#315-#311

#315. Bluejuice - I'll Go Crazy (#25, 2014)

36th of 2014

A year ago I spoke about the British India origin story (#742). I am nothing if not nostalgic for very small pockets of 2007, or at least the ones that are memorable enough to come back to me. By some miracle, I still have some very old documents with their metadata intact. With that in mind, we can flash back to 2007 and it was during those heady days that I was entertaining myself with my discovery of animation tools in Microsoft PowerPoint. I was very interested in cricket at the time, so there's a slide I made back around March that uses Snicko to prove that a tree falling in a forest with no one around makes a sound. Then in August I did a modestly ambitious attempt to simulate a whole test match which didn't get very far, but I'm finding some of the details amusing 19 years later.

Also at that same time, I heard of Bluejuice for the first time. I likely had already heard their song "Unemployed" before but never paid attention. The real introduction was seeing the music video for "Vitriol" and being equal parts confused and dazzled. I pair it with "Ice Cream" by Muscles for being the most quintessential triple j songs of 2007. Just strange but completely shameless songs willing to put all their cards on the table. In hindsight I probably have more fun quoting "Ice Cream", but that was a harder sell at the time. "Vitriol" had me all-in all year.

The success of "Vitriol" began a brief but memorable pattern. Bluejuice would come out with a new album every couple of years, and it wouldn't sell spectacularly, but it'd have that one killer single that justified a bunch of iTunes downloads, Hottest 100 votes and a national tour. I was getting a bit interested in the business side of music at the time and there's an interview I wish I could find with a member of Bluejuice, where he mentioned an awareness of this pattern and admitted that when it came to making a living off being a musician in Australia, they were probably one of the luckier ones and they weren't exactly in a stellar place. They were probably toast the moment they couldn't get a hit. With that in mind, it's probably not surprising to find out that they called it quits in 2014. I'd always hoped that Jake & Stav would become hosts on triple j because they always had the best chemistry when they were there, but they went separate ways. They got to have a nice finish though, a big victory lap sendoff. Their Like A Version cover of Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" hits hard, not just because that's the song that was #1 when I was born. They also got one last hit with "I'll Go Crazy".

I'm not sure there'd be quite as much fanfare for this song without the associated breakup. Bluejuice had been trading on gimmicks for a while at this point and "I'll Go Crazy" doesn't really have that. It's just classic Bluejuice with their knack for absolute ear worms. One of their best assets was always those uncanny harmonies that don't sound much like anything else, and it's a touch they hadn't lost nearly a decade later. Sooner or later, all those artists you grew up with have to move out of the spotlight. Sometimes it's nice to appreciate when you get a chance to see it happen on their own terms without ambiguity. Given what I was going through at the time, it really felt like a closing chapter in my own life.

#314. Dune Rats - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again - Like A Version (#23, 2022)

26th of 2022

There's a pretty common situation when a famous quote is formed. It'll make sense in the moment and become something of an in-joke among those who were there. They'll then start to repeat it in earshot of people who aren't, and it will have to test the waters without context. Maybe it will still work but it's likely it never comes off as strongly. There's no element of surprise. Just look at the AFI's list of 100 Movie Quotes. If you haven't seen most of the movies, you're probably not gonna be won over like this. I'm a big fan of the line from "Some Like It Hot", but it's the last line from the entire movie and I genuinely think you need to see the whole movie for it to connect. Just an incredible punchline that the whole situation was unexpectedly building up to. Another one I think about is the classic quote from The Terminator. Definitely one of the most famous movie quotes and probably the definitive tough guy line. It still probably works, but it was illuminating to me when I found out it was something of a joke. He says 'I'll be back' and returns as soon as possible on chaotic terms. It's not on the list, but there's another good line in the sequel, where in a call to John Connor's foster parents, T-800 imitates his voice and asks about their dog 'Wolfie' (#513). After an innocuous response, he hangs up the phone and declares John's foster parents are dead (i.e. replaced by cyborgs). This has become an extremely exploitable set of comic panels, adaptable in many situations. One of my favourite ones has the parents depicted as Australians and they get asked if they're ever gonna see his face again. The mother says of course and the game is up already.

If you need to be filled in, "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" is the debut single by The Angels released in 1976. They're not to be confused with the American group from the 1960s known for "My Boyfriend's Back". It's not an immediate success and neither is their self-titled album. They return another year later with their second album "Face to Face" and it's an enormous success, establishing The Angels as premiers in pub rock. For the whole 1980s they're stars, scoring hit after hit. At some point, a piece of Australian folklore establishes itself. It becomes a tradition to respond to the title phrase of "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" with 'no way, get f**ked, f**k off'. Lead singer Doc Neeson first recalls hearing it in 1983. Much like the popularity of handball (we called it hand tennis in South Australia) and all the universal terminology throughout the country, no one seems to know the origin of the line. It's become universal though, and in 1988 a live version reached #11 on the Australian charts, taking the now very audible line into the books.

This makes for an unusual situation for the song. It exists out in the wild without an ideal version. You can buy either the studio version or the live version, but the pros & cons of each make it harder to find an agreement. It's just weirdly empty without the response, like when you listen to "Sweet Caroline" and realise that the words 'so good, so good!' aren't actually part of the song. If only there was a way we could have the best of both worlds.

I don't know if Dune Rats are ever going to return to the Hottest 100, if I'm ever gonna see their faces again. If that ends up being the case, then this is a pretty good way to go out on a high. It's the highest they've ever landed on the list. It's a big ensemble cover, including Ruby Fields, Rick & John Brewster from The Angels themselves, and also a member of a band I can't say the name of yet, despite it being a fun one to say. They come through with the goods on this one, seemingly teasing the conclusion for most of the way by playing it straight. The last minute turns into a collective cursing cacophony and we're all the better for it. I have to wonder if it's significantly improved the cultural cache of the song for a younger generation. One of the most interesting tidbits of information for triple j's Hottest 100 of Australian songs was the performance of The Angels. They went from never appearing in a Hottest 100 ever to jumping all the way in at #12. Most interestingly though, the zoomer vote demographic (roughly, it's 18-29s I can see) has it even higher at #6. They like this song from the 1970s more than "The Nosebleed Section" and that one Tame Impala song. Just don't know what you're gonna get sometimes.

#313. Mallrat - Groceries (#7, 2018)

33rd of 2018

Sometimes I want to build a narrative that serves my own opinion. It's the kind of thing that lets me say I'm right while being fully aware of how meaningless it all is. Then I'll do a little bit of digging that contradicts it, and I'll be scrambling for a solution to my own problem. Sometimes that desire to be right can be overpowering, so you'll be willing to discard the evidence. I don't want to do that, but I will explain how we got here.

I mentioned earlier this week when talking about G Flip how that song, "Drink Too Much" (#317), set a new standard for them going forward. What I was holding off saying then was that this can go two ways. You can interpret that breakout hit as a significant piece of the puzzle, or alternatively as just the incidental step to the destined spotlight that no longer feels significant. It's as if you should have re-calibrated before that, and then every subsequent hit is another distraction to divert more attention from it. Mallrat has something like this in a shorter time span. "Groceries" was the huge step up, but it was followed quickly by two more. I'd trained myself to read some significance into the song only to have it taken away.

Except here's where it goes wrong. Irrespective of Hottest 100 results and ARIA Chart blips, "Groceries" basically is Mallrat's biggest hit. Quite comfortably in fact, having gone 3xPlatinum now (nothing else has gone further than 1xPlatinum yet). It has over 100 million streams on Spotify which indicates a strong international showing, which in turn probably indicates a strong showing on random chill playlists that will in turn be buffing up the Australian numbers. It's still doing enough numbers that it's been heard about twice for every person in the country. If that doesn't sound impressive, keep in mind that as I write this, "Baby Shark" has only just surpassed two plays on YouTube for every person on Earth. If the charts ever trick you into thinking Australia just doesn't care anymore, know that not only are the numbers enormous in the scheme of it all, but that songs that barely made a visible impact on it ("Groceries" peaked at #57) can also pull that off. I can now return to my 2019 state of mind and treat this song like the big deal it is. Just ignore the absolute non-event of a single that I put just ahead of it.

