's secretly an uplifting song but sounds really dark, pretty simple really, sort of wrong foots the listener, and nobody knew. The 'I look downwards' bit was just about reading the forms, and getting the OK, all good stuff."
Known for featuring top quality songs as B sides, Mansun released 'Negative' in cassette and vinyl format, as well as on two CDS.
Draper told XS Noize: "The idea was to do enough material to make an album where we could have some relatively straight forward pop songs in case it all went tits up with ‘Six’, the thing is it did go all tits up with ‘Six’ or I wouldn’t be here now otherwise (laughs). That other album was made at the same time, we didn’t come back later and just throw together the B sides, it was all done together. We had been piecing together the ‘Six’ project and then we would come off it for a day and record those songs. The very first one we did was ‘King of Beauty‘ and I just did it and I thought 'I don’t want to do another album of these pop songs'. So the second thing we did was the song ‘Six‘..."
CD2 of the 'Negative' single featured a superb live version of 'Take It Easy Chicken' recorded at the Glasgow Barrowlands. Also on it was was the fantastic 'I Deserve What I Get', a solemn, darkly alluring helping of cold, creeping funk. It's very much like how the third Mansun album 'Little Kix' could have been without record label interference. I'd argue that it's ahead of its time compared to the sounds other indie guitar groups were producing at the time.
About the track, Darper said: "This was me trying to do a Prince stylee track and get away with it, which is virtually impossible if you're white and from Liverpool... I did it with my LINN drum machine originally, which is how Prince made all his good records.'. Andie played over the Linn Drum machine patterns that run through the track and played some cool hi hats and beats especially at the end. I play all the keyboards and the synth bass line. Chad overdubbed a single note lead line as usual onto the song thru a Lovetone 'Big Cheese' pedal. I can't remember who played the zither on the bridges..." Read more about the single's B sides HERE.
The group's next single would be a less maverick re-recording of 'Six''s mad title track. After their third album 'Little Kix', aborted sessions for a fourth Mansun record resulted in the band splitting in 2003. Following a number of harrowing experiences, Paul Draper would finally re-emerge years later in 2016 with long awaited solo material, releasing his debut album 'Spooky Action' in 2017. This year he has been playing Attack Of The Grey Lantern in full during a highly successful UK tour, and next month in November will play a series of intimate acoustic shows. The gigs will feature Mansun classics, solo tracks and new material from his upcoming second solo LP.
As part of an ongoing series of reissues, 'Six' will be released as a deluxe edition next year in a variety of formats, and Paul Draper is planning to play the album in full.
R.E.M. - Suspicion
Another highlight of the R.E.M. album Up. From it comes the sweet mysteries of the gently alluring 'Suspicion'. This song would be released as a single in 1999, and unbelievably failed to make the UK Top 40.
With subtle hints of electronics and more effective use of arrangements, this was the group's first album following the departure of drummer Bill Berry the previous year. In his place were drum machines and session drummers. Apparently, the group almost split while recording 'Up'. A good job they didn't since it's a fine record. Read a review of it and listen in full HERE.
Three years later, R.E.M decided to take a step backwards with the more commercial 'Reveal'. More albums would follow, until the band's split in 2010.
Among the excellent albums released in October 1998 were the aforementioned 'Kingsize' by The Boo Radleys, R.E.M.'s 'Up', Fatboy Slim's 'You've Come Along Way Baby', Idlewild's 'Hope Is Important', as well as Placebo's 'Without You I'm Nothing', Ash's 'Nu Clear Sounds' and Spiritualized's marvellous 'Live At The Royal Albert Hall'.
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