#410-#406

 #410. Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal - B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All) (#2, 2022)

40th of 2022

Something I like to tell myself is that even if I wasn't old enough to properly experience times of the past, music charts can be one way to imagine what it's like. The prestige of reaching certain chart heights can vary a little, but as long as you keep it in perspective, you can imagine what it might have been like when "Come On Eileen" or "Working Class Man" were fresh hits. The more I dive into it though, the muddier it gets. I can't help but think about the SoundScan era shift in the US and start wondering if I'm being sold a lie. There are obvious clues. I scan through Fred Bronson's Billboard Book of Number Ones and see patterns emerge. There were a lot of #1 hits in the 1980s, many of them lasted for a single week. After they're unseated, they're immediately out of the top 5. It's pretty similar to the system in place for the Country Airplay charts, where it's effectively rigged to make #1 hits feel frivolous. Thomas Rhett has had 23 #1 hits and counting. Only a handful have missed the top since he became a breadwinner and most of those got to #2, probably trapped behind big hits that couldn't get unstuck, or otherwise they reached #1 for a day and that sufficed. In both cases though, there are enough genuine smashes to lend credibility to the system, so you can look at the list of #1 hits and see enough that make sense that you'll overlook those oddities that don't seem familiar. Easier to just trust the system that tells you "Venus" was unseated by "Take My Breath Away".

It's interesting though to see the way we tend to look back at these historical records. Part of why we pay so much attention to it is because it is the final argument. Anyone obsessing over this is probably going to look at the #1 hits pretty early on, and that can get those hangers-on to get a second chance at credibility from people who didn't have a say on the first go around. I don't know if this actually happens, because it feels like the enduring songs tend to just be the ones people like. Often #1 hits, but often not. When the Billboard Hot 100 has so many years of slightly dubious data, it just ends up filled with a catalogue of songs that don't feel like they've stood the test of time. I've spent the time I was writing these two paragraphs listening exclusively to Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, the group that scored two #1 hits in 1987, but probably don't illicit much of a reaction to many people. They both only spent a single week at #1, and were knocked off by much more famous songs, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", and then "Bad", all the makings of a stop gap.

I've also found it interesting to look at the history of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Apparently there's going to be a biopic, though I suspect it won't be as popular as the current one about Bruce Springsteen, a man with no #1 hits (though I will note that Manfred Mann's Earth Band scored a #1 hit by covering "Blinded By The Light"). It's funny though because Lisa Lisa is subject to a similar experience of the charts possibly underselling her. I am constantly struck with familiarity when I'm listening to songs of hers that weren't #1 hits. The most famous one is probably "I Wonder If I Take You Home", famously interpolated by The Black Eyed Peas. You've also got "All Cried Out", famously covered by Allure, and "Can You Feel the Beat", famously sampled by Nina Sky. Honestly I'm pretty down with all the stuff I've heard tonight. The sound is undeniably stuck in the 1980s, but it's a sign of things to come with Janet Jackson & Paula Abdul a little bit down the track. Just very fun music with some great melodies (I think "Can You Feel the Beat" is my favourite, that hook just comes out of nowhere). Anyway there's one I left out. Just barely cracking the Billboard top 40 but topping the R&B chart was the song "Let The Beat Hit 'Em". The 3rd 12" release of the single had an 8 minute LL w/Love RC Mix with more of a club vibe, that's the version that's gonna sound very familiar to you if you've heard "B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All)" before.

For my money, "B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All)" might just be the strangest megahit of the 2020s so far. It's something that goes beyond just the fact that it was a hit, but how quickly it asserted itself. TikTok virality does tend to be the answer, but it was strange seeing something so low key just vault from nowhere to the top 5 at breakneck speed. In the UK it debuted at #45 and 2 weeks later it was up to #2, on its way to eventually topping the chart for 2 weeks. It was all just so strange, and for a short moment I caught myself resenting it. Who do you think you are, coming out of nowhere with this absolutely egregious song title & artist names combination? Eliza Rose, The Baddest Interplanetary Criminal Of All, we're nearly onto crafting a Carpenters classic here. There's an additional layer of confusion, because as an Australian, I have to point out that we already have our own DJ named Elizabeth Rose ("The Good Life" still sounds so good), though she records under the name BRUX nowadays. Probably convenient to dodge some confusion, but I won't pretend I didn't have a double take at the time either.

Still, this made the song a pretty big deal at the time, a song by a female DJ going to #1 in the UK was mostly unheard of. You have to go back to "It Feels So Good" by Sonique, and skip through two decades of guys like Basshunter & David Zowie getting it all for themselves. From what I can tell though, there's a slight caveat with this since it seems like Interplanetary Criminal (a guy) is actually the sole producer behind this track, so Eliza Rose is a producer, but she's just the one singing on the song this time. There's also the curious tidbit that this is the song that was #1 in the UK when Elizabeth II died, ending a reign that started 9 months before the British pop charts, making it the only chart reign to last across the reign of two monarchs (I am ignoring the broken reigns of Mariah Carey & Wham! for this, but that's all there is either way). Whoever made the fake meme about BBC Radio pausing a club mix to announce the death of Her Majesty really could've used this track, because when it comes to ruling Britain for the longest period of time possible, she really was the baddest of them all.

The success of this song felt like a further surprise in the Hottest 100 context. The charts keep me on the pulse, but sometimes there's just no telling which solid top 10 chart hits are #1 contenders, and which ones are also-rans. This was a hit about the size of "Vegas" (#657), from two artists with no history, not much of a profile and a song that doesn't really fit in with any established notion of what's due to pop off here. It might have just been a slow year though. "Say Nothing" (#472) winning the thing doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in it being a showstopping year, but still, there could not possibly be a less well known artist to come within an inch of winning things. I could not blame all the people who had never heard of this before, it's just not in your face enough to be that kind of novelty. After the songs I perhaps preferred fell out of the race though, I found myself rooting for this. The most interesting results open the door to the most interesting futures beyond it. Flume probably got a few less people crashing out though, so maybe the land of discourse was spared another skirmish.

Most of all though, I'm glad we got this. You'll get mixed results from when triple j are clearly just plucking out hits from the charts to put in rotation, and the validity of what ends up going through. I think songs like this make a strong positive contribution, both to the credibility of what can be a pop hit and a triple j hit. Both sets are constantly putting themselves in a battle to introduce new things to an audience that's probably pretty content with having what they're used to. Which is why Flume's second Hottest 100 winner beat Eliza Rose, and why "B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All)" peaked at #4 on the ARIA Chart during a week when the top 2 singles were "I'm Good (Blue)" and "Super Freaky Girl". Interplanetary Criminal is allowed a pass from the sample Hall Monitors. To bring it around full circle, I think this is one of the isolated hits that can tell us the most about the experience of 2022. I also quite liked Eliza Rose's later single "Take You There", but gee, not a lot of people even heard it. Lucky for her, I can use the phrase Scottish DJ for the 7th time now to describe the man who saved her from being a total one hit wonder in the UK. Maybe she's got another one in her someday though.

#409. Billie Eilish - The 30th (#84, 2022)

40th of 2022

Most episodes of Six Feet Under start the same way, a short scene where someone dies at the end of it, followed by a fade to white that shows their full name and lifespan. There's some variety to it. Sometimes it'll be conventional, other times totally bizarre. Can be kind of like a Final Destination scene where it'll look like death itself is out to get someone, but then it might not be who you're expecting. Much like the show in general, it'll balance the serious moments with the macabre. You can only get so upset when an old woman appears on screen for two seconds to get killed by a wayward golf ball. On the other hand, sometimes it just puts you on edge. You see a family with children driving in the city in a car, tension has already fired up before anything happens. The inevitable happens but the scene fades before anything graphic happens. Then you just get every single name from that car ride appear with the same year of death and realise it's actually much worse than what you thought might happen. I'll likely say it again, it's a really impactful show that doesn't shy from looking at the very messy reality and after-effects of death.