"Groceries" paves out a slightly different niche for songs about having a crush on someone. Namely one where it's less about what the other person is interested in, but what the value is for you. You're left sitting on the possibility of something without getting any answer, but also having second thoughts about the whole arrangement. Many are still wondering to this day if it's better to have someone who means the world to you, or to have the full independence to do whatever you want. It's fitting for such a confused song that it's melodically all over the place. Lines all across it are squeezed & stretched to fit the cadence, while the song's hook is a questionable rhyme at best. Certainly enchanting in its own way though.

#312. Ocean Alley - Way Down (#72, 2020)

23rd of 2020

If there's any proof to the power of spacing out your single releases, then consider that Ocean Alley's 3rd album, "Lonely Diamond" had as many Hottest 100 entries as "Chiaroscuro" did, and that one was lucky to pull it off. Actually they did the same thing with their next album, and I'm writing this before the results come in for the album after that, but it's entirely possible they pull it off again. Ocean Alley are a band that are probably good for 4 hits on each album, which is a pretty good rate of return. I'm returning in 2026 to say that they actually surpassed it. 5 songs from the latest Ocean Alley album made the cut, incredible.

"Way Down" is probably the one that has the least justification for getting in given that it never really had its own time in the spotlight. All the other entries from this album were released before the album, but not this. It's just the one that's sneakily tucked in between the more popular "Tombstone" (#831) and "Infinity" (#608). Maybe that's what they did with "Happy Sad" (#784) on the last album as well. Earning credibility by association.

I think "Way Down" probably deserves more credit than that though. If Ocean Alley are ever accused of making songs that all sound the same, I want to point to this one. They're trading their usual chill tendencies for something with a bit more kick. I've always been trying to work out what the guitar riff reminds me of specifically, but I think '80s pub rock or thereabouts. "Solid Rock" by Goanna is calling out to me a little. I want to once again get away with saying that it's a good job, no notes.

#311. WILLOW (feat Travis Barker) - t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l (#36, 2021)

24th of 2021

I might be very immediately dating this post by pulling 2025 discourse into 2026. A song that seems to come up disproportionately in discussion for how popular it actually was, is "Gnarly" by KATSEYE. It's been a pretty big song, but many bigger songs feel immune to discussion, in contrast to this magnet. It's simply a very confronting song. Both on an audio version, and also visual if you choose to see the video. I'll just as often see it put forth that it's one of the worst songs ever made, and then another person will praise its genius. I tend to lean on the side of liking it. For better or worse, it's extremely memorable and provides some sort of engagement you won't get elsewhere. Otherwise I'm just a little worn down from playing the overly dramatic card for decades. The time for me to get performatively angry about harmless music that wasn't made for me has long passed. Mainly because I find myself thinking back to a song that came out so long ago.

In 2010, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith's daughter Willow released her debut single "Whip My Hair". She was days away from her 10th birthday when it came out and it was another in the long series of rich celebrities pushing their children into the charts for the sheer audacity of it. Eventually we'll have to run out of record-breaking superlatives for who the youngest person to accomplish some chart achievement is, but either way we'll be stuck in a timeline of Kanye West, P!nk and whoever comes next using their children for a gimmick. Willow's older brother Jaden had already released his first single earlier that year. All up, it's an easy way to get publicity, and the signal boosting does itself. It's very easy to make fun of music made by rich kids because they're probably untalented, the music is probably terrible, and it's still punching up so you don't even have to feel bad about doing it.

"Whip My Hair" was a special breed of this and honestly a precursor to "Gnarly". It's been 15 years so it's not quite as shocking anymore, but in an age of CinemaSins style music criticism, you're gonna get a lot of ammunition on this song with its aggressive production and nonsense lyrics from a child who's trying to simultaneously annoy us all but insist she's above it all. 2010 was also part of a big transitional phase in music away from more the more typical and inoffensive (Adele & co. would start to reverse this in the next year or so) to the kinds of music that just rubbed its disrespect in your face. If you're like me, "Whip My Hair" being a modest hit song is just the poster child of it all. This is the song people are choosing to listen to instead of the stuff I like. Obviously I hated it immensely.

I don't hate it anymore. I actually like it a little bit. I've got similar reasons to "Gnarly", where it's something that absolutely stands on its own for better or worse, and if I do give it the time of day, there are things to like about it. In general though I've heard a lot more of her music in the 2020s and I can hear the genesis of a vocal technique I've found myself gaining affection for. While I was getting outlandishly mad at this joke of a popstar in the 2010s, I never thought that she'd grow into one of the greatest rock stars of the 2020s.

Despite the early start and a few singles, WILLOW wouldn't release her debut album until December 2015, slowly reaching towards an acceptable age for it as she'd turned 15 now. I didn't hear it then, but years later, the track "Wait a Minute!" found some virality and became a genuine hit song. It's one I like a lot; very bouncy and there's a huskier tone in her voice that's developed. That was technically preceded by the breakthrough success of the song "t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l", during those heady days of pop punk having a moment again. The ARIA Charts don't always work properly so it never charted here but it probably was on the cusp of being a top 40 hit. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the song if I'm being honest, but soon after she put out "Lipstick" and I'm not being facetious when I say it's genuinely one of the best grunge songs I've ever heard. She'd keep honing her craft and I'd keep listening. Shout out to "<maybe> it's my fault" for an incredible performance and "wanted" with Kamasi Washington for delivering an unrivalled intensity. If there were any misgivings about her getting gifted a music career at a young age, then I think she's not only done the long yards at this point, but also displayed an aptitude for it both through improved performance and also clearly doing what she wants to do.

I wish I had more to say about this song in particular, but it is a good one. A nice bit of radio friendly rock & pop punk. Definitely comes packed with the sort of big hook that warrants being spaced out for the title, and that alone is worth the price of admission. I'm just mostly interested to see how many more times I can potentially be stopped in my place as she blows me away with something I didn't know she had in her. Maybe there's no reason to doubt it anymore.

#320-#316

#320. MEDUZA & James Carter (feat Elley Duhé & FAST BOY) - Bad Memories (#98, 2022)

27th of 2022

An interesting thought struck me when this snuck into the Hottest 100, namely how unexpected it felt. The simple rationale I had was the context in which I viewed MEDUZA. They were a group that made chart hits. The extent to which we were invested in them was that. Especially true if you're pooling your votes from an audience who only hear the songs because they're chart hits. To go from big top 10 (or thereabouts) hits that spend months hanging around to absolutely nothing, tick tick tick, that's the sound of your chart life running out.

Obviously there are some false assumptions being made here. The first thing to point out is that "Bad Memories" was absolutely a hit song, just that it was isolated to specific parts of Europe. Anywhere it had a real go, it succeeded with flying colours. A good rule of thumb also is that unless there are significant cultural barriers, then if something is a success in a larger or similarly sized country, it likely is doing something here, even if we can't see it. "Bad Memories" barely poked into Australia's Spotify top 200, not even long enough to make the weekly chart, but this immediately suggests that it could have just been hovering a little out of sight. Suddenly the prospect that they were doing numbers gets a little more believable.

