Im writing something about my collection for myself, for the future. Thats why I want to have informations about recording year. Yes you are right, if album for example started in late 1997 and finished in 1998 I consider that album 1998 album. And I have news; I found after 4 hours some interview with Lemmy where he said that "Snake bite love" was finished in late January 1998! Here is the link:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/motorhead,13506/

So one information finished, two more and thats it.