The five hundred and ninety-sixth album: #596 Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Today's album is pretty straightforward to define: A bunch of post punk rock songs, slowed down from the speed and anger of the past allowing for more depth in the vocals, but still supported by loudly tuned guitars that dominate over everything else. It's not a challenging listen, and no track wears out its welcome on its own, but it does start to feel a bit repetitive when you consider this is a double album. Still good to listen to and have on though.

The seven hundred seventy-first song: Inkanyezi Nezazi - Ladysmith Black Mambazo

This is a heavily native song, purely vocals to create harmonies that resonate through further. It's a beautiful track, obviously quite different, performed to a perfection that you don't hear often from these performances. It's meaningful and almost religious in how it feels.

The seven hundred seventy-second song: Sodade - Cesaria Evora

The Latin American ballad, a sensitively told story about immigration, creates a quietly confident atmosphere. It's surprisingly powerful for how sparse it can feel and it's beautiful to listen to.

The seven hundred seventy-third song: Remedy - The Black Crowes

The combination of a soft rock song, desperate and engaged male vocals and straight female vocals in the chorus creates a sum of its part. It's positive, but there's not as much abundance to it as that might imply. It's just a proper, somewhat sexy, accessible and clear song.

The seven hundred seventy-fourth song: No Rain - Blind Melon

A lot of this feels like a standard rock song, pretty poppy and accessible, almost a throwback to the sixties, with breezy lyrics. It feels quite simple and straight, almost an anthem to being lazy, but becomes about a futility of life as well in a way that it keeps, well, plain.

The seven hundred seventy-fifth song: Walk - Pantera

Pantera's songs feel like they'll always be aggressive, but this one comes from that specifically, lashing out at those around them who think fame changed them. It's a clear message, the driving guitars and shouting chorus almost drowning out what vocals there really are. It's a succesful, heavy metal track that does it for me.

The seven hundred seventy-sixth song: Real Love - Mary J. Blige

After all of that, Real Love is a good R&B song, with Mary J. Blige adding some real emotion to a track that has a more positive sound to its music. There's a strength in that and it makes for a pretty engaging song, one that's really well done.

The seven hundred seventy-seventh song: Deep Cover - Dr. Dre introducing Snoop Doggy Dogg

The build to gangster rap has been happening for a while and this feels like it's hit another step of that. The introduction of Snoop Dogg really adds an extra edge, while Dr. Dre has really stripped down the sound to something a lot more sinister. Add to that the threats against the police and it feels like there's something special here.

The seven hundred seventy-eighth song: Out of Space - The Prodigy

While I don't connect with later rave music as much, the electronic rock from The Prodigy hits the right parts of my brain - or perhaps it managed to worm its way in early enough that it feels good. There's something about the musicality of the samples, the diverse nature of things it includes and the energy that works, without feeling it goes overboard on just the beats - it still stays interesting.

The seven hundred seventy-ninth song: Didi - Khaled

Every once in a while, French music broke through to me, and in the late nineties that did include the occasional Algerian French track, or similar. While this rai track doesn't fully reflect that, there's already a modern sensibility in here that I don't think you would have gotten earlier, a style that got mixed with hyped up jazz and a more modern electronic sound even if the vocals stay traditional - they're just married together in a way that feels really satisfying still.

The five hundred and ninety-fifth album: #595 George Michael - Faith

It's really impressive how George Michael here builds on what he did at Wham!, having the same pop background but mixing in large amounts of funk and other influences. The tracks are distinct, with different focuses on each - Father Figure builds more on vocals while I Want Your Sex has its lyrics be almost perfunctory while the dance sound and other parts are more important. A lot of the album revolves around love songs, and in hindsight some of it, like the talk about danger in One More Try, has a deeper meaning, but it is clearly also the topic he wants to write about here.

The two hundred and fourteenth classical recording: #446 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony

Tchaikovsky's dream-like music comes through in this symphony as well, with the movements swaying, lengthy passages taking their time to convey their emotion, often more thereal than most. There's some darker parts in it, but it's still mostly varied and gives quite a lovely, evocative atmosphere.