With this in mind, I start to challenge a previous institution. The idea that the music charts are forged by and large, by people who are specifically looking into them, or are only getting their music from sources that are doing just that. 15 years ago this checks out. Radio is playing a very specific set of songs and everything else is following suit. By the time streaming comes into play, this breaks down a little. Discovery changes, new preferences emerge, and the hegemony breaks down. It's still there to a degree, but I've never felt more like the opposite scenario has emerged, and now the charts are largely built by people who have no idea they're doing it. Discovery is still clearly happening, but the Boolean measure of everything being either a hit, or not a hit, just doesn't really work. It's more of a spectrum with a lot more of an even spread. Perhaps it's just most accurate to say that "Bad Memories" is roughly 80% as much of a hit as "Piece Of Your Heart" (#712). That's what the streaming numbers tell me. The differing chart fortunes tell us more about what they're able to accomplish in this new paradigm that cast any damning sentence to those who fall shy of it. The Hottest 100 again provides an alternative perspective. I don't think most of the people voting in it are at all wise to significantly different chart fortunes, they're just voting as a reflection of what they know and like. Wouldn't you know? There's an audience for MEDUZA beyond the charts.

It's not a big revelation to say that MEDUZA may have been accused of unoriginality early on. I've said it before, the similarities between "Piece Of Your Heart" and "Lose Control" (#527) are not exactly subtle. Their next hit "Paradise" was a little different as GOODBOYS were subbed out for Dermot Kennedy, but it still won't blow you away with its change of pace. They needed to find something new, and I think they did with "Bad Memories". You can still hear that signature MEDUZA sound, but it's slathered with a guitar riff, and some slightly louder hi-hats. Combine that with the different vocals and it's really sounding like a fresh new start.

There's exactly one name I recognise alongside MEDUZA in these credits, and that's Elley Duhé. She had a minor hit with Zedd in 2018 with "Happy Now", a product of his dominance at the time. Maybe it actually was pretty big on its own as I'm now seeing it went 3xPlatinum. I took note of her vocals on that song though it didn't amount to a lot. A couple of years later and I heard one of her own songs, "MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT". It was released in January 2020 so it was one of the first new songs I liked in this decade. It's not particularly noteworthy from that, but somewhere along the line I started to connect the dots and develop my greatest low stakes crackpot theory. I cannot prove it, but I suspect this song was ghost-written by an Australian singer-songwriter who will eventually appear on this list. Any potential proof I may have is lost in either SIM card or old Twitter account hell, but the short version of it is that I know this singer once wrote a song called "In The Middle Of The Night", was probably about to release it until Taylor Swift put out "...Ready For It?" which made the song title less tenable. A couple of years later in an interview, this artist mentioned writing toplines for other artists which likely will have gone all over the place without a trace, it's just part of the business. It's just very interesting to me that a song with the very same hook turned up not long after that. Two years after this, the song belatedly became a worldwide hit, and I've now seen Elley Duhé say in an interview that she wrote the song for The Weeknd, but it could just as easily be a cover story. You're not gonna advance your career by admitting you didn't even write your biggest hit. I'll probably never know the answer but I'd love to find out some day that this particular artist has actually written a song that's been streamed over a billion times. Elley Duhé will also technically appear again in this list.

I don't know if this is a revelation to anyone else, but the other vocalist on the song is not James Carter (actually a producer), but FAST BOY. The second revelation is that FAST BOY is not just one person, but two brothers from Germany. They're the more memorable part of this I think. They're just singing about getting wasted, but I really click with the vibrato on the vocals. It sounds a bit like Post Malone. All up it's a very harmless song that's mostly interesting to me for tangential reasons, but certainly a fun one in its own right.

#319. Glass Animals - Life Itself (#63, 2016)

33rd of 2016

One of the quirks of the second Glass Animals album is that it's called "How To Be A Human Being", and each of the 11 tracks is supposed to be about one of the people on the album cover, who themselves are inspired by real people they've encountered previously. If you need the specifics on "Life Itself", it's the song for the unassuming guy in the top right of the album cover. I don't have that album cover here, but I think it's the same person in the single cover. Admittedly if it was just Dave I'd believe that too, the Glass Animals lead singer, not the rapper, obviously.

Going into this album, I wasn't exactly convinced by Glass Animals. There was something a little off about it all, like it was hard to read into them as anything other than being alt-J with some of the weirdness toned down. But with only one notable hit at that point in "Gooey" (#598), they probably had a lot more people to win over than just me. It's fortunate for them that they steadied the course here, although that might not have been obvious at the time. It's gone on to be a very successful album in hindsight, but they hadn't truly found their "Gooey" killer. Not for another few years anyway.

When "Life Itself" came out, I very quickly threw away my sceptic hat and put on my 'Glass Animals are so back' hat. Very quickly we're met with such lush instrumentation that feels like what they should have always been doing. The pre-chorus is one of the catchiest odes to the NEET life that I'm all too familiar with (I guess I was still in university when this song came out). It was very quickly my favourite song they'd ever put out. It's not anymore. I don't know if I actually have an answer to that, but it's pretty clearly not since there's still another one to come here. I think it just wore out a little on me after a while.

#318. Odette - Take It To the Heart (#96, 2018)

34th of 2018

Sometimes when the Hottest 100 is at the very early part of the countdown, an incredibly selfish version of me takes over and starts internally criticising everything I'm not 100% on board with. You can't really get mad at anyone voting for "The Trouble With Us" (#946). That's one of those songs that are so obviously gonna be in the countdown that it's a pre-determined fixture. It's those early entries where it feels the most precarious. The difference in necessary popularity between the #95 & #105 songs can't really be measured, and it'll feel like something that could've been reined in. Basically, when Odette made the list with "Take It To the Heart", my immediate reaction was something like 'Aw c'mon, you already had your turn last year (#418), we don't need your lesser scraps'. There's a certain irony to all of this. I didn't know at the time that the #101 song would be one I love, "Talia" by King Princess. That song is undeniably secondary, or maybe even tertiary scraps. In any case, I quite like the Odette song now, more than her previous one. I could never stay mad at her in the long run. It's also surrounded in the list by songs I think highly of, by artists who've had no shortage of entries previously. We're all contradictory messes.

In the case of "Take It To the Heart", it only feels like a lesser song because there's less of a gimmicky hook to it. You listen to "Watch Me Read You" and you don't forget it. It's just too quirky. This just feels like an attempt from Odette not to double down on it, play a little more into what we're expecting to hear. Hardly a novel situation, many successful artists have long stretches where it feels like they're making music to feed into that general assembly line and not rock the boat. It's not necessarily a bad thing either. We need an established general tempo so we don't get overwhelmed. There can be a welcome feeling of comfort from it all.

This is a cosy song. I would not say that it's devoid of character, because Odette's vocal runs are still very distinct. It's just a little more controlled with the song's steady tempo. Those handclaps & finger snaps that run through both the verses & chorus give it a solid throughline. There's a hint at some tension on the bridge, a moment you think she might unleash that never really comes. I've grown to quite appreciate Odette now. It's possible the redemption arc was already underway at this point (I'd downloaded one of her songs in late 2018, but that was more for the featured artist, who will eventually appear in this list). She put out my favourite song of hers a few years after this, "Amends". That song does not hold back in any regards and it's all the more powerful for it. In a pinch though, it's very easy to put this song on and have a good time.

#317. G Flip - Drink Too Much (#6, 2019)

22nd of 2019

Allow me to espouse the benefits of being a teetotaller. The most obvious one is that you get to save thousands of dollars a year, which will be handy when you likely get to live longer. There's no fear of the worrisome effects of being inebriated, and that includes the likely hangover. It's just a whole extra set of problems that never have to be problems for me. Most importantly though, if you're G Flip, then less drinking would probably mean that your last girl wouldn't dump you. I guess you wouldn't get to write a fun song about it though, so maybe there are limiting factors.

