#120-#116

#120. BROCKHAMPTON - 1999 WILDFIRE (#83, 2018)

11th of 2018

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When it comes to grand, sweeping statements about artists, I don't usually care much for them. It's mainly because it's used in the pejorative sense, such-and-such artist sucks, or whatever. They're very easy to agree with, and therein lies the desire to do it, but I find myself wondering about the logistics of it. Like, if someone says Imagine Dragons suck, brave statement there, but how many of their songs do they actually know? I'm not saying the deeper cuts would change their mind, but when we're all working from different experiences and approaches, these grand statements have a habit of meaning one thing to the orator, and another to the observer. People often tell me I'm good with music trivia and stuff like that. Part of the appeal of writing music trivia myself (which I've done quite a bit in the past) is to put these things in perspective and remind myself what tidbits I take for granted.

The slightly more relevant example I think about with this is that I wonder how many OutKast songs the average person actually knows? I'm a bit warped by the Australian perspective where they have about 3 or 4 big hits, but it makes for such a small slice of their overall discography. Alongside the hits, you've got slightly deeper cuts, songs that feel important to me, but I've had to go out of my way to hear them. It'd be wrong to assume everyone else knows "B.O.B" or "Elevators (Me & You)", just because I do.

This is my long, roundabout way of saying that this song sounds like OutKast to me, but it's up to your own experience as to whether or not that sounds true. I just feel like especially with their earlier albums, you'd get more stuff like this, sounding carefree and natural with something resembling acoustic guitar for a beat. "Rosa Parks" is the obvious example, or if you want to go somewhere completely different, there's a DJ Shadow song from 2006 featuring Lateef the Truth Speaker and another rapper who will eventually be credited on this list, a core memory for me, at least.

You can look at it as a natural evolution for BROCKHAMPTON, who I feel spent much of their early days making a lot of songs that were aggressive, braggadocious, and generally in your face. Maybe that's part in parcel when you've got so many MCs trying to make their mark. They've considerably mellowed out on this one and generate one of their first genuinely believable crossover attempts. If you want to make this throughline actually connect, then Joba calls them all a group of 'outcasts' in the middle of his ludicrous (but clean) medieval verse. He also says that you cannot have magic if you don't believe, and here's my 5,000 word essay on why Umineko When They Cry is the most life-changing piece of writing I've ever read...no, I can't get that off topic yet.

#119. Dom Dolla (feat Clementine Douglas) - Miracle Maker (#37, 2022)

7th of 2022

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I actually do remember the first time I heard this song because I was in the car going to the doctor. Nothing interesting I assure you, it's just that I very rarely commute like that. I'd been aware of the song for a while but didn't really have much interest in pursuing it, Dom Dolla isn't going to make a song that's going to blow me away. Oh wait, never mind.

This wasn't really a big hit for him in the grand scheme of things, he'd cash that cheque in far more a year later, but I feel like the potential was there. What I've found is that there's a serious market for throwback dance hits because they tap into something innate that's not often served because the genre just moves on so much. Around the same time this song was out, LF SYSTEM had a massive hit by speeding up a 1979 R&B song and otherwise breaking rules of sensible arrangement because it's just interesting what they've done. Some Scottish DJ also scored one of his biggest ever hits shortly after by tapping into a wave of trance revival. 

"Miracle Maker" sticks out to me because it sounds so flagrantly like the late '80s & early '90s. A big part of that is the song's main sample, a vocal line from MC Duke's "I'm Riffin", where he uses a series of words that you would never hear in a modern rap song. Outside of that though, the song just kicks into gear from the first second with an energetic buzz I'm not used to hearing. I feel like the throwback vibe is only heightened with the way Clementine Douglas's voice is played around with. She says 'set me free' but when it's looping, it feels like the first consonant slips out. There's a tension to it that I'm just waiting to be resolved, and the beat drop absolutely provides the goods. Much like with "Jungle" (#155), I found that this satiated that deep desire to just hear the kind of banger that makes you want to flail around uncontrollable. Shout out to Clementine Douglas also, she's a strong asset in any song she ever ends up on.

#118. The Weeknd - The Hills (#19, 2015)

18th of 2015

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A while back I was talking about Tate McRae (#233), and how my perspective on her music comes from a different starting point because I was paying attention to her music for a little longer than most people. It's not usually what happens but when you spread your interest around with so many undiscovered artists, some are gonna occasionally land. The main point is that it becomes borderline impossible to follow the general consensus because you came in at the wrong point, you know different OutKast songs, however you want to frame it. The other point is that Tate McRae is clearly not the only major Canadian pop star for which this story unfolds, the big one is clearly The Weeknd.

I've held off on talking much about this until now, which feels fitting because not only is it the last entry here for The Weeknd, it's also the one that probably provides the closest match for the vibe. There's a fairly stark difference in The Weeknd's discography between his trilogy of mixtapes and most of what came after ("Kissland" is a bit of a rough middle point, but it's not an album that gets talked about much anyway). On one hand, you could almost be talking about two different artists here, but in reality, it's not a complete transformation, and many of those early tropes and aesthetics still find their way into The Weeknd's newer music.

Getting to the point though, I'm an all-in "Trilogy" fan. I first learnt about the "House of Balloons" mixtape in the middle of 2011 and became deeply obsessed with it. I don't have properly tracked listening stats for it because the truth of it is that I downloaded the whole thing onto my phone and would frequently listen to it on my uni commutes. The Weeknd was one of my most listened-to artists of the year anyway, though I found it hard to quantify. I extremely undersold his merit when I was making lists of my favourite music at the time, I think because I was struck by the need to fit my expected touchstones. The Weeknd's brand of alternative R&B was so far away from everything else I was listening to, which in addition to the general depravity of it, made it feel like what I was doing was wrong. It probably was just a badly needed injection into my music taste, and that's probably why it stood out so much for me at the time.

I still go back to it 15 years later and I think "House of Balloons" is basically perfect. No filler to speak of and so many high points. Abel welcoming us to the inner workings of his mind, and finding comfort in the debauchery. The production, largely from Doc McKinney & Illangelo is a big tick. It may have also been the first step I had in becoming a massive Beach House fan because there are multiple samples that I didn't recognise for years. Even now I twitch hearing "Master of None" and "Gila" because it's just uncanny to see these elements I'm so accustomed to via The Weeknd. The crowning achievement of it all is the semi-title track "House Of Balloons / Glass Table Girls". It's one of my favourite songs ever, and I'd very strongly consider putting it at #1 if it were improperly included on this list. I always enjoyed it a lot but I just don't think I was ready in 2011 for how ambitious it is. Canon event, cultural reset, whatever your preferred hyperbole. The Weeknd obviously released two more mixtapes later in the year, and they're very good, but my heart is always firmly fixed on the first love.

This isn't the music that directly made The Weeknd a star, but I'm fairly positive it gave him the necessary push. My deep adoration is not isolated, and it's an example of popularity that can't really be measured properly because The Weeknd was releasing these mixtapes for free on his website. All of the chart impact was limited to a reasonably successful re-release push for "Wicked Games", which did fairly well for a song that wasn't all that new when it happened. The Weeknd eventually capitalised on that good will, and in 2015 very quickly became a global star. That's where it starts to get weird for me.

As per usual, this is all optional homework and I don't expect most people to have done it. There are numerous videos of The Weeknd performing at Coachella, or something like that and he'll mix in some of the early stuff to a completely dead reaction. I think the tide may be shifting a little bit, because now through Spotify we can see that some of these songs have very impressive streaming numbers at last, but a lot of people only know The Weeknd through the hits, and that's fine.

Except it's very weird to me. The Weeknd thrives on his early reputation. Whenever he releases a new album, many of his older fans will listen to it in the hope that it scratches the same itch again. It rarely does (I think he generally puts out pretty good albums still), but it's a sign of just how significant that early impression was, building all that loyalty. If you weren't invested in him back then, I don't know where the loyalty comes from. Maybe you've heard that he's a very acclaimed artist and trusted that (I've done this for many artists), but I've always been baffled by how big a star he's become through just the hits. He just so often hits the range of serviceable that I'm surprised there isn't a bigger backlash, though I understand the epidemic of calling everything 'mid' hadn't arrived back then. Maybe I'm just the one with the weird perspective because of how I've known The Weeknd, but I just can't imagine hearing "Earned It" and "Can't Feel My Face" (#839) and thinking 'This is the guy'. I understand liking the songs, but isn't it the strangest feeling to see this kind of worship when you think something is just 'pretty good'? I suppose I'm due to start doing that with every other entry here soon enough. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum, it's just an extended exploration of the fact that I clearly didn't come to this from the same perspective. I would love to be able to witness how I feel about The Weeknd's music if I missed the mixtape era. Would I like the hits more, or less?

