#96

#96. RAYE & 070 Shake - Escapism. (#67, 2022)

5th of 2022

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The passage of time can do some pretty spectacular things. I have been anticipating this entry for an incredibly long time. I suspect I foreshadowed it with an entry I wrote back in 2023. I was feeling a bit of frustration with the way RAYE was being acted upon by the general public. It felt like the closing chapter of a story where we're all annoyed by the machine that allows certain things to occur, only to end up unwittingly siding with that machine in the long run. As she might say on one of her songs, sit down and let me tell you the story of RAYE.

RAYE's music career starts when she is just a child. She uploaded an EP to SoundCloud in 2014 (all songs that she wrote and co-produced herself) which is discovered by Olly Alexander of Years & Years (who is about to get considerably more famous, himself). This gets RAYE signed to Polydor Records. It gets her in the door and she starts to link up with bigger names. Her big breakthrough comes in late 2016 when she gets featured on Jonas Blue's new single "By Your Side". It's not as big as his hits that came before it, but it's a modest hit. As someone who couldn't possibly be interested in Jonas Blue's music at that point, I took a note of RAYE here as I found her to be distinctive in her role. A bigger break would come just a couple of months later, as she was also a guest vocalist for Jax Jones on "You Don't Know Me". Not only is the song a bigger hit (the 10th biggest hit of 2017 in the UK) and a bigger role for her, she actually appears in the music video for this one.

It's a proper launching pad for RAYE's own music, which starts to trickle out over the years. She has mostly modest success in the UK, her biggest hit as a lead artist being "Decline" with Mr. Eazi, a song that largely interpolates its chorus from Ja Rule's "Always On Time". She releases some EPs along the way, but there's no news of an album, that will be important down the track. Her next big hit comes along in 2020, as a guest vocalist for Regard on his song "Secrets". You start to see the pattern here, as she only seems to make major waves when she's a guest vocalist on dance songs. It was around here when RAYE properly got on my radar as I was drawn in by her songs "Please Don't Touch" and "Natalie Don't". The latter is a little indebted to "I Will Survive" and "Jolene" but does enough to stand on its own. The EP it comes from also contains the song "Love Of Your Life" which I believe is the first RAYE song that was played (sparingly) on triple j. None of these songs make any headway on the charts and before you know it, RAYE is back with another smash hit, this time with Joel Corry AND David Guetta on "Bed". Actually in the UK there's another hit at the same time, "Ferrari Horses" with D-Block Europe, which strangely becomes important later on.

We can only really guess what's going on behind the scenes, but it reaches the tipping point. These songs are still sitting on the charts when RAYE publicly announces that she has parted ways with Polydor. A big part of her grief comes from how she'd been making music for 7 years and was still unable to release an album (according to a tweet from her at the time, she was on a 4 album deal). To her, it's a great deal of shame that makes her feel undermined as a musician and recording artist. Additional comments suggest that she believes she'll only be allowed to make an album if her current single does well, turning the experience of her occupation into 'frantically looking at numbers and stats'. Meanwhile she does everything asked of her by the label, which is probably where all the collaborations come from.

This is one of the most publicised cases of label drama I can recall, where RAYE's very open expression of the situation paints it as a damnation of the very thing that many of us took for granted as a spectator sport. I can remember making fun of artists who wouldn't get albums out because despite being a consistent hitmaker, the label had no trust they could get the same public invested in the long form. Behind many of these cases are talented musicians who don't really get to showcase it because it just isn't the priority in the popular music machine. There are certainly lanes for this, but you have to be pretty fortunate to find yourself in them. Like nowadays you get singers like Skye Newman & Sienna Spiro being derided as carbon copies of singers before them, but they have to fit in that template to get attention in the first place. Joseph Heller could write a book about this.

This story has an exciting climax however, because RAYE started releasing some music independently in 2022 (kind of, she's with Human Re Sources which is under Sony's umbrella, but not as big as Polydor is for Universal). Her first couple of singles didn't really make many waves, but she followed up with a rare modern Double A-Side single, "Escapism." / "The Thrill Is Gone.". I'll bet you know what happened then...very little, actually. I cottoned onto "Escapism." right away as a pretty interesting song, but I remember reading some opinions online that seemed pretty underwhelmed by it, and wanted something more akin to her previous single "Black Mascara.", a bit more straightforward and danceable. For me it felt like some of 070 Shake's weirdness rubbing off on her and I was pretty Rachel Keen for it.

This time I have an even better case than Olivia Rodrigo for being onto the song before it got big because I did actually download it a little while before the song suddenly went viral on TikTok and soared up the charts. From what I can tell, the viral trend uses a sped up version of the song, but I don't think there's anything interesting about the trend itself. It seems like an excuse to get more people to hear this song that sounds a bit different from what's on the radio. I got a little annoyed at the time because now that the song & RAYE were hot property, suddenly all those dismissive voices disappeared and everyone started acting like the song is the greatest thing to exist. If it was just that, I'd probably have been fine with it all.

Instead, what happened is that it ended up being heralded as a major victory against the major labels. Polydor didn't think RAYE was viable as an artist making the music she wanted to wait, except oops, she went to #1 in the UK (and even charted very well in America) doing things on her terms. All of this is great, but I feel like when you're riding on a viral trend, you're just exposing that very same general starvation of everyone else that it causes. You shouldn't need TikTok to make a song sound worse and then suddenly be on board, not only is it not a great look, but it's not a viable one either. It all became even more palpable across 2023 when the whole thing outed itself as the gimmick that it was, and RAYE was struggling again to get a hit when all the bandwagoners jumped off. You're telling everyone you love RAYE and you hate Polydor, but you're unwittingly going straight back to Polydor's offices to give them more money via their artists that continue to play by the rules.

What added to this (and it's probably where my first hypothetical rant came from) is that RAYE did eventually get another hit in 2023, producer cassö saw something in that D-Block Europe collaboration and turned it into the song "Prada", where all three are credited as lead artists. It was some sort of win for RAYE anyway, but it was weird seeing it treated as a defining hit for her when it was arguably more disposable than the music she had to make before (I do actually like it a lot, admittedly). It's like saying you love Tinashe and your favourite song is the Disco Lines version of "No Broke Boys". Paying lip service through the path that's so easy because it's no longer actually going through the forest.

This is all to say, I jumped the gun a bit. Maybe I'm just lucky it's taken so long to actually write about "Escapism." because this is a story that's still developing. If there is any accusation to be made that RAYE's crossover was just a one off gimmick single, then that is clearly no longer the case. RAYE released her second album in 2026 and it was preceded by the lead single "WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!". That song went absolutely gangbusters as soon as it was released. While it's certainly a bit more crossover friendly, it's also impossible to deny that RAYE's idiosyncrasies are all over it. It's a song that goes full-on into over-the-top jazz showmanship, with RAYE seemingly pulling off about three roles in one to pull it all together. The numbers are still coming together, but at the end of the day, it might just end up being her biggest hit to date. Despite the album going incredibly heavy on the musical theatre theatricality (I was just listening to it earlier, it's wild), it's managed some genuinely impressive longevity on the charts. I'm writing this two months after it came out and it's still doing better week on week than her previous album's debut. That's taking it beyond lip service and it's proof that people are actually listening to RAYE's music, her quirky vision being very viable. I tend to believe her when she says that she does it for the music and not the success, but sometimes you do need that on your side so you have the financial capacity to do what you want. I would love it if RAYE and her story could further educate everyone on the troubling reality that faces so many musicians around the world.

I don't want to understate just how unusual "Escapism." is as a hit song. From the very start you get an incredibly off kilter synth that doesn't really agree with the drums that compliment it. RAYE switches up her flow multiple times in the lead up and gives the only sense of stability you can get early on, ironically as she's describing a night out that's gone all wrong. If the song ended around the two and a half minute mark, it'd be a little unusual but no more than that. Instead she passes the microphone to 070 Shake who immediately transfers it to her own element. I'd like to talk more about 070 Shake but this entry has gone very long and she'll have a bigger starring moment later on this list (ironically, uncredited). Her verse is brief, but it rubs off on the rest of the song that finds itself in an extended coda that completes the twisted saga.

I should also note that this song landed not particularly high on the list, as a consequence of being a late bloomer (if only there was another month to build the profile, alas). I suspect it would have a very good chance at a top 10 finish if the timing was a little better, but then RAYE's made up for that with two #5 finishes since, once with her own song even!

