Loud microphone warning. Anyway, this was just a fun thing I thought to do in tandem with this blog. It's all very rough and I don't spend the entire time talking about the music, but if you need a fix of more content while also getting to find out how many times I miss a jump and fall down, then enjoy. Thanks to everyone who came along to hang out, and everyone who's wished me a happy birthday this week, it's all very appreciated even if I don't always work myself up properly to respond.
#960. Odd Mob - Is It A Banger? (#70, 2014)
96th of 2014
I went into this list thinking that I would on occasion dig into certain relevant pieces of media in order to better fill out some entries. I still intend to do that, but it's more important that I actually show some sign of ever finishing this list. With that in mind, I did not watch all 126 episodes of Parks and Recreation for this, but I did jump straight to the middle of Season 6 just to watch the episode that is sampled in this song. I quite like the show when I have seen it, but that's a heck of a lot of work for "Is It A Banger?"
If you need the context for this, all of the spoken word in this song is from Aziz Ansari's character Tom Haverford, in a brief aside where he elaborates on his scientific method for finding the best songs to listen to. This is all for the purpose of DJing a high school prom which blows up in his face when he realises that he's out of touch with the kids who would prefer to listen to alternative rock instead of trap & southern hip-hop. It ends with a quick acceptance of the fact that adults have better things to do than keep in touch with youth culture. I'm older than Aziz was when this episode came out and the irony isn't lost on me.
There are quite a lot of musical references in the episode that make me feel like the writers know what they're talking about. While he's delivering this monologue, you can see a chart of various songs being graded as potential bangers and it's an interesting time capsule. A certain Atlanta trio who had just barely cracked the mainstream thus far gets the nod of approval, several years before they'd make it onto this list, and there's the interesting distinction that Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O." is not a banger, but the remix with Rick Ross's infamous lyric is. The main dig though is at Mumford & Sons' "I Will Wait", that of course fails the test due to its acoustic instruments. I admire that he's out there giving it a try even though it's clearly out of his wheelhouse.
It does start to get a little bit off when we get to the prom though, as the buzz kill song he's playing is "We Own It" by Wiz Khalifa and another rapper who will eventually appear in this list. Admittedly it wasn't nearly as big a hit in America as it was in Australia, but it's strange to hear kids who will eventually jam out to "Song 2" by Blur complaining that this song from 6 months ago is too old. It feels like an underdeveloped way to signal being out of touch, although if the show was secretly set 10 years in the future, it's perfect.
Now that's out of the way, I'll dispense the important facts: Odd Mob was originally a duo but since 2017 is just one person, and there is a question mark in the title but not on the artwork. Though this was his one viral turn, he's remained active and this track is only his 25th most popular song right now according to last.fm. It's a cute novelty but doesn't really hold up to return listens. Then again, a few years ago I intentionally downloaded a Lumineers song so you might want to discard my opinion on this sort of thing.
#959. Thelma Plum - These Days (#92, 2020)
97th of 2020
I don't approach this list with the purpose of dumping all over beloved classic songs outside of the aforementioned time window. Fate sometimes forces my hand though. I liked "These Days" by Powderfinger a lot more when I was a teenager. I think it had some fun note charts that were within my range on SingStar. I don't have any real emotional connection to it though, so it can't help but feel a little bit turgid to me.
There is a modicum of enjoyment and excitement to be had from it though, which is more than I can say for this cover version. This time it's not actually a Like A Version, but the song choice and vibe are all still there. The best I can say about it is that it's considerably shorter, and doesn't adhere to all the same musical choices of the original. Thelma Plum has accumulated quite a handful of entries over the years now, and it's probably not a surprise at this point that the cover is the one I'm least fond of.
#958. Doja Cat (feat The Weeknd) - You Right (#83, 2021)
96th of 2021
There's an alternate universe where Doja Cat briefly holds the record for most Hottest 100 entries in a single year. She ended up with an impressive 5 entries in 2021, but the reality is that it's all she was practically allowed. She had nothing else on the voting list to choose from. If triple j were feeling generous, they could've allowed votes for "Ain't Shit" which could have possibly gotten over the line. It could also have siphoned votes from this and left her at a different set of 5 but we'll never really know.
Despite her very in-your-face attitude, Doja Cat also frequently deals in some of the more restrained songs to have made the pop charts in recent years. A lot of them really depend on my mood as to how I'll respond, because they can just hit the spot right. This one I don't think ever really gets there. It doesn't even have to be the last time I say this, but Dr. Luke just does not do well producing trap music. The drums sound flat and a little too high in the mix. She mined a similar sounding hit in "Agora Hills" from her next album and I think that one finds the balance a bit better.