I say this all while understanding that The Weeknd's music is clearly not for everyone. I'm not trying to make the case that he deserved more success (I mean, I'd take it, but I'm realistic). On the other hand, he has occasionally made slight nods to it that hint at the possibility of it working. He's teamed up with Illangelo a bunch of times since then, and even scored a US #1 hit with him on "Heartless". The title track to "After Hours" is another one that justifies keeping up with him after all these years. And of course, he's got one of his biggest hits about being f**ked up, "The Hills".

I do feel compelled to ruin some of the magic firstly. "The Hills" was a big hit, something of a slow burner. Notably The Weeknd followed the example of OutKast and Rihanna by having an earlier released single hit #1 in America after a later one. It was pretty big in Australia too, getting to #3. That's the peak position I tend to remember, but in reality, the song was just barely struggling to scrape into the top 10, and it only got so high because it got separate remixes featuring Nicki Minaj & Eminem. I'm willing to guess that you've likely not heard these remixes, and even more likely forgotten about them. They've just done their job, because my mental filing of "The Hills", the standalone Weeknd solo cut, makes it out to be a bigger hit than it actually was.

You might think that with all this in mind, that I was all over "The Hills". It's The Weeknd on his dark, hazed out shit again, right in my wheelhouse. In actuality I was not really sold on it at all. To me, it just sounded off. The Weeknd's voice goes through some major pitch shifting and doesn't come out as it's supposed to sound. It's like when you just quickly try and edit two unrelated pieces together without cleaning it up. It doesn't work, and your ears are trying to make sure you know this. I couldn't tell you what made me change my mind but as far as hit songs go, this has been one of the biggest growers I've ever experienced, to the point where I don't have any problem with how it's produced anymore. Maybe the hook is just too good. There has to be some credit given though, because I feel like this song broke new ground for the commercial viability of trap music. It's not the first trap song to go to #1, it's clearly beaten by "Harlem Shake" and "Dark Horse", but if you'll pardon the pun, those feel like trojan horse trap hits. This is the first one where it feels like the main draw of it is that it sounds like this, and everyone's finally ready for it. It was such a strange hit to wrap my head around at the time because I'm so used to these kinds of elements being a limiter for appeal. Hard to tell if it's a hit because The Weeknd was so hot right then, or if The Weeknd was so hot right then because of this song. Either way, in a world where many artists are caught deleting their older material to clean up their discographies, I will always respect that The Weeknd respects his original fans. With no relation to a song that will later appear on this list: XO for life.

#117. Disclosure - When a Fire Starts to Burn (#23, 2013)

22nd of 2013

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"Settle" is a really good album. I don't think I gave it enough credit at the time because I never quite fell in love with any of the singles I heard. I did buy the album pretty early on because it was being discounted ludicrously, but it was a faint curiosity. The obvious thing that sticks out is just the general sound of it all. They land on this crisp, clean sound that utilises empty space very well. A lot of very good electronic albums can end up dated very quickly as technology moves by and they sound blatantly stuck in their time. I don't think that's the case yet with "Settle", which only sounds better and better whenever I go back to it.

"When a Fire Starts to Burn" is based around a very specific sample, which is parts of a motivational speech by Eric Thomas. I must point out now that as I went to look up this original source, I got a first time ad for the Steven Spielberg film "Disclosure Day" that will have been released by the time this post goes live. Maybe that's normal, maybe it's an algorithm that doesn't understand the meta-data it's being fed, but it was very funny to me. I also want to point out because it's not necessarily clear that they actually sample three different sections of his speech, which is why the sentences don't necessarily make much sense together. Disclosure would go on to sample him again on "The Mechanism", and he's also sampled on the album's intro which leads into this song.

I had a strange revelation with this song that I wasn't really listening to it properly. I was too used to Disclosure's vocal-driven songs that I treated this as one too, and found it pretty annoying for the most part. I'm still drawn to the sample as a sticking quotable, but for me the song is about everything around it. It almost feels like it's there to deliberately disarm you, which is why they constantly cut it off before he finishes his sentence. It's mostly just the same three notes played over and over after it, but they feel filled with uplifting whimsy. It's strange that it still feels like it's building to a natural conclusion.

Mainly I am a little surprised at just how popular it is. The whole album is somewhat star-studded in that you'll look through the track list and see a lot of familiar names that might not have been very well known at the time. Generally though, a very large portion of the album is just vocal-driven songs. The only other real exception is "Grab Her!", which like "When a Fire Starts to Burn" I wasn't a fan of initially but it's grown on me...right now as I've been writing this. Still, Disclosure are talented enough that even if you do treat their hits as vocal pop songs, there's clearly a lot going on to keep you listening to the music. They really love a dramatic beat switch going into choruses. I don't think they ever captured the world's imagination quite like this on later releases, but that's something to look at when we go back to that follow up.

#116. Disclosure (feat Lorde) - Magnets (#10, 2015)

17th of 2015

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I want to draw a reference to some comments Lorde made in September 2015. She was talking about Drake's approach to songwriting, and specifically a certain song of his that was doing the rounds at the time. That song will eventually appear on this list so I can bring it up again. It's basically her talking about the use of striking noun concepts that make a song stickier, which Drake had done many times at this point. I think about it a lot because she said all of this not long before "Magnets" was released, and it feels like it was written with the same intention. At least, it has to be the reason the song is called "Magnets", and not "The Point of No Return". That title probably has potential, but I feel like it's reaching too broadly. Make that the title, and you're gonna want a thesis on the concept, not just making it the hook.

"Caracal" doesn't seem to be very well received on the whole. I don't think it's a wholesale rejection, and I've been reading a lot of high regard for it, it's just that overall, a lot of people weren't interested and jumped ship. On paper it's a little strange because I don't think the album is a big departure from its predecessor, and it even feels like there's a bigger budget for the guest list. You've got The Weeknd, Lorde & Miguel on this thing. Maybe that Weeknd collaboration could've been a genuine crossover hit if it wasn't nearly 7 minutes long. You can make the argument that it's not what Disclosure fans are interested in, but I'd counter that by saying that the general public very much received the album with this in mind. I mistakenly mentioned that "Omen" (#221) was the lead single previously which is not true. The actual lead single was "Holding On" with Gregory Porter. That's the song that feels like the closest approximation to the sound of "Settle", with its skittering production and loop based hooks. It wasn't really a hit, and everyone just gravitated to the easier choices, the songs with Sam Smith & Lorde on them.

"Magnets" is a funny one like that. It's a relic of a bygone era where you could very easily spot the difference in taste between English speaking countries, and what they'd gravitate to. It's proof that despite "Royals" (#134) being a #1 hit abroad, it's really Australia and Aotearoa that treat Lorde as queen bee, getting so wholly invested as to make it Disclosure's biggest chart hit over here while the rest of the world was considerably less interested. Lorde still has a little of that in her, because "What Was That" went #1 in her home country and nowhere else, but it still dropped out of the chart very quickly because there aren't enough Kiwi influencers to prop it up and it just fell out of discovery rotation. All I'm saying is that at no point has it felt like Tame Impala's greater Australian profile has made "Dracula" into a notably bigger hit here than anywhere else.

That makes "Magnets" interesting. To me, it's a hit, and that shouldn't be questioned. To someone elsewhere, it just never was part of that conversation and it might feel like an affront to gaslight them with the notion of it. It's hard to argue with the result though. "Magnets" isn't just a hit because we were craving anything from Lorde, but because given the opportunity to sample it, we were liking what we were hearing with this one. Lorde dominates the track, but Disclosure retain their usual flair. Just a neat little track that I suppose never got so overexposed either.

#125-#121

 #125. Thundamentals - Smiles Don't Lie (#32, 2013)

24th of 2013

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If you ask me what my favourite Tame Impala album is, well it's "Lonerism", but if I'm feeling in the mood to be more obtuse, I'd say it's "Melody's Echo Chamber". That's the self-titled album from the project by French singer Melody Prochet. Kevin Parker was dating her at the time and produced the album. It finds the best form from Kevin's soundscape of guitar noodling and drums that are pushed right up the mix. But on top of that, you can't say Melody's Echo Chamber without melody, and that's what really pushed it over the edge for me. I worship songs like "Some Time Alone, Alone" and "I Follow You" for utilising this enveloping sound, and sounding so pretty and delicate at the same time. Melody's career has continued without Kevin and continued to expand the project in interesting ways that make the debut album feel a little less ambitious, but there are advantages to both. It's all just a very specific sound that appeals to me, recalling the perky elements of Grant Kirkhope's "Donkey Kong 64" OST. Not something I really hear very much except wait here it is on this Thundamentals song.