#97

#97. Methyl Ethel - Scream Whole (#65, 2018)

9th of 2018

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I'm very fascinated by the way some songs don't say their titles. When you're not really down in the depths of music knowledge, it can be an easy way to communicate knowledge. You might not have ever looked at the meta data, but when someone says "Mambo No. 5" or "Uptown Funk" (#252), everyone knows exactly what you're talking about. They're the kinds of songs that Jeopardy! I feel likes to ask about because no one wants to see someone get pinged for saying it a little incorrect. No matter how popular the shorthand is, the John Denver song is in fact called "Take Me Home, Country Roads". In that case though, he does say the actual title, even in the right order. It gets a little messier when you deviate from that. I'll bet there are a lot of people who think Kings of Leon have a song called "Your Sex Is On Fire".

Methyl Ethel feel like absolute masters in this art of deception. I look through all the songs of theirs I have in my music library and the songs that actually just say their titles are almost outnumbered by the ones that feel like they do, but don't actually. The song "One and Beat" actually says 'One and *the* beat'. "Trip the Mains" says 'You're tripping the mains'. I was half expecting to find out they actually say 'Ruin her' on "Ruiner". They do also enjoy making songs whose titles don't come up at all, in fact one of them will notably appear later on this list. As for now, we're ready to talk about "Scream Whole", and how they actually say 'Scream, I'm whole'. But wait, they're not done, because they also say 'Screamed whole' afterwards. I'm not mad about any of this, because it suitably does help me remember which song is which, I just can't believe how many times they do it. Oh and the other funny thing is that I keep calling Methyl Ethel a group, but they're not really, as Jake Webb is the main creative force behind it all. It's a Western Australia thing, I guess.

The strange thing is that I find myself looking back at "Scream Whole" in hindsight and considering what happened afterward. For the uninitiated, this is the last entry they ever had in the Hottest 100. At the time it felt like they were going from strength to strength. This was the lead single to their 3rd album that came out late in the year and still managed to sneak onto the list. By all accounts, you'd expect more hits to come when the full thing came out, and it just didn't happen. They didn't even get close; the story just abruptly ends there. It's all so abrupt that it feels like the best explanation is just label shenanigans. Methyl Ethel were never signed to a major label, but instead a subsidiary of Inertia (which has close ties with Warner). It feels like they pulled out all the stops for them initially, but then quickly backed off. I'm not sure when exactly Methyl Ethel parted ways with their label (they were pushed off the current acts listing on Remote Control's website at some point in 2021) but they were on with Future Classic for the next album in 2022. It's possible they weren't seeing eye to eye, but you can certainly feel the lack of coverage for Methyl Ethel ever since then.

It's a shame because the music has stayed very potent I think. I actually voted for Methyl Ethel in the 2019 countdown because "Trip the Mains" landed so well with me. A great bit of art pop with addictive building tension. Chalk it up as another case where I reckon they nailed it and it's met with a national shrug. At the very least, we were on the same level for "Scream Whole", which while I wouldn't put it at the top of the tower, has remained a very potent single with strong replay value.

It's a song that delivers on a pretty simple principle. Give us a nice riff, give us a nice hook, and you're mostly set from there. It's not just that though, and I can feel it in the rest of me that there's more than just the taste on my tongue. I find myself most addicted to the little things in the song, like the way the quiet & loud dynamics are managed. The song gets remarkably peaceful for big portions, it's produced very cleanly and you never feel like you're being barraged by anything. I love the little variations in how the hook is delivered, how there's more force to it when the music comes back in. The song also has a nice bridge if you consider the different lines that come in towards the end. Most importantly though, I love the creaky wheel sound they've got going on here. I don't even know if everyone else even notices it, but it comes up sometimes in the instrumental break and feels like the defining moment of the song for me. Just a rickety ride that nonetheless always reaches its destination.

#98

#98. Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (#13, 2021)

2nd of 2021

For me, it's a Thursday night ritual to go through all of Spotify's New Music Friday playlist. It's an absolutely arduous task because listening to 90 odd songs in a row you've never heard before is just monstrously tiresome. You do not get the occasional breaks of familiarity to get your veggies down. Most of the veggies aren't even good for you, I'll listen to them once, and never again. It's all just to find that small handful that could very well define my year or even more. The reward is just too good.

It might seem obvious but there's a pretty big lull around the end and start of the year. You get a 3-4 week period where you're not even sure if you're gonna get a New Music Friday, because so little music is being released and promoted during this time. It's nice to get a little reprieve I suppose, but I do still crave new favourites and I'm often struggling to get them for a while. A particular day that comes to mind for me is the 7th of January 2021, where nothing of note happened I suspect. I don't think the playlist was very big that week, but more importantly, I don't think many were bringing their A-game to this dead release period. I think I saved two songs that week initially, and then out of desperation, snuck in another song that piqued my curiosity a little without being an instant addition. That bonus song was "drivers license" by Olivia Rodrigo.

I didn't really know who Olivia Rodrigo was. I might have heard the name in passing, but I quickly just clocked her as a precocious artist with a song that was a little gimmicky but seemed to pass the initial sniff test where I didn't want to rule it out. I went back to it the next morning and it started to warm up to me. For about a day, the song felt like a little secret. Then the song started making immediate appearances in a lot of national Spotify charts and it was like 'Oh, cool, I guess it wasn't just me'. A day later and the song has clearly taken the world by storm. It wasn't just riding on up to #1 during a slow period, it was doing monumentally unprecedented numbers. The difference between 'Oh, I guess this Bella Kay singer is doing well' and 'We all need to stop what we're doing and pay attention to this kid because they might be the most important thing of the year'. Olivia Rodrigo was so far ahead of the competition that when Glass Animals won the Hottest 100 with "Heat Waves" (#741), they were doing numbers that would ensure #1 on most normal weeks, but instead had to wait a full month before "drivers license" could finish its stint. In Australia, its Spotify records stood for a solid 2 years, and it still has the 6th highest weekly total of any song ever, with 3 of its adversaries being first week numbers for Taylor Swift songs.

The odd thing that happened with all of this is that "drivers license" very quickly got overshadowed. It felt like there was a concerted effort in the aftermath to make her later single "good 4 u" (#341) into something even bigger, and it arguably was. Its pop rock sound playing more immediately to a wider audience than this piano ballad. "drivers license" was supposed to be that impossibly big crossover hit that had the Hottest 100 win gifted to it, but by the time voting rolled around, it landed at a pretty underwhelming #13 next to "good 4 u"'s #4. I'm just doing all of this to report that in the confusing lottery of post-chart longevity, "drivers license" lost the battle but appears to be winning the war. "good 4 u" came very close to overtaking the lifetime Spotify streams of "drivers license" but has severely fallen back in the past year or so, falling a rough quarter of a million further behind every day at this stage. I'm not doing this to put down "good 4 u". Sometimes when I look at the daily numbers of the most streamed songs of all time, I have to remind myself that by all accounts they're very good, I just want to give more credit to "drivers license" because I feel like it sometimes gets severely underrated, which sounds crazy for a song of its stature, but with it launching her career, it's the perfect song to downplay in favour of a more interesting personal pick. It's her "Royals" (#134), her "Last Nite", whatever fits best for you.

I just think "drivers license" is a really good song. It manages to be incredibly expressive in its musical queues without feeling overwrought. A lot of subtle decisions with Dan Nigro that make the whole thing just seem like the inevitable conclusion. You'll often see the song's bridge highlighted, and I won't deny it, it's a special cathartic rush that keeps the whole thing together right to the end. I'm often the first person to be critical of writing by incredibly young artists but I think the focused theme of the song keeps it all in check. There's an odd coincidence in this, which is that in correspondence with the 2020 Hottest 100, this song got to share chart space briefly in the top 10 with Spacey Jane's "Booster Seat" (#676). Two hit songs at the same time that use car terms to signify a specific time in one's life. I like the way Olivia uses it here because it works as a launching point for all the experiences she's having, while if you're older, it's a contextualisation that reminds you where she's at with all of this.