Maybe that's not especially relevant when it comes to Billie Eilish. I could point out that she has a song called "Six Feet Under", but it's not gonna come as a shock to say 14 year old Billie wasn't actually writing songs about HBO dramas that are older than she is. The Weeknd plausibly could have but his song of the same name isn't either. I can't help but think of something I saw recently though when I'm presented with a Billie Eilish song that's about witnessing a near-fatal car crash. I think it's about someone she knows although she's understandably not very open about discussing the topic, and I'm not about to slow down what I'm doing to look at the details of a car crash.

This is the less popular of the two songs on the "Guitar Songs" EP, alongside "TV" (#645). I think there's some credit to be given that it's here though. Usually when an artist releases two songs at the same time, one quickly asserts itself to be the hit and the other one falls by the wayside. Remember when Drake released "Scary Hours"? "God's Plan" (#507) did the job, but look at "Diplomatic Immunity". It was tacked onto one of the biggest hits of the year and still hasn't hit 100 million plays on Spotify. It gets roughly 1% as many daily listens as its partner in crime. The ratios here are a little more respectable, "The 30th" nearly getting half as many at the moment.

This has always been the one of the two I leaned more towards. On a superficial level, it's more exciting. It's not the catchiest sing-along or anything like that, but once you get to the bridge, there's a general intensity you don't get elsewhere. It's a little mental breakdown moment where all allusions are torn down and replaced by incredibly real thoughts that are going through someone's head during a crisis. It ends with the 'you're alive!' mantra repeated which feels like an exasperated sigh of relief. Words I tend to live by are that things are never as good as they seem, but more importantly, never as bad as they seem as well. It's a way to appreciate what we've got.

#408. Skegss - Fantasising (#66, 2020)

34th of 2020

I make a weekly chart of my favourite current music. It's something I started doing back in 2008, when I was lamenting what had started feeling like a lacking year for music (I still feel that way about 2008 a little), and I wanted to specifically reinforce otherwise, because even when I was going through high school anxiety, I guess I was always insufferably optimistic. I didn't write it down anywhere though, I just thought about it in my head when I was stuck in class with nothing to do. I decided to start actually documenting it at the end of the year, on a spreadsheet that I still use to this day. By the time this post goes live, I'll probably be up to column AIC, as I've been documenting it all one week at a time for a very long time.

I've found some flaws in the system admittedly. I get locked into rigid pathways for it for my own convenience, but it probably means that I overlook some things if I don't see them straight away. I guess I'm a bit like the real charts in that regard. Some songs I absolutely adore just never appeared on this chart because I didn't think they were a right fit for it. I guess I don't pretend that it's ever all-encompassing, and it's better to just compare everything to that which they sit alongside.

A peculiar thing I noticed when I got halfway through this list is that one of the surprise winners was Skegss. Outside of their Like A Version (#740), they landed their entire set of original songs in the top half of the list, all 8 of them. There are only a small handful of artists who have more songs still to come than them, and they generally did so with much more chances to burn. I just think of this in respect to my own personal chart archive, because Skegss are just not a band with much to show for it on there. They've had just the one song to make a serious dent over the years (it will appear on this list), but almost nothing else. When I think of "Fantasising", I think about this, because it was technically the song that broke the drought. It just barely got in. I'm talking about a #77 peak on a chart that only goes to #80. If I was to take things literally, it had to be my favourite Skegss song at that point, right? Nah, I could never entertain that possibility, it's just too weird.

So it puts Skegss in this weird situation regarding how much credibility I was giving them. I could pay lip service to some past singles, but it feels a little fraudulent when I can't show live support in the moment. At that point, it's like joining in the victory party for a team you were actively hindering, making sure you stay on the right side of history. Still, if "Fantasising" can open the door for me giving Skegss a better chance in the moment, there's some value to that.

"Fantasising" is a good song! I listen to it and try to work out if it's doing anything particularly noteworthy that got me to stick with it on first listen. That might just be the effect of a few years of getting used to what they're doing, but then I hear the chord change for the chorus and start to reckon there's something in this. Sometimes it doesn't take much to get over the line, but then I guess they never exactly soared over there. I think listening to a playlist exclusively of songs that I reasonably like but never fell in love with might be a fun idea.

#407. The Smith Street Band - Surrender (#69, 2014)

44th of 2014

I grew up with the 1996 Australian edition of Monopoly. It's not one of those wacky variants that replace the streets with people or landmarks, but instead it's very faithful to the original purpose. All the streets are just notable streets from major cities, stopping off in Canberra for the two dark blue properties. This has been a monumental debuff to me when it comes to the niche world of Monopoly location trivia, something I might otherwise be pretty good at. Having to balance US & UK knowledge while most of my recollections fall onto an irrelevant one has been a catastrophic failure. I'm burdened with the gift of useless knowledge that actively counters the useful kind. I can't even really use it for Australian knowledge either because some of the names are so generic that it's not clear where they come from. There was a deli near Smith Street that I'd see very frequently when I was younger. I liked to think if I saved up $60, I could buy it. It wasn't really 'the' Smith Street, which I think is actually in Alice Springs. To make matters more confusing, there's now another famous Smith Street in Melbourne, forming the boundary between Collingwood & Fitzroy, because it's the one that's the namesake for a famous band.

The Smith Street Band have always felt a little weird on the triple j airwaves to me. Not because they don't fit on it, but because they're a band I became aware of before they hit these big leagues. It's not uncommon for triple j to be a tiny bit late to the party (looking at Ocean Alley, Lime Cordiale here), but this is one where I felt like I was witnessing a band doing their own thing and slowly becoming one of the standard bearers for what triple j music was. I guess I just never foresaw the rise in general. A lot of good buzz for sure, but I was seeing it in the circles that just don't translate to the general audience. Gareth Liddiard isn't getting a Hottest 100 entry any time soon, I don't think.

There's an unabashed Australian-ness to them that's gotten bigger in the years following, but it's always going to be strange when you first encounter it. There was always Eddy Current Suppression Ring, but they also only ever skirted with the notion of blowing up anyway. The Smith Street Band have a #1 album. I'll never forget my early experiences with the band, where I had Wil Wagner's singing pinned as an exact middle point between Serj from System of a Down and Nathan from Faker, though maybe it's a 30:70 split in hindsight. It was so uncanny that it was hard to fully get on board.

"Surrender" coming in at the funny number in 2014 was the clear indication that this band were making waves, and they certainly did end up doing so. I'll be going over them 5 more times after this. I'm not sure if this song is a deliberate push for the big time, but it feels like it in hindsight. It doesn't feel as oblique as we're potentially used to when it's all built around a catchy guitar riff and a big calling card hook. It's the kind that can cut through to you even if you haven't really been paying attention to everything around it. The song also comes with notable US producer Jeff Rosenstock, who'd produce this album, and the one after. I wouldn't necessarily call that a mainstream coup, but it does mean for some outsider influence. The band released an EP titled "Don't F**k With Our Dreams" the year before this, and here's a song to hold up that mantra as well. Seize the moment and be who you want to be, you don't have to surrender if you don't want to. There's joy to be had with the triumph.