I mentioned with "Killing My Time" (#375) that it was a notable achievement for G Flip, a song that reached the ARIA Chart, even if briefly. There are a handful more of these that came after, but most are very brief flings, always for one week, usually after a Hottest 100 result. "Drink Too Much" is the interesting exception because it singlehandedly racked up the vast majority of G Flip's time on the chart, and got the highest. The boring answer to this is that it had a very good showing in the world of curated playlists at the time, but by 2019 I don't consider that a guaranteed deal to chart on its own, and the song has continued to hold up its end of the bargain by being easily their most streamed song. One of those mind vs. actions deals, where it might feel right to pick another song as their standout, but the data points out that we gravitate to the fun throwaway single. I'll be straight up and say my favourite G Flip song is "Be Your Man", and it's the one I've listened to the most too, but it's not a very inspiring winning margin. I must admit that all my nested smart playlists make for a good listening experience, but the data is very rigid.

Still, this did end up being a big deal single for establishing the standard from this point on. The upper reaches of the countdown had been breached, and it was suddenly G Flip's world to share around. From 2019 to 2024, G Flip made the top 11 on all but one of those years. To fall shy of that feels like an underperformance at this point. There's a slight parallel to The Rubens' 2012 single "My Gun", which had a similar chart performance and breakthrough success. In both cases I was pretty pleased even if the subsequent efforts didn't usually match up to it. Sometimes the most reassuring thing isn't the baseline success of the song, but how well it performs compared to predecessors, which might sometimes match up best to what feels like they should be the standout hits. This is absolutely the most fun G Flip song. The opening piano stabs set the tone and every chorus hit is just a rush of energy. Love the vocal distortion which feels apt for this. I want to note because it's not my world and so I didn't even know this, but the Steph Claire Smith mentioned in the first line of the song is an Australian model & influencer who is probably more famous than G Flip (has twice as many Instagram followers at least). I genuinely thought it was just someone they went to school with. Even more famous is G Flip's wife of 4 years, American soap actress Chrishell Stause. I guess there was a happy ending to come out of being dumped so drink however much you want to, responsibly.

#316. Sly Withers - Clarkson (#69, 2021)

25th of 2021

Consider me the modest expert as someone who used to get on the Clarkson train line hundreds of times a year. I might have even used that stop at certain points. Anyway, that particular stop has lost its infamy in the ensuing years as the line goes further north and it's the Yanchep line now. I just think it's really neat that Transperth is both a great pun and a great bit of accidental trans allyship. And on that bombshell, it's time to talk about Sly Withers.

Back when I was growing up, there was always talk about how there's something in the water over in Western Australia. The way this one state without a huge population and a lot of distance from everywhere else was able to punch far above its weight in the music scene. Bands like Pendulum, Birds of Tokyo, Little Birdy, Eskimo Joe, Gyroscope, Tame Impala, The Sleepy Jackson, San Cisco, some others I can't name yet. Even if they're not all to your taste, there's no denying the stars were there. I always used to look at the state by state statistics on the ARIA Report and spot the discrepancies. Many of these bands would far overperform in their local area. That's not too surprising really, but it shows how one state can singlehandedly put these artists on the map and build that platform. When Birds of Tokyo's first album came out, it debuted at #88, but was #15 in Western Australia. The second album was actually matched at #2 by Victoria, but that same week you've got Drapht charting for the first time thanks to local fans. His next album was outsold by k.d. lang in the two most populous states but still came in at #1. This state just knows it's isolated and is willing to back itself at every opportunity. We're seeing a new generation of bands crack the Hottest 100. DICE, Old Mervs & Sly Withers alike are probably charting above their expected pay grade (remember last year when "What You've Lost" got more votes than "MILLION DOLLAR BABY"?). What better way to show it than with a song named after a tiny suburb north of Perth?

I might just have a hint of bias in all of this. I promise that I come to it with all the genuine praise I can. Or at least, praise that's a little bit tempered because this particular song reminds me of stuff from 20 odd years prior that I probably prefer. It runs under 3 minutes so by the time you get to the ending, you might find yourself wanting just one more big release. The foundational pieces are there though, so this is a song that makes for great snippet crafting. It's my guilty pleasure sometimes to spend just as long listening to the best bits of songs than actually getting through the whole things. You've got a lot of options in "Clarkson".

#325-#321

 #325. Glass Animals - Your Love (Déjà Vu) (#51, 2020)

25th of 2020

I have to wonder if Glass Animals knew they had a hit on their hands. They'd probably say no, and I'd believe them. The single release order suggests a lack of confidence in their hand. The first single from "Dreamland" was "Tokyo Drifting" (#968). Potentially it gets attention for the obvious reason: the divergence from being a straight up Glass Animals song. "Your Love (Déjà Vu)" comes in next as a means of re-assurance. It's the song on the album that reminds me most of "How To Be A Human Being". The big twist in this whole arrangement is that they were sitting on something that could be described as the biggest hit of all time (in Australia) in "Heat Waves" (#741), and it was the 4th single. If they did have some faith in it, it's a good strategy. Bring it in for the middle order in case the early wickets fall too meaninglessly, keep the momentum up. Or maybe they just thought the same way I did, "Your Love (Déjà Vu)" had to be the hit because it's self-evident.

Maybe this is something that doesn't really come to mind with this band. They're in the middle zone where they have hits, but aren't a chart band (one exception aside). It's in their best interest to work this angle, and they have managed to do it covertly. Their previous album is the perfect example of this. It never really had a chart hit, but has amassed over a billion streams thanks to a series of low key hits, some I might even talk about here. This might change over time because nothing feels set in stone anymore, but going into this album, the surprise packet for Glass Animals was "The Other Side Of Paradise", a deep cut that overtook all of the actual singles. It probably didn't make sense as a single, coming close to 5 and a half minutes, but it's very adaptable to a short snippet based economy. I could make the case that it's the catchiest hook they've ever written, even in a sea of "Baby Blue" songs that have done the rounds.

That's why I think "Your Love (Déjà Vu)" was pushed early. When I listen to it, I hear a band (well it's mostly just Dave) trying to isolate what they had working before and trying to make it into a radio single. The whole chorus is trying to hammer in a whimsical instrumental hook. The only thing it's missing is a big confident performance on the vocals, which you think you're gonna get on the bridge but it falls a little short. This should be where I lament that the luck of the draw with hits is a cruel mistress and that this fell devastatingly short, but actually it's done pretty well for itself. As I write this, it's making ground on all the other singles from this album (apart from "Heat Waves", naturally), which is occasionally the sign of a random surprise hit bursting out the gate. That's a slow and ungratifying process though, I speak through having spent the last several months tracking a song that's slowly been climbing but still not really breaking through. More likely, "Take A Slice" is the band's ticket at the moment. Either way, I did always like this one. I guess I have to pay some thanks to "Heat Waves" on it because seeing this poll as well as it did, just reeks of the typical splash back you get when one song is tremendously powerful. I did not think this song had the momentum to make it in back in May 2020.

#324. Desiigner - Panda (#81, 2016)

34th of 2016

Something that I don't think is fully appreciated when looking at popular music is the sheer magnitudes of difference we can be dealing with. Right now as I write this (yes, in 2025), Bad Bunny just had 69 million streams on Spotify yesterday. In the same space of time, Khalid had 6.9 million streams, Nate Smith had 0.69 million streams, and Broken Social Scene were close to 0.069 million streams. I think we're tempted to bunch everything closer together when we're familiar with it, but the reality is so different. If you ever feel tempted to fall into the trap of being shocked at unfamiliarity with something that's being hyped up, think of just how easy it is to fall into the 90%, or the 99%, or the 99.9%. Not everyone listens to Bad Bunny either, so those numbers are being extremely generous. It also means that when something blows up, those early stories that may have formed are no longer part of the narrative. Most people missed the early parts of the careers of Post Malone, The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey, take your pick. Most people never saw the weird ascent of "Panda" before it already happened, so you might not know the story and it gives me an excuse to reiterate it.