In general it's just not an especially interesting song. Most notable for the headline grabbing feature, which means I can finally talk about The Weeknd. Except he's a pretty perfunctory presence on this song so I won't bother getting into much detail. He's got way more to show on his own. If not for several of the songs in close proximity to it in 2021's list, I'd say this would be guaranteed to flatten the BBQ listening party vibes, whatever they sound like.
#957. DOPE LEMON - Hey You (#84, 2019)
95th of 2019
I might keep saying this but it's always been very important to me that I treat every entry separately. A lot of people will pigeon-hole artists into a single box and only occasionally deviate. The kinds of folk who might say 'They only have one good song'. Ignoring the fact that there's probably no artist with a big enough catalogue that I'd willingly listen to all of with such a poor hit rate, it's just not a very interesting criticism. I'm not saying this applies to DOPE LEMON anyway. He's got two more songs to come after this one that could potentially be filed under 'Good' if such a line exists, and that's just within the Hottest 100 canon anyway.
The reason I say all of this is because not only is it hard to say much about this song, but it is one I'm guilty of filing away in a lazy manner. This song doesn't really sound like "Marinade", but it gives off a fairly similar, sluggish vibe that doesn't offer a whole lot. It's low enough in the 2019 list that you're still probably thinking to yourself about how 'We got stuck with this while something great probably just missed out'. It's not all that bad but hardly something to deliberately seek out.
#956. Steve Lacy - Static (#72, 2022)
98th of 2022
I've been listening to The Internet since 2015. That's not a flex, they just had a triple j Feature Album in that year and I liked what I was hearing. That album is "Ego Death" and it's their first release since Steve Lacy joined the group. He'd also only just turned 17. In saying that I didn't really know who Steve Lacy was for a little while yet. He'd start popping up elsewhere, and of course on The Internet's 2018 song "Come Over", Syd kindly says 'Steve' before his guitar solo. Eventually, Steve Lacy would find belated success with his song "Dark Red", just in time for him to release a new single that would soar him to bizarre heights...but that's a story for another blurb.
Steve Lacy made sure to certainly not be a Hottest 100 one hit wonder though because he had enough good will to also collect this second entry. Unfortunately it's not really one I can get behind. It doesn't really feel like a finished track. I know that it's a common complaint to say TikTok songs are undercooked, but I think two and a half minutes is plenty of time to get everything done. This just doesn't get there. I can only ruin it further by saying that it's probably the only Hottest 100 entry to ever include the lyric 'uWuWuWuWu'.
ALSO: As previously mentioned, tonight (at around 12pm UK time), I'll be playing through Banjo-Kazooie on my Twitch channel. To 100% the game you need to collect 100 jigsaw pieces, and so every time I do, I'll move through triple j's 2023 Hottest 100 from #100 to #1, talking about those songs with rough thoughts that don't give me the above leisure I have to look things up. There'll be a display on screen to keep up with what I'm talking about to. Should it go alright, I'll post a VOD on here later.
#965. Vance Joy - Clarity (#29, 2022)
99th of 2022
It's a positive endorsement for 2022 that I'm putting this in 99th place. It's not really offensive in any way, but something's gotta go there. This entry marks a solid decade of Vance Joy dominance, and with no real sign of waning. A lot of artists who find commercial success can start to feel a bit passé, or at least less in-step with the younger generation of Hottest 100 voters coming in. This being a relatively minor hit by Vance Joy's standards but still landing in the top 30 here is an impressive showing.
I recall being extremely negative on this song when I first heard it. Like usually I can try and find something that makes me want to come back but this song just doesn't have it. The most memorable thing here is the extremely repetitive chorus. It makes me think of Ali Gatie's song "It's You", a song with over a billion streams on Spotify that I nonetheless cannot take seriously. Vance Joy says an approximation of the line so many times it loses all meaning. There'll still be plenty more Vance Joy to come here, and this isn't even the last "Clarity".
#964. Illy (feat Scarlett Stevens) - Tightrope (#17, 2014)
97th of 2014
This track is not on iTunes or Spotify. There are some unofficial uploads on YouTube that rack up 4 digit view counts, but otherwise it's been strangely wiped. It would be interesting to see how the battle stacks up between this and the original album version but it's not a level playing field anymore.