#406. Mark Ronson (feat Miley Cyrus) - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart (#80, 2018)

45th of 2018

Mark Ronson is famous, right? I've known of him for ages, once again through the staggered approach of missing the important stage. I just knew him as the guy who only made cover versions, mostly of songs I didn't know, which sounded somewhat appealing, and then when he got to the songs I did know, they seemed wretched. But then, he wasn't the face of those covers really, outside of the memorable album cover. It was always a showcase for the performers on it. Daniel Merriweather basically launched his career in the UK through his "Stop Me" performance, and for how unplannably big The Zutons' "Valerie" got, it doesn't hold a candle to the Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse version in terms of popular impact anymore. That's basically a standard now.

With that in mind, I feel like Mark Ronson is always a background player no matter what happens. The only real exception that comes to mind is his "Record Collection" album, ironically the one that's credited as a collaborative whole, Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.. Maybe it still applies to some extent, since he didn't just pluck complete unknowns. One of the biggest songs on that album did so well because it had Boy George and Andrew Wyatt singing on it, lending some star power even if they wouldn't have gotten it off the ground otherwise. It's just that since then, the calibre of hitmakers he's been able to get from his rolodex has only gotten more ambitious. These are songs that are made to be hits because they've got performers who barely know how to not do that.

I've also known about Miley Cyrus for about the same length of time. Her Disney Channel tenure is right around on the cusp when I stopped watching it, but I did see some Hannah Montana at the time. I want to say my feelings were positive but really I didn't think much about it. When Miley Cyrus made the transition from fake pop star to actual pop star, it was at the point in time when I'd started paying more attention to the pop charts, but I was fairly negative on most of it, so I fell into negative feelings that must have outweighed my initial ones. I have a similar story to get to in the future like this. I'll admit on some level that I didn't fully appreciate the timbre of her singing, but I found myself justifying hatred towards nearly everything she ever released, like there was a part of me that never fully approved of the career shift, I dunno. She's one of the more unusual long term fixtures in the charts because she's usually waiting in the wings, but every now and then will become a main character with the right song. She had a huge career peak in 2013, inexplicably had the biggest hit song around the world in 2023, and then fell down the pecking order so rapidly that it made "Flowers" look like a collective hallucination. Either that, or it was the kind of hit that just got too big that it's impossible to follow up. It's what I'd say if I wasn't writing this underneath a Mark Ronson entry, who might be living proof that such a thing can't exist. Maybe Miley Cyrus will have another huge hit in the near future, I never seem to know who's in and out these days. My opinions on Miley's music have improved over the years. There's also a weird kinship I get out of her, as one of the famous musicians whose birthday is closest to mine. I associate "Party In The U.S.A." with my own high school graduation, and it's funny to think that she would theoretically be graduating at the same time under normal conditions (as far as I can tell, she didn't finish high school because of the whole Hollywood thing, I think they knew she was gonna be okay).

I would have hesitated to call Mark Ronson a one hit wonder at any point in time. His first top 50 hit in Australia, "Bang Bang Bang" wasn't big enough to really bother thinking about it, only it was big enough to be used as an argument once his second, much bigger hit came along in 2014 (you know the one). What a brilliant loophole he had going there. Anyway, if a song that only spent 7 weeks in the top 50 wasn't convincing enough for you, he'd come back 4 years later with a song that couldn't possibly be denied, a genuine top 10 hit that isn't just coasting off the surrounding hype. "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" proved that Mark Ronson was capable of returning to the pop charts.

It's funny though to look at it in hindsight. For a lot of huge star performers, you can look at their chart history and sometimes find odd quirks. The song where they make a strange genre pivot, the song they make for a random movie, or the song they do with a random artist. I was thinking about this with regard to Flume & London Grammar. "Let You Know" (#672) was a hit, but the kind of hit that was small for Flume and huge for London Grammar (at that point in time). When you look at it like that, it starts to feel like the two artists are dragging each other to their own trajectory. Everyone helps make the song a hit, but I often wonder if certain crediting situations can dilute the set up for potential listeners. I think most people are more interested to hear their favourite artists on the left hand side of the 'feat.' than the right hand side. It being their song specifically makes it feel like more of an integral part of their story, rather than just being a hired hand to build someone else's star.

At the time, I wouldn't have said any of this at all. It's just something that struck me in the wake of Miley Cyrus having a considerably bigger hit that could be described as disco-influenced pop. I'm choosing to deliberately misread the subtext of "Flowers" as a moment of enjoying the freedom of not being shackled down having to sing on Mark Ronson's song. A Miley Cyrus song is gonna have an easier time being an event single than a Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus song. Credit where it's due here though, "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" was about as big as I could imagine it being. Its low ranking in the Hottest 100 largely comes down to its November 29th release date. Probably just needed another month in the spotlight. It's in that context though that Mark Ronson helps Miley, as he'd already had 5 Hottest 100 entries before, whereas the only thing Miley had done was be sampled in a peculiar fashion on a song I'll tackle in the future.

I like this song. I spoke before about my initial disdain for a lot of Miley Cyrus singles. In many cases it's been improved to the awkwardly troublesome view of 'Alright, sure, it's good. But it's not good enough to justify that level of success'. This might have been the first song of hers that I felt that way about in the moment, and it can be an odd feeling to have. I suppose I might just have a greater spectrum for 'this is pretty good' than most people, because I can't really think of anything that ever gets universally declared as such. Maybe that's what the 'mid' brigade is really fighting. Once you've taken the time to acknowledge something, who other than me is going to sit on the fence as opposed to going all in with a declaration of disdain or adoration? Is everyone even wired to do that, or are we just so inundated with the opportunities to experience greatness that anything less is a waste of time? I never had any issues with the rest of the stuff I heard from the "Late Night Feelings" album, even though I didn't like it a whole lot more than this. It's the exclusivity of success that makes me want to scrutinise the lucky few, I think.

#415-#411

#415. Jack White - Lazaretto (#79, 2014)

45th of 2014

I've only ever encountered the word 'lazarette' (it means the same thing) elsewhere once in my life. It's one of the many either old-timey or seafaring words you hear in the brilliant deduction puzzle game "Return Of The Obra Dinn", that can't help but stick out. Up there with 'Twenty years in the can, and never a doubt on your sanity'. I remain jealous of anyone who hasn't played it yet because you only really get one chance to fully enjoy it. Anyhow, it's supposed to be a small cabin for cargo, but has an alternate meaning as a place to stow away troublemakers of some kind, or infectious people. That's how it turns up in the game, and funnily enough I think it's also what Jack White's talking about here.

I feel like I should have a long, storied history with The White Stripes but I really don't. The first time I ever consciously became aware of them was when "Icky Thump" was released in 2007 and was apparently a very big deal. Even in my early teens I was self-aware enough to realise there is going to be some missing context when I jump into the whole music thing a little late (wouldn't be the last artist with a hyped 2007 album here). There's value in being open-minded for things like this. It's how I discovered D'Angelo's music for instance, R.I.P..

Eventually this will make its way to the logical connection of 'oh, they made "Seven Nation Army", except I didn't really know that song previously either. Can't stress enough just how clueless I often was. It was all for a big anti-climax though because they'd never release another album after that. Closing on two decades now and still no reunion or anything. At least they stuck around long enough to do that guest appearance on The Simpsons.

Now that enough time has passed, the introduction doesn't really matter anymore, I know the music as well as I probably could either way. With that in mind, I've never really thought of myself as a fan really. I think they're a very well marketed band with the occasional single that really stands out, but I've just never been swept up in veneration like I may have for some other contemporaries. It's easy to say that their legacy is wrapped around having one of the most iconic rock songs of the 21st century, but that's ignoring just how much hype was going around before that song existed. The cart probably does go before the horse if anything in this case.