In February 2016, Kanye West released his 7th album "The Life of Pablo". We've tackled it here once before (#659) and we'll do it again. For now I want to focus on an album cut, "Pt. 2". It follows "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1", the 'bleach my asshole' song. It goes through without much to remark upon, until you get to around the 30 second mark, and you hear a different MC on the track. He's a new guy, but everyone thinks it sounds like a certain Atlanta rapper (and he apparently has broads there). That rapper will appear on this list at a point in time I'd describe as the opposite of the past. He had just released his most acclaimed album 7 months ago so he was getting a lot of attention. Eventually we find out that it's Desiigner, who was just signed to Kanye's GOOD Music label earlier in the week. It also turns out that his verses are actually being sampled from his own song, "Panda" which had initially been released online, but was re-released a couple of weeks later. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in March, and reached #1 in May. Now this song is being heard all over the world, and reaching far more ears than a TIDAL exclusive Kanye West album track ever could. It's also a giant slap in the face to that rapper I haven't mentioned, a copycat wunderkind getting a #1 hit before he could even get close. Put a pin in that one because the story continues long after Desiigner is consiigned to irrelevance.

I just find the whole thing interesting because it's a much weirder timeline than you'd think, one that isn't generally documented properly. Anyone who's coming into this after the fact is likely going to misunderstand that. Listen to "Pt. 2" now and you might think it's just a rip off of "Panda", a sample that looks incredibly lazy in the already absorbed new context of "Panda" being a smash hit. In general though, "Pt. 2" will never sound the same as it did on the day that it came out, unless you've managed to completely avoid "Panda". Maybe you have, it's not like they thrashed it on the radio or anything.

When I first started to notice "Panda" getting a proper push, I marked it as a potential #1 hit (in America at least). It had the right pace of ascent, and there was a nice opening as Rihanna & Drake's "Work" was just waiting for the next #1 hit to come along and replace it. If the timing wasn't right, Desiigner might have been stuck behind Drake's "One Dance" (#796) which shot to the top 2 weeks later. In Australia, it was a low top 10 hit, which is pretty good given how trap music tended to perform here. Even in America though, "Panda" feels like a harbinger of the future. It wasn't the first trap song to top the Billboard Hot 100, but it's the first one that didn't feel like it was a pop song with trap elements. For many years to come, this became the default sound of rap, as everyone would start coming up with dark, menacing beats. Many like to attribute musical trends to presidential eras, and this one would be perfect since Rae Sremmurd got to #1 with "Black Beatles" right when Trump was elected for the first time, but Desiigner singlehandedly ruins it all by being half a year early.

Seemingly by accident at barely 18 years old, Desiigner became a pioneer. He flamed out pretty quickly after that, decide if it's bad artist management, or just a gimmick that didn't have many legs. I adore his later single "Tiimmy Turner", but I think it captures everything I could need from Desiigner (it also snuck into the Billboard Year End list, so keep that in mind if you're tempted to call him a one hit wonder). That and the fact that there's a better artist still going around who already sounds the same. Like many pioneers, the intrigue is there, and there's reason to be interested. If you're looking for something deeper than talking about cars, drugs & money, then you'll probably be left disappointed. "Panda" works best for me from that initial "Pt. 2" context because the whole thing is a strange fever dream. One where half the song is ad libs, and the main hook is just the word 'panda' repeated over and over again. I wouldn't want it any other way, but if it feels like a new depth of denigration in popular music, I get it.

#323. Lorde - Mood Ring (#62, 2021)

26th of 2021

"Solar Power" is supposed to be Lorde's flop era, and I've already gone into that (#526). The narrative doesn't work when I end up with 3 songs on my plate. They're far lower, but it's still just as many songs as "Pure Heroine" has here. I'm not about to go through the whole album again for content. I still think "Fallen Fruit" is a gem. How about I go off tangent and say that the latest album, "Virgin", is actually really good. The lead single never sparked my interest but now that I'm hearing it all, it's all locking into place. I may have to revisit it when I do my own End of Year business, although if you're reading this now, I probably already did that, good on me.

"Mood Ring" was always the song that made me feel a bit strange regarding the reception of this album. For anyone who doesn't like the album, while the arrangement might be off-putting, it's pairing it with the lyrical content that takes it a bridge too far. It's an odd thing to talk about because it's spirituality mixed with pseudo-science in a way that's generally pretty female coded, and will have men loudly proclaiming superiority over anyone duped by it. "Mood Ring" turns it all up to eleven. Saluting the sun, meditation, astrology, crystal collecting. The song is called "Mood Ring" after all. Even if it's a bit of an exaggerated joke, it's just a reminder that adult Lorde is distracted by snake oil.

At the heart of it though, I've never been able to get caught up in this because when a melody clicks into place, it can disrupt your judgement. The whole thing is hooks upon hooks, and I think Lorde's breathy delivery of the song's chorus is a fresh side of her that really works. Just a really strong single and I'm not surprised it managed to get some attention.

#322. Tkay Maidza - Switch Lanes (#100, 2014)

37th of 2014

Voting for the triple j Hottest 100 of 2014 kicked off on December 15th, 2014. I decided to try and count up all the votes I could see on Instagram manually. Just an utterly laborious ordeal but I truly had nothing better to do over the summer. As a bonus, it gives me otherwise unsearchable answers to questions about some of my lesser known favourites, there's one tidbit I want to share in the future to add to what I suspect will be a fairly long entry when I get to it (longer than this one, I fear). I also shared my findings regularly on Twitter at the time, which gained me some followers, a couple whom I still interact with from time to time. Something maybe obvious in hindsight you learn is just what the pace of voting is like. New votes come in every day for sure, but it's the first day, and the last day where they really come in. That's the point in time when I'm not physically capable of keeping up with the load, but it's especially the last day that does it. Things changed for me just a little bit on January 13th, 2015.

You probably know the basic story, but in 2015, BuzzFeed published an article written by Mark Di Stefano titled 'Why Isn't Everyone Voting For "Shake It Off" In The Hottest 100?'. When I call it an article, it might be more accurate to say that it's a series of GIFs and images with single sentences captioning them. I get what this is for and I'm not trying to disparage it (I also generally quite like what Di Stefano does nowadays and generally agree with a lot of his opinions). I just want to make it clear that the monumental grenade that set off an absolutely heated bit of discourse that still ripples through today, has considerably less words than this entry does so far. To summarise it to be even more brief, it's an article that suggests triple j's snubbing of Taylor Swift from the voting list is an injustice, but one that can be fixed due to the poll's write-in function. The final line says 'Let's teach those music snobs a lesson. Get around #Tay4Hottest100.'. It's clearly a bit of fun, but it started to take off and get a serious push from there. Voting was 5 days away from closing and a new horse had entered the race with some serious consideration that it might disrupt the institution. People genuinely thought Taylor Swift might win the whole thing. We're talking $10,000 being put on the line on Sportsbet (to skip ahead, it was refunded).

I noticed this pretty immediately one night. Up until this point, I had seen 5 votes for "Shake It Off", not too bad for a write-in, but far shy of the roughly 500 of the frontrunners. Votes for it suddenly swept the count. I actually had trouble counting it because I had a self-imposed rule for consistency to only use a single hashtag in my search, meaning that anyone who used Buzzfeed's tag and only that one would fall outside of my range. So while there were a lot of votes for the song, I only counted enough to have it land at #106, about a quarter of the posts I should have been seeing. If it was just about 100 extra votes for Taylor Swift I saw, this wouldn't really be any issue to write home about, but my main observation was just a huge sweep of posts left, right & centre for days. If you've ever felt inundated with discourse, let me make it clear that I was fully in the trenches for this one, as I subjected myself to every pro-Taylor Swift post, and ever anti-Taylor Swift post, as well as a whole lot of people who didn't necessarily comment on it, but probably were reminded to vote due to all the buzz(feed). As someone who generally liked the song and album at the time, it made me grow very mad at it all for consuming my day. There probably was a lesson to be learnt from it all, but when all you see is rows of people mocking you for your interest in music, it's hard to take it in.

