25 Years Since....September 1998

Time to go back to September 1998, a time my music tastes were getting wider:

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

This was the 19th Top 40 hit for the Manic Street Preachers and was the first time they topped the charts. I was going through a bit of a dark time and found this record quite depressing, but that's what I liked about it. 

The Honeyz - Finally Found

Little did I know when this record came out that I would end up buying all the Honeyz singles, their album, their repackaged album and their second album that never got released.

It was the Top 40 debut for the Honeyz and I liked what I heard, particularly the "it's always been you" bit. It was the only Honeyz single to be written by the Honeyz themselves. 

Paul Van Dyk - For An Angel

This record was already 4 years old by the time it hit the Top 40. A German trance record by a DJ I've always rated. Whenever I see Slipmatt playing an old skool set he plays this and it's almost a reflection of me listening to happy hardcore in the earlier years but being more inclined to listen to a record like this by 1998.

All Saints - Bootie Call

I would say my first step away from being a rave purist came at the beginning of 1998 when I bought the All Saints album. I was therefore already very familiar with this record by the time it was released as a single and I'd always considered it to be one of the better tracks on the album.

Alisha's Attic - The Incidentals

I always secretly liked Alisha's Attic since I first heard them back in 1996. By the time this lead single from their 2nd album came out I was more than happy to tell everyone that I liked it.

I would however say this is the only track on their 2nd album that's up to the standard of the tracks on their first album, it was pretty much downhill from this point. That didn't stop me joining the fan club, making an Alisha's Attic website and buying any bit of Alisha's Attic music I could get my hands on.