With that in mind, I've never really categorised Jack White's solo music in the same way. Maybe it really is just the marketing, but for someone with his level of esteem as a genius creative, it doesn't feel like the logical extension of swapping out a few personnel members. The first song I ever heard was his Bond theme with Alicia Keys. A banger for sure, but one that's being pulled in multiple directions that only thrives under chaotic conditions. It's nothing like anything I heard from his first solo album "Blunderbuss" (gotta be the most old-timey nautical kind of weapon, I know your game, Jack).

I was very taken aback by the title track from his second album "Lazaretto" though. Jack White tends to make headlines for strange reasons (remember his gendered backing bands?), and the talk with this one was that he broke a Guinness World Record by recording, pressing and releasing a live version of the track in just 4 hours. The studio version came out very soon after so the interesting news was still fresh. I just remember finding the song to be exciting, with stickier hooks that I was used to from him. It's a very strange song though, the kind that really could not be a hit in any measurable way at any point after this. It's rarely been more obvious that it's going to be an artist's last hurrah because when you're so far removed from your last career defining hit, it's so hard to sustain the spotlight outside of the diehards. Quaint is how I tend to feel about it now. Still a song I enjoy a lot, but one of those instances where my own hype at the time probably oversold it a little. Just realising I had to write about it here was so odd.

#414. Olivia Rodrigo - brutal (#60, 2021)

38th of 2021

I feel I have to tread lightly when I talk about this song because there's a temptation to say something along the lines of it being the kind of shock to the system that proves she's got something going for her that stands out. You know, it's not even a degree away from the most flagrant kind of rockism. I don't actually think that Olivia Rodrigo needs guitars to earn legitimacy. I also don't think that this is the marketing ploy she's deliberately going for. There's a long line of teen pop rock music that leans more to the rock side and doesn't come across as critic baiting. Whether or not Olivia Rodrigo is doing that, it's not important to me.

This is just necessary context to explain the absolute whiplash I got when I first heard this song. I was aware that she had leaned in this direction before (there is a notable single that was released just before this one, but it's too good for me to talk about yet). That might have had the opposite effect, however. That song on first impression might just establish a boundary on one side of the genre hopping fence, only for "brutal" to reveal an additional partition behind it. I don't feel any restraint or compromise in here at all. Damn the conventional Disney starlet to pop star icon, she wants to be a genuine rock star.

The shock has worn off a little in the years since. Partly because we're another album deeper and gotten plenty more helpings in this vein. Depending on how I'm judging it, "bad idea, right?" or "obsessed" might challenge "brutal" in living up to its namesake. It also got pointed out more than a few times that there's a resemblance to "Voodoo Child" by the Rogue Traders, by proxy of resembling "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello. Costello was fortunately a pretty swell guy about it and acknowledged his own inspiration, so nothing ever became of it. This is subtle foreshadowing, did you notice? The Rogue Traders connection gets to me because it reveals that my reaction of shock to "brutal" probably says more about the music of the time rather than anything of particular note being done here. It's sounding anachronistic but not in a way that feels beholden to a specific era, even if there are very specific examples that can be used.

Still, I found the whole thing interesting, witnessing the song's performance unfold. Olivia Rodrigo's debut album "SOUR" was successful in a somewhat unprecedented way. It started strongly, but seemingly through word of mouth managed to maintain it in a way that we just don't see ever. For instance, I'm writing this not long after Taylor Swift has released "The Life Of A Showgirl". It has been very successful, but in its second week of streaming, all of its tracks declined, losing roughly 50% of their streams. Olivia Rodrigo's declines were more in the range of 5-20% mostly, and two of the tracks actually climbed. We're dealing with different benchmarks here so I'll give Taylor Swift credit that every track for her stayed above 1.3 million streams in week 2, but only three did for Olivia. The 3rd week numbers come a lot closer though.

This is probably a whole lot of working together to make the meal. Even if you don't love every track on the album, it's not very long and she doesn't have much else of a discography at that point so you may as well just play it from start to finish. Usually though, you can always find at least 1 or 2 tracks that don't make the ascension, because once everyone has done their cherry picking, something will fall short. I guess just based on past instinct, it's something I was expecting from "brutal". Loud rock music has always felt like it doesn't have quite the numbers to back it up. In the age of instant grats and teased out singles, it always felt like the numbers came out against it. I think "State Of Grace" is one of Taylor Swift's best songs but the public has never really given it a stellar appraisal, even as the opening track to one of her most beloved albums. "brutal" just seemed to avoid this trap and perhaps find a way to make it work. It's obviously not one of her biggest singles, but it did well enough that I'm not surprised she's comfortable to continue in this lane.

All of this is to say alongside it all, I never could bring myself to loving the song. On paper, it's a really cool idea, and I don't have a nitpicky voice in the back of my head that thinks it's missing the necessary bite (could it go harder? Sure, but does it need to? Nah). Maybe I've just always been a little skeptical when I'm put in a position where it feels like I have to like the rock-leaning hit because it's saving the genre from the pits. Often times it's just not very good and I feel like a contrarian for thinking that way. I don't want to shame anyone specific, but this is better than that. It's just a fun song that doesn't have especially high ambitions beyond the first mission statement, as it's quite short and that's including a deceptive intro and outro. In this particular instance, I find the slowing down to be quite fun.

#413. Lime Cordiale - Money (#32, 2019)

32nd of 2019

What's 2019 doing out here matching positions to rankings so far ahead of where it should be on the list? God, it's brutal out here. That is to say nothing of the sheer magnitude of improbability to have all 16 Lime Cordiale entries tap out while we're not quite 60% of the way through the list. I don't like to be a hater though. I think (at least in the capacity of talking about music) it's a crutch that we fall prey to. So maybe someone does a list like this and gleefully just pulverises a discography so they and their audience can relish in putting it in its place (by the way it would be Drake, Kanye West or Tones and I, because it's praxis). Maybe I'll catch myself in time before doing it, maybe I won't, but whenever I find this way of thinking starting to invade my thoughts, I'm not proud of it. If all you want is retribution on someone who you've decided is pathologically incapable of making good music then I'm sorry, that ain't what I make now.

I suppose it comes from an internal desire to forge a villain. You need someone you can foist all of your problems onto because it helps fill out all the necessary bearings. It creates the feeling of an end goal. Things would be perfect if not for...such & such bringing everything down by association. The problem is that this never really works out. I don't think I've ever seen any contentment reached because the only thing that consistently happens is that the goal posts are shifted. Do you think that all anti-trans activists would suddenly go quiet if they got what they wanted? Absolutely not, they'd just go down the line to the next target of human rights. I think in general it's possible to lose sight of doing the right thing as well. Once you've got a bogeyman, it can get in the way of self-reflection and betterment. I guess another way to look at things is that if someone makes music you don't like, and you're consumed by this, then consider yourself lucky that it's the worst thing going on for you.

On one hand, I may have lamented to myself the undertaking when I put myself to the task of writing about Lime Cordiale 16 times, and choosing not to turn it into a race of gimmicks to get out of any effort. But reaching the end of this particular leg of the journey, I think I've valued the experience. The challenge comes from the fact that we all love gimmicks, and we all love unique stories. There are entries I get to here where I metaphorically rub my hands together after seeing it on the queue because I know there's an angle to tackle. With Lime Cordiale, I don't really get that. They've got one notable hit song that stands above the rest of the pile (#688), a few goofy singles they did with Idris Elba (#983), (#898), (#589) (sorry to the me of two months from now who finds setting up those links twice a week to be a little tedious at times). Then you've got the 75% where you've got to find something to dig into, and that's not always going to be a walk in the park. I think when we look at music, we tend to criticise music when we find these gimmicks, but secretly we crave it, because there's suddenly a rock to grab on this wall. The existence of the 'Wedding Version' of Alex Warren's single "Ordinary" doesn't affect me in any way, but I've seen more than one summation on the song boil down to 'This song sucks because I found out this other version exists'. Ultimately saying nothing because you don't have to, it's a 'Get out of discourse generation free' card. It can be a starting point, sure, but it's a reminder of how a lot of online discussion can come from people who don't really have anything to say. That's okay though. Experience makes the person, I just think it often comes a little later than we might think it does.