It probably doesn't matter on the whole. This version of the song did make it an ARIA top 50 hit, but months later when it had a substantial tenure on the chart, all the momentum was on the original version. This is interesting to me because the most substantial difference isn't the guest vocals. Scarlett just sounds like she's mimicking Kristina Miltiadou's original version and I don't think most people would pass a blind Coke/Pepsi test on the two. For whatever reason, everyone was seemingly tricked into getting the version of the song that has a lengthy string outro. I'd presume most radio stations were playing a hybrid version that just omitted the outro.
triple j seemingly only ever plays this version though. It's understandable given that Scarlett's pedigree in her other band (who will eventually appear many times in this list) ticks more boxes for triple j listeners than otherwise. It also serves as convenient for the Hottest 100. Illy's album "Cinematic" was released in November 2013 and had no time to drum up support for that year's Hottest 100. This was the only version of "Tightrope" that was eligible in 2014, and it served to bump up Illy's Hottest 100 streak to 6 years. If I was cynical, I'd say that's why Illy did this, but then he fumbled that bag a little later on, so he's not completely shameless.
I've never particularly liked this song. It felt a bit weird to hear on triple j at the time as just leaning super hard into pop-rap in a way that they tended not to go along with. I don't think Illy does a bad performance here, but rather M-Phazes' production turns it mucky. It's the sort of thing I'd expect to hear from Flo Rida or Maroon 5 circa this era. A recipe for success where the appeal is lost on me.
#963. Spacey Jane - Here Comes The Sun - Like A Version (#30, 2021)
97th of 2021
It's not an especially hard-and-fast rule but on the whole I just don't care a lot for cover versions. There's so much music out there to ever want to be stuck hearing something that was already done right the first time. It doesn't help that Like A Version policy restricts it to extremely trendy or well-known songs, the kinds that are already overexposed as is.
At some point in time, "Here Comes The Sun" became The Beatles' most popular song. When they released their catalogue on iTunes for the first time in 2010, "Here Comes The Sun" was the song that charted. On Spotify it has an enormous lead over the rest of their catalogue in streams. Perhaps it just best encapsulates the combination of not sounding so old-timey like much of their early catalogue, and not sounding so experimental like much of their later catalogue. Alternatively it's funnier to imagine that this paradigm shift happened because the song is in "Bee Movie", a cultural landmark to be sure.
This is the first of many entries for Spacey Jane, one of the few Australian bands to have found a significant following in the 2020s. In an era when most Australian albums spend a grand total of 1 week on the album chart, Spacey Jane managed to crack the streaming code and chart for months on end. I'll have many opportunities to talk about all the singles that made this possible.
For now, this is their trophy room Like A Version. The timing is a little off as this was a year between albums for them but they still managed two top 20 finishers in 2021 so it looks the part in isolation. As far as these go, it's probably the most redundant one to me. There are no thrills to be had, it's just Spacey Jane playing "Here Comes The Sun". Entirely pleasant, but offering very little to seek out.
#962. Birds of Tokyo - Anchor (#72, 2015)
98th of 2015
If I can say nothing else in service of this song, it's that it really got me thinking a lot about the frivolity of genre labels. Like it's a means to market an image without admitting you're marketing an image, because no one wants to say they like an artist because of what they look like. So often though, that image is what decides the genre. Katy Perry can have loud electric guitar in her song and get labelled pop, while Birds of Tokyo will have this over-indulgence in synths be the most played song on Triple M for weeks on end.
Actually there's another comparison I've made so many times that I worry I'm overdoing it to the people often in earshot. The year before this song came out, Ian Kenny's other band (who will eventually appear in this list) covered a certain UK trio (who will also eventually appear in this list). That band tend to get interesting genre tags, in part due to their label origins, but they don't get the same branding as this single does. It just feels wrong to me when this sounds like an attempt to re-create that group's biggest hit.
I'm not opposed on principle to this sort of experimentation. The whole EP is very synth heavy but I think the second track, "Puzzle", does a good job of it. There's a sticky chorus that's accentuated by the synths behind it. I'm also contractually obligated to mention track 3 on the album, "Weight Of The World" which descends into hilarity. It was all produced in-house, but it's the sound of a band well out of their depth. At the same time if you take out that template, I can see parts of it fitting onto their next album, which I'll get to discuss here eventually.
An important thing to disclose here is that Birds of Tokyo were one of the first bands I ever got obsessively into as a teenager. I fully cheered them on as they went from scrappy side-project to chart-topping stars. From this point on, the allegiance got a little sketchy. I can only imagine how Fremantle Dockers fans feel. Birds of Tokyo played at their losing Grand Final, and then about a year later, release a song about anchors. At least they've not done anything to upset West Coast Eagles supporters.
