Mix Tape - Operation:1998

(If you want to know about the general concept behind Mix Tape, move your mouse here.)

I've got a criterion that I use to decide if I've enjoyed the music I've purchased in any given year. It's not going to be for everyone, but it works for me. It's a simple question - Has it been a better year than 1998? '98 is the gold standard. '98 is the year that Jake and I actually bothered to pause and count up the CDs we'd purchased because we couldn't mentally inventory it anymore. So for the debut of the Mix Tape series, I'm going with a small mix that I have chosen to call Operation:1998 - the ten best songs of 1998. I'm going to treat it as a public service to you, generic reader, and include links to Amazon, * should you choose to want to do a little sampling of your own. I endorse everything that I'm about to mention.

Without further ado. . .

1. Brighter Hell - The Watchmen (Silent Radar).

Silent Radar is simply the best rock album that The Watchmen released. * Top to bottom, it stands as a prime example of the kind of music that I like to listen to best. I was so excited about the release of this disc that I gave Kyle from Winnipeg $20 (American!) for the copy he had in his car when I saw them in Madison at a frisbee tournament. When I was finally able to get my hands on a full copy with liner notes, etc, I happily gave away that disc with the understanding that when my recipient wanted his own copy that he'd do the same thing. The disc is that good.

It's so good, in fact, that I could have used it as sort of a utility knife for the mix - fitting in a good song where ever it was needed most. In the end I decided to lead off the tape with Brighter Hell, since it packs the most emotional punch for me, and knowing that I was likely to want to include more slower tempo-ed songs anyway. I think it's the best song on the disc, and the video always reminds me of winter, largely because of the winter scenery.

2. Glorified - Lotion ([The Telephone Album]).

I found out about Lotion from an e-mail list. You punk kids now call e-mail lists message boards. In any case, I stumbled upon this disc in the store by accident, and it was a patented Bob Ross Happy Accident, because they'd never done anything quite so good. [TTH] is a collection of upbeat tunes with mostly irrelevant lyrics, and good clean guitar rock.

In the first draft of O:98 I'd started with the opening track from this disc, since its count-in * always reminds me of my friend Rich, who could never count anything in properly. But after deciding that I had to use Brighter Hell to start the disc, I had to go with Glorified in this spot, which works out well since it's the better song anyway. The random lyrics nonetheless manage to call up a touch of melancholy, and the music doesn't let you drown in it, which is a nice thing for it to do.

3. Undertow - Chroma Key (Dead Air for Radios).

Surprisingly, I find that the Chroma Key songs I like best are the ones that have the strongest lyrics and melodies. It's surprising because I'm not sure that Kevin Moore ever intended to be a vocalist. This was his first solo album, and quite a departure from the highly technical songs he wrote as a part of Dream Theather. As it turns out, Moore's attention to the creation of a song, a mood, turns out great music as well.

Undertow just plain fit better into this spot in the mix than any of the other tracks from DAFR. A slightly faster tempo, still a fairly positive sounding melody, but still melancholy in the lyrics.

4. I'm Fine (I Find) - Getaway Cruiser (Getaway Cruiser).

I discovered Getaway Cruiser from an actual mix tape that I received from a girl in Nebraska. I'm Fine (I Find) was in fact the song she included. It hooked me, and I'm passing it on to you. The rest of the disc, while not a waste, doesn't stand out any more than this song. It feels like I'm shortchanging this track a bit, but it's the truth. This song stands on merit with the rest of this mix.

5. Iris - Goo Goo Dolls (Dizzy Up the Girl).

I thought that perhaps I was cheating with this song a little. I know it was released pre-Dizzy as part of the City of Angels soundtrack. As it turns out, the movie was released in '98 as well, so it's all good. Come to think of it, I went on a date to see that movie, so I probably should have been able to puzzle out that fact myself. *

Iris capitalized on the success that the Goo's had started with Name, and paved the way for Dizzy to be a breakthrough pop album in a Paul Westerberg sort of mold, which at the time was very surprising for the Goo Goo Dolls, since (with the exception of Name) they'd really always been quite a lot more of a punk band than anything else. Iris fits in this here mix here because it's a recognizable song that slides in right after the last song, which was also quite pop.

6. 66 - The Afghan Whigs (1965).

I think that 1965 was probably the surprise album of 1998, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'd owned the Whigs' previous albums, and found somme tracks to like, while some were just a little too boring. But this. . . this blew me out of the water. Until I finally read that the singer had set out to write a sex album, his own personal Marvin Gaye/Barry White album. 1965 does that. It does it well. For my purposes, 66 is the high-water emotional mark on the disc. It's the one song that you can actually call a happy song. Dig it.

7. Teenage Suicide - The Candyskins (Death of a Minor TV Celebrity).

Death. . . ended up being a tease of an album for The 'Skins. They got a song included on The Waterboy soundtrack, and it's possible that if it'd taken off in the US that people would have picked up on them the way they did for Radiohead. But it didn't happen, and their fouth album ended up being their last. Just an example of a good band not getting the right breaks in the business. *

Teenage Suicide is the best song on the disc, and not coincidentally it fits the same theme that I've been working with for this mix. Upbeat song, but the lyrics make you wonder why it sounds like it should sound so happy.

8. 12/31 - The Mayfield Four (Fallout).

I went to a concert in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and the opening act came damn near to completely upstaging the headliners. I'm talking about these guys, The Four. Picture Jake and I, slumped in a theater seat after a six hour drive, planning on catching a bit of a rest during the opening act. Picture us snapping to attention in the middle of the first song, and really just genuinely enjoying the hell out of a band we'd never heard of. That's how good the material is on this disc.

12/31 is the only really moody song on the disc, the rest is more flat-out hard rock. But as such, it's the song that fits this mix.

9. Sometimes - Candlebox (Happy Pills).

If you were around in the early '90s you know Candlebox. But chances are, you probably don't know this disc. Candlebox debuted at the end of the glam rock era, at the start of grunge, * and were really sort of in between styles. They released a second disc that was quite a lot the same as the first, and then 1998 turned up this one. Happy Pills is a really well-done rock album where the songs aren't all about the girls or fast cars of glam, nor the self-deprecation of grunge. And Sometimes is the ballad that kicks my ass up and down the block.

10. Chelsea - Counting Crows (Across a Wire: Live in New York City).

Ok, ok, I'm cheating with this one, but only because I didn't want to stick a track with applause in at the end. Wade A. and I have beaten the horse to death in talking about the Counting Crows's live perfomances, so I'll simply say that having seen both of the TV shows this set was taken from, that this release was an absolute must-have for me in 1998. And as such I had to end the mix with Chelsea, the only studio track (hidden at the end of the acoustic disc). Even with that caveat, I think this track fits in with the mood of this mix very well.

So there you have it. In fact I'd go so far as to put a guarantee on this mix - I'll pay you ten bucks if you don't like the ten songs therein. *

-01/09/06