This is a lot to say without actually saying anything about the song, isn't it? Let's get the gimmick out of the way first. On the chorus, it sounds like Louis is appropriating AAVE and saying 'dat' instead of 'that'. I'd say I'm hearing things except every live performance I can find has him just clearly leaning into it. I don't know what the lime rationale is behind it, because this isn't like a YouTube short where you just pronounce something weirdly to drive up engagement from people correcting you. Maybe it's an over-reaction to the awkward mouth transition, where it's preceded by the word 'but', so two different 't' sounds in a row might not come out correctly. I haven't heard anything like this in any other Lime Cordiale song, it's just there, staring at me every time I hear the song.

I do think there's an interesting contrast though in this song compared to "Robbery" which polled higher in the same year. "Robbery" is an incredibly aggressive chorus highlighting song. By the 2:20 mark in both of these songs, you'll have heard about 1:20 of chorus in "Robbery", but only 18 seconds of it in "Money". They make up a bit for lost time after that, but it feels like less of a priority in this case. I think 'dat' aside, it's just not really the big highlight of the song, but instead it comes from a series of verses, pre-chorus, instrumental breaks and the like that all play around with the overall mood of the piece. Shout out to the fun little outro as well, which could probably go along a little longer. You've got the start of a really nice brass section that could underscore some kind of dramatic movie. Lime Cordiale in their jazz influenced era and I'm here for it.

I don't know if it's weird for this to be my favourite Lime Cordiale song. In the context of how it appears in this list, it's totally just another one in the grand scheme of things. I think though that it's well rounded in a way that can't be underrated. The occasional moments of weirdness are surrounded by what is generally an easy-going tune. I'm glad that going through this process helped me uncover it properly. Maybe I am just a contrarian at heart but I like when I'm able to challenge the extremely easy categorisation of who's agreeably good and bad.

#412. BROCKHAMPTON - SUGAR (#47, 2019)

31st of 2019

It's the 10th of January, 2020. There are multiple things occurring that I'm going to learn in the ensuing space of time. Things like the fact that I badly needed a new phone, one whose battery could survive a modest amount of usage during the day. I'd found that out because I went to see BROCKHAMPTON play a show in Perth, and I think by the time they came on stage, it had already gone flat (not that I would have gotten any good photos). The group would score their first ever ARIA top 50 single with "SUGAR" the next day, and I wouldn't know it then, but it'd also be their last, while they'd also never come back to Perth again. There was also that whole pandemic shortly after which made me appreciate what felt likely to be my only ever moshpit experience. One of a few things I was lucky for and timed up well. As their biggest hit, I can't help but think up the hypothetical person who only knows them for this song, and how bizarre the notion of a BROCKHAMPTON mosh pit must be.

I hesitate to say too much about the BROCKHAMPTON story yet because I know there are later opportunities to do so, that are probably more thematically appropriate given that this is pretty much the end of the ride right here. There are actually 3 more full length projects that came out after this, but the moment and spectacle had left. I don't want to call them a fad, just that they very quickly reached the likely zenith for what they were doing which is why most people felt it right to jump ship at around the same time. We're talking about what should by all intents and purposes just be a group who are big on the internet and go absolutely nowhere with it because their brand of hip-hop just doesn't fit the usually pretty rigid definition of what goes big. I'm thinking of acts like JPEGMAFIA, and then stopping before I say the ones that actually will show up here eventually. They managed a US #1 album though, and there's a version of this song that features Dua Lipa. The perks of making it onto RCA's roster, but still an echelon where they felt entirely out of place, only powered by the undeniable feeling that they had the sauce.

"SUGAR" is pretty different from the usual affair from BROCKHAMPTON. You can pretty quickly tell just from listening to it, but it goes beyond the superficial. Previously they've had a way of turning most of their songs into posse cuts. BROCKHAMPTON is a large group, whose number of members was often difficult to define, as it tended to include a number of people who were less visible on the projects. Longtime fans of Frank Ocean and that other guy probably could relate. When it comes to the performers though, you generally had a core 5 members: Kevin Abstract, Dom McLennon, Matt Champion, Merlyn Wood & Joba. Bearface was also there as especially prominent on certain tracks, while Jabari largely filled the gap left by Ameer Vann in the middle of the timeline. Things are different for "SUGAR", because Merlyn & Joba don't get verses at all, and while Kevin Abstract is often seen singing hooks, the job instead goes to featured singer Ryan Beatty for this song's chorus. I'd been familiar with him prior to teaming up with BROCKHAMPTON, "Bruise" is a really good song.

So is this BROCKHAMPTON's commercial push single? It probably comes out looking that way given how it all played out. I think beyond all the smooth singing and TikTok dances, you've got a song that balances its schmaltzy sentiment with some calm reflection on multiple forms of dependence. I don't claim to know how BROCKHAMPTON come up with their song titles or if they even assign them to specific songs from the outset, but I can think of a handful that fit the vibe, and "SUGAR" makes for a solid double entendre in that regard. It's one of those things that made the balance of BROCKHAMPTON work so well. Dom & Matt are never going to be as in your face and aggressive as Merlyn & Joba, but they provide a steady contrast that tends to make them a bit underrated for it. It does make me wish they could get their breakthrough with a song that showcases everything, and by gosh, "NO HALO" was right there (it polled at #113, alas). I didn't know Deb Never sung the chorus on that song ("Someone Else", another money maker), but at least here I've got more opportunities to spend all my nights alone, pondering the brief but wonderful BROCKHAMPTON era.

#411. Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking (#86, 2013)

53rd of 2013

Sleepwalking is a pretty trite topic. When is someone going to write a song about that experience you get waking up, getting out of bed, walking around for a little bit, and then realising you've done none of those things because you just woke up again. I got caught in a loop like this going maybe 5 times in a row and it's one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had. There's probably a correlation with my general grogginess in the morning. It's disorienting just what that 20-30 minutes can be like to full reboot yourself. Have I ever mentioned I have undiagnosed sleep problems. The reason they're undiagnosed is because I did a sleep study and didn't get enough sleep during it to find out anything. Those rare instances where I'll feel I had an effective sleep are just some of the best feelings. Can't stop chasing that high.

This is where I come clean and admit that this isn't actually a song about sleepwalking. Oli Sykes had an addiction to ketamine and this is describing some of his experiences as an addict. I don't have anything like that to relate to, so obviously I'm going to go on the more literal tangent. I'm happy for him that he seems to have gotten past it, but he's still not gonna make me re-watch that Columbo episode. I just don't think it's very good.

With "Sleepwalking", we're still in the curious bridging period where it's not clear where Bring Me The Horizon fit in with everything else. You can tell they were winning over a new audience because the sales were getting much more impressive, and they actually got two songs from "Sempiternal" to make the Hottest 100. It's rarely a smooth transition though, and I'll bet there were large swathes of listeners who weren't ready to welcome this iteration of the band. Make the pivot too quickly and it starts to feel like a joke. It's only after a couple more albums that we could look back at this and see that the transition was clearly here.

"Sleepwalking" does a few tricks to be accessible. Before there are any vocals, the intro eases you into it. It does end up on the louder side of things, but I think if you ignore what you're about to hear, it doesn't sound too dissimilar to something that The Getaway Plan might have done. The handful of breakdowns you get are never too disorienting, and the whole thing just feels made to be a stadium anthem. The angelic bridge feels like a staple of what's to come.

