Critics' Choice 1998

1. Mercury Rev Deserter’s Songs [v2]
Torn apart by in-band fighting, singer Jonathan Donahue and guitarist Grasshopper retired to their homeground of the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY. Drawing on a secret history of American music that included Van Dyke Parks, Cole Porter, Neil Young and The Band (a brace of tracks featured Levon Helm and Garth Hudson), they fashioned a phantasmic opium dream of an album tapestried with flugel horns, strings, flutes, musical saws and rinky-dink pianos, all topped off with Donahue’s reedy, elfin vocal.
2. REM – Up [warner brothers]
3. Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours [epic]
4. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road [mercury]
5. Sparklehorse – Good Morning Spider [parlophone]