The timing of it all, the way the song starts with that distinct synth melody, it feels deliberately indebted to Melody's Echo Chamber. You won't get any outrageous guitar solos here, and it's obviously background fodder to Thundamentals, but it's the glue that keeps this whole song together. Not since "Runaway" has hitting the same note over and over again until you don't managed to evoke so much.

I think officially, their Like a Version of Matt Corby's "Brother" put Thundamentals on the map, but "Smiles Don't Lie" feels like the song that took them to the next level. They're not just taking someone else's tender song; they can write their own. It almost feels like they're trying too hard to be approachable. A love song that's non-committal, and introspective about the fact. I don't know who's singing the hook on this but Tuka & Jeswon are already the least threatening rappers going around and it absolutely suits them perfectly to sound chill on production that fits perfectly with the vibe of the song.

#124. Slipknot - Unsainted (#86, 2019)

10th of 2019

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First of all, it's pretty incredible that Slipknot are here. At the time, they broke the record for the biggest gap between appearances, having first appeared in the year 2000 with "Wait and Bleed". That record has comfortably been beaten again by Kylie Minogue, but it doesn't stop the insanity of this situation. Slipknot picked up their first entry in the very early days when everyone was making sense of what they were and where they fit. Older millennials were all about this kind of act that seemed to challenge the status quo and felt dangerous or threatening. In the years that followed, Slipknot weren't really a mainstream force anymore, despite being incredibly popular. You were either a fan of them or you didn't really have to deal with them at all. As a show of their commercial prowess, they scored a #1 album in 2008, and did it again with their next two albums as well. During this time, I didn't really ever hear them on triple j, getting just sparing amounts of airplay prior to "Unsainted".

I feel like I can't have a conversation with anyone about Slipknot because ever since I started actually hearing their music, nothing has lined up with what I've ever heard about them. I had a metalhead friend in school who was very into them, and the reputation and name were enough to swear me away from ever looking into it. They were so outside of my periphery that it felt like going outside of my regular comfort zones anyway, and it's not like I ever heard anything encouraging about them. The idea of the scary, heavy band who all wear masks, it's supposed to invite an audience I'm not part of.

None of it really adds up to me. Maybe my perception is distorted from how much death metal & adjacent genres I heard via my older brother growing up, but Slipknot don't remotely feel like icons of counterculture. I guess they are ostensibly just because you're not going to hear them out in public very often, if ever. The main thing I want to acknowledge though is that they're actually incredibly pop friendly. Beneath the veneer of fear, you've got a band who so consistently dabble in catchy melodies. "Wait and Bleed" was the first one I ever got to knowing and I was surprised at just how easy it was to get into. I keep hearing more stuff from them and it's the same story every time. It helps that Corey Taylor is undeniably an incredibly gifted vocalist, with a massive range at his disposal. Often though, the rest of the band are similarly in step, and not especially hard to keep up with.

"Unsainted" is another one of these songs. I don't think it's necessarily the most obvious crossover hit they've had. There's another version of history where triple j really latch onto "The Devil in I" or "Duality" and they get the same treatment. We take what we get though and I immediately clocked onto it as a song that hits the balance especially well. I was a little surprised to see it here in any case because I just wouldn't have expected the voter base to have the right overlap with the Slipknot crowd to make it happen. "We Are Not Your Kind" was a bit of a critical re-appraisal for them though, a better reviewed album than usual, which might be the necessary ingredient to make this happen. I don't think anyone clued onto the potential record and the history that could have been made. As a funny bonus, it was the second time that an iconic heavy metal group made their Hottest 100 return immediately after a Kanye West song, as this placed 1 spot ahead of "Follow God" (#811), while Metallica's last entry in 2008 came just after "Love Lockdown". We love the chaotic juxtaposition at the bottom of the countdown.

I've never gotten sick of "Unsainted" though. I don't know if I'd call it their best hook because I've got a strong soft spot for "Surfacing" off their self-titled album, a song you'll never catch me singing along to. "Unsainted" manages to be at least a little bit more family friendly. Corey's absolutely having a field day on the hook, and the song even has a choir. If you'll pardon the pun, I just appreciate the duality on display, light and dark. When nearly all of the token metal entries tend to come from The Amity Affliction, this kind of novel change of pace is extremely welcome.

#123. Halsey - I am not a woman, I'm a god (#71, 2021)

4th of 2021

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I'm a little surprised that Halsey is still signed to a major label. In my regular dealings with typing up music releases each week; I've gotten quite accustomed to seeing it as a stock check. In many cases, you can see the writing is on the wall if an artist's commercial viability is slipping, and it usually means you'll catch them releasing their next album independently. That's also when they just completely disappear from the conversation as we witness the power of promotion and what happens when the budget shrinks considerably.

Halsey is a bit of a unique situation. They were signed to Capitol records following early breakout success, hinting at the cult of personality that you can't often manufacture. It proved dividends as Halsey's career thrived for several years. Things eventually slowed down, you might actually be able to pin some of it to the album I'll be talking to, which lacked the crossover potential of their earlier albums. It was produced by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross after all, it's a completely different side to Halsey.

In a story that became very infamous as capitalism dystopia, it appears as though Capitol weren't willing to let things ride. They stuck with Halsey, but things came to a head in 2022 when Halsey spoke out publicly about their upcoming single "So Good". Reportedly, the song had been ready to roll out for weeks, but Capitol didn't want to release it without road-testing it on TikTok. At the time, I remember seeing some skepticism towards Halsey for this, as if what they were saying was part of game, the latest in a series of gimmicks to get people to pay attention to a song and artist they'd otherwise ignore. This was just a few months after the singer GAYLE had viral success with the song "abcdefu" after making a TikTok video asking her audience to help her come up with an idea and immediately clocking onto a comment that said to make a song that incorporates the alphabet. That comment coming from a marketing manager at Atlantic Records, the label she'd just signed to. When Halsey finally did release the song, it was supposedly with full support from Capitol to do the right thing, but the situation made Halsey leave the label and sign up with Columbia instead. Lately we've seen sombr openly admit that he road-tests choruses of songs he hasn't actually written on TikTok, which feels like another sign that Halsey was absolutely telling the truth in this case.

I'm writing this just after Halsey released a deluxe edition of their latest album, more than half a year after it came out, and I was just so surprised to see Columbia still attached to it. Halsey hasn't really had a major hit since 2020 and I feel like they must have known what they were signing up for when they made this deal. Maybe they're playing the long game. The big success of Zara Larsson in the past year has shown that good things can come to those who wait (even in her off years, Zara was still signed with Epic), but Halsey is also a decent amount older, so it feels like an unlikely gambit.

But enough about that, let's talk about Halsey's interesting musical direction in the 2020s. Maybe it shouldn't all come as a surprise. Even early on, there were hints of dark undertones in the music and themes, and after Halsey had the biggest solo hit of their career (#931), it was very quickly followed up with "Nightmare" (#656), which showed that it wasn't all just a game to find nothing but the safest choices for singles. Not long after that, we had the song "Experiment On Me". It's not a mainline Halsey single as it comes from the Birds of Prey soundtrack which I've spoken about before (#141). It's absolutely my favourite song I've heard from them. A wild left turn via collaborating with Bring Me The Horizon (and interpolating "Young Folks"). Much like when T-Pain turns off the auto-tune and stuns, hearing Halsey rise to the moment is a reminder that artists often have a lot more in their repertoire than what we're usually privy to.

Having that as a lead-in to the next Halsey album worked well for me, as I was a little more ready for it, and ready to trust Halsey's process. The whole album is pretty solid, but this lead single is a highlight for sure. At this point we're nearly 3 decades removed from when Nine Inch Nails nearly topped the countdown with "Closer", and we're seeing what can still be done with that template after years of refinement. While this doesn't quite pack the same punch as that song, it does show it as a solid re-arrangement of ideas, taking that song's extended outro and using it as a skeleton for the regular part of this song. The middling commercial performance is an indicator that it's all probably a step too far, but I'm glad it makes it in here as some form of validation that it's not always just about tapping into the same majority audience every step of the way.

#122. Violent Soho - Covered in Chrome (#14, 2013)

23rd of 2013

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Maybe there are some rules that dictate what's capable of being popular, but the beauty of it all is that these tend to act more as rough guidelines. Sometimes it's possible to subvert them if you have just the right idea, something that doesn't follow along with the crowd, and instead hits on something visceral. From that point on, the world's your oyster. Maybe you won't have the hit to end all hits, but by sticking to your guns, you get something that's going to stand out just a little bit more. You look at all the special occasion Hottest 100s and there's a familiar pattern. Everything largely follows its original trajectory, save for those who get a little more promotional backing behind them. Being an extra-long song helps as well, just to make it stand out more.