Anyway, the other important thing to note here is that Olivia Rodrigo was not exactly an unknown entity when this song came out. To the music charts she was, which gave her a fairly rare feat in the modern era of having her first ever chart appearance being at #1 (something that was fairly benign 10-20 years ago with how many reality TV stars did so). She was just more famous as an actress on the Disney Channel. That's one of the things that will most quickly age you out of knowing stars because every year after you stop watching it, someone new is going to come up and be incredibly important to a generation of fans who will soon be old enough to really buy into it. It feels like the reason why the Jonas Brothers were only a mild chart presence for many years but soon were having solo careers and even a #1 hit that were far bigger than the early preview could've prepared one for. Olivia Rodrigo was on Bizaardvark, and then High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a strangely named show about theatre kids staging a musical based on the High School Musical films.

I've not seen any of this, but it is relevant to the "drivers license" story because the song is heavily believed to be referring to Olivia's HSM:TM:TS co-star Joshua Bassett, who in spite of strong chemistry with Olivia at the time, was reportedly dating Sabrina Carpenter ('That blonde girl') instead. None of this has really been confirmed, it's not even clear if the two were dating, and apparently it was on Dan Nigro's suggestion that 'brunette' was changed to 'blonde' in the lyrics. Regardless of this, there was a quick response to this amid the drama. There were response songs and they weren't very good.

That would normally be the end of it, but as you might have noticed, in the long stretch of time since "drivers license" was released, Sabrina Carpenter has gotten considerably more famous. Huge hits, headlining festivals, massive cult of personality. After years of slumming with a music career that was going nowhere, and seemingly needing an algorithm to prop her up, she's absolutely made it and it can't be denied. The problem for me is that I just cannot help but think of the song "Skin", where she goes full heel, boasting about all the sex she's having and how not mad she is. This is while she was an adult (21) and Olivia was a child (17), and feels like one of the dumbest things I've ever witnessed. It was a long time ago now but I just can't stop thinking about it and as a result, remain almost completely incompatible with her music. I couldn't tell you if it's good or bad, I've just opted myself out of the conversation completely. I'll just say that maybe the best moment from a football game I've ever attended was technically punctuated by "Espresso" playing throughout the stadium (and there's a nice story behind it being that song). Sometimes when I say that a song really changed things, I can be completely genuine, if in an unexpected way.

#99

#99. Doja Cat - Get Into It (Yuh) (#34, 2021)

3rd of 2021

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Nicki Minaj is a very frustrating figure to talk about. She's undeniably significant, carving out a lane that allowed many to follow suit. Even just in the lane of female rappers, there's a bit of a gap where you just don't see any hit songs for several years. This was part of why Nicki's success took me by surprise; she just didn't fit in with popular music at the point in time I arrived with it. That was probably true in any case though, as she was a larger than life personality who'd hide no eccentricities in her performance. What I might consider to be a put-off would end up being a defining feature. Nicki's fans loved her for her odd bars & asides, and it gave her a unique edge.

When Nicki stood up in her own lane for so long, it gave her an almost unprecedented edge. Whenever another female rapper came up, they'd inevitably be compared to Nicki. When one's had all the free real estate to themselves for so long, the comparisons are usually not flattering. Nicki has grown a reputation for having the most vile fanbase, ready to pounce upon any threats. When Cardi B had her quick rise to fame, there could have been some sense of camaraderie. The two even collaborated together not long after on Migos' "MotorSport", though that emerged rumours of a feud between the two. It's very easy also in a world obsessed with certain career stats for this to happen, as it no doubt got under a lot of Barbs' skin when Cardi quickly started amassing #1 hits before Nicki was able to have any (she'd eventually get a few).

It always feels like having this deranged army on your side has gotten to Nicki's head as she's seemed increasingly in line with their antics. Just one of those annoying by-products of a world that insists upon pitting women against each other until they eventually just go along with it. In her case, she's so far gone that it's hard to imagine reeling it back. Considerably more female rappers have seen success in the 2020s, and while Nicki could be revered as an elder stateswoman, she just doesn't seem especially interested, she's more into hitching up to MAGA instead.

When it comes to Doja Cat, she seems a little more content, and hasn't really started any major feuds with her. It helps that at the end of the day, Doja Cat took her to the career height that had eluded her for a decade: a #1 hit. It was a symbiotic situation; Doja Cat had her active hit "Say So" bouncing around near the top of the chart, while Nicki had an army of fans ready to pounce on a remix with her on it. The quality of the remix has never mattered in this regard; there was enough curiosity and campaigning to get to the top of the charts for a week. Maybe it's less important now that Nicki has gotten to #1 more times since then, but Doja Cat provided that initial breakthrough when it looked like the drought could be eternal.

The other thing that might help is that Doja Cat is very clearly influenced by Nicki and makes no secret of this. This entire opening spiel was inspired by the fact that she closes off "Get Into It (Yuh)" by quoting Nicki's song "Massive Attack" after saying 'Thank you Nicki, I love you'. What I'm now seeing is that there was an invitation extended out to get Nicki to hop onto a remix of this song (understandable given that the song's 2:18 runtime has all the hallmarks of 'we'll finish it another time'), but Nicki declined thinking that she couldn't add anything to the song. Amazing revelation of quality control or just disinterest now that the first collaboration had served its capital purpose, I'll leave it up to you.

I was a little late to hearing "Get Into It (Yuh)". I was very ardent about keeping up with the charts at the time but this was a peculiar exception where it just wasn't on the charts for a little while. It should have been, as part of a reasonably big haul of entries from Doja Cat's latest album, but the label decided to hold it off for quite a while, and I just didn't have the interest in me to look into it.

When I did, I was immediately impressed. It felt like a revelation, a side of Doja Cat as an incredibly capable rapper that we just didn't always get as part of the showcase on her crossover hits. The Nicki influence is clearly all over it with all the switch ups in delivery, but the moment that always gets to me is the song's second verse where Doja starts rapping in double-time and doesn't just stay on beat but hits this perfect state of rise and fall that briefly transports you. Bonus points that a good part of it is to defend another previous collaborator in Ariana Grande. It's another show of versatility, like "Boss Bitch" (#141) before it that can go a long way in proving the worth in one's arsenal.

#100

#100. Tame Impala - The Less I Know the Better (#4, 2015)

16th of 2015

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There's a whole lot you can take away from after this song was released. I might just be peaking exceptionally earlier as it's possibly the most notable song in this whole top 100, so either I'm doing this exceptionally poorly, or this is the ultimate mood setter. I don't think any of us really knew what we were in for with this song when it first came out. What was originally just a late cycle single from a nonetheless pretty major release has spiralled into a massive conversation about the state of indie music in the 21st century, and has netted some serious business for all involved. I'm writing this while Tame Impala is inexplicably entrenched in the top 10 of the actual music charts and this is just part of a new normal that this song has brought us, so let's take things back a step first.

Our story begins not with Tame Impala, but with a completely unrelated punk band from Melbourne named The Peep Tempel. They're a band that has never truly broken out in a major way though they were getting some attention in the mid-2010s. It was mostly the release of their second album "Tales", which housed a song called "Carol" that'd end up getting shortlisted for an APRA songwriting award. It also reached #128 on the 2014 Hottest 100, so it was reasonably known. It's an engaging tune, the opening chords set the tone and it doesn't let up. You might remember it for one particular lyric which gets repeated numerous times: 'I don't think Trevor is good for you, Carol'. It stood out a lot at the time, even if there was nothing to particularly tie it to. I often mistakenly believe the song came out in 2015 because it makes more sense with the events in my head.

I can't prove that The Peep Tempel really influenced Tame Impala on this. It might just be a coincidence. On the other hand, when "The Less I Know the Better" mentioned another Trevor getting in the way of the protagonist's dreams, it was very immediately brought up as a connection to "Carol". What might also just be a throwaway line that gets little attention became the height of memes. Commodified to the extent that you could eventually buy official 'F**K TREVOR' shirts. While I'll readily accept that most people who have heard this song, are not familiar with the other one, I do feel like it's that first overlapping group who built up this meme and allowed it to breach contextual containment. The Peep Tempel portray Trevor as more of a pox than Tame Impala does anyway.

When we're just in the box of 2015, this is a reasonably noteworthy single. It's 4th down the line for "Currents", but it asserts itself as the album's hit all along, landing narrowly ahead of the album's leading single in the Hottest 100. At that point, we get a repeat of the 2012 countdown, and the song reaches the ARIA Chart for the first time ever in the aftermath of this, at that point extending Tame Impala's peculiar record for top 100 hits without making the top 50. The song is 10xPlatinum now in Australia, which if nothing else, shows that a supposed monster hit can be staring us down in the face and it's still not enough to really get over the line in the moment.