#420-#416

#420. King Stingray - Yellow - Like A Version (#43, 2022)

42nd of 2022

Prior to this I've mentioned Coldplay here 8 times. Their last Hottest 100 appearance was in 2005. I remember it seemed unusual when "Violet Hill" turned up on the voting list in 2008 since I didn't recall ever hearing it on triple j at the time, but it didn't make it in. It has me making one of the most aggressively early split points for an artist's career for what I'd call old Coldplay and modern Coldplay. It might just be the Gorillaz effect, or instead a matter of genuinely remembering when "Viva La Vida Or Death and All His Friends" came out, that stops me from ever associating it with the albums that had come out by the time they made that one joke about Coldplay in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I understand that this isn't a universal feeling. If you go by listenership nowadays and discard the outliers of "Something Just Like This" & "My Universe", Coldplay generally get split into three phases that line up pretty well with the exact decades of their careers. There are the songs everyone knows from the 2000s, the occasionally still popular singles from the 2010s, and then the mystery zone of the 2020s. It's much easier to just play it safe and stick with their most popular song, "Yellow".

I remember disliking "Yellow" at the time, or at least never thinking about it until Coldplay became a punchline and suddenly it's the face of a very easy-to-deride band. They've always been an inherently uncool band, but I had no concept of that at the time anyway so it didn't matter. The pretentious phase came and went, and constant re-appraisal allowed me to take the band and the song more seriously. I found it interesting how my timeline of events means that I've never been able to consider Coldplay as a triple j band, even though they were for years. When the special event Hottest 100s came around, "Yellow" felt like an outlier to me. The only entry by a band who were still relevant, but not in this circle. Lending credibility to a song that's only managed to pay it back by being more popular than ever. In late 2024, "Yellow" became the most streamed song on Spotify that pre-dates the platform itself. It recently moved into the top 20 of all time and it might start knocking on the top 10's door with the consistent gains it's making. Coldplay have well and truly won the war, seemingly worshipped by people who are not old enough to even remember those early years. Some of them might just be performing on this Like A Version.

In the canon of Like A Versions that are either playing it by the book or switching it up, King Stingray's "Yellow" gets the best of both worlds. You're introduced with an initially very different start, with rhythm sticks and didgeridoo sticking out the most. Once you get past the first chorus, that's when the band unleashes and gives any potential skeptics what they're looking for. The guitar is played so faithfully that it doesn't sound particularly different to the original version, a song that rocks harder than you remember, if you haven't heard it in a while.

It's one of those things that made it a tough sell for me initially. If you aren't willing or able to see the bigger picture, the little things can get in the way. You see that it's over 5 minutes long and it starts off very slow, there's an ominous dread to the whole thing. I think it was hearing the song for the Hottest 100, not being poisoned by a duration tag, that let me see it in a better light. If there's anything to take away from the whole thing, it's how the different setting to the usual King Stingray sound turns this into a showcase for Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu's singing. It feels like it's reverberating in a very powerful way that lends an extra emotional heft to a song that I otherwise like, but have never been taken aback by.

#419. G Flip - About You (#38, 2018)

46th of 2018

triple j's social media portfolio doesn't not really include Facebook anymore. Just one of the many social media websites that got too big to ever really control and slowly transformed itself into a showcase for some of the more deplorable sides of society. Personal growth and reflection? That's a laugh emoji right there, gotta regurgitate the most surface level observation and get all the thumbs ups possible. I can't decide if Twitter is worse or not, but triple j jumped ship from there just a little bit sooner (we're talking a matter of weeks, in August 2023). They're still around on Instagram and TikTok, and the vibe of the comments seems to be better.

It's a shame in the long term because it creates just a little less visibility for the station, and subsequently anything they choose to platform. The difference between supposed ubiquity and obscurity can sometimes just be that feeling of relentless attention that arrives when you see multiple promoted posts about the same thing, that never would have appeared at all if the first one didn't get there. It's so rare that anything can reach that level of popularity because we're all just drilled into our own circles, and there are less of these mediator channels to break the ice in an all-encompassing way. That's clearly how G Flip got their start.

It's just something you don't see anymore. The annual or thereabouts posts glazing the big prodigy artist who just uploaded a hit to triple j Unearthed. Ruby Fields was one of those, Tones and I was one of those, and in-between, we had G Flip. This was probably the most chips-in I'd seen from triple j. I still remember reading the article that was published shortly after "About You" went live, which is a massive throwback, not just for the reference points to artists who will eventually appear in this list, and surely wouldn't get referenced nowadays, but because we've seen the speculation pay off in full now. We're absolutely in that G Flip future and it all starts with "About You".

In this case, I have to give credit to the tastemakers who got us here. As someone who runs into a lot of dead ends myself, it's very difficult to have the confidence to say that the next big thing is in front of you. It's begging to be mocked as such a likely thing to not pan out. For every big success, there are a lot more Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jongs, bands that just never live up to that hype. Even with some of the biggest Australian success stories, the 2000s are filled with examples that can't really get out of the shadow of the first album's success. Wolfmother, Killing Heidi, Jet. They're not really one album wonders, but there's such a drop off that it feels like they've got an audience of hangers-on hoping for a second helping of the magic, and many more who didn't think they needed anything else from them. Maybe when the dust settles, G Flip might appear to be a two album wonder instead, but there's something inherently more encouraging when you reach your commercial peak so many years after the initial media cycle. That's when you know they're more than the hype.

I wonder among those who bought into the hype on the strength of this track, how many of them stuck with it. I always find it interesting when you have artists who carry through as being successful, meanwhile having a subset of a fanbase who are only interested in the early part of that career. Artists like Maroon 5, The Weeknd, Linkin Park. It can be a risky but necessary venture to branch out to new ideas, but inevitably the schism will form.

This only comes to mind because "About You" does just feel like it's cut from a different cloth for G Flip. We'd very quickly start hearing poppier numbers, while this is lumbering and thudding by comparison. Easy to look at it a showcase for 'look at what this drummer can do', and just a taste of the songwriting strengths to come. Maybe that's clouding my judgement when I say that it's some of the best drumming I've heard on record from them. I find myself appreciating it more for just being a star making moment. The song is a bit unusual on its own, but 7 years later and it starts to make a bit more sense.

#418. Odette - Watch Me Read You (#56, 2017)

41st of 2017

In 2007, just 2 of the 10 biggest hits of the year by Australian artists were songs and artists played on triple j (you could argue for 3 with "The Others", but triple j only ever played the original version at the time, not the TV Rock remix). Jump forward to 2017, and it's suddenly 8 out of 10. The other two were "Fallin" by Jessica Mauboy, and the remix of "Call On Me" by Starley. This is all the process of a slow assimilation where it felt like triple j was widening their net (in fact, Jessica Mauboy has been getting increasingly more plays on triple j in recent years), but also the alternative avenues falling away. We just didn't have those pathways to create local stars that weren't tied to the triple j brand and culture, no more Cassie Davis, no more Amy Meredith. In theory then, if everything stayed the same, then the people who would have otherwise become those stars are still people out in the country today, they might even be musicians all the same. This is something I thought about when I heard Odette for the first time.

Maybe I'm off base, but when I listen to "Watch Me Read You", I imagine seeing it on Video Hits, performed on Rove Live and eventually be nominated for 3 ARIA Awards. It'll peak at #18 on the charts and hang around for maybe 8-12 weeks. Odette just struck me as a Kate Miller-Heidke type who might vaguely be adjacent to triple j, but largely thrive outside of that ecosystem. "Watch Me Read You" could easily fit into the canon of fondly remembered Australian songs that are just a little bit weird, but that's how they made it in the first place. You can't help but pay attention to a song that shifts between spoken word and diva singing. Maybe a little too weird to fully shoot to the top, but the fans will be there. Odette was just born too late to be a moderately big star like that, she had to take a different avenue. I'd never think I'd be hearing something like this on triple j even 5 years prior.