Then you've just got the oddities. 6 years ago, when picking out the best songs of the decade, voters came out in full force for "Covered in Chrome". Seemingly, it's a song that acts as a lightning rod for all Violent Soho support, but also for everything within its periphery. If you want to vote for a garage rock song that lets you forget about all your inhibitions, "Covered in Chrome" is there for you. Its very refusal to fit in with everything else may just be part of the appeal, and a core tenant of what's always been so fascinating about the Hottest 100. The idea that it's very fun to disrupt the formal declaration of popularity by getting behind something that feels so antithetical to 'intellectual' ranking. Sure, your other songs might speak to personal experiences, perhaps evoke something sentimental inside. Your other song has heart, but "Covered in Chrome" has 'hell f**k yeah'.

The interesting experience I've had going to live shows is finding out which songs work the best in the setting, and how it doesn't necessarily correlate to your favourites. It's a nice starting point, but I've found myself re-assessing it all at once, because sometimes after you've gotten through that rush of 'They're playing my song!', it doesn't pan out as being especially exciting. That's when the primal experience comes out. I recently saw the band Gyroscope, and found they have an interesting setlist that splits pretty evenly across their 4 albums. Their earlier music is a lot more raucous than their later stuff, but you wouldn't really question it in the moment, with later cuts like "Some Of The Places I Know" and "I Still Taste Blood" having a lot of untapped energy in the studio versions. Still, it was those earlier cuts that I found myself enjoying the most, and not even necessarily the ones I'd usually ride for. "Fast Girl", "Doctor Doctor" and especially "Safe Forever" just go to another level when you're surrounded by people screaming along. Sometimes I feel a little out of touch with what are a band's most revered songs until I see them live and realise just how well they translate.

I've never seen Violent Soho live, but I have to imagine that "Covered in Chrome" is absolutely one of these songs. I don't even think the studio version necessarily suffers, just that there's an understood amount of compression that can't be overcome. To feel every reverberation of every instrument feels like the dream to me. To say nothing of the fact that the song has its own dedicated mosh section in the chorus. I don't think it's even necessarily to be part of the mosh pit, but just witnessing it first person is one of those great reminders of the joy that music can provide. The way it can get everyone to come together, forget about whatever troubles they might have, and just release themselves, it's so cool. I don't know if Violent Soho had high aspirations for this one, and it's not even my favourite song of theirs, but I can easily understand how it singlehandedly turned them into stars. No one is doing this as well as they are.

#121. N*E*R*D & Rihanna - Lemon (#66, 2017)

16th of 2017

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The first time I knowingly became aware of N*E*R*D was in 2008. Their third album was coming out and the big single on the radio was "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)" (I did not realise there was a pun because I never saw it written down). I knew nothing about The Neptunes or really who Pharrell was. It wasn't really the best introduction, just a knowingly obnoxious song. I never really filed away the group in the shitlist, I think because I never really had an issue with anything else they put out. The next single had a slur for a title but otherwise is much more approachable.

Over the years, I'd hear more of their back catalogue (they didn't really extend the forward catalogue very much for a while), and it'd become my main route for affinity for Pharrell's work. "She Wants To Move", that's a rap rock classic right there. "Maybe" also very good too but I have a special affinity for the Sander Kleinenberg remix that triple j must have been playing. It gives the song an oddly heightened sense of urgency, and thanks to the robot voice included, is probably the reason I wince whenever I see the group's name pronounced as 'Nerd', rather than spelled out letter by letter.

As far as legacies go, it's hard to figure out what to do with N*E*R*D. The group were never particularly popular, just a curious side-quest for some of the hottest producers of the 2000s. I suppose the stakes changed a little in the 2010s, when Pharrell cashed in his credibility to inexplicably score 3 of the biggest hits of 2013. Add in a lapse of time, and suddenly there's a justifiable way to explain interest in a rap rock group for a decade and a half ago. Well, that's not the full story, is it? What we really landed on here was a minor hit that only really got a chance to make that happen because Rihanna's name was attached to it, and later, Drake.

Really, "Lemon" in the year 2017 gave us that classic dichotomy of the uncontrollable hitmaker and background artist both dragging each other to their standards. Something like Silk Sonic (#218) I suppose. "Lemon" had some curiosity to sneak it into the chart, and then you may have even forgotten, but it was actually far more popular a few months later when Drake hopped onto a remix of it. This wasn't just one of those quick 'remix for a high peak' moments (well, maybe it still was), because that version genuinely outstripped the original's popularity. If that's not enough, then even this version I'm talking about is completely cut out of consideration in favour of an edit that cuts out the first 73 seconds of the song so it starts with Rihanna's verse. To me, I'm completely accustomed to a version that hardly anyone's ever heard, and it's the normal version. The music video also cuts out half of Pharrell's first verse, because no one ever really listens to the same version.

A funny story about the song is that there's technically another notable version that did the rounds. Specifically on triple j, they had what was dubbed the 'Kingsmill REMIX' of the song, for the simple reason that Richard Kingsmill cut down the silent break towards the end of the song. triple j's entire system has a failsafe where it'd go to an emergency backup broadcast if there's ever more than 5 seconds of silence, a problem when a hit song has 7 seconds of silence. As a weird bit of cosmic irony, triple j actually did go off the air accidentally about a week before "Lemon" was released. The lesson here though is that even triple j have never played the proper version of "Lemon", because it was haunted. Now let's all celebrate, with a cool play of Dinosaur Jr.'s "Turnip Farm".

I don't know if you can call it heightened brand loyalty, but I got strangely excited to see the return of N*E*R*D, and while there's a world where I might have been highly put off by "Lemon", I got pretty heavily behind it. Not just that, but a bunch of other songs on the album too, particularly "Don't Don't Do It" with Kendrick Lamar. Not the only time he's worked with Pharrell, this is a forward sell. "Lemon" is just very addictive with its intense but minimalist production, and if I'm really being honest, it's just another great vehicle for Rihanna's welcome pivot to occasional rap queen. I've really warmed to the idea that "Bitch Better Have My Money" is one of her best ever singles. Here, she has all that same confident bravado and I love it. The truth set me free, realising that I had a lot of respect for both of these artists after all, even if the first thing they did was piss me off.

#130-#126

#130. The Killers - The Man (#19, 2017)

17th of 2017

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I might be particularly biased when I say that video games soundtracks are capable of nesting seeds that shape not just your taste but a further perception of those around you. As soon as licenced music became feasible, it's been doing this as much as possible. It's that capability to be associated with a good feeling, and then get rinsed and repeated. I got distracted for about 20 minutes from writing this because I found the soundtrack to "2006 FIFA World Cup" and started having realisations about how it's shaped me. The more pertinent factor here is the SingStar games. I can't remember when exactly they entered my life (it's somewhere in the mid-2000s) but we had a couple of them. Something you don't think about with this is that the soundtracks are largely regional, so a foundational inclusion in the American version won't be in the Australian one, and vice versa. Looking at it now, the decisions made are interesting. You've got hallmarks of the moment, like Fall Out Boy & Kings of Leon not being bankable here yet, or the strange realisation that Keane's "Everybody's Changing" made a more tangible splash in America at the time. The Australian ones are filled with Australian & Kiwi acts though, including many that I can only imagine I perceived to be big because they were reinforced through this game. The self-fulfilling prophecy where it must be important because it's in this game, and then when I hear it elsewhere, I'll remember that importance. In case you were wondering, I was pretty good at matching my notes with Coldplay, but my favourite thing to do was try to get through the whole outro to "Counting The Beat" without catching my breath. I couldn't actually do it.

All of this is to say I'm trying to remember when I first conceptualised The Killers and I think it's this. They had "Somebody Told Me" which was certainly a song I had heard before, but now I had a name and face to it all with a slick music video to go with it. One of my first thoughts was probably something like 'I can't believe they're called The Killers, you're telling me nobody had done it yet?'. As a child, 'killer' was a go-to username along with 'deadly', so they were speaking to my soul with that one. I had a great deal of confusion years later as a result of seeing this music video so many times, because I caught the video for "Crystal" by New Order (a band I knew nothing about). I was stunned that they'd goofed up so hard as to film another video at the same location and not even pretend otherwise, the drum kit still said The Killers on it! In reality this is the music video the real life Killers got their name from and "Somebody Told Me" was an homage to it. Their set is a bit different anyway, because they've got that whole 'we're from Las Vegas, here's a desert' vibe to it.