I feel like there was a major changing of the guard in the late 2010s for who was calling the shots in popular music. The most interesting thing about it for me is the way Gen Z have seemingly taken artists that were firmly in the niche indie asylum and turned them into seriously hot property. Tame Impala might just be one of the biggest examples because it's been an incredible shift in just how much attention seems to be gathered. It was first noticed around 2019, when this song started to creep back into the streaming charts (it is worth noting that in 2016, the song had surprisingly strong longevity, it just didn't amount to anything). The song seemed to catch fire on TikTok, and there was a mashup with "SexyBack" that started doing serious numbers, either reminding people of the song again, or sticking that riff into their heads for the first time. It was well timed because when triple j did their Hottest 100 of the Decade in 2020, "The Less I Know The Better" came out on top, which also gave the song its needed boost to finally become a top 50 hit, with enough longevity that it ended up on ARIA's End Of Year chart as well. It's still hanging around in 2026, solidifying itself as a generational anthem for people who weren't necessarily even listening to it when it came out. I won't say that they weren't alive yet, but we are getting there.

That's had an interesting effect on the way the song is perceived. When the song was new, it was being processed by people for whom Tame Impala is a very known quantity, so it's compared to what's come before in that sense. In that sense, it was just another winner, probably afforded the best opportunity from "Currents" because it was the single that delivered on the most straight-forward path. It's breached so far beyond this, that the song is probably bigger than Tame Impala in general. I feel like if this is the only Tame Impala song you ever listen to, it has to end up feeling like some kind of novelty in whatever context it's in. There just aren't really other major hit songs that sound like this, with so much focus on a bass line that overpowers the mix and becomes the main draw. There's a further unique part to this appeal because it's the kind of song you can hear from any starting point and immediately lock in with it. Try just skipping into random parts of the song if you don't believe me, it works.

I have never really been able to escape my initial perceptions of this song. I recognise the heightened significance the song has gained, but I remain locked with finding it a very solid late single that doesn't evoke strong adoration. I think my favourite thing about it is the inclusion of bells towards the end of the song, as there's a strong clarity in the mix that certainly reminds me of his previous work on "Melody's Echo Chamber". I think watching this song become such a monster hit has been very interesting, but I do wonder how I'd feel about that if I hadn't already mentally put the song and its potential bar for success in their place. It's not often you get to have such a long, still-developing arc like this.

#105-#101

#105. Rudimental (feat Ella Eyre) - Waiting All Night (#24, 2013)

20th of 2013

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This particular Rudimental song feels pretty pivotal to me in an accidental way. I largely just associate it with my period of listening to the UK top 40 chart as it was broadcast on BBC Radio 1. I can't remember if there was a particular catalyst that drove me to listening on the week that I did, but it was a pretty notable time, just after the Thatcher shenanigans and there was a new #1 (in fairness there was a new #1 most weeks) and a big arrival of a certain Daft Punk single that got right in the conversation despite not having a full week of sales. In that regard, Rudimental weren't really the big talking point at the time, but because they'd done their dues for a whole seven days, "Waiting All Night" debuted at #1 and became their second UK #1 hit, after "Feel The Love".

I'll get back to Rudimental, but I do just want to talk about how pivotal this period was to me. I think it still echoes out through my general positivity because it gave me a whole new lens and new things to look at in general. As a chart fan, if you stick to your own country's charts, you'll probably begin to feel a little malaise with it. You're probably far too close to all the processes that make the wheels spin, and it all becomes a little predictable and formulaic. Furthermore, if you do peer at other charts, you'll be left wanting for more. You won't even focus on the potential downsides because all you're thinking about is how novel it would be to see some of these acts, genres & styles as part of the conversation in your country. The UK charts had this in spades, with numerous debuts every week that were often never going to make any impression over here. The ones that did, often got a far bigger rollout. Like, I understand "Waiting All Night" being a hit song, and it went top 10 in Australia, but to go to #1, and have that just be an expected circumstance? It's greased a little by an internal engine to manufacture these bigger results (i.e. pre-orders), but there were still so many of these cases where they felt like they were getting more attention, and it was exciting.

The other factor I'll always spruik for is that the best way to get engaged by things like this is to actually engage with it. No half-hearted looking at the chart, taking a cursory look at the debuts once and only once. Actually listening week in, and week out, getting accustomed to the environment that houses this music. It gives you a feeling for why things work the way they do and it's an invaluable perspective of the bigger picture. I've gotten a bit lazy with it all lately but I always appreciate seeing anyone who still has that perspective because it can help you see where yours has been warped. You also have to put in the intent for it to work though, because being bogged down by cynicism will block it from working.

The one specific memory I always call back to is around 2011, where I'd listen to something that was in the charts, a Havana Brown song though I forget which, and thinking just how wrong it sounded as music. I'd then go back to my much cherished album by The National and think this is how music should sound. I look back to it in hindsight because I was so close to getting it, but instead drew the wrong conclusion. You'll get a serious juxtaposition between those acts and side with one and not the other. You have to learn to stop treating it as a competition, or a false comparison where you just make the illogical assumption that one is trying to make the other's sound and failing (or otherwise just making worse music because that's all they're capable of). That's when you start to realise that there's a place for both of them. It also just helps to be around voices who'll support the notion. Still, once I realised pop music from a British perspective could be good, it just unlocked a whole world to me. I'd spent my teen years and early 20s on the internet bad mouthing anything that didn't fit my narrow window of worthwhile music, diminishing even the mightiest of titans in pop music. It was all genuine too, I wasn't just putting on airs. Once I had this revelation though, I've just had so much more fun with everything, because music is so much more enjoyable when you can shut down that voice in your head that wants to say 'every Lady Gaga song is bad, actually'.

It also helps break a lot of contradictory thoughts that are waiting to get you caught in a trap. Like oh, you don't like pop music, but you like this alternative-approved artist who by all accounts is working on a similar level? Act in this way and you're just begging people to get one over on you. It'd be totally valid too for me because at the end of the day, there always were pop hits that I liked, just only the ones that played by my rules which might seem arbitrary to anyone on the outside.

Like, is "Waiting All Night" a big, bold step that challenges the zeitgeist, or it is just part of it? Usually the trick with this is that you just say it's a matter of execution. You listen to "Waiting All Night" and it's a glowing performance. Rudimental tighten the screws here. On their previous hits, they'd used their drum & bass motif to create big anthems that seem to explode on their climax. I hear the opposite for "Waiting All Night". I hear drums that are so tightly packed together that there's a new intensity to it. They start out in that same loose manner for the verses, but just keep closing in together as the chorus approaches. I think part of why I liked the song so much was that it gave me a new sensation, there was something genuinely exciting about this new iteration on the formula. I should probably mention Ella Eyre too. She was a relative newcomer at this point who'd go on and have hits in the UK for about a decade, but this was the first one and she absolutely announces her arrival here. Hard to figure out how to go up from here, and I don't think Rudimental had an answer to that either, which is probably why they explored different sounds after this.

#104. Frank Ocean - Pink + White (#84, 2016)

13th of 2016

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Whenever there's any form of discussion about the selection process for artists who either are or aren't being played on triple j, it's always the complicated edge cases that come up. When there's a collaboration that goes across the aisle, it immediately becomes a decision for whose status is more important to maintain, the artist who is always played, or the artist who is never played. This can potentially be a push to move the window. Bridging the gap where an artist who was initially only played because they made the right collaboration, can now hit the field on their own.

I can't say that this is what's going on here because the timeline doesn't match up, but I always think about the way we've had artists go from a small feature to the main stage. Miley Cyrus once could only be heard on triple j via alt-J (#356), but step forward a number of years and then Mark Ronson is giving her a larger role (#406). It'll depend on just how radically you hold to these standards as to which step bothers you the most. The segue I'm building to on this is that Beyoncé is an uncredited guest vocalist on this song. She technically had already been getting played just a few months earlier, but the countdown working as it is meant that when "Hold Up" (#287) caused a stir by getting voted in, it was overlooking the fact that Beyoncé had already appeared on the list a moment earlier. It's possible that there's some overlap between the people who were very mad about this, and those who also voted for "Pink + White". I don't think Beyoncé's contribution to this song is enough to get mad about this sort of thing, but it does highlight how silly this kind of tribalism can be. At the end of the day, she's a capable singer, and any stigma you attach is secondary to the whole process.

