8/100 Video - "Angel" – Massive Attack (1998)

"Angel" by Massive Attack is one crackerjack track.

Starting with an ominous percussion, the song builds progressively as more instruments and layers are added. During the long bridge, a menacing guitar solo grinds away as the industrial beats rage onwards.

The epic chase video is incredible, as the band members follow Daddy G in a car lot until the latter half when half of Bristol shows up for a grand chase scene in slow motion.

Rob Robinson737 provides the best explanation for the video in the YouTube comments, a metaphor for facing one's fears:

"The video is about running away from your fears, the longer you run away from them the greater they become until you reach to a point from where you can no longer run as if there is no land left for you to run on and there it is your greatest fears stood there right in front of you, and then you realize that these fears are just an illusion and that you confront them head on and then they are frighten of you at the moment you start chasing them."

36/100 Video - "Ava Adore" - Smashing Pumpkins (1998)

"Ava Adore" by Smashing Pumpkins is a creepy cool, cinematic masterpiece. 

Throughout the video, band members Billy, D'Arcy and James take turns slinking around the screen at various speeds, entering the exiting our field of vision. 

The music video won an award for "most stylish video" at the 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards.

44/100 Video - "Frozen" - Madonna (1998)

From the opening frames showing a black-haired Madonna cladded in black levitating above a bleak desert landscape, I knew the video the "Frozen" would be a good one.

 

The song, a mid-tempo electronica ballad, is hypnotic. 

 

The dark imagery showcases Madonna as a Gothic, shape-sifting witch mourning a broken heart and a lost love. 

The visuals are astounding, especially as Madonna transforms into a raven then later as a dog. 

"Frozen" won an MTV Video Music Award in 1998 for Best Special Effects.

59/100 Video - "Kelly Watch The Stars" - Air (1998)

One of the most creative videos I've ever stumbled on, the clip naturally stars a Kelly playing ping-pong with a blonde girl called Smith. 

But there is a twist: the ping-pong players are controlled by the Air band playing Pong, an early Atari video game. 

Suddenly Kelly is hit in the head by the ball. Knocked-out by ping-pong. Kelly then watches the proverbial stars and drifts away, later to be revived by two medics (the band members as well).

Similar to "Around The World" by Daft Punk, the lyrics for "Kelly Watch The Stars" are simply the song's title repeated a few dozen times to a backdrop of a catchy bass line and dreamy synths.

90/100 Video - "Push It" - Garbage (1998)

Few bands epitomize the mid-90s post-grunge sound more than the rock-tronica of Garbage, the brainchild of producer Butch Vig.

On most of the group's songs, the vocals of Scotland's Shirley Manson howl while the guitars growl.

And "Push It" is no exception.

The video is trippy, full of bizarre imagery, with a Matrix-y vibe. 

The weirdness of the clip makes it feel like a distant cousin of 1981's "Whip It" by Devo. And the glowing jackets remind me of Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It be Good" video from 1984.

And if you were hoping to see the band, there's enough shots of Shirley Manson to keep our attention. 

1998 - "I Think I'm Paranoid" - Garbage

Grungy electronica me likey. 

Near the top of the list of groups I've always to want to see live, I've been a fan of Garbage since they debuted in 1995. Their trademark fusion of rock and electronica is epitomized on this track with its big production and a fat chorus.

Shirley Manson's versatility and vulnerability are on full display.

Other favourites from 1998: 

"Angel" – Massive Attack

"Frozen" - Madonna

"I Think I'm Paranoid" - Garbage

"Push It" – Garbage

"Ava Adore" – The Smashing Pumpkins

"La Femme d'Argent" – Air