Do I think that triple j had an elitism problem? Potentially, but not anymore than most other radio stations (everyone has some kind of 'other' group that they can toss aside to feel better about themselves), and not really by the 2010s. To me, it's pretty clear that everyone fosters a certain audience and then caters to that. triple j will occasionally play music that's arguably just as pop as Taylor Swift, the same way another station might arguably play an artist that's as indie as Chet Faker. It doesn't have to be a big gotcha to point this out, and it doesn't have to be acted upon. Music isn't a competition, if you think it is and you're trying to pull a fast one on everyone else by proving they're doing it wrong, then you're probably losing that one. At the end of the day, Taylor Swift doesn't need triple j, and triple j doesn't need Taylor Swift. The available variety is what's great about music.

This is not the nuanced discussion I was really seeing. To me, it felt like a long bubbling sense of contempt to the triple j crowd. A sorely awaited point of attack to a station and audience that have been flexing their superior influence on music. The way one station had complete control over festival line ups, ARIA Award distribution, and could single-handedly make a hit. I'll admit it was a hyperfixation of mine that I probably drove to an irritating degree and I'd do it differently if I had a second chance. Nevertheless, here was the opportunity. triple j were obligated to follow the results of their beloved annual poll, even if they went against the original intentions. Just a superb opportunity to make all those hipsters mad.

Except it didn't really happen. In the days leading up to the countdown, triple j had declined to make any comments on the campaign (though something about it did air on the station, another entry, another day), either through neutrality or not wanting to stoke the flames by acknowledging it. The silence was broken at the top of the countdown broadcast on Australia Day by Lewis McKirdy, who revealed that Taylor Swift won't be on the list, and that the reasons why can be found on triple j's novelty website they whipped up, triplejfeed.com (it immediately crashed but was saved by the Internet Archive). In BuzzFeed fashion, triple j lists 8 reasons why the song was not included in the list. I want to stress that there are multiple because after all of this has happened, every discussion I ever see about this will take a simplified conclusion to this all. This idea that KFC singlehandedly spoiled the campaign. They ran a frivolous ad campaign on the back of the hashtag asking people for their favourite Taylor Swift song for a chance at a $19.89 discount. One promoted Facebook post and she's out just as easily as she was in, even if it likely barely moved the needle on the campaign. I've never subscribed to this idea. While it is one of the things mentioned on the webpage, it feels more like a scapegoat, one that didn't change any minds internally. To me, the more telling part of the article is all the different ways they talk about trolling the poll. Ever since this happened, triple j's How To Vote page has always included a section where they clarify they want genuine votes from genuine listeners, and that 'any campaign that undermines the Hottest 100 may result in that artist or song being disqualified'. With that in mind, I'm certain that a future instance of this would be possible (in fact you can draw comparison 10 years later to Sabrina Carpenter landing in the top 200 with "Espresso"), but it was the whole smug 'we're better than them, let's ruin their day' angle to the campaign that soured it all.

One other point that I want to focus on is one that I don't think had much of a leg to stand on, but is nonetheless very important. They highlight that if Taylor Swift were included in the countdown, it'd be bad luck for rising Adelaide MC Tkay Maidza whose debut appearance at #100 with "Switch Lanes" would be demoted to #101. They included the hashtag #Tkay4Hottest100 which I greatly enjoyed. This isolated example is the heart of why I felt so strongly about the whole thing. To me, the Hottest 100 was a wonderful ecosystem that allowed bands and artists that don't really get much of a foothold anywhere to thrive. My favourite part of the countdown was often the lower end, where you're treated to a menagerie of songs you've been hearing on the radio all year and get that delightful feeling of 'Oh cool, a lot of people also heard that song and liked it'. That's par the course for a radio station but have you ever turned on a radio, heard a song, and thought about how tens of thousands of other people are also hearing the song right now? It's all so distant, but this countdown puts it in front of you. Part of why I run this blog at all is because I look through these lists and look at all the interesting and occasionally unusual entries that on some level are given the same credibility as the extremely popular ones. Pretty soon, this whole thing is going to just be a series of gushes as we dive into the music that's especially important to me.

I'll admit that sometimes the higher profile that artists like Taylor Swift can provide can also serve a positive purpose through attention by association, I'd rather let the station themselves control how they dole that out. It runs the risk of destroying the credibility of it all and wrecking it for everyone. I'll admit it's amusing in hindsight that one of the joke campaign ideas that triple j mentions on the webpage is one where everyone votes for Rebecca Black's comeback single, an artist who's been getting increasingly more airplay on the station since then. Taylor Swift's "1989" really is a turning point for poptimism in general. I think about this in tandem with Pitchfork's End of Year albums list including it despite the website never reviewing it in the first place (because the list was a staff aggregate and there were enough Swifties there despite the site's disposition). It never felt weird that they weren't reviewing her music, but now it'd be mighty weird if they didn't. It's those artists like Tkay Maidza though, that's what triple j is about to me. Artists that this government funded station exists to propagate, who would otherwise be carelessly tossed aside.

With that in mind, let's look at it finally. This is a very young Tkay Maidza who had previously released one single, her odd, somewhat novelty song "Brontosaurus" which achieved minor notoriety (it actually made the ARIA Chart for a week), but couldn't quite crack the Hottest 100. Actually there was another single in-between in 2014, the irresistible "U-Huh" that properly put her on my radar. That also missed the Hottest 100 so it was just this song that started a brief hit streak. This wasn't quite the same hit for me but I did like it enough to purchase it, amusingly just a week before the Hottest 100. Normally I spend the day simultaneously collecting the list, so it's a funny twist to pre-empt the first song like that.

"Switch Lanes" is still a fun song. If Tkay's earlier singles were loud and obnoxious, this one dials it back a bit. A cute little instrumental on the hook, and some fun crowd vocals near the end that sound like late '80s dance music. I should probably point out that Paces is sometimes included in the metadata as a producer, and it's a worthwhile acknowledgement because everything about the production elevates this. I especially like the drums. Otherwise it's still Tkay's show, and she's still running it as one of the most enjoyable rappers going around. This is just an early proof of concept.

#321. Ball Park Music - Cherub (#4, 2020)

24th of 2020

This feels oddly appropriate to me. In the 2014 countdown, Tkay Maidza was immediately followed by Ball Park Music (#421). We're 100 spots off it being the same song, but they're nonetheless here to complete the tradition. I can't promise a Bombay Bicycle Club song next week unfortunately, that ship has sailed (#778). In any case, we're trading Ball Park Music's lowest ever Hottest 100 finish, to their highest one. Me, I'm just excited to finally close all those internet tabs I opened for the last one.

Is this the big one though? That's hard to say. I don't think it's actually their most popular song, and while I might want to say that it most efficiently built up an audience in time for the vote, that doesn't feel true to me either. All I can take from it is that it's the song that most readily capitalised on the band's ascended performance. They went from regular middle carders to the main event, and with that arrived the mighty peak of "Cherub". They'd get another top 10 finisher 2 years later (#568), which makes this one feel a little less notable. More than anything, it reinforces the idea that we're entrenched in the era where voting for the band is greatly prioritised. Not in the traditional sense where all their run of the mill singles get a chance, but the modern, laser focused one. Let's all agree on which song we want to vote for and pool our collective numbers together. It's something I find can infect my own way of thinking though I haven't really acted upon it. Maybe if your loyalty is strong in the first place, it's easier to make the leap, but I don't want to vote for the more popular song I only kinda like, unsubscribe from that.

What makes it all the more unusual is that "Cherub" is the 3rd single from Ball Park Music's self-titled album. The lead single, "Spark Up!" fell way short of making it in, but this lengthy dirge just shot ahead of the pack, who could've possibly predicted that? Well, I might have done something like that. I'm not sure I'd have pinned it for this kind of success, but this was the first Ball Park Music song in a long while that I heard once and immediately got on board.