This song and its polling performance serves as a great reminder of just how chaotic it is to track music's popularity. We can hold onto records of what was seen as popular in one point of time, only for them to be made gradually redundant. It's especially true nowadays as it feels like a combination of algorithms and viral spread has often completely upended expected norms. Bands and albums whose stories were originally written and understood are upended without any notice. Songs from Weezer's 2014 album & Michael Jackson's 2014 album are fast rising to be one of their most popular songs, stuff like that.

When triple j held a Hottest 100 of the Decade for the 2010s, it started to illustrate some of these cracks. The voting list was largely made of the songs that had made the respective top 200s for each year. On the surface, that's pretty reasonable, because it's quite a leap to go from outside a year's list to trying to crack the whole decade. A big bolstering will just be offset by the immensely bigger contest. triple j partially caught this issue, because they included a handful of songs that never qualified in the first place, and some of them even got over the line. Songs like "Rolling In The Deep" and "Levels". Those ones are obvious though. The thing we often learn here is that a lot of popularity is subtle and doesn't pronounce itself until it gets a chance here.

For Frank Ocean, it was a pretty complicated beast. He's an artist whose popularity doesn't always show itself through specific hit songs, it's not really what he does. The praise is served for the whole albums where everyone has their own favourites, and that story keeps developing as everyone goes back to them. The 2016 Hottest 100 is a snapshot that's very early in the life of "Blonde". It shows the ecosystem where triple j picked out a handful of potential singles and spun those, with "Solo" (#623) coming out on top. That's very much not a signature song from the album nowadays and feels increasingly random as a time capsule. triple j were at least a little aware of this because they also included "Nights" on that decade poll, and rightly so, because it ended up being the only song from "Blonde" to poll, with "Pink + White"  getting no love either.

That decade poll from 2020 has now become a fascinating time capsule for a new reason. The tidbit of information I've been withholding here is that in the space of a decade, "Pink + White" has gone from being one of the big hits from the album, to a less important one, to being comfortably the biggest hit from the album. It's eclipsed everything from Frank Ocean now. Even what was once his obligatory crossover friendly hit "Slide" (#108), even his eventual delayed hit "Lost". They both pale in comparison to this much more reserved effort. It's another one of those hidden hit songs though, because even with its big resurgence around 2023, it doesn't have many chart positions to show for it. It was the 40th biggest hit of the year in Aotearoa but has never actually made their weekly chart (which in fairness only goes down to #40). In Australia there's no way of knowing because it was never included on the survey, but given that the song spent pretty much all of 2024 hovering in Australia's Spotify top 100, it'd be fair to say that this was a lost year end hit here as well.

I'll admit that I don't often change my views very much from their starting point. When it comes to "Blonde", I'll freely admit that "Pink + White" was my highlight at the time. I felt a little boring for it being that way because there are far more ambitious songs on the album, but when I get lulled in by an R&B groove, it can be a powerful thing. I have flipped a little where I'd say I prefer "Nights" now. I think it's fair to say that there wouldn't be this much need to constantly find new favourites on this album but that's what happens when we haven't gotten a new album in a decade, we're starved.

#103. Röyksopp (feat Robyn) - Monument (The Inevitable End Version) (#59, 2014)

14th of 2014

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I suspect in the electronic music scene, making albums is just for the love of the game. It's not a genre of music that gets very much credit or discussion in the space of all-time great albums, outside of Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and a handful of lucky exceptions. That feels like a product of very American discourse where the tastemakers are just so accustomed to it not being in the conversation that the very notion of this music being important just never makes it over. A lot of fans treat it the same way. It's often hyper focused on specific singles and specific mixes of those singles. Once you put it down to an album format, you're limiting the range of possibilities.

This was the impression I got from what Röyksopp said in 2014. In case you're wondering about the ominous title above you, "The Inevitable End" is the name of the Swedish duo's 5th studio album, billed as their last ever traditional album. They did however make it clear that they didn't plan to stop making music altogether, which certainly has been the case. As for the statement on the album, they stayed completely true to it for quite a while, only breaking it on a technicality in 2022 when they released 3 albums in quick succession called "Profound Mysteries". That's all part of a wider multi-media universe with short films attached to them, so I'm willing to give them a pass. As for why the sub header needs to be attached to the song itself, it's to differentiate it from the original version of "Monument" which was released 4 months earlier as part of an EP (whose title track will eventually appear on this list). That original version is just shy of 10 minutes long while this one cuts it down to a brisk 4:47, getting away from more technicalities as the longest ever Hottest 100 entry.

Part of the notoriety around this (and another single) is the teaming up with Robyn, who I will certainly discuss more on that future entry. It was a big commercial boon for both of them at least, as their collaborative EP became Röyksopp's highest charting album in Australia, and actually it was the first time Robyn had ever made the album chart top 50 here (she only outpeaked it earlier in 2026 with her latest album "Sexistential"). The album didn't have quite as much of Robyn on it, but I have to imagine the ominous title and premise added to the curiosity. I suspect this album was also my first impression of Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør, who would garner a lot of praise for me a year later with her excellent "Ten Love Songs" album.

Credit has to be given to this particular version of the song. It's not a simple case of chopping up the longer version of the song and selling it as a radio hit. They've largely overhauled the feeling of the song, giving it considerably more punch. I'll admit a certain fondness in the original version after around the 7 minute mark, there's a moment where the synths and Robyn fade into the background, and we're treated to very lively drums & brass as an extended coda to the song. It stops really sounding like Röyksopp, though I am reminded of the duo's regular moments of brilliance in spacing things out. A little reminiscent of what's probably their most famous song, "What Else Is There?", which balances out a strong performance of Karin Dreijer from The Knife with some strong moments of calm to take it all in.

"Monument (The Inevitable End Version)" doesn't really do that as much (there's a very brief moment of calm after the second chorus, that's about it), and jumps right into things with thick, throbbing synths. Robyn actually gets demoted from co-collaborator to featured artist in this version, but I wouldn't take too much stock in that. You could very easily pretend that this is a solo Robyn track as she controls the flow of things. If you're just here for her, she's absolutely in her element here. I'm very fond of what Röyksopp bring to this version as well. Aside from that deep electro sound (which feels like a precursor to the Furi soundtrack if I'm being honest), there's a great moment on the bridge where they just seem to bring out all these fresh squelching sounds that feel entirely new to me. Just feels like a nice dance to metaphorically cap a very respectable career.

#102. Haim - If I Could Change Your Mind (#56, 2013)

19th of 2013

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I don't really get down with the discourse about how streaming has ruined album campaigns through immediate wide-spread availability. I understand there's a desire to keep things as they once were and how it disrupts the previous drip feed of hits, but it's largely been an artificial withholding. For every hit that's been lost to not getting the chance to lead the charge of excitement on its own, you've surely had a chance to hear way more that you like because it's so much easier to sample them. Sometimes songs that were never going to be hits because they'd never pass the focus group testing suddenly burst out the gates and that's interesting too.

On the other hand, I guess I do have a certain fondness for post-album singles too. In a sense they've always been disadvantaged due to not having as much hype as what came before them, and having to feed off whatever's left. Often times they just won't be built for that anyway, it's the part of the album cycle where you're just trying to show off the idea that there's more left in the tank beyond the initial gimmicks. It's the time for the sordid, professional single. Sometimes in the age of streaming, we've learnt that these less eventful hits are in fact what people wanted the most. They often just hold up the best for repeat and return listens. I can't technically say that's the case for Haim, but I do think that "If I Could Change Your Mind" has aged tremendously well.

If I could change one thing, I'd pop this track a little later onto the album. "Days Are Gone" starts off with 3 singles off the bat before jumping into this song, and I think it'd do well to prop up the back end which can't quite live up to the early excitement. Maybe the strategy was to hit the ground running once you step into the unknown for the first time, but I'd trust the process that enough ears would find the song in due course either way.

