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.