9 August 1998 Tepid on the heels of 'All That I Need', 'No Matter What' is another step in Louis Walsh's succession planning, where late-era Boyzone morph into a proto-Westlife: white suits, cruciform posing, milquetoast R&B-lite ballads superannuated with vaguely Christian spirituality and a climactic key change. And if that isn't appealing enough, 'No Matter … Continue reading Boyzone – ‘No Matter What’ →

19 July 1998 A bit like 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)', 'Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)' is a movie promotional single that completely outgrew the quickly-forgotten source movie, as well as also having a (pointless) (subtitle) (in) (brackets). It's hip hop grafted onto a country song written by the Bee … Continue reading Pras Michel ft. ODB & Mya – ‘Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)’ →

7 June 1998 'C'est La Vie' caught me on the hop. The first time I heard it—heard of it—was when B*Witched were already at number one in the UK and I saw them performing it on Top Of The Pops. At the start, I didn't even twig they were Irish: that only dawned on me … Continue reading B*Witched – ‘C’est La Vie’ →

17 May 1998 "What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her?" Not the trailer for a new Fred West-style homicidal home improvement show, but the most baffling pop lyric of 1998. Most of us thought it was some oblique reference to a black eye, and I recall a theory that it was a … Continue reading The Tamperer ft. Maya – ‘Feel It’ →

26 April 1998 Before re-listening to this Boyzone number one, I honestly couldn't remember it. I've just listened to it now and I still can hardly remember it. Of the impressions that have barely stuck with me, 'All That I Need' is vapid white-bread R&B-lite. Tasteful, over-produced acoustic guitar-picking and bossa nova rhythm on the … Continue reading Boyzone – ‘All That I Need’ →

29 March 1998 Re-listening to Run-D.M.C.'s original 'It's Like That' reminds me why I prefer Public Enemy. I find Run-D.M.C.'s rapping style here very stilted, like a primary schoolkid reciting a poem in class: they don't exactly make lines like "Street soldiers killing the elderly / Whatever happened to unity?" flow like a harpoon daily … Continue reading Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins – ‘It’s Like That’ →

15 February 1998 When Titanic came out on video, I reckon I saw it three times a day for two weeks. I should add that it was because I was working in Xtravision that summer, where it was playing non-stop on the shop-floor screens. People would come in to buy Titanic, then stand enthralled and … Continue reading Celine Dion – ‘My Heart Will Go On’ →

1 February 1998 'Barbie Girl' was a smart, playful subversion of our sexist cultural objectification of women. Will 'Dr Jones' drop similar truths about, say, the Western appropriation of indigenous artefacts, the negative stereotyping of all Asians save for a solitary baseball-cap-wearing kid driving a car, or the use of consumerist household appliances to survive … Continue reading Aqua – ‘Doctor Jones’ →

18 January 1998 Nine minutes thirty-eight seconds is the sort of running time you'd normally associate with the spin cycle of a washing machine, but it's actually what made 'All Around The World' for years our longest-ever number one single, until it was finally surpassed in 2021. To give us some yardsticks for this, 'Hey … Continue reading Oasis – ‘All Around The World’ →