A lot of Haim's earlier singles had a certain stiffness to them. They stick out because of all the rapid decisions that circle around them. "Forever" with its peculiar drum loop, the occasional rapid fire delivery of "Don't Save Me", and the general stomp of "The Wire" (#111). "If I Could Change Your Mind" takes things in a different direction, and we're treated to much more carefully laid down synths. The drums & guitars are a little rickety still, but less jarring to the ear. It's helped also by Danielle's performance as lead vocalist, where she puts everything down slowly but affirmatively. All up, it's the most normal Haim song and that in itself is the strangest quirk of it. Well either that or the way it sounds like they're talking about pigeons of our love on the bridge, that one's stuck with me for 13 years now.

#101. Anderson .Paak - Bubblin (#85, 2018)

10th of 2018

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In all their years of doing this, I don't think triple j have ever addressed the elephant in the room regarding polls like this. For as much as you'd like to just avoid it, and big voter turnout can help here, there just isn't a way to confidently assure that a tie won't happen. It's a complicated thing to try and map a statistical model for, but by all accounts, you can safely expect gaps in the range of 50 voters and under for big portions of the list. Once you get to the 101-200 section, those gaps get much smaller, and that's where you'd really expect to see them. One tie every year or so is about what I'd imagine if I'm being lenient, but it just never happens. I can understand wanting to avoid it, this is something that could ruin a spreadsheet after all. There must be a tie-breaker system in there somewhere, even if it's just a basic one like alphabetical, or first-in. In any case, someone's getting screwed over in the democratic process here. What? You're gonna tell me you never pondered that?

I'm not just saying this because I'm at the inauspicious position of #101 here. At no point did I ever consider making #100 a tie so that Anderson .Paak gets to find a space in there. It helps that he does still have a song to appear higher up this list. Maybe that song is #100, imagine that? No, this was my opportunity to do a rare compliment for the GRAMMYs, who must also have this issue crop up from time to time, where the reduced vote count is only mitigated by the fact that they don't have to worry if it's not a tie for first. This actually happens roughly once every two years, often in very niche categories. The big exception was in 1978 when the Song Of The Year GRAMMY was miraculously split between "Evergreen" and "You Light Up My Life", two songs that I would imagine are primed to split each other's votes, but apparently with enough support to beat "Hotel California" and "Nobody Does It Better", among others. A more recent one of note was when "Bubblin" tied with a song by Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future and some other guy who is not a rapper for Best Rap Performance in 2019. It's a spectacular tie because now two guys who you would not normally consider for this award got a piece of it, and also Aftermath Records released both singles, so they got the best possible result from this. Also as a bonus, you get to see Shaggy reading out the names for the first time and start to say Jay-Z before correcting himself.

The reason I say it's odd is that by all accounts, Anderson .Paak is a rapper, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from listening to him. He featured on the 2016 XXL Freshman list (which is in hindsight a pretty notable one, one of those artists is still yet to appear on this list). This came about 5 months after he released his acclaimed album "Malibu" which doesn't really have any rapping on it from him. If you haven't given the album a look-in for a while, or maybe never did because 'oh look at this album critics love from an artist you otherwise have no reason to care for' isn't an enticing offer, then allow me to add onto the pile because it's still incredibly exciting. It doesn't matter if he never matches this, but then again, any speculative hype no longer became speculative once he scored a #1 hit (#218).

"Bubblin" is a considerable change of pace from "Malibu". The instrumental is two different brands of chaos that turns the whole thing into stress incarnate. Suddenly Anderson .Paak's usually friendly performance sounds sinister. The whole thing just took me by surprise. Furthermore, it was released in early 2018, in advance of Anderson .Paak's next album "Oxnard", only it never ended up on it, not even as a bonus track. There's every chance it'd be the biggest song on the album if it had that proper chance to shine, though I can understand if it doesn't really fit the vibe. I just love that something this frantic can seize the opportunity here, because it quickly became one of my favourite 'discoveries' from that year's list.

Also welcome to the final stretch. Starting from next week, I'll be changing the posting schedule to one song every weekday at roughly the same time (forgive me if my rough sleep patterns get in the way).

#110-#106

#110. Billie Eilish - bad guy (#1, 2019)

8th of 2019

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Where to start with this one? Well, one tidbit I love to share with anyone who will listen is that this is perhaps the most uniquely Australian song to ever top the poll, apart from "Elephant" (#730). In an interview with Rolling Stone, Billie & FINNEAS revealed that part of the instrumental to "bad guy" comes from pedestrian crossings in Sydney. Billie excitedly pressed the button as we all did at some point in our lives to hear the slow beeping sound. She started recording it, and got spooked when it suddenly changed to the faster 'You can walk now' beeps. I would love to teach more people the fact that you can very audibly hear it in the song, right after she says 'duh'. Until the release of "HIT ME HARD AND SOFT", I believe this contribution (which was actually cleaned up by FINNEAS) was Billie's only production credit in her discography. Later on, their dad was excitedly talking about the same traffic signal only to be informed that it's in their song. This is also obviously the most important retort to the notion that Billie Eilish doesn't care about Australia. This same idea was also used a few months later by Polish Club on the title track to their album "Iguana". Of all things to get beaten to the punch on.

"bad guy" has also created history in many ways. We took our time getting there, but it was the first Hottest 100 winner by a solo female artist, something that's happened for the past 3 years in a row now. On the charts, Billie Eilish was the first artist born in the 21st century to get a #1 single (in Australia, and also America). She set a new standard for chart domination on album release when she managed 6 songs in the top 10 on that week, a record that stood for a surprisingly long time. She was also the first artist to ever debut at #1 in Australia on both single & album charts at the same time, something we might take for granted nowadays (Taylor Swift has done this 7 times). We got a little preview to this inevitability very early on. Australia's Spotify charts are a little wonky because their synced up with UK time zones, and that means streams on a Wednesday morning will count to the Tuesday's chart (I have no idea how ARIA adjusts this information, if they even do). Something I don't think I'd seen before is that after releasing her album on a Friday, Billie Eilish started peppering the Thursday Spotify chart with tracks already, including "bad guy" at #50. This only works for albums that were released at midnight Australia time (which can be touch & go for big stars), but it's proven to be a reliable preview for impending impact. These successes tend to be based just on initial curiosity, but I find it interesting sometimes how quickly people have been known to pick out the hits and run with it (I would be lying by omission though, if I didn't acknowledge that "bad guy" was immediately pushed as the focus song).

I do unfortunately, have to slightly discredit the success of this song (in America, at least). The week it was released corresponded with the beginning of the 19 week reign for Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" on the Billboard Hot 100. This was a reign that lasted so long that it put a stop to so many potential The Number Ones columns. At one point in time it had 7 songs blocked from the top spot, running for so long it took down two potential Taylor Swift chart toppers. Two of those songs did eventually get to #1, "Señorita" by Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello, and also "bad guy". The only problem is that "bad guy", the track we all know and love didn't really get there on its own. There was obviously a concerted push to get it to #1 in America, thinking something new had to get there eventually. Looking back on discussion at the time, it was wholly expected that "Old Town Road" was poised for a 20th week at #1, though I suppose prediction tools have gotten a little better since then. What I did learn is that on the last day of that tracking week, "bad guy" had a limited cassette release, and also a vertical video to buff its numbers on Spotify, two classic techniques.

It also had a remix. You might possibly remember it as it was noteworthy at the time. Billie Eilish channelled her inner Belieber and got Justin Bieber onto the song. She's very open about how much of a fan she was growing up so it feels very genuine, though it's also the exact kind of marketing decision that screams of pure fluff to bolster chart positions. It seemed to be pretty universally panned at the time, but it did maintain some decent numbers for a while. This remix came out a few weeks before it went to #1, but I feel confident in saying that it wouldn't have gone to #1 in America without it. This very deliberate, forced week at #1 is to date, the only week Billie Eilish has ever spent at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be unfair to not acknowledge that she was largely being held off #1 by Lil Nas X with thanks to him also aggressively using tactics to maintain this, so it really is a race to the bottom. Justin Bieber also had one of those songs that were blocked from the top spot by Lil Nas X so maybe on that level, it's a little gratifying, but he's not actually credited for the #1 single anyway.

With all that in mind, it's hard to say that this single and its success don't represent a sea change in popular music. It's Billie bridging the gap somewhat. At this point in her career, her music didn't really get much of a run on commercial radio, and it still largely wouldn't for a while, but "bad guy" was the big exception. When they wanted to hitch up their wagon to this rising star, "bad guy" was the song you could play. When she swept the major categories of the GRAMMYs in the following year, "bad guy" was the song you could be familiar with if you weren't that invested. It's still largely within the bounds of what she'd always been doing at this point, but with a well pronounced bass line and some sticky vocal & production hooks every step of the way, it made for a neat little package. An artist statement if you will. This is what your kids are into nowadays, time to get used to it.