The curious irony that comes with this is the admission that the standards have changed quite a bit. The scenario I described brings a level of infamy, maybe even a Gold selling single with Platinum within reach, but then if numbers are your game then Odette's achieving it anyway. She's got three Gold singles (this surprisingly isn't one of them, but it might be on a countback. A handful of ARIA Award nominations too, just missing any kind of cultural moment to become (even if only briefly) a household name. To repeat what I said exactly 3 weeks ago, moments make the legend.

For my purposes, Odette's made it, but then I have a lower bar than most. I'm talking about her here though so that's what counts. My feelings about "Watch Me Read You" largely circle around the initial reaction. This is a song that cannot help but stand out when you hear it for the first time. Not because it's doing any one thing in an unusual fashion, but because it's built from disparate elements, and allowing a potential in. I don't think spoken word is for everyone, but you're likely disarmed after the fact when she does include a more conventional hook on the other side of it. Getting over that initial kneejerk reaction has allowed me to enjoy something I might have otherwise dreaded and been glad to consign to the past.

#417. Arctic Monkeys - There'd Better Be a Mirrorball (#77, 2022)

41st of 2022

Earlier today I was having a conversation about the merits of certain release strategies. Something we've become more used to over the years ever since a certain American popstar led the way in 2013, (turning their name into a verb, depending on who you ask), it has become a standard model for the biggest of names to unveil their entire albums all at once. There are different versions of this, ranging from stealth drops to one day warnings, or to full weeks advance notice. Maybe there will technically be a single in hindsight as a previously knocked out release just finds its way onto the track list seemingly as an afterthought. Regardless, it's a model that seems to have been adapted because it works. Releasing a lead single obviously has its merits because it can give you momentum going in, but I suppose if you're an artist with the stature of a Taylor Swift or a Kendrick Lamar, it's not quite as important to try and find some new suitors. I figure there's the chance to backfire. If someone doesn't like the lead single, that could put them off the project completely, and then even if they do like it, there's the temptation to see it as probably the best cut already, with no need to listen to the rest. The labels want you to listen to the whole thing, and this seems to be the best method to lead a horse to water.

It's interesting to see this with respect to the two most recent Arctic Monkeys albums. While they've not been averse to changing up their sound over the years, this feels like the most drastic one because they were coming off the back of a huge career revival with "AM". That's arguably the biggest rock album of the decade, and the follow ups have been received without quite the same interest, as the band have pivoted to making slow, loungey piano tracks. They've done it both ways though. The first album was released without any singles in advance, while this one did it more traditionally, so you've got two different scenarios playing out. The first is a case of potentially hoodwinking customers, while the second lets you know in advance what you're getting. It means less sales potentially, but less dissatisfaction. In either situation though, you can only run the set up for so long before it becomes clear, and the effect of this is that it usually doesn't take long until more people are listening to "AM" again than whatever the new album is.

I think that's a shame but I can't blame people for going to what they know and trust. I think there are some very likeable tracks on "The Car", this one included, but they're not going to give out that immediate satisfaction. It's more of a slow burn where the viable moments are there to seek out. In this case I just think the strings sound wonderful, especially towards the end. Another one of those instances where I'm glad an especially popular artist can leverage their popularity to bring something into the popular sphere that is absolutely not getting there in any other way.

#416. Spacey Jane - Lunchtime (#12, 2021)

39th of 2021

I think one of the funniest things about The Wiggles winning the Hottest 100 is the year in question that it happened. It can't help but poke itself out there every time I look at my playlist for 2021. Beyond the band who make music for pre-schoolers is perhaps the most profane list of songs we've ever had at the pointy end. From #2 to #14 there are a total of 2 songs that don't have explicit language in them. One of them is a song I haven't gotten to yet, another is "Lots Of Nothing" (#580), but then even Spacey Jane couldn't help themselves as they contribute to it with their one of their most sailor-mouthed songs they've ever released. How bad do things have to get to give them an overwhelming sense of 'F**k this'? Shit, I don't know (note: They don't actually say this but try not hearing it now).

It's fortunate that Caleb did a lengthy interview with NME because I intend to take wholesale observations straight from it. Mainly I just want to point out the contrast where he thinks of the song as being 'very fun' despite the lyrical content. It's something he sees as a reflection back on a previous time (it's always COVID) that isn't how he thinks about things anymore. To me, there's something so freeing about the very thought of it, that we can house all these troubled feelings inside us of things we've done wrong, or wish could have happened differently. Instead of bottling it up and creating more anxiety, see it as something to be hopeful about, whether because it doesn't really matter anymore, because you've escaped some of this, or because there's the prospect that current issues you're facing will also inevitably find themselves in the rear view mirror as well. Maybe that's profoundly obvious and doesn't need an offhand comment by the lead singer of Spacey Jane to get it through, but sometimes I find it incredibly useful when someone's able to put succinctly what is an otherwise complicated swirl of emotions in my head.

The music video is quite good too. I don't know if the intended visual direction was to invoke the Black Lodge, but I sure do want to watch Twin Peaks again. For me though, there's a parallel with Spacey Jane's music to be pulled from it. You see two sides of the experience, one where everything is normal (or maybe just orderly), and another where Caleb is under increasingly obvious amounts of distress. Maybe it's not the most efficient way of doing things, but I've always admired the slice of life trope at the start of stories, where they go to a great length to describe or show the mundane side of things to provide both a contrast to the conflicts that will arise, and ground the characters with what they're used to experiencing, and might be fighting to maintain. In the case of "Lunchtime" though, there are two interpretations I like. The first is that it's all (obviously) in his head. No one seems to really react to his sudden actions or increasingly distracting appearance. The alternative though is that it isn't, he's genuinely being affected, and nobody cares. It's the thing I've been thinking of most as I continue to go through all these Spacey Jane songs, and they continue to read like the diary of someone who's desperate to have their own issues acknowledged, but he can only express it in the form of catchy 3 minute songs that everyone's too busy dancing to, to pay attention to it. Maybe that's how I feel when I use these entries to talk about my own psyche, only to disarm the momentum of it by coming to the sudden realisation and pointing out that I think I just wrote a Patrick Bateman music review.

I do rather like this song though. There's a little more tension than you usually get with Spacey Jane and it's not just because of the profanity. The whole thing is just doing a really good job of jumping between different hooks at a breakneck pace, like it's "Special K" by Placebo or something. The song's bridge is entirely instrumental and brings a lower tuning to it that sounds kind of ugly, but in an endearing way.

#425-#421

#425. RÜFÜS DU SOL - Say a Prayer for Me (#55, 2016)

44th of 2016

Sometimes a lengthy campaign stretched across multiple years can lend itself to getting the best of both worlds. All those fans who are steadfast about only voting one song per artist get duped into double dipping from the same album, or maybe they just never stop. We've seen it time and time again that the most successful artists going around just rarely take a year off, or if they do, it's because what they've already got out is hanging around sufficiently so it doesn't feel like they're gone. Billie Eilish has not released any new music in 2025, but her last album was just as big as it was in 2024. RÜFÜS DU SOL don't operate like this and seem content to only put out an album roughly every 3 years, and it's been working pretty well for them, or it was until their last album. They still made three Hottest 100 entries in 2024, but it feels like it's painting over some cracks that they'll need to sort out.