Anyway, big fan of that song, probably developed my fondness for songs having extended loops of the hook. Most recently, it became the source of an in-joke for me and some friends when we were all playing Hollow Knight: Silksong for the first time. There's a boss somewhat early on called 'Fifth Chorus', and pressed to think of a song that plays its chorus five times, I latched onto calling the boss "Somebody Told Me" (or rather "Somebody TOLD Me", because it's that particular chorus). I don't foresee a future where I ever call it anything else.

I'd continue to learn more songs the band had done, namely "Smile Like You Mean It" and "All These Things That I've Done". I think I slowly learnt that they had another song people seemed to like but I never really encountered it in my life, not knowingly at least. They put out a second album not long later and it was perfectly timed with my renewed interest in music. Right when I started religiously watching jtv Saturday every week, there they were with the song "Bones". I remember when the video was brand new and it was one of the first times I remember witnessing the unveiling of an important new release. Maybe it wasn't really one of the band's biggest hits but I was obsessed with it anyway. I wouldn't really even listen to the album (though I could have) but I'd go back to this song. It did make for a silly experience when they'd keep putting out new singles and I'd tackle with the fact that there was another classic just sitting there on my computer and I wasn't even listening to it (I really loved "For Reasons Unknown").

My pattern for gravitating to the band's lesser hits would never stop. Two years later, another album, an infamous lead single I couldn't really get a read on (at one point "Human" was the most streamed song of all time on Spotify, but I'm not certain I'd call it a genuine, convincing hit in Australia), and then the follow up "Spaceman" that I was obsessed with. When I started my last.fm account in 2010, I had nearly 3 years of data backed up on it and The Killers were my #11 artist of all time. Nearly 16 years later and they're basically unmoved at #13 (and in fairness, have moved behind 3 artists that weren't really on my radar at that point). Part of this is helped by the fact that when they released their next album in 2012, I was ready and able to buy music for myself, so I gave that album a big rinse. That album was the first time the band were unable to crack the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart, and for that matter, triple j's Hottest 100. It didn't stop me from enjoying it, but I got the feeling they were on their way out, which wasn't helped by leading into their longest ever gap between albums. I suppose they're about to break that record though not long after this post goes live.

It would be reasonable to say that they had a good innings. Maybe the whole story would have ended around then under normal circumstances, if not for the slow reveal of the band's secret weapon they've had in plain sight this entire time. This is the part where I talk about "Mr. Brightside". I realised it was a popular song eventually and it didn't really rock my foundation; I just started contributing to that by listening to it a lot. I'd later learn that it was the most played song ever on last.fm and again I wouldn't be shaken, it just sounded about right. Once streaming music became the absolute norm, it became clear that "Mr. Brightside" was something else. It was the song that did not play by the rules with a reputation that precedes itself, and now probably perpetuates itself as well. You'd always encounter big hits that seemed immovable, but they always had a shelf life. Even in the streaming era, they had a shelf life. "Mr. Brightside" does not seem to have a shelf life. When you consider the standards of old songs having an additional moment in the sun, "Mr. Brightside" is the one that just keeps poking its head a little bit higher. It just hit a new peak on Australian Spotify three days ago. The UK Charts introduced a new rule that initially seemed to put an end to the song's tyranny, as the longest charting single of all time by an ever-increasing distance, but it really wasn't very long until the song just overcame that. Now in 2026, the song is charting roughly as high as it was before these rules were put in place. Amusing to think in all of this that the song is a top 10 hit over there but only just, as it debuted at #10 back in 2004 in an era of a conveyer belt of hits. One of the most noteworthy releases of all time and it was just gone from the chart after 5 weeks.

In Australia, "Mr. Brightside"'s stats are just a little more modest. It peaked at #19 here, though that came as a result of an annual New Year's Eve bump. Originally the song just got to #29. The song's chart run in Australia is very incomplete, however. Since about a year ago, it's been cut off from the chart because of new rules, but a much less tangible issue is that until 2022, the song had just been miscounted on the chart every single week. This is something that's only clear from watching stats closely, but I got the sneaking suspicion that the song was missing a lot of streams back in 2017 when the song re-entered much lower than I expected (more on this in a moment). The biggest tell-tale sign was that "Somebody Told Me" was reportedly outstreaming it. I don't know if it's something mundane like putting 'Mr.' without the period somewhere on a spreadsheet or not, but this went so many years unchecked, and I suspect has cost the song the chance to be the longest charting hit of all time. I'm sure they won't lose any sleep over this, but I take a curious glance whenever I see the song described as a UK millennial anthem. It's just as big here I think, just our stat sheets aren't properly looked after.

When you have a song like this in your catalogue, my previous notion about The Killers being on their way out no longer matters. Maybe they won't necessarily be generating new hits of note anymore, but they've been given a permanent lifeboat. A song whose omnipresence alone will never allow The Killers to be forgotten. You look at old interviews and headlines where Brandon Flowers is boasting greatness and declaring war against everyone around him (he grew up worshipping Oasis and admits he got it from them) and it's so funny to imagine a band of this stature were once at a point where they were beefing with The Bravery. Talk about two vastly different trajectories there. The Killers releasing new music will always be noteworthy. They might not ever get their new music to more concurrent listeners than "Mr. Brightside" but it lets them have it both ways, playing shows to die-hard fans who want to hear the new stuff, as well as anyone who wants to re-live the hit(s) of the glory days.

It might just help that they put in the work for their first new single after being locked down as the "Mr. Brightside" band. "The Man" was the lead single to their 5th album and seemed to be welcomed into the fold with open arms. I liked it a lot, triple j were happy to keep the band in rotation for another album cycle, and the band were willing to come around to Australia to promote it. It's quite high up in the countdown so maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not entirely sure I'd be talking about it here if the band didn't drop by on the last Saturday of September to play at the MCG for the AFL Grand Final. Grand Final performances are generally better remembered for when they go wrong, or don't match the demographics, but by all accounts, most people seem to be pretty pleased by this one. They largely just stuck with the early hits, but dropped "The Man" in as well to give it a bit of promo. This happened just a day after their latest album had debuted at #1 in Australia, their first album to ever do this (and second to go to #1), so it's fair to say that this band that hadn't had a top 50 hit in nearly a decade were welcomed with open arms.

I hadn't been quite as invested in The Killers' new music from this point (though I'm willing to see things possibly turn around), but "The Man" was an instant delight for me. I think my preferred presentation for this band is that same kind of glossy sheen I first gravitated to, and in that regard, this feels like the best approximation of that I've heard from them in a very long time. When they play things like this, that undeniable ear for a hook just comes roaring back. Every line, even the silly ones (though when have The Killers not had silly lyrics?) just lands perfectly and fills you with that exact brand of machismo that the song is lightly mocking. Spending the last two hours listening to so many Killers songs is reminding me just how long they've been writing uplifting music, so I don't think self-empowerment is the wrong thing to take away from this song, just like, be modest about it.

#129. Foals - Mountain At My Gates (#20, 2015)

19th of 2015

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If you'll pardon the pun, I have once again backed the wrong horse. I had a revelation with "Spanish Sahara" that Foals had a bit more going on than I'd initially tipped. I was rewarded again when their new song "Inhaler" again revealed another layer. It didn't quite make the Hottest 100, but their poppier song "My Number" (#571) did. That was a big star-making run for Foals though, so they were well poised to go at it again with bigger results. To an extent, this is true. Once again, the lead single didn't make the cut, and the perkier follow up single did. What went down here? Well, "What Went Down" went down, when it was dropped as the lead single to "What Went Down".

That particular title track has wormed its way up to becoming one of my absolute favourite Foals songs. Like "Inhaler", it's a darker side to the band that really explodes on the climax. Hard to have less in common with the Foals that I was introduced to. I suppose it's all showing up as a transition in Hottest 100 voting away from more confronting, intense songs. Either that, or just a sign that the people who grew a fondness for Foals had a certain type that they were catering to from the beginning. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be drawn to a loud, angry Foals, but they're just not checking out Foals in the first place.

In defence of "Mountain At My Gates", I don't think it's fair to just brush it aside as the light, fluffy affair. In actuality, I think it strikes a solid balance between the two halves. Yannis occasionally leans into pretty intense singing which is balanced by playful guitar riffs. Drummer Jack Bevan might be the actual star of this because once he's pushed higher up into the mix, the whole song feels transformed. He's the centrepiece of a surprisingly bold outro, adding the finishing touches on what's already a pretty likeable song, and giving you something to look forward to besides the usual chorus.