#961. Sticky Fingers - Australia Street (#70, 2013)
97th of 2013
I feel like everyone got it right the first time. This was the band's second ever Hottest 100 entry, and a little bit of a comedown from their first, landing 9 positions lower. When triple j did a Hottest 100 of the 2010s, the fanfare came roaring in, and this was their highest ranking track. Admittedly it feels like a technicality. When it came to that countdown, there was a lot of re-ordering the canon that matches closely with Spotify play counts. That's a chicken & egg situation if there ever was one, but it does make it seem pretty clear that "How To Fly" was their real meal ticket, but with a voting list largely based on previous vote results, it never had a chance.
The thing I do find interesting about this track is that it's in the surprisingly common lineage of the early 2010s with major label stars being accused of ripping off Australian bands in their music videos. Probably the most notable one was with One Direction having a similar visual effect to Clubfeet's J Award winning video for "Everything You Wanted". It got thoroughly dislike-bombed by One Direction fans and never recovered. Ariana Grande also caught heat for the video to "One Last Time", in regard to a Canberra band who will eventually appear in this list, and for this one, we go to Coldplay. They're all probably coincidences really, but in any case, Coldplay filmed the video to "A Sky Full Of Stars" in Sydney, specifically in Newtown, with a growing flash mob behind them. It's very similar to "Australia Street"'s video which uses the very same street, but they walk in the opposite direction. This one probably raised the least fuss of the three, in part because Sticky Fingers said outright that they didn't care, and because Coldplay fans aren't going out there rallying each other to take down the underdogs.
I don't have any deep, calculated reasons for ranking this the lowest of Sticky Fingers' original songs on this list, it's just a bit of a mood kill to get through. There are definitely songs that I like for elongating the words on their hook but this one just doesn't land for me. I was pretty on board with the first two songs of theirs I'd heard at the time (when I ranked the first 2000 Hottest 100 entries at the time, "Caress Your Soul" landed at #737), but this made me feel like their main appeal was a little lost on me.
ALSO: While I'm here I'm going to properly announce that on Monday night I'm going to continue my annual tradition of streaming Banjo-Kazooie on my Twitch channel on my Birthday while simultaneously going through with rough thoughts, hot takes, opinions on every song from the 2023 Hottest 100. More info on my Bluesky when I have it, and I'll probably mention it on Monday's post too.
#970. Chet Faker - (Lover) You Don't Treat Me No Good - Like A Version (#21, 2014)
98th of 2014
With triple j's Like A Version program getting to a bigger audience over time, it formed a symbiotic relationship with the artists who record them. It's in triple j's best interest to get the biggest artists they can wrangle in for it, and if those artists are on the rise, it can be in their best interest to check off that rite of passage. Looking back, it becomes a time capsule of who could be considered a big enough deal to warrant it.
This particular entry is a good point to bring up what I consider the trophy room Like A Version. We've seen it happen several times where an artist is having a particularly good year, they get a lot of hype for their Like a Version and it polls incredibly well. It seems to manifest in a similar way each time, where the artist will get loads of entries in the upper parts of the list, with the Like A Version trojan horsed in to represent their sheer cultural grip in that moment. It's the ultimate insult to anyone dreading their success because if that's not bad enough, even the half-hearted cover they did in the studio is annihilating all your favourites in the poll.
It makes for a good reminder that Like A Version audience reach is not created equally. Even if it's initially mostly inadvertently shared on the radio by similar numbers of listeners, you're inevitably going to skew that the moment that fanbases come into play. Thanks to algorithms, it doesn't even need to be about people reposting (although they might do that too), just the sheer engagement level sustains itself, making sure that everyone knows about it. I'm not about to suggest that people are disingenuously voting for Like A Versions they don't like, but the sheer nature of it means that most people will only really vote for a band they like covering a song they like, but might not even hear it if the band isn't high profile enough. Probably why triple j have been so much stricter on what songs can be covered.
So let's talk about Sonia Dada first. I find "You Don't Treat Me No Good" to be an interesting hit song for a few reasons that may or may not be known to you. Firstly, this song was massive when it came out. I can't ever recall not knowing this song, and this tracks because it's a little bit older than me, so it really has always been around. In addition to being a chart topping single, Sonia Dada even had a second big hit at the same time. At one point this group were sitting at #1 and #3 on the charts. This might be because the popular remix of "You Don't Treat Me No Good" was on the single for "You Ain't Thinking (About Me)", a common tactic at the time. I might just be wrong, but it does strike me as bizarrely successful for a song that I instantly forget after I finish hearing it.
