I have absolutely no idea how I found this song, but it's an insanely infectious song that makes being grown sound so fun. Now, if you recall from my previous 'Now Playing' post, I was describing another song that also encapsulated a specific time in the early 2000s, right? I make it all the way to my late 20s so where in the world are these type of events at? A bunch of (sexy) grown people dancing and listening to music at an after party, mingling and having fun... Did I miss the train again? Well, at least with the visual and the music in consideration, it does create vivid imagery in my head of what that room would look like had I been there (living vicariously once again.) It's the year 2001, it's been an entire year since we thought the world was going to explode because of Y2K, all of the music of the day feels like a celebration. We made it! Let's dance! Let's flirt! Let's do it again! Maybe, this does exist somewhere in the modern day, but would perhaps be more niche with new modern social dynamics involved, but we can very easily just listen to this song and be transported to that time.

I'll save much of what I want to say for later, but since I am taking a risk now to share what has truly been in my rotation I will briefly state that the Sonic Adventure series had some incredible music. Rouge's theme is one of my absolute favorite character themes and I had not known until recently that there was a full song!  The first two 3D platformers in the Sonic series are my absolute favorite games of all time. It is only associated with some of my fondest memories.. Thank you, SEGA!

This song came out when I was in high school. A friend of mine sent this song to me when it came out and they were particularly excited about the director of this music video being Donald Glover who was at the time rumored to be dating Jhené (which this particular friend was seemingly invested in). I personally really enjoy the sonics (haha) on this song. There is a lot of distance that's being simulated with the drums and vocals that I find pretty mesmerizing. The chords speak to me though.. They sound exactly like something that would pique my interest.. And when they bring in those metallic sounding strings toward the end... *chefs kiss*

I found this song on Tumblr back in high school (my original blog space), but if I remember correctly, it was actually a slightly lower quality version of it. I only mention this because I didn't remember how clear Aaliyah's vocals were on this track. If I'm being completely honest, I actually wish I had that lower quality version because it had a certain level of rawness in the mixing that actually made the song sound really down to earth like it was produced in a bedroom. But if anything, this is a very sweet song.. I really love the sound of her voice in this track.

Not to be bleak, but this song is heavily ingrained into my psyche because I vividly remember staying over at my grandfather's house, but I can't recall exactly what exactly the reason was.  I just remember being really troubled in that season of my life (I've been trying my best thus far to not to include anything sad or negative in my blog posts but I'm bending that rule for the sake of this write-up) and I couldn't sleep.. Maybe, I was afraid to sleep or something.. so I decided to browse on the TV until finally I gave up and decided to play music. This song comes up on a random station I chose and the sound of it comforted me in an almost spiritual way. I knew I had to remember it.. There was another song too, but it pains me to say that I actually lost track of what that song was. Anyway... music is a wonderful thing.. I'm grateful to have heard this song when I did. It really helped me a lot up until this point.

I was at one point watching some old anime that I had backlogged years ago and finally got to watching this particular anime, Boogiepop Phantom. It's a pretty avantgarde series, but what stood out to me in particular was the opening theme of the anime. I went on a search for it checking the OST, but couldn't find that song on there. I did however find an OST with incredible cuts in it (which I did not at all hear in the series!! What??) Fast forward a bit, my brother and I were sharing a car. He works part-time at the food court, mostly  late afternoon/early evenings.. My dad dropped him off  a bit after I had to head out to go to work,  and I worked a swing shift from 2pm to 10pm (14:00 to 22:00). When I got out, it would be about the time for me to pick up him up from his job. We would agree upon driving 30 minutes out to a Sichuan Hotpot place north of where we lived.. I decided to play this entire OST on the way up there and we absolutely loved it.. This song is the first track from the OST and it reminds me of those late night car rides where my brother and I would get food after work—an anthem for a 'Happy End'.