#128. Ball Park Music - She Only Loves Me When I'm There (#19, 2014)

16th of 2014

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Sometimes you follow the charts and they just serve up oddities. You can rationalise them through personal biases, but on the whole they don't make a lot of sense. In 2012, British India had been trucking along for a number of years when they unexpectedly scored the biggest hit of their career with "I Can Make You Love Me". It's unavoidable to the degree that it actually makes the ARIA Chart, and hovers around there for a number of weeks. It's enough to feel like a genuine crossover hit though I find it hard to believe they're really pitching to a wider audience. Then the Hottest 100 happens and the song lands at #41, pretty good, but not really beyond their usual range. It's right in-between the previous placings of "I Said I'm Sorry" and "Vanilla", songs that never really made the conversation of the ARIA Charts. If the song hadn't maintained this momentum as probably still the band's biggest hit, I'd call that charting period a strange fluke.

Something similar happened with Ball Park Music. It was more egregious because the band had never made the ARIA Chart before, and save for a post-Hottest 100 bump for "Cherub" (#321), have never done so since. In hindsight, I guess I can look at 2014 as the peak of Ball Park Music's commercial prowess, so if there was ever a good time to do it, it was then. Their third album "Puddinghead" has spent longer in the ARIA top 50 than any of their other albums, and got within an inch of the #1 spot, which continued to elude them until 2025. Maybe this is more promotional shenanigans, except Ball Park Music have never been on a major label (though they are published through Sony). It's what happened though, "She Only Loves Me When I'm There" spent all of 4 weeks on the ARIA Chart, which isn't a lot, but it's massive by their standards. In all fairness, it also managed to be the band's highest Hottest 100 entry until 2017, but then that is the interesting part of it. They continued to climb higher and higher up those ranks, but they've never been in this strange crossover world ever again.

I said you can rationalise these through personal biases though, and that's what I'm doing. This always made sense to me because at the time it was my favourite Ball Park Music song. In the wake of another song that came out a few months earlier, this was one of those big, explosive return singles that just seemed to raise the stakes. If Ball Park Music are to be seen as the second coming of Custard, the band I've already twice mentioned in Ball Park Music entries and almost never elsewhere, they need to bring an extra layer of whimsy. This one's coated in it. It goes from a slow burn to full on circus music in an instant and I'm all along for the ride.

#127. Major Lazer (feat Ezra Koenig) - Jessica (#74, 2013)

25th of 2013

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This feels like a hidden gem now. When an artist has an unexpected turn at getting incredibly popular, you can look back at their back catalogue and it'll probably end up most fondly remembered. Sometimes the opposite happens. The artist will be put on the map and then every new release going forward will get significantly more attention than anything before, in anticipation to see if they can pull it off again. This is what happened to Major Lazer for a while but it feels like the project has fallen further out of focus than ever before, just based on pitiful streaming numbers for all their new releases. I look at "Jessica" and imagine there's a world where it got picked up as a Major Lazer staple in hindsight but it just hasn't happened. It's one of 5 Major Lazer songs to ever make the Hottest 100, and yet here it is not even one of their 50 biggest hits. The gap between "Lean On" (#428) and this is just so immense that I wonder how many of the people who voted for that song even know or remember this one. It must be one of the biggest gulfs in popularity between two Hottest 100 entries by the same artist in a short space of time.

If you put yourself back into 2013, there's nothing particularly unusual about this entry. Major Lazer were in prime form, just scoring a huge hit with "Get Free", and there was clearly a lot of enthusiasm for the project going forward. Their 2013 album "Free The Universe" debuted at #5 in Australia, the same position they'd land at in two years' time having just scored a #1 single. If you're charting that well, it's usually a sign that you're good for a Hottest 100 entry and it's just a question of what it'll be. There were only really three choices at the time, "Jessica", "Scare Me" and "Watch Out For This (Bumaye)". I suppose if there is a surprise in hindsight it's that the latter didn't get in, as that has managed to endure as one of Major Lazer's most popular singles. Realistically though, "Jessica" probably was always the likely choice. It's the song that stays most true to the path carved out by "Get Free", and also it's got Ezra from Vampire Weekend on it, a match made in heaven.

I don't know if I can properly describe the appeal of "Jessica", just that it immediately resonated with me. The song starts with a big clap and you're suddenly teleported to a beach in the Caribbean. Ezra is swooning over some woman and getting increasingly unintelligible as he does, dropping into different languages and sometimes just speaking plain gibberish. I don't know what compels him to do anything that's on this song, just that he's tapped into something unexplainable when he gets right up to the microphone and says 'speak', but it sounds like 'spool'. Maybe it could potentially be annoying but the bass just keeps pounding you and turns it into a strange form of hypnotism. I'm just entranced for the entire 4 minutes this song is playing, and there's nothing quite like it.

#126. Baby Keem with Kendrick Lamar - family ties (#93, 2021)

5th of 2021

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There are two different artworks used for Kendrick Lamar's "good kid, m.A.A.d city". The deluxe one (the one with a car on it) gained a heightened degree of infamy in 2024 when Drake's music video for "Family Matters" crushed a similar looking car in a junkyard. A few years before that, Kendrick Lamar was paying homage to the regular cover art. That one features a very young Kendrick with two of his uncles and a grandfather, with all the adults' faces covered by black bars. In 2021, this was alluded to via the single artwork for "family ties", which this time ups the number of black barred faces to 9, leaving just Kendrick and a very young Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr., better known as Baby Keem, uncensored. Kendrick is about 13 years older than Baby Keem, and it really does highlight the absurdity looking back that you might one day trade bars with your baby cousin.

There's no getting around this. It's all obviously nepotism. Not just the gotcha of having famous (or not very famous) parents in showbiz and how that correlates to potential future stardom. You might only know who Billie Eilish is as a consequence of this headstart, but I don't think that you choose to listen to her music knowing that her mum has illustrious roles like 'Woman going through things who gets her head spiked' in the first 5 minutes of the last season of Six Feet Under (probably just about the most screentime for one of those, though). It is very likely that Baby Keem being Kendrick Lamar's cousin is the primary reason you'd know and listen to him. He got signed to Kendrick Lamar's label, and in a time when people were pining for new music from Kendrick for a pretty long time, this was the route he made his return in. No big, triumphant single or album. Just a couple of strange feature credits on Baby Keem's debut album.

When you consider the power of memetic spread, it feels a little surprising that we're not actually talking about "range brothers". If there's anything that was being talked about at the time, it was Kendrick's strange appearance on that song. Baby Keem holds his own, but then when everyone's ready to see what his cousin is going to do to send it home, we're greeted by him saying 'Top of the morning' and 'let's get this shit' about half a dozen times in a row each. It shouldn't be as funny as it is but he just keeps staggering it off the beat in a way that's incredibly disarming. We also get some crucial ad libs during Keem's last verse (he's Baby Keem).

I feel like the initial reception on "family ties" was a little lukewarm. It's a well-worn path. Kendrick has a very commercially successful and acclaimed album, takes a little while, and returns with something that is far from what was conjured up in everyone's heads. It won't be the last time I say this. It also won't be the last time that I say that I absolutely was behind it from the beginning, from the opening seconds, we're signalled to a triumph. Maybe Keem's high pitched voice is a deal-breaker, but I feel he rises to the occasion. He rides through different flows and different beats and never feels out of his depth.

Kendrick is why we're here for multiple reasons though. I feel like if you spend too long online (or around people who are), it's easy to imagine that the inundation of opinions and nuance means that you can't find something inspired from a recording artist who's running on a release window lag. The part that always gets me with this song is how he silences the critics who were down on him for not releasing anything in 2020, when the pandemic and social unrest were all over the news (see "The Bigger Picture" by Lil Baby). He plays the Uno reverse card calling these people 'overnight activists' as a reminder that he's been doing this stuff for years and isn't interested in posting it for clout. But if you remember nothing else from this song, then it's got to be when Kendrick interrupts his own flow to say 'Amazing brother, pop off only on occasion, brother', and keeps dropping that word like he's Desmond from Lost. That uncanny affectation on his voice has gotten me through some tough days.

#135-#131

 #135. Ali Barter - Girlie Bits (#58, 2016)

16th of 2016

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In late 2015, triple j were playing the song "Hypercolour" just about once a day. It largely passed me by for weeks until it suddenly clicked with me one day to become one of my favourite songs released that year. Just a really lovely brand of shiny pop rock that manages to ramp up the action upon successive choruses without making a big show of it. It was followed up by "Far Away" in 2016 which I liked even more. Huge soaring vocals and psychedelic rock riffs. I want to link it but it's been partially subbed out online for the album version from 2017. Maybe I'm just too used to the single, but it's never sounded quite right to me, whatever was done to it.