#109. Birds of Tokyo - Brace (#100, 2016)

15th of 2016

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I thought there was a minor bit of folklore attached to this song but I've been sorely mistaken and I suspect you have been too. When the Hottest 100 is taking place, triple j have tended to post the songs one at a time on social media as they happen. This has led to some occasional gaffes when posts go off too early, or things like that. It wasn't always like this, because until 2015, they'd do most of the list with ten songs at a time, allowing people to focus on their favourites among the relative also-rans before going one at a time for the big top 20. From 2016 onwards, they went with one song at a time, which creates a peculiar situation where most people are now being inundated with individual posts for songs they don't especially feel strongly about (usually). Poster brain activates, but how does one possibly process all this information? The solution was simple: Turn it all into a meme.

If you want to be hyper-critical, you can witness the decline of cordial interactions with media through this shifting landscape. What might have started as just playing around in the concept, devolved into distraction, ('Don't let this distract you from [something that happened during the cricket]'), and then into disdain. Before that though, there was a vote of frustrated positivity through the most famous example of this that has since been permanently etched into our language. A guy named Ben who just wrote 'Ya joking shoulda been higher' under every single entry, building up to the final punchline under the #1 song (#400) 'Ya joking, should have been Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses'. All just a bit of fun at the time, made worse by everyone trying desperately to become the next Ben, but I have to shock you to your core right now because Ben didn't actually post it under every song. He only gets started with Thundamentals' "Think About It" (#829) at #82. I prepared to go into this post for months under the notion that at #100, "Brace" by Birds of Tokyo was the origin of this meme, but I guess it turns out that Ben was either content with its placing, or thought it should have been lower, same going for the next 17 songs.

My history with Birds of Tokyo is fairly long. It starts in 2007, when I recall seeing an interview with them on jtv. Maybe the name stood out to me because I was quite interested in learning Japanese at the time, and also it was interesting because they were something of a Perth super group. There's another tangent to this probably, you'd think. In any case, they had some songs on the radio I tended to like, "Black Sheets" and "Wayside" were the main ones. I actually had a real favourite in "Off Kilter" but I didn't know the name of it until there was a promotion on triple j for a Birds of Tokyo Live At The Wireless set that used the song, and I had to look into it just to discover what the 'so long, see you in good time' song was. They were making a name for themselves and got into the Hottest 100. The big leap came when they very quickly followed up their debut album with another one, "Universes". Despite the quite turn around and the usual problems that's known to have, the album was very popular, and I suspect most will tell you it's their best one. I possibly would as well. I found myself endorsing the album very heavily without having heard it, because no less than 6 songs on the album because triple j staples. "Silhouettic" and "Broken Bones" are the big two, but you know you were listening to triple j in late 2008 if you also heard "White Witch" an obscene number of times. If there was any hesitation to the brand for me early on, then I was all-in from this point. They were rivalled only by Muse & Gyroscope as my favourite band at the time, and were probably winning at one stage.

Things develop drastically in 2010. It's mostly business as usual at first, they put out a new single, I'm obsessed with it, and it actually gets onto the lower half of the ARIA Chart, a first for the band. Otherwise, I don't think that single really moved the needle as much as it just represented the new standard for them with a more established fanbase. The real big moment was the album's second single, "Plans". That song went gangbusters for them. It spent a very long time on the ARIA Chart and was pretty unlucky not to reach the top 10 on multiple genuine attempts, making it one of the biggest ever hits to stall at #11 at the time. From here on, the discourse around the band changed a bit. Birds of Tokyo were a pretty steady-going alternative rock band that I don't think caused too much of a stir for those who weren't into them, but the success of "Plans" seemed to turn them into pariahs. I have to give the song credit because it has such an unusual arrangement for a pop hit, and doesn't really have a chorus. I always want to compare it to R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" in that regard, though maybe it's because that song also peaked at #11. But it's also a song that sands down some of the band's edges and would end up getting extremely overplayed. This was coupled with the reception for the band's self-titled album that it came with (which I've never really understood, it feels like a hyper-focus on some softer songs and not crediting the whole thing).

Things only get worse with their next album, which gives the band their biggest hit, "Lanterns" (#662). Birds of Tokyo scored a massive hit, had their first #1 album, and became commercial radio darlings for several years. All this together and they've been a laughingstock ever since. I never know how much I can trust this because I just know deep down that I've been listening to Birds of Tokyo longer than most people, and I shaped my opinion on them through different material, and under different circumstances. Maybe if I'd only started hearing them from "Plans" to present, I'd also feel that way, but I'm not certain. I don't always have loyalty to the bands I listened to when I was much younger, but here it just rings too strongly. I thought there were some singles coming from the band in more recent years I was happy to ignore. To quote Jack Black in High Fidelity, is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter-day sins?

In any case, we saw similar things happen with a lot of bands in this time frame. They'd storm out the gate, save rock to some extent, and then decide to mellow out as they get older. Their fans would lose their mind, demanding for them to rock again, and bands would largely ignore this call. The unsatisfying answer to this tends to be that for all the hot air that comes about from this, these same complainers don't seem to turn up when the sun is shining. If these bands decided they'll rock again, they won't get those fans back for the most part. Birds of Tokyo did it, after all.

It's hard to get a good read on this because we rarely get the necessarily detailed information in the long term, and very few albums get certified nowadays. My suspicion though is that "BRACE", the 2016 Birds of Tokyo album where they suddenly sounded louder & darker than perhaps ever before, is also their least successful album. I don't want to knock it, or them for making it, but I just feel like it's another chapter that doesn't have much in the way of exposure, so again if Birds of Tokyo are just that boring/annoying band on the radio, then their not-for-radio album is not going to move the dial because you'll never hear it. It's somewhat miraculous that they have a song here for their troubles, though they did only just sneak in.

In any case, catch me on a good day and I might say "BRACE" is their best album. For all the praise I'm willing to heap, I won't deny that every album has a handful of songs that I don't ever really go out of my way for. They're very much a singles band for me, where the term 'single' can be expanded into any random album highlight they have in their pocket because every now and then they'll just inexplicably include a song like "White Leaves" on the back end of an album. "BRACE" is just the very solid set of songs that isn't overstuffed and also just all goes well together. Only "Empire" sounds a little out of place because it feels like something from their next album just with louder drums, almost like it's a contingency plan to make sure there's something resembling a single here.

Instead, the attention goes to the title track, and that seems very valid to me. It's a massive return statement that's saying they can make music like this again if they want to. In saying that though, it still doesn't really fit in with their older stuff because it's just so stuffed with distortion and pounding riffs. No critical retribution to brace for though, and now the only time I see Birds of Tokyo brought up is in an increasingly nostalgic 'Wow what were we/they thinking?' way, or to be put down with regard to Ian Kenny's other band. I will talk about that band in the future, brace for that.

#108. Calvin Harris (feat Frank Ocean & Migos) - Slide (#37, 2017)

14th of 2017

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It's been twelve times. Twelve times I evoked this Scottish DJ in the lead up to finally reaching his only appearance on this list. Maybe there's an alternate version of history where something like "Summer" is part of this and the whole bit never came up. Just in general he's had such a solid run here that it's strange that this is the only one from the time frame. In the meantime he was busy being one of the biggest stars on the planet. I mean that literally because he's very tall. I wanted to acknowledge when Something For Kate covered him (#630), it was one of the tallest cover versions of all time.

On the surface, "Slide" is just another hit for Calvin Harris. Honestly I might be setting up a bell curve meme where that's the low & high IQ response to this, but let's try to look at things objectively. Calvin Harris has stealthily been a good album seller in the past. I'd see him dismissed as a singles artist, and that's probably still how a lot of people liked him as well, but the reality of it is that many artists you wouldn't think capable of getting whole album purchases, did so with gusto. Mostly off the back of two very big hits, LMFAO managed to keep an album in the top 10 in Australia for half a year (this is before streaming). Flo Rida just kept selling even beyond the first album curiosity factor, stuff like that.

