Ah, yes, the end of the year. As time passes on and on, there are several skills that we self-confessed Anglo-audiophiles pick up and take pride in. Among these learned skills could be the ability to find cheap import CD's... the inherent knowledge that Matchbox 20 are crap... the ability to trace ANYTHING back to the Beatles... but tops among these would simply be the ability to COUNT FROM 1 TO 50 -- a skill that comes in awfully handy 'round this time of year. For this is the season of LISTS. The time when we can put aside our differences, join hands, rejoice, and unify in the notion that when we put our heads together, we can single-handedly determine the best and worst of, well, everything that 1998 brought us.

What follows are the results of the 1998 Excellent Poll. We asked the 150+ members of our mailing list to determine the top releases and newsmakers of 1998 (and a very heart-felt thanks to all who participated.) The results prove that 1998 could very well be remembered as a transitional year into new realms -- instead of a poll dominated by a few select artists (see Radiohead, Verve circa 1997) the best releases of THIS year are a diverse bunch, representing all sorts of musical styles. Enough babbling, let's get to it.

Cheers all! As you can see, we've shifted our look a wee bit! Welcome officially to Excellent Online V 2.0, which we launched yesterday (see previous news story.) As with any new site, we're still debugging, so if you encounter some links that aren't working, don't panic: We're working out all the glitches.

Well, the final results are in, and while there are a few surprises, the
year was pretty much dominated by three bands: Radiohead, Spiritualized,
and The Verve. Over 90 albums and over 200 songs received votes, which is
one indication of how much the list has grown. In some of the categories,
I've listed more slots than last year, to give a broader perspective of
the list.

The Excellent Mailing List Top 20 Albums of 1997

Ahh... The classics..

Top 15 Albums of the Year

1. Bluetones - Expecting to Fly
2. Suede - Coming Up
3. Lush - Lovelife
4. Boo Radleys - C'Mon Kids
5. Kula Shaker - K
6. Ride - Tarantula
7. Beatles - Anthology 2
8. Trainspotting - SOUNDTRACK
9. Tricky - Pre-Mellinium Tension
10. Cardigans - First Band on the Moon
11. Blur - Live at the Budokan
12. Ash - 1977