Afterwards, Ali Barter had a pretty big career boon in the form of "Girlie Bits". It mostly proved to be a one-off moment as nothing has come close to matching it since. I feel like she did plenty of note after that. I'm particularly fond of the song "Backseat" which appears to be written in her own younger perspective meeting her husband Oscar Dawson of Dukes of Windsor/Holy Holy fame. He's an active part of her music career with producer credits all over her discography. It couldn't have been planned but the song also mentions Tool within months of them finally releasing their 5th album. In any case, I don't think another hit is coming because Ali Barter appears to have put an end to her music career. She's now a tour guide in India, as I'm sure you expected.

For these purposes, we've just got the one song. It probably isn't that surprising. As we've seen before (#162) and we'll see later on, one solid way to tap into the zeitgeist is to make a song about how sexist the music industry is, whether it's the fans or the labels (who are enabled by those fans). Writing songs about industry stuff can be potentially risky because a lot of the biggest issues faced by musicians are ones behind the scenes that the public aren't necessarily empathetic to. It helps when the statement feels universal.

I'm going to once again lift all my information from an Inspired interview. "Girlie Bits" was written on Ali Barter's honeymoon and in part came from her own self-esteem issues with her body. A big driving factor though was the essay that Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast had recently published (my timeline tells me it was just a few weeks prior). She spoke largely about the double standards experienced by women who are expected to put up with more unreasonable responses while also having much less capacity for response to it. I can't believe she was generous enough to do an AMA on /r/indieheads a few years later given how awful their response was to the essay at the time. The song's most memorable lyric, 'You don't understand what it's like to be a man' is reportedly a real thing said to Ali by an ex-boyfriend. I think about how Ali Barter is another musician who had their big moment of stardom a little bit later than life than usual (she was about to turn 31 when this song was released) and how it adds to the lived-in weariness of it all.

It's a very easy song to like anyway. Maybe despite what I've said before, pop-punk is the universal language. The main points of reference here were The Offspring & Veruca Salt circa 1994, though Ali sounds a bit different with her higher vocal register. That's another part of the process that was important to her, as it felt truer to herself than previous times when she was deliberately trying to escape her choir girl past. An appropriate conclusion to be reached in a song about being yourself against the grain of ridiculous societal expectations.

#134. Lorde - Royals (#2, 2013)

27th of 2013

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There aren't many songs that feel so omnipresent, so well worn out that it leaves me at a bit of a loss to try and start a new dialogue on them. "Royals" is absolutely one of those songs. There are songs that were maybe technically bigger hits on raw numbers, but they rarely feel as complete a story as "Royals". It's a song we've all encountered and accepted as part of our lives. Whenever I do Sporcle quizzes relating to music in the 21st century, I can almost guarantee "Royals" will be the most correctly guessed song. It's so instantly recognisable and unmistakeable like that.

Funnily enough, "Royals" didn't even get to #1 in Australia. If you're willing to be extremely pedantic, it didn't even chart in Australia. Potentially as a holdover from when it wasn't quite obviously a big deal, it always charted as part of Lorde's "The Love Club" EP (although ARIA eventually re-credited it as "The Love Club EP Feat. Royals" which is very funny). We don't have a very good picture of how "Royals" actually performed in Australia because the EP was boosting it every single week. There's a week in July where it bolts up to a new peak of #32 before really taking off, but in actual fact, "Tennis Court" (#496) was at #35 and was the most downloaded Lorde single that week. The double-edged sword in all of this is that it's probably Australia's early curiosity that cost Lorde a chance at a #1 single. "Royals" had just done the rounds for so long that by the time it became a global sensation, it didn't have as much juice to give out. 2013 as a chart year felt especially prominent for this because sales were so high that it felt like a genuine struggle to hang around on the charts for particularly long. In any case, "The Love Club" wound up as the 5th biggest hit of the year in Australia, effectively a bigger hit here than in all of those countries that it got to #1 in, apart from New Zealand of course (it was the 2nd biggest hit of the year there).

The main unique insight I have with all of this is just how strange it's all been to watch this unfold. I have to think back to March 2013 when none of the pretence or discourse really existed. It was just a song that was getting played on triple j. If you're of the belief that all hits are destined and they just need the audience, then you have to spend a long time watching this song twiddling its thumbs because it clearly wasn't getting anything more than a glimmer of attention that might see it pop up in the top half of the Hottest 100 if it isn't forgotten about. I liked the song but I saw no aspirations from it, it just sounded like a new triple j Unearthed band getting their moment in the sun. I accept that it's a big part of the music landscape now, but a lot of that reputation has been earned retrospectively as a reaction to its popularity. "Royals", the enormous hit song, says a lot of things that "Royals", the quirky niche indie hit, could never have managed. Even if by all accounts, it's the same song it always was.

The interesting thing about great success is that it brings scrutiny along the way that might never have been anticipated. Relative obscurity allows you a blanket of a shrug for a lot of criticism because the stakes are low and it affects nothing. Nobody is firing up a major think piece because one anonymous internet comment said that rap music is all about parties & bling. If that person was ever taken to task for it, it'd probably be very easy to make them back down. Write it in a hit song though, and all of a sudden it's seen as your primary mantra, and dunking on it with a more sophisticated second opinion is a very lucrative option.

Something that has become abundantly clear to me over the years is how often this batch of discourse is just completely separate to the driving force that makes the songs popular in the first place. The internet becomes a bunch of witless Waldorfs & Statlers who insist on peering over from the balcony to see what's been put on offer, pretending they're the tastemakers even as it's all decided what's going on stage before they've had any input. From this same era, I think of the song "Blurred Lines". You probably remember that one. It was very controversial, because of its music video, its lyrics, its copyright lawsuit and the record pace Robin Thicke set in making sure no one wanted to root for him. You might not remember there was a solid couple of months before any of that was true. "Blurred Lines" was just one of those songs that stood out because people liked it, they quickly made it a hit and it went to #1 everywhere. This song that sounded like nothing else around at the time was so big that it still holds the record for the highest one week audience impressions in America according to Mediabase. The discourse was just so late to the party that the fact feels like an artefact. If they had a chance to do it over, I'd think radio would be just a little bit more hesitant to put all their chips in for the ultimate 'no means yes' anthem.

"Royals" had a similar, if less dramatic fate. It spent a long time as 'cool indie tune, this Lorde might be one to watch'. One of the big musical moments of the year in Australia was when Frank Ocean cancelled his appearance at Splendour in the Grass, and with very little advance warning, Lorde stepped in to take his place, crushed it, and endeared herself to so many people overnight. I don't think anyone was really accusing Lorde of being racist at the time. But anyway, as is often the case, America came late to the party and brought all their baggage with them.

I do not want to diminish the attention of potential racism in the music industry and its fans. There's a storied history going way back of white artists being gifted opportunities over people of colour. These things don't even have to come from racism itself, but from people going about their regular business that through a group summation of activity, produces a gentrified result. 2013 was also the year when the Hip-Hop & R&B charts were dominated by Macklemore, Robin Thicke, Eminem & Justin Timberlake. It's not that these artists don't have their place, but when they're taking it all for themselves, you have to wonder if some of the common rhetoric needs to be challenged in some way.

For many, "Royals" was part of this rhetoric. She doesn't say it out loud, but she does spend the song's pre-chorus listing off cliches she's grown weary of that seem to be exclusively targeting the world of hip-hop. One of those moments of lucidity where I don't think she intended this in her head or heart but subconsciously brought it out, unfettered until an external audience had a reflexive response. Then we got a response to the response where some people did manage to dial it back and remind everyone that we're talking about a teenage girl from New Zealand who wasn't raised on the American way of thinking (just their music videos). There's always more nuance involved and you need to slow down lest you become both a caricature and a net negative on your own activism. There's absolutely a conversation to be had, and I suspect Lorde learnt a lot from the experience, but generally just slamming someone as a racist for potentially unwittingly perpetuating systemic racism won't do any good for anyone.

All this in mind, I don't think that aspect of the song is what made it big. It's just a song that sounds fresh and engaging on the radio. It came out at just about the right time, when there were diminishing returns on club beats, and something this minimal could have a place in the world (something to be said about Adele and/or Gotye setting the stage). The most memorable thing in the song for me are the backing vocals in the chorus. It's giving off a capella harmony group but managing to make it sound like a pop hit instead of a weird gimmick that feels like it's positioning itself above the pop world. Mostly though, the success of this song always felt like a reminder to me that there's a big audience for quirky alternative hits and it's only stifled by reach. I've spent many a time grappling with my own self-assured confidence that this song I like could absolutely be big, but first needs everyone to think that it's big enough that it's worth caring about. Just that bit of hope that in amongst all the astroturfing and payola equivalents, the sway of an undeniably likeable song can always come out on top given the right circumstances. Lorde didn't need to go #1 in Australia or on the Hottest 100 though, that kind of luxe just isn't for her.

