The seven hundred ninety-fifth song: It Ain’t Hard to Tell - Nas

While a strong rap track, there's something more mellow about it in a way that works quite well - the lyrics are aggressive enough, but the underlying beat quiet enough to compensate for that well.

The seven hundred ninety-sixth song: Inner City Life - Goldie presents Metalheads

The gorgeous soul vocals in this track contrast with the heavy electronic bass that comes through later, a slightly disconcordant mix where I'm not sure the two alway smatch up, instead often having them play as two tracks at a time. Both good, but I'm not sure it's a combination that entirely does what it wants to for me.

The seven hundred ninety-seventh song: End of a Century - Blur

This is a pretty standard pop song, a bit critical of current life and how everyone is aiming for safety, in a way that does feel familiar now but perhaps not saying as much as I could. It's fine.

The seven hundred ninety-eighth song: Connection - Elastica

This is a pretty standard punky pop rock song from the nineties, with a synth intro and some okay lyrics. It goes hard on the guitars, it has good female vocals, and probably serves mostly as a good example of the genre.

The seven hundred ninety-ninth song: Confide in Me - Kylie Minogue

The orchestral opening of this track takes its time to go into the more poppy follow up, a heavy beat sitting under some incredibly sensual vocals from Kylie that features her at her strongest. There's a bit of edge to it, a clear danger in the music, with middle eastern elements adding something seductive to it. It works on several levels, all amazing to listen to.

The eight hundredth song: Your Ghost - Kristin Hersh featuring Michael Stipe

A wonderful ballad, mostly featuring Kristin Hersh's perfect vocals for this song, Michael Stipe's addition feels like a perfect support - never overwhelming, but adding to the the effect and the story in a way that makes a lot of sense.

The eight hundred first song: Doll Parts - Hole

As a grungey love song, this is something that hits that beats quite well, and the build works well enough. 

The eight hundred second song: 7 Seconds - Youssou N’ Dour featuring Neneh Cherry

A Wolof-English duet is not something you'd expect at first, but the poppy ballad is gorgeous, everything perfectly placed, and the two voices work well together, the langage barrier suggesting a distance that builds on that. The chorus is one I've heard before and hits, but so does the remainder of this track. It's just worth being in here.

The eight hundred third song: Live Forever - Oasis

This is the next larger name coming in, and Oasis delivers on their anthemmy pop rock, a chorus to sing along to while having a simple set of lyrics. It's all straight forward, but that's also the thing that works here.

The eight hundred fourth song: Cut Your Hair - Pavement

This is a pretty straight forward rock song, making the point of society's expectations but also staying pretty light during it. It's pretty simple and fun, nothing complicated, but it works.

The eight hundred fifth song: All Apologies - Nirvana

Obviously notable as their final single, this track just fits the Nirvana feeling - grungey, angry, a bit depressed, and distancing themselves from life. It's doing its job really well, telling its story and giving you that grunge feeling to enjoy.

The five hundred and ninety-ninth album: #599 The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come

Strangeways is a pretty poppy, accessible album to listen to, the ballads and more upbeat song balancing quite well. The lyrics that follow are more interesting, focusing on the darker side a fair bit, with Girlfriend in a Coma not hiding the panic it wants to reference. It doesn't go over the top, either musically - where it's often quite pleasantly constrained - or lyrically, where it feels like it stays grounded. It has such a perfect mix of everything going on here, art without being pretentious, accessible without being dumbed down, that it is still a great album to listen to.

The two hundred and sixteenth classical recording: #795 Dag Wiren - Serenade for Strings

This is a short, joyous piece - a lot of fast violins galloping through the music as it goes through its climax. It works really well - it sets a tone and a feeling that I cannot escape.

The five hundred and ninety-eighth album: #598 Astor Piazzolla & Gary Burton - The New Tango

I wasn't expecting a jazz-infused tango album today, a combination of some tango sounds with the speed and feel of the jazz albums we mostly listened to about five hundred albums ago. It's a weird mix, the urgency of the tango creating a speed you don't normally get with jazz, but it not reaching the joy of the tango either. The album is set up as a concert recording and it does feel like it's almost more a classical track than something more contemporary.

The seven hundred eightieth song: Animal Nitrate - Suede

As a glam rock song with a dark bent, this track doesn't make the biggest impact, but it is still quite listenable. It's good at hitting its rocky beats and setting up its build, even if it doesn't fulfill as much for me.

The seven hundred eighty-first song: La solitudine - Laura Pausini

Some songs become known for their many translations - here I have the English version, there's an Italian original, and I grew up with a Dutch translation (by a gay performer, still using masculine pronouns, adding a different dimension to the song). It's still beautiful and lovely no matter what, the anguish and exhaustion breaking through constantly.

The seven hundred eighty-second song: Rumba Argelina - Radio Tarifa

We're getting another twist here, a world music song that combines Arabic sounds with a flamenco song and vocals. It feels fairly sparse, no electronics involved, and builds a timeless song that comes together beautifully.

The seven hundred eighty-third song: Loser - Beck

Why is this chorus so memorable? The rapping isn't the best, the chorus is somewhat slurred, none of it sounds too convinced, but there's just something that strikes you in the refrain that sticks in my mind - even if the verses don't feel like they matter much in comparison. Perhaps it's that slacker vibe that just connects.