I think it's something that's difficult to pull off. When you make a song that starts softly but builds to a monster climax, you've potentially got two tasks to consider. Firstly it has to justifiably stand out. Be the kind of thing that gets the listener taken aback by something they weren't ready for. After that, it just needs to be something that retains its charm on subsequent listens. It's not always easy to do. In fact the whole song was such an unusual departure that the band were hesitant to even release it. They're the fun, sunny band from Brisbane, how can you be certain anyone was here for this? Evidently, it caught on.

I'm hesitant to commit to it having succeeded on both tasks. The first one, I'll give it without issues, but I find it hard to re-capture that spark 6 years on. It's certainly close to the mark, but I think if I was still fully under the spell then we'd be a lot higher on the list as I write this. I want to give it bonus points for reminding me what a cherub is, but I never quite manage to recall that fast enough in trivia settings. Just think of that smiling face on the artwork, could it be any more angelic?

#330-#326

#330. Gang of Youths - the angel of 8th ave. (#6, 2021)

27th of 2021

I get unnecessarily bothered about the way chart positions are wielded to make an argument. Even when I was incredibly uninformed about it all, I could figure out the shortcomings of shorthand. You inevitably come into contact with a song that doesn't chart very high, but hangs around for a while. Something will come along in this time frame and chart just a little bit higher, only to bomb out as a brief curiosity. No one should think the latter is the bigger hit, but as chart positions become our future reference point, it ends up favouring the ones that didn't necessarily earn it.

When it comes to Gang of Youths, if you're trying to determine what their biggest hit is, you've probably got 4 options. There's "Achilles Come Down", which is by a wide margin their most streamed song, despite being 7 minutes long and not a single. Ponder on the idea that some might only know them for that song. The other songs you could choose include the one that got them the highest in the Hottest 100 and has some pretty well rounded stats without complete domination. Then there's that dark horse, the one that might be lesser known, but evokes a lot of passion and has proven to poll very well in future triple j festivities. Alternatively, if none of those float your boat, have you considered "the angel of 8th ave."? It's their highest charting single in Australia. It peaked at #48 on the week it was released, just one place higher than the band's only other ARIA Chart entry (which got there the week after the 2017 Hottest 100). Sure, it doesn't really have the cultural penetration of those other songs, but by an arbitrary metric, it got just a little bit closer to the top of the charts than any other Gang of Youths song probably ever will. That's why all of it is a bit silly. I should be completely fair to this song and stipulate that for the week it charted in question, it was sitting below almost the entire track listing for Olivia Rodrigo's "SOUR", meaning that there's every possibility it could have snuck into the top 40 on a less competitive week.

In saying all of this, I did tend to get interested in these kinds of hits. The scenario is that an artist has a particularly good year, one that allows them to emerge as a potential next big thing, and accrues them some steady fanbase growth. When the next album cycle comes along in a couple of years, we get to see all the fruits of that labour begin to ripen at the same time. Possibly they're an artist who never charted before, or maybe they did under unlikely circumstances, but what it usually can mean is that the charts are about to be rocked by something that doesn't necessarily belong. Often times, the charts are very rigid, and dictated by dominant trends, so it can be especially interesting to challenge that. In the case of Gang of Youths, it's thinking about the late 2010s and early 2020s, where you ask yourself just what it would add up to if you managed to build up the most popular contemporary rock band in the country, one that most people seem to like. They might stick out like a sore thumb, but numbers are numbers, and there's a small space set out for them. In hindsight, this might end up being one of the last of its kind, at least for an Australian artist (Linkin Park have done something similar in recent years, even had a UK top 5 hit). The shift from sales to streaming makes it harder to notice those small but passionate fanbases, so mass appeal and/or intrigue is a necessary component once again.

It's a little funny to say all this about "the angel of 8th ave.", which is not exactly a challenging song as much as it just isn't really a conventional pop song. All the emotional loft you come to expect from Gang of Youths is here, but it just isn't something you'd think the kids are gonna sing along to, far too wordy. In case you're wondering what the title means, it's referring to Dave's wife. I'm fond of the anonymous Genius annotation that explains that when Dave calls her 'the goddamn greatest thing that Laney ever made', he means that she's better than Michael Jordan, who went to the same school as her. I liken it to a bit of wordplay. Gang of Youths reside in London now, specifically around The Angel, Islington, which is mentioned in the previous line. It only stood out to me because once when I was...maybe 8 years old, I was playing UK Monopoly on a very old computer, and that particular light blue property always stood out to me, for its cumbersome name. For a long time I thought it was a very strange coincidence that only mattered to me, that Dave used both of those words in quick succession in the song.

Something that's worth considering when you think about the relative successes of these last two Gang of Youths albums is what Dave said about this song going into it. Specifically that this song is probably the only song on "angel in realtime." that sounds like their old music. I appreciate that artists don't want to stagnate, and that it's better to give an advance warning for something like that, but I can't help but think of the huge fanbase they had built up in the years leading up to this, in it for the exact brand of rock they were putting out. How many would feel betrayed, and how many would jump ship? The stats say quite a few, though it's very difficult to avoid that no matter what happens. I don't know if it's necessarily true of the album anyway, but I can see where he's coming from. "the angel of 8th ave." does in many ways feel like a concession to fans of their previous work. It's new, but familiar. I don't think I'd ever call it one of the best songs on their previous album if it was on there, but it could pretty easily slot in there. If nothing else, I'm glad that Dave is able to sing about someone who's important to him and is still alive. Listening to Gang of Youths can make it feel like it's nothing but tragedy, but then if you're able, why wouldn't you write about these things?

#329. The Avalanches (feat Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu) - Running Red Lights (#35, 2020)

27th of 2020

One of my favourite unusual chart stats is a record held by Weezer. They have reached the ARIA top 100 with 7 different singles in their career, spanning from "Undone - The Sweater Song" in 1994, to "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" in 2009. Not one of these songs, not even "Buddy Holly", not even "Island in the Sun" managed to crack the top 50. No other artist has ever charted so many times without reaching the upper half. Actually, Tame Impala briefly did it. There was a brief window of time in which the project had managed 10 chart entries, but then one of those songs won a big triple j poll and belatedly redeemed itself. If you don't like that re-writing of history, well two more Tame Impala songs have made the top 50 now, so it's back to Weezer. Recent new chart rules have increased the possibility of songs landing within that range in the future, but it's so hard to ever imagine Weezer's record being matched because it's just so hard to get the ball rolling. I should also note that Rivers Cuomo actually has two top 50 hits on his own, or rather, singing hooks for B.o.B & Simple Plan, so cross out the second or sometimes third guy from the left I guess.

What does one make of the career of Weezer anyway. By all rights they probably should have flamed out decades ago, unable to recover from the changing tides of popular music and the initial uneasy reception to "Pinkerton". They seemed to pull out a lucky sort-of crossover hit every now and then when they needed it, and now they're just too established to ever really disappear. So few of their peers have stuck around quite as long. This is all the while being a band that is scarcely taken seriously, constantly ridiculed for their penchant of releasing absolute abomination albums that have never set the charts alight either (their highest charting album got to #11 in Australia). More often than not, they just seem like a joke, where the punchline is either the riff to "Buddy Holly", or some remark about Rivers Cuomo's very open fetish for Asian women. It's been a very long time since I've been able to consider them a band that I can take seriously.

They persist though, and here's Rivers Cuomo guesting for The Avalanches and making the Hottest 100 again, 26 years after the first time he did it. That's a near unrivalled longevity that dwarfs pretty much anything other than a couple of fluke Kylie Minogue entries 3 decades apart. The Avalanches also have entries that span 3 decades. It's pretty impressive...I guess.