Anyway, I tend to forget that "Bloom" came out in 2016 because all the big hitters were already out before then. "Innerbloom" was out in November as the 3rd single, and they probably could have put it out around then, but maybe they liked spreading it out a bit better. It's a lot easier to get a #1 album at the start of the year than at the end, so that worked for them, but then they didn't have a lot to show for themselves after that. The only new song from the album to make the cut was "Say a Prayer for Me", and it's hardly coming to match the two big hits (note: you can read this as either in the moment or retrospectively but you're gonna have to switch out one of the songs).

I'm not sure how they could have gone about it better. If we look in hindsight, "Until the Sun Needs to Rise" has become a decent streaming hit, but I don't see it flying as a single. The two somewhat close calls they had were "Brighter" at #149 & "Be With You" at #171. The former I rate quite highly as something of a throwback to their first albums synth tones, but the latter doesn't feel like a single at all. "Daylight" and "Hypnotised" are the other choices I'd be looking at, but I'd be lying if I said I thought they had it all worked out either. There's a want for a big hook that only "Say a Prayer for Me" is finding a way to provide.

As we continue to ascend this countdown mountain (or maybe we're descending?), we're increasing a tendency towards entries that I downloaded for myself prior to the countdown. That might make it a stealth diss towards that group for the time being though. Being at the bottom part of that group and falling below songs I never would have downloaded otherwise implies falling out of favour. I think I still hold "Say a Prayer for Me" in a similar regard to a decade ago, it just never had an amazingly high ceiling to begin with. It's just how it works out when RÜFÜS DU SOL lock into a solid groove that pretty much writes itself.

#424. E^ST - TALK DEEP (#70, 2019)

33rd of 2019

We've got two E^ST entries here. I'm once again ruining the narrative perspective by doing it out of order, but on the other hand, it works as a means to build up hype. I feel as though this wouldn't be here if not for the mysterious benefactor entry two years prior. When you storm the castle, you have to get through the henchmen first.

We can't discredit "TALK DEEP" though. Unlike other apparent cases of riding on momentum, this didn't come one direct year after, and in that intervening year, E^ST had a couple of singles that weren't quite able to make the full leap. I hold "I Don't Lack Imagination" in high regard because deep down I am always of the opinion that there aren't enough popular songs that sound like circus music. Well, that as well as a good helping of off kilter melodies to make it stand out.

I never really kept up with the E^ST story after this one, and it's only just now that I'm realising it ended while I was in the process of making this list. There hasn't been a new E^ST song in years, and Melisa ended the project years ago. Just 6 months ago she went on full social media reset with a rebranding as Headaches, I will continue to refer to her as E^ST for this purpose as it's the era of music I'm talking about, and because I always did like typing that visually striking set of characters.

E^ST has had some memorable singles over the years, often built around structural, or just singular ideas that are particularly striking. "TALK DEEP" never quite got to me in this way, but it's pretty good for what it is. It's a song that takes so long to get going initially that it ends up feeling a bit short. By the time the second verse (more or less same as the first) starts, you're already 60% of the way through the song and there are only about 90 seconds left!

#423. Ruby Fields - Pretty Grim (#61, 2020)

35th of 2020

Much of the Ruby Fields canonisation that makes it through here has happened when I wasn't listening as closely to triple j, so there's an arbitrary feeling to it from my perspective, although it's one that matches up closely to the airplay quotient. Maybe still though, it's strange to see what the winning formula has ended up being sometimes. "Pretty Grim" is an enjoyable song that seems to be lacking the obvious standout factor from the rest of her catalogue. Maybe the limited competition of 2020's release schedule has struck again.

I'm a random contributor as well, and most of the Ruby Fields songs I've downloaded over the years are not actually Hottest 100 entries. One of them is still pending (vote for "92 Purebred"?) but it's generally been pretty far off the mark. It's something that's tricked me into thinking that there will be many entries for Ruby Fields but it's actually just the 3. Inevitably it will push me into another one of those awkward split ups where I want to tell a single story through multiple entries. Just the challenge of the piece.

I think a lot of the appeal in the field of Ruby is the presentation. It's the D.I.Y. dream making songs through a love of the game and not filtering it through typical marketing. Ruby Fields does have a band, and doesn't try to hide it, but it's still a lot of songs about that relatable underdog status. That's filtered through Australian culture. It's not quite as unavoidably present as with The Chats, but you've still got songs that mention Uluru and titles like "R.E.G.O.", "Pokies" and "Bottle'o". By the way, here's the arrival of the call forward, because this is the same album that Adam Newling appeared on before he'd made it via "Sweetness" (#691).

"Pretty Grim" is where the self-deprecation is amped up to the fullest. It's not the only song lamenting living a shitty life on the album ("Clothes Line" isn't subtle about it), but there is some self-reflection. It feels like it's about being stuck in a rut and struggling to find the motivation to do anything about it. After all, how often have you had to make yourself presentable to impress strangers who you'll forget about in a day. The song ends without any kind of resolution to the problem; we're not even at "Dreamers" (#543) level. Nothing about that screams of being the most obvious popular song, but at the end of the day, it's an upbeat tune that passes the observational test. I suppose it's a good representation for this as there are quite a few other songs of hers that go like this, but the other two songs I'll get to are quite a bit different.

#422. Holy Holy - True Lovers (#40, 2017)

42nd of 2017

I don't claim to know what true love is. Maybe it means telling someone they smell great, kneeling down to make them look taller, and various other things I couldn't possibly quote without looking suspect. I will claim that this is Holy Holy's most popular song though. It's not even close. It's the song that took them to some level of fame, and remains their highest polling Hottest 100 entry to date. It felt strange in that moment to see from a band who had never succeeded like that before, but that tends to happen when artists find that one defining hit, it just unlocks something.

A defining hit can mean two things. It can be the song that agreeably encapsulates everything about what an artist is trying to do, a culmination of their efforts. Or it could just mean it's the one that fits in best with everything else, and so it's just the one song that people who don't have any interest in them will put into their playlists. It's peering into a world that they're not really going to explore. I want to call back to this thought so long into the future that I could probably get away with repeating it verbatim, but this is me putting a note down to expand on it further.

"True Lovers" isn't my favourite Holy Holy song, but I wouldn't begrudge it if it's yours. It's a very well made piece of pop rock. A song with a big hook that gets the job done, but doesn't solely rely upon it for replay value. For a band with effectively two members, they bring quite a lot to this arrangement, and that's where the replay value lies. It's not a song that would otherwise scream 'guitar solo!', but they're some of the best moments here. Just a really nice cherry on top of something that already had things locked into place.

#421. Ball Park Music - Trippin' the Light Fantastic (#99, 2014)

46th of 2014

There are too many songs by a certain two indie rock bands from Brisbane. Close to one a week for the last few months. Can't I alleviate the struggle by instead talking about 2025 Grand Final highlights? Like how good is that Gallop to Ashcroft to Reville possession chain near the end of the third quarter that leads to the 2nd Cameron goal? It's so tidy. Oh anyway if you were wondering where the titular phrase comes from, it's attributed to a John Milton poem from 1645, though his version of it is a little more cluttered than the one we're used to. You can't have a phrase about footloose and fancy-free dancing that struggles to get to the point.

This song has all the energy of being an album opener, although I'm probably being influenced by its position in this countdown. This is so obviously building up to the main event that it's weird to think that it already happened 4 tracks ago on "Puddinghead". Ball Park Music are once again in full recognition of their forebearers in Custard. They're having a fun time, they've got a funny robot voice, they probably feel like Ringo as well.

There are quite a few passages to go through with this and it's hard to pick out a favourite. Funny to think that the chorus they go for is actually the part without any words. I guess I'm most partial to the bridge which brings a contrasting intensity to the song. Man just wants to get high with his friends, I can't knock that.