#133. The Amity Affliction - Pittsburgh (#22, 2014)

17th of 2014

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This song is called "Pittsburgh" because it's about Joel's experience at the Vans Warped Tour in Pittsburgh where he had a near death experience following a seizure. It did have me thinking about what I knew about Pittsburgh. I know it's the home of the Penguins, Pirates & Steelers. It's got three rivers though I can only name one of them (and I can't spell it). People who live there call themselves yinzers. This one time I pulled off a miracle solo get in a mock-up Jeopardy! game in the improbable Final category of Colleges & Universities against two North Americans, because I pulled out my relatively arcane knowledge book for Carnegie Mellon University being in Pittsburgh. The crowd were stunned.

Jeopardy! also taught me about a TV show set in Pittsburgh, in a manner so irregular that it felt like it was paid advertisement. If that's the case, congrats HBO, you got me to watch so many ads for Euphoria in the past 3 weeks on your streaming service. But yes, I'm talking about The Pitt, the medical drama with the gimmick of taking place roughly in real time, with each season taking place across an entire shift in the emergency department. It's very good. It paints a very sympathetic light to the plights of emergency doctors in a way that's been sorely needed in the 2020s. They don't really talk about it but it'll make you think twice before you start saying any amount of positive COVID-19 cases is not a big deal. The big surprise in it all for me though was that it probably has my favourite representation of a neurodivergent character I've ever encountered in media. I spoke about it before I'd known about this (#186). Usually if there's a problem to be had, it's with the way they're treated as a piece of the story. A neurodivergent person is always either a burden, or a burden that turns into a savant, but very rarely a character with their own agency. When I watch The Pitt, I see a character that's just treated and respected like a person and you have no idea how much it means to me. Thank you, Bryan Cranston's daughter.

"Pittsburgh" was an event single. We'd had brief instances of metalcore singles making small splashes on the bottom end of the chart, but I don't think anyone was ready in April 2014 to look at the iTunes chart and see The Amity Affliction up at #3 on downloads. This was before streaming was part of the charts too so it was a freak incident that couldn't be ignored. The only problem was that the song was released on a Monday, so it only had half a week to amass sales. Still, it managed to land at #28 on the ARIA Chart which was unprecedented. Given my current unshakeable association of Pittsburgh with Euphoria, it's appropriate that this was also the single week in history that Zendaya had a top 10 single, with "Replay". The Amity Affliction would course correct a year later when "Shine On" (#935) was released on a Friday and managed to chart at #19 in Australia.

Often times when bands are playing outside of the usual audience of the pop charts, there's a desire to measure it in the same terms. It'll probably be disappointing because the overarching circumstances tend to outweigh the practical reality of 'They're charting high because they've made their big crossover single'. Did you know that Iron Maiden had a #1 single in the UK? It even lasted two weeks at the top. Unless you're very invested in these stats then there's no way you'd be able to name it as it's not remotely one of the band's most famous songs. It's just a random quirk of a 'hit' at the right place and right time. It's possible that by the same token, any song by The Amity Affliction released as a lead single at this point would do something similar to "Pittsburgh".

In spite of this though, I think they absolutely rose to the occasion for this one. I tend to be fascinated by novelties of all sorts in the charts, and The Amity Affliction sitting in the top 30 between "Say Something" and "Free" (#858) is a novelty. I bought into it though. I wasn't opposed to The Amity Affliction on any principle, but if they were to make a crossover single, then it had to be this one. Every time that drum fill comes back in and Ahren belts out that idiosyncratic but memorable hook, it's just that exact release of energy you want from something like this. I wasn't alone in my feeling and the song has absolutely stuck the landing, becoming arguably the band's signature song. The fact that the song also inadvertently got me to discover a new TV show to enjoy over a decade later, it's just the gift that keeps on giving.

#132. Angie McMahon - Missing Me (#49, 2018)

12th of 2018

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We don't really get blues music in the Hottest 100 very much anymore, I don't think it's especially hip with the kids. It used to be, or at least there was a large enough contingent of older voters seeing it through. Gone are the days when we'd get a song called "Blues Music". Actually it's always worth noting that John Lee Hooker had the first ever Hottest 100 entry, so there was a brief, pre-Shamen period where the annual Hottest 100 was nothing but blues music. I guess I can't put it past a random resurgence in some capacity, it probably just needs the right song to do it. Given that Hozier recently had a #1 hit with a somewhat bluesy number, I don't think it's impossible.

I don't know if "Missing Me" necessarily meets all the qualifications to be considered blues music, but when I think about the song, it's always that stuttering guitar riff that I think of first. It sounds staggered and haggard. Once Angie chimes in, there's an extra layer of heft behind it all as well. The emphasis she puts on the word 'thrown', like she's heaving it right at us. It's all exemplified in the first minutes of the song where it feels like a series of false starts and half-commitments. It's right around the minute mark where the powder keg finally goes off, that's the moment that might have singlehandedly pushed this song so high up on this list.

Something that's easy to forget with this is that we're literally looking at Angie McMahon's second single. Only "Slow Mover" (#260) comes before this one. I wouldn't say that she sounds obviously unready on that single, but what little naïveté was there is replaced by world-weariness here. It's something I've come to appreciate getting older while following the world of music where it's not part of the agenda. In more ways than one, Angie McMahon is providing some much appreciated variety in this countdown dictated by the nation's youth.

#131. Lorde - Team (#15, 2013)

26th of 2013

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I don't know if this proves that a hit song need not be a think-piece magnet in order to be a hit song or not. Realistically, I don't think I've ever heard any discussion that breaks down anything substantial about the song "Team". I've never read a headline on it beyond 'Hey, Lorde's just released a new single called "Team"'. It's a big hit all the same, though obviously not on the same stature as "Royals" (#134). On some level you can consider that not having anyone talking about the song like that will get it less attention, but surely a lot of it is down to the fact that some songs just don't have that ceiling in general. I like "Team" slightly more, but I'm not about to call it some sort of injustice that "Royals" was a bigger hit.

I look now though and "Team" is actually getting more daily listeners on Spotify than "Royals". Perhaps the reverse is true now and it's easier to coast on by if a song doesn't generate attention like that. You hear the start of "Royals", immediately know what it is, and maybe have second thoughts on if you want to go through that all. "Team" just has no baggage attached to it, so it's hard to imagine anyone getting worn down by it. Maybe only back when it was fairly popular and there's a good chance you heard it too often.

It feels weird to say this, but from an American perspective, "Team" has one valuable role in that it definitively locks Lorde out of any consideration from being a one hit wonder. She's obviously had many hits, but when you look at the charts, it's just this and "Royals" that ever felt like they stuck the landing. Everything else tended to debut high and crash out quickly, even if they did well in the long run ("Ribs" is 4xPlatinum in America despite peaking at #99). Its success in America felt inexplicable at the time, like it was running on its own fumes and being overrepresented as a result. This is partially correct in that it was all the radio. "Team" was never a song that sold particularly well and most of its global stats were pretty unremarkable. The power of an aggressive radio airplay push meant that it spent over 3 months in the Billboard top 10 where it could have just as easily spent zero weeks there. I suppose it was momentum earned from a recent #1 hit (Iggy Azalea did the same with "Black Widow" less than a year later), but I find myself thinking of all the popular songs that can't chart because of songs like "Team" taking up space by default. Like the rest of Lorde's discography for instance. "Tennis Court" (#496) was going around at the same time and got a half-hearted radio push almost a year late to the party, so it only peaked at #71 in America. In Australia, these were roughly similar sized hits at the time. In any case, it gave the song a rather inflated result of being one of the top 20 biggest hits of 2014 in America, which is another sign of how "Royals" opened up doors because that's just an outlandish result for a song like this.

"Team" is entirely pleasant radio affair. Maybe they'd consider cutting the first 30 seconds because it takes a little while to get going. I want to say in hindsight that it fits perfectly in place but I think it's another step in the way Lorde absolutely changed the pop scene going forward. In the years coming, you'd see artists like Halsey & Alessia Cara who'd owe a lot to Lorde for making their moody pop feel more in vogue. "Team" isn't really a moody song. It does everything it can be sound anthemic. I just think that there's a limit when you've got Joel Little's production that's saturated in drums, claps & discordant synths. It's songs like this that probably phased on the default mood on the radio about throwing your hands up in the air, so yeah.