Calvin Harris managed here by sheer persistence. His album "18 Months" is stuffed in a way that Greatest Hits packages often can't manage. In the UK, that album had 9 different top 10 hits in the exceptional sense. We're not looking at brief splashes for the stat sheet; they were genuine crossover hits and most of them peaked at #1 or #2. When you've got that many hits, you can make for one hell of a sticker in the record store and it's probably enough to get people past the 'yeah but am I going to like the other songs on it?' hesitation.

This is not really a sustainable business model. Crossover hits are increasingly hard to come by. Calvin Harris's next album "Motion" also came stuffed with some hits that he'd accumulated leading up to it, but much less once the whole thing was out. If not for a surprise top 10 bolter in "Pray To God", it probably would've slipped out of the charts after just a couple of months. It's possible that he was hurt by the transition period to streaming, which started seriously eating into the album market around 2014, but wouldn't actually contribute to the charts until 2017. These kinds of albums would be monsters on the charts in the current age. The very direct evidence we have to this is that his latest album, "96 Months", basically a compilation of all his hits of the last decade, has been locked on the chart for about 2 years now just accumulating streams.

In any case, Calvin Harris was never an artist who generated much discussion over his albums. Almost like it's not something to take seriously when they're glorified compilations. That might not be the truth of it, but it's hard to shake it when so many of your songs are just a vessel for whomever you roped in for a hit single at the time.

"Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1" feels like it was made to challenge this notion. I don't know if there's a singular factor that does it. Making the whole album a singular intent to explore a different sound is a good start, leaning on Frank Ocean's credibility is another one, or maybe it's all just as simple as making a single that jumps past the novel curiosity into something that's actually really good. All that together and you've earnt a whole lot of trust and good will that wasn't there previously. I never listened to Calvin Harris's older albums, but I did put this one on and enjoyed it quite a bit. Helps that it's also a pretty brisk length. The album only really had one other major hit in "Feels" (I think "Rollin" is very underrated though), but all things considered, performed pretty well on the charts. Not actually as well as the albums before it, but given the severely reduced budget of hits, you can take that as a win. When he released a Volume 2 five years later without much in the way of hits, it was basically persona non grata in the charts. The sheer difference that "Slide" brings to the table. I'm listening to Volume 2 right now and it's mostly unfamiliar to me but still a pretty fun time. It's a mix of chill instrumentals I've grown very fond of, like city pop with some groove. My point of reference is always the soundtrack to the idiosyncratic video game Paradise Killer (another murder mystery!). Really feels like you're moving around an enormous empty world to pick up pointless trinkets.

Anyway I haven't been meaning to ignore the Migos but I didn't have a good way to get into them here. They're another point to Calvin Harris's favour because the timing could hardly be better. Migos had spent several years being 'notable' without much to show for it, but in late 2016 they had a massive boon. They released a single whose featured artist will eventually appear on this list. The memetic appeal of Offset's commanding verse in combination with that featured artist's incomprehensible contribution meant that in an era of short attention spans, this nearly 6 minute song managed to thrive, becoming a Billboard #1 hit. Migos were no longer speculatory, they were genuine hit makers, and they rode this momentum for several years. Aside from Quavo constantly turning up on pop hits, they didn't really ever change their tune to fit in. In 2022, Takeoff was killed in a shooting and the group respectfully disbanded.

With that big Migos breakthrough, it's just perfect timing for everyone involved. Frank Ocean is also something of a speculative artist at this time. Incredibly popular, but not really scoring hits because he self-sabotages most chances of that ever happening. It's a worthwhile tour de force for everyone here. Calvin Harris's instrumental working perfectly with Frank Ocean's slow singing and the faster Migos flow. At the end of the day, it really is just another hit for Calvin Harris, but one that opened up everyone's perception for him to switch things up, and trust the process.

#107. The xx - On Hold (#20, 2016)

15th of 2016

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When I was younger, I just made the declaration to myself that Daryl Hall & John Oates were demonstrably uncool. It might have been because of the name or image. I wasn't knowingly aware of any of their songs, and that could've been a factor too. To have no enduring songs is to be locked in the '70s and '80s. This perspective took a very long time to change, mainly because I continued to not hear any of their songs or look into it. The xx didn't really change it either because I never checked out the song being sampled here. Instead it was years of watching "You Make My Dreams (Come True)" slowly put itself into the conversation, slowly bubbling on the sales charts, and then even more surprisingly, the streaming charts. If the kids can listen to Daryl Hall & John Oates, maybe I can too.

Nevertheless, my opinion has completely flipped. Now I just get weirdly excited whenever I hear any of their songs anywhere. They've just got so many bangers. There was a lengthy period of time where I would watch that one 'Out of Touch Thursday' post every week. It's getting to the point where my kiss is probably on their list. They know you're listening, they've got those private eyes, watching you. Anyway, it's "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" that's being sampled here. As a very 'chorus first' kind of song to recall for me, it feels so jarring hearing the segments of the song that have been sampled on "On Hold". That, if nothing else, is proof that The xx got to me first. Perhaps for other people, this perspective is completely flipped. There's not often much weirder than hearing a sample of a song you know incredibly well.

"On Hold" was the answer to something speculatory for me. Previously, The xx had leveraged what was to me, strongly unsung popularity on their first album that largely manifested through strong last.fm popularity. When the second album came out, they proved it to be the case when the largely radio unfriendly "Angels" became a top 50 hit in Australia. This was only half of the puzzle though, because behind these strong sales were even stronger streaming numbers. The xx's second album was one of those albums that took over the streaming charts when it came out, but since this still wasn't factored into the charts, it didn't show anywhere.

By the time the third album by The xx came out, this was part of the equation. In an era that was largely pushing aside previous safe bet artists, The xx felt to me like an artist that could make the transition. My faith was rewarded as they went from barely making the top 50 in 2012 to just barely making the top 50 in 2016, only they got a little bit higher this time and stuck the landing. The two songs ended up one apart in both ARIA peaks and Hottest 100 positions, but in opposite directions, so they really nailed the mission of making another strong lead single. The band fell out of favour with voters when triple j did their Hottest 100 of the Decade, so I couldn't really see which song fared better, though I suspect "Angels" has the right age profile to do it.

"On Hold" was just another very agreeable single by The xx. If I take one thing away from it, it's that after two albums of sounding and looking generally miserable, "On Hold" feels like a bit of a rebrand. Now they're sad with a beat. I feel like a big part of the group's evolution has been seeing the lead singers get more comfortable with doing their part. That awkward wallflower feeling replaced with a confident doubt. For Jamie xx, I feel like it takes a lot of guts to make your chorus be roughly 30 seconds of someone else's more famous song, but it's vocal chopping that fits in very well with the song's own production. I can in fact, go for that.

#106. Billie Eilish - my future (#79, 2020)

5th of 2020

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I presume for many who follow charts and things of that nature, part of the fun in the game is getting to pick and choose what you want to positively acknowledge, to put in your retinue as a winning contribution. Everyone picks their own set, and then we can remark on the different choices being made, seems fun. There is, however, an inherent power scale imbalance that's written into the whole thing. Whatever gets really popular, that's the consensus. A lot of people think that it's good. Anything that falls a little short, that's going to be a harder sell.

It has a strange psychological effect to it. My head tells me that everyone is genuine in their opinions and it's as simple as that, but my heart sometimes wants to intervene. There's this feeling that when something doesn't make a big impression in the first place, there's just no reason to give it credit. It might even be discouraged, so as not to hitch your wagon up to a failing brand. I always feel like the material should speak for itself, and lesser success can be compounded from a promotional perspective, but sometimes I just feel wronged by the consensus.

I really enjoy "my future". It's always been a big favourite of mine. So often though, I've just seen it discarded. It's just a loose single was eventually included on an album but wasn't part of the promotional cycle for it (and in fairness, it's her least successful album), which doesn't help it. It's one of many songs of hers that debuted high on the charts and immediately nosedived. Its lifetime streaming numbers are actually fairly solid, but on the low end for a Billie Eilish single. I just keep seeing it written off and can't get my head around that. This just feels so self-evident as a great single and launching point between her first two albums.

Okay though, I will contend that I perhaps have a stronger inclination to it than most because it just hits the right spot for me. It starts off a little slow for the first half, but the beat kicks in and reveals the truth of the song all along. It's just secretly been a late '90s Morcheeba song. Getting to that very respectful drumming is just part of the process.