"Running Red Lights" comes from The Avalanches' 3rd album, "We Will Always Love You". It came out 5 years after "Wildflower" which is relatively brisk pace by their standards. Clearly they'd forgotten how to build up anticipation. It was harder to get caught up in the hype. I liked a lot of the stuff on the album, but haven't really gone back to it, not in the same way the first two albums have a hold on me. Unlike those albums, this one is just loaded with featured artists and it's harder to sniff out what could be perceived as core Avalanches sound. It's almost as if they worked especially hard to make it not sound like what they'd done before.

I mean, I'm not sure there's anything about "Running Red Lights" that makes me think of The Avalanches. Maybe the intro, but it all feels dwarfed behind what ends up being one of their poppiest songs to date. Very funny how The Avalanches & Rivers Cuomo are relying on each other to remain relevant with a new generation. Pink Siifu might have a case but his contribution is brief and he doesn't strike me as an attention-grabbing feature. No, more than anything, this song reminds me of DC Talk, the Christian rap-rock group from the '90s. All my life I've lived in bewilderment that another kid at after school care used to sing the phrase 'Jesus is still alright with me'. I found the song and was still confused, but now I've learnt that it's part of a legendary TV commercial for the Christian Television Association that was on the air for years and years. Hook it up if you ever feel like singing something else over the bridge of this song. You could also take the Doobie Brothers version, because Michael McDonald will always be an improvement on anyone else. I guess I could also mention that there's an age old joke that every visual novel ever written will find a way to mention Schrödinger's cat. This doesn't necessarily hold up to scrutiny (although since I wrote this entry, I've started reading another one that's already mentioned it), but I just really want to share a moderately high effort meme I made 5 years ago, again.

#328. Thelma Plum - Clumsy Love (#79, 2018)

35th of 2018

An exciting upgrade of the stakes for this one, because this song reminds me of not one, but two other completely unrelated songs. I hinted at one of these about a year ago if you can remember. The instant this starts, there's an odd familiarity with benny blanco's "Eastside" (#888). They diverge a bit after that. Thelma Plum gets to the chorus quite a bit faster, even though her's is the longer song, but the intros have been throwing me for a loop for years. The other one is a little closer to my heart. Thelma Plum repeats the phrase 'Is she ever gonna go away?' at least 10 times in this song. She's got some competition in this regard, as a decade before this came out, Metric were asking 'Is it ever gonna be enough?'. Same cadence, mostly the same placement in the song (post chorus & extended outro), while both songs are very high tempo and close to a match (Metric run 180 BPM, this is at 170 BPM). Just some funny things to listen out for here, and another chance for me to confess my undying adoration of Metric.

Anyway, remember Thelma Plum? This is the first time I've covered one of her own songs in over 200 entries, just shy of half a year. A pretty long time ago, but when this popped into the Hottest 100, it was her first lead artist entry in 4 whole years, the equivalent of 400 entries here. Suddenly that's the big stop gap, and it makes this feel like a kick-starter to a second wave in her career, one that'd take far greater heights than the first one.

Maybe it's an unassuming kind of song to do this, but I posit that it has the pedigree. Once upon a time my random asides to Metric promised some degree of relevance to the greater picture. They've only ever had one Hottest 100 entry but you might have forgotten in 2009 they had 4 songs in the top 200. "Gold Gun Girls" is one of those at #132. There's another turn of the decade reference I can make, because "Clumsy Love" is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It's the first song she made alongside Alex Burnett of Sparkadia fame, and he's been all over her discography since then. It's almost the majority of his Hottest 100 entries at this point, as he's still picked up a handful of others along the way. His discography is just filled with songs that you might have thought had a chance but didn't quite get there. I wouldn't say I entirely see the throughline to this, but then he's put out some very eclectic music post-Sparkadia so there may be no limits.

#327. Sofi Tukker - Purple Hat (#14, 2019)

23rd of 2019

I like to root for the underdogs. It's easy to get invested in them because if they've never won anything, breaking through can be a monumental occasion. For all intents and purposes, it's a big part of what makes Fremantle my second football team to root for. It helps that I live in their neck of the woods, but I just can't help but feel bad for them. The oldest club in the AFL to have never won a premiership, blowing their one shot at it a decade ago when their best player forgot how to kick straight on the big day. They're currently on a new wave of potential with a new and exciting squad that just have to get over the hurdle of every other team that's equally primed.

They're just such a goofy team that's easy to be ridiculed. They're the little brother to one of the most popular and successful teams in the country, and rather than have a regular animal nickname like most teams, they're dock workers. They even stray away from the usual colour combinations because they're the one and only purple team. It's just as goofy but I wonder if they could pay to rebrand themselves as rockers. When I go to their games, that's the vibe I get. There's a dude who plays AC/DC on the roof of the stadium at the start of their games, and at three quarter time, there's a Tame Impala hype anthem, which he wrote because he's literally their number one fan. They also usually play "Purple Hat" before the games start. Probably a no brainer there, as you don't get too many purple themed hit songs to come along. You take these opportunities when they come. I don't know how appreciated it is, but it's a fun part of the experience.

What we've got here is a pretty natural evolution on "Drinkee" (#363). It takes some similar ideas from it but re-arranges them into something that feels more accessible. When I go back to "Drinkee", I always forget that it doesn't have a guitar riff quite like this one. Everything else comes along with a big ramming thud, but it's nonetheless a winning formula. It never has to be too deep, just a thorough exploration of how many times you can change up the percussion, but stay consistently dancing on the people.

#326. Bring Me The Horizon - Parasite Eve (#38, 2020)

26th of 2020

A couple of years ago when I was in London, I got taken to a shop for comic books, manga, and assorted items of a similar fancy. I didn't buy anything when I was there, but I had a strange distracting feeling in my head at the time. Namely that there was a non-zero chance that a member of Bring Me The Horizon could possibly frequent the place. Maybe they might have actually been there at the time, it's not like I'd be able to recognise most of them. They've never been shy about their interest in weeb culture. Here's another one of their songs named after a Japanese video game and/or novel of the same name. I'm leaning towards the game because in an interview Oli Sykes gave about 18 months before the song came out, he said he'd like to spend his last day alive conquering a speedrun of Parasite Eve on the highest difficulty. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day wondering if he's ever watched one of my speedruns.

I wish I had anything to say about Parasite Eve, the video game. It's just never really been in my periphery. Understandable in the first place because it came out long before I was ever buying my own games, on a console I didn't own, and honestly I don't play many RPGs. It feels like one of the widest mediums to sink into because of the usual time demands, and I'm reminded of this whenever I play video game music quizzes and I have a get rate of around 5%. Just an absolutely impractical number of things to choose from, and many of us are just very picky eaters.

The interview in 2019 is important here because this is one of the many early pandemic hits in their truest form, but obviously the idea was on his mind before it possibly could have been. There's a pretty quick turnaround for this, so it's possible that the main skeleton of the song was around, but the lyrics were purpose-built for the moment. As tends to be the case, it's not remotely subtle. You've got a fake sneeze, lyrics about 'washing hands', 'pandemic', and a general feeling that we're presently going through something. I can only conclude that Oli Sykes is again like me, seeing what's in front of him and finding a way to insert his hyperfixation. If I had a platform I'd totally try to get more people to play Stephen's Sausage Roll.

If there is one thing that makes this song stick out in its era, it's the length. This is not a quickly cobbled together song because it's nearly 5 minutes long. Much of that is taken up by quiet interludes, so it probably won't feel that way, but it's a lot to put into it. I can call back to "the man himself" (#494) here because this is the other song that uses the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, though Bring Me The Horizon did it first, and managed to outwit, outplay, and outlast Gang of Youths given theirs landed a little bit higher. As for me, while I do find this to be a bit scattershot in composition, it does stand up as one of their more immediate singles. A big hook that just cuts through can do a lot on its own.