The seven hundred eighty-fourth song: French Disko - Stereolab

Dominating as an electronic pop track, the underlying guitars, occasionally popping up for a hard solo, adds a lot of edge to what would otherwise be a far calmer song. The lyrics are there, but in the background, fading almost into irrelevance, as the music fights with itself for dominance. It keeps hitting those sounds harder as time goes on, but keeps returning to that avant garde root.

The seven hundred eighty-fifth song: Into Dust - Mazzy Star

A sparse arrangement - a rhythm guitar and a distant cello seems to be all I hear - really brings Hope Sandoval's vocals to the front, a vulnerable, gentle sound that creates a slow, sweet song with a quiet melody. It's a sweet delight to have lingering.

The seven hundred eighty-sixth song: Rid of Me - PJ Harvey

I'm not sure whether this might have been an odd mix, but PJ Harvey's vocals on this track are in the background for a lot of it, at least at the start, and it creates a distance that ties into the themes of the song. It's probably a bit much to be fully successful for me, so if it's intentional, it's a bit of a shame, and if it's not - the dark guitar with its aggressive occasional outbursts really works well, but the darkness in her voice really helps to build on it.

The seven hundred eighty-seventh song: Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen

We've got Springsteen as an ongoing companion for this era of the list. Here we have a slow and mostly maudlin rock song in his style, getting lost in the streets and getting lost in life, without much hope. It works pretty well to create its mood and tell of its feeling of depression.

The seven hundred eighty-eighth song: Laid - James

The lyrics of this song feel like they have the punk defiance, avoiding societal expectations and commenting on them, with an upbeat sound with some punky influences and a bit of offbeatness, it still feels like it keeps its message clear. short, simple, but staying accessible.

The seven hundred eighty-ninth song: Open Up - Leftfield-Lydon

A powerful electronic track, the beat of Open Up is persistent, while Lydon's vocals are perhaps not the most powerful, but have enough impact without overpowering the music. It probably isn't fully needed, but it adds additional interest for the first five minutes, while linking to the slower post-breakdown final two minutes.

The seven hundred ninetieth song: Possession - Sarah McLachlan

As a pop song with a stronger beat, the dark lyrics are there in the music as well, a deep sound that resonates through you. It's a powerful song with an interesting message that keeps its power.

The seven hundred ninety-first song: Cannonball - The Breeders

The basic melody of Cannonball is good, a straightforward interpretation handled with simpler vocals, but one that has some real staying power as well. It has its harder interludes, but this is such a good rock song with its added solos and distorted vocals in places that it contrasts really well with its simpler main parts.

The seven hundred ninety-second song: C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan

I've talked about the rapid growth and development of rap in this time before, and here it feels like it solidifies this darker style, one that's unapologetically about crime and life on the street. It feels like it builds up its own myth more than might be justified, but it creates its sound so well that I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I think I enjoyed them in the past.

The seven hundred ninety-third song: Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs

There have been several covers of this song, but this feels like it's one of the more powerful ones, with a rockier instrumentation that really sells the story. It's a well built track and this is one great interpretation of it.

The seven hundred ninety-fourth song: Ching soortikchulerining yryzy - Huun-Huur-Tu

We're ending with a Tuvan song, not a country I ever really thought of as a music style I'd ever get to hear. What stands out are its emphasis on what sounds like throat singing and the the sprse string-based instrumentation. It's an interesting sound, the vocals really giving it its own flavour, and one of those tracks I'm glad to have heard and experienced.

The five hundred and ninety-seventh album: #597 Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

Even without their apparently disorienting stage presence, Butthole Surfers' third album Locust Abortion Technician seems designed to keep you off balance. While having a hardcore punk base, it builds on it with sound effects, backwards playing, bizarre vocal interludes and sketches and a whole lot of darkness. It's a lot, overwhelming you from start to finish, and it's hard not to have it feel like it's too much sometimes.

The two hundred and fifteenth classical recording: #801 Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade for Music

Today we cover a shorter serenade, setting a Shakespearean sonnet to music. The music is straightforward, often supporting the choir and soloists, interspersed with bursts of energy. The choral aspect is what is really fascinating, sixteen soloists that also form a complicated choir between the solo phrases. It packs a lot in its short length, but because of it can stick to its focus as well. 

The two hundred and fifteenth TV show: #7 Your Show of Shows

It's weird that when I went to try out some clips of this shows before diving into a full episode, one of the sketches was for This Is Your Life, a show I'll cover soon as well... and was one of Sid Caesar's favourites, the over the top emotions doing all the work rather than relying just on punchlines. It's friendly fare, keeping a good mood in there, even if the jokes are occassionally dated - I guess you can't avoid that.

The musical interludes, accompanied with different types of dancers, are more apart of the variety genre than really stealing the show here, with the ballet in particular feeling a bit out of place. I guess it's a necessity of the live shows, but the comedy is such a big part of why you're here that the interruptions still feel off. Add to that the small gags like a proud continuation of the Gongman introduction sequence and so much of this just becomes that much more enjoyable. It holds up surprisingly well, considering the show is about seventy years old now.

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.