The five hundred and ninety-fourth album: #594 The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Floodland is a dark album, the gothic music creating that sense of darkness and depression. There's a lot of beautiful, synth-heavy work in this and the build up is great for it. It feels bleak a lot of the time, but the energy contained in it is really powerful, a good counter balance for an album that really does something well.

The seven hundred sixty-third song: Cop Killer - Body Count

There's something in the anger of this song that doesn't only transfer to today, but seems more present. Especially in the US, there have been major issues with law enforcement and this is the anger that's been there for some time. The song itself is an interesting metal song, but it's so open and blatant about how it feels that its ban doesn't surprise me - even if not out of nowhere.

The seven hundred sixty-fourth song: Pretend We’re Dead - L7

More innocent, perhaps, Pretend We're Dead is a song about life with a fatalistic, dark bend, with the flat vocals leaning into the boredom and dislike that comes through as the feeling of the song. It's more energetic in its music, but there's still that flat mood that it describes really well.

The seven hundred sixty-fifth song: My Drug Buddy - Lemonheads

The maudlin sound of this track creates a sadder love song, a story about what connects them clear from the title alone, but there's something very tender about it as well. The wistful, slow rock is quite pleasant and it ends up being a really sweet song.

The seven hundred sixty-sixth song: Shake Your Head - Was (Not Was)

We have another house remix of a rock song, as we've been having some before, and here it really feels like a new song - the new vocals help with that, together with with the dominant beat. It's a good dance track to listen to, although I wonder what the point is of referencing the original song at this point. It's a style that feels a bit overdone now, but especially with Ozzy Ozbourne's contrasting vocals, there are places where it really works.

The seven hundred sixty-seventh song: Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers

While there's a hint of anthemic sounds in this track, it feels like it tells a smaller story, sticking to an empty feeling that appears to dominate a bit at this point in music. It's a soft rock, alternative story, but properly sweet to listen to.

The seven hundred sixty-eighth song: Creep - Radiohead

The opening of this song follows its title. The lyrics are obsessive. The vocals are subdued, not whispered, but somehow holding back. The instruments are constrained, keeping things simple for the most part. It bursts out in attacks of aggression from time to time, but, as feels appropriate, a lot of the threat lurks brilliantly. It's genuinely an amazing debut.

The seven hundred sixty-ninth song: Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine

If I look at what music really formed my musical tastes growing up, Rage Against the Machine sits on the side. Emotional and overblown as a teenager, this burst of aggression really works to try to leave your stamp on the world. Even now, the burst works, the messages and feelings connect and there's a metal and rock attitude that still works for me.

The seven hundred seventieth song: Connected - Stereo Mc’s

On the other side, we're getting something relaxed, something more chill to change the mood. This is a simpler song about human connections, setting up a good melody with some nice and welcoming lyrics. It's a nice electric hip hop track.

The five hundred and ninety-third album: #593 Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses

There is a darkness to Music for the Masses that fits its avant garde new wave aesthetic, an underlying menace to what otherwise would be a more upbeat sound. Lyrically it's especially dark, often featuring haunting vocals with a text that has some dark interpretations from time to time. It's incredibly engaging, with more depth than it feels new wave tracks generally have, and something like Little 15 strays so far, it's hard to see the connection between the upbeat sounding tracks.

The two hundred and thirteenth classical recording: #615 Reinhold Gliere - Symphony no. 3 "Ilya Muromets"

There is something bombastic about this symphony, creating a large atmosphere from start to finish. It has its story, somewhat recognisable once you read about it, but it is good without it as you can detect your own story and progress in it.

The two hundred and fourteenth TV show: #3 The Lone Ranger

With another Western, today's semi-outlaw is anonymous to most as his squad of rangers was murdered at the start of the series. He's masked for most of the show, although it's almost just a gimmick while it can move between the different stories. It's a clear inspiration for the westerns that followed, more mobile than Hopalong Cassidy's more set location. It's fine considering the era, but obviously quite dated now.

The five hundred and ninety-second album: #592 The Cult - Electric

As a direction to take your band in, I'm not sure whether copying the greats of hard rock and metal in the past works best. Electric does what it wants - create an album of good hard rock - but in a way that this list has made to feel to be a dime a dozen, and I don't really see much in here that makes it stand out or give me anything else special.