Another interesting thing about this song is that despite all I just said, it's basically a non-entity outside of the Antipodes. I always get fascinated by these things because it means that there exists a sleeper agent in a bunch of people around the world (all they had to do was live in Australia at the right time) who have some variety of visceral reaction to hearing these chords, and everyone else has no idea what's going on. Or at least it was the case for a while, Americans might have a little more familiarity with it now since Jerrod Neimann got a pretty big country hit in 2010 covering it. Back when there were only a small handful of non-crossover country hits that could make the Billboard Year End list, this was one of them.
Lastly I'm always finding excuses to bring up the fact that this song was written by Daniel Pritzker, of the same named entrepreneurial family. The man behind this campfire acoustic guitar sing-along might just be the richest person to ever write a #1 hit in Australia. He's not the singer on this song but I believe he's the guitarist. The singer is a man with the now amusing name of Michael Scott.
While I've known "You Don't Treat Me No Good" all my life, I honestly couldn't confidently tell you what I've thought about it over that time. It's one of those songs that are such a staple that they almost transcend the notion of being reviewed for me. I only have a specific memory from high school (possibly Year 12) when the song inexplicably became a choice for spontaneous sing-along for various classmates of mine. In that brief period it grated on me a lot but now I just don't really encounter it a lot.
Chet Faker is a little bit older than me so it's very unlikely that he was in earshot of my teen experiences with this song, but maybe he had his own version of it. It's safe to say that he's tapping into that millennial nostalgia window of 'Wow, I remember this song, I haven't thought of it in ages!', and considering that you're basically never going to see it get cross-referenced in US or UK media, it's an excellent specimen for this sort of thing.
I'm not going to talk about Chet Faker really here, I've far surpassed a rational number of words just talking about Sonia Dada, when at the end of the day, there are way more opportunities to talk about Chet Faker. For now this is just his trophy room entry. A cover that doesn't really re-invent the wheel, just getting by on the sheer novelty of it.
#969. Lime Cordiale - I Touch Myself - Like A Version (#17, 2019)
98th of 2019
Here's another one. While this epitomises the trophy room Like A Version for me, I have to apply some caution with that label. When triple j did a Hottest 100 countdown in 2023 for Like A Versions, this came in at #4. #4 of all time! There's no doubt it's popular, but it's one of the hardest ones to wrap my head around. It's probably not helped by the fact that the first time I found out about it, my immediate reaction was akin to absolutely not having any interest in hearing it. It's hard to shake off that perception when the cover itself doesn't do anything to make me want to opt into it.
Probably though the most central issue is that I struggle to think of a circumstance where I'd want this song to be covered. It's not a song I completely adore, but it's one that's pretty clearly accomplished its mission statement. It's a song that's puerile in the most immediately obvious way, but managed to be so catchy that it couldn't help but become an international hit, played all over on the radio.
My Divinyls history isn't especially clear, mainly because I have trouble slotting things into an accurate timeline. I'd definitely heard their music when I was very young, as I recall my parents playing a lot of music very loudly from the other side of the house. This being the CD era, there's no way to avoid constant repetition. One of those songs was "Boys In Town". That song terrified me. Something about that invasive guitar riff and the repeated lyric of 'get me out of here' was all very confronting to my late '90s pop listening ears. It just sounds like a powder keg waiting to go off. Nowadays I think it's fantastic for all the same reasons.
I can't say for sure when I knew "I Touch Myself", and it would certainly be a much longer time to connect those two songs to being the same artist. The obvious elephant in the room is that it is indeed used heavily in a memorable scene in the first Austin Powers film. I can't undersell how weirdly invasive that film series has been on my budding taste in music, I just can't say for sure it was my first exposure.
That needle drop borders on the act of gender flipping the song just through context. This cover just does it straight up. I'm not someone who gets worked up about that sort of thing in cover versions. I think if it's done with enough care, then it's perfectly valid. I think with all things considered that Lime Cordiale didn't come to this cover version with the intent of making a mockery of it, nor do I think they did it. The biggest crime is just that it's not a particularly interesting cover.
#968. Glass Animals (feat Denzel Curry) - Tokyo Drifting (#34, 2019)
97th of 2019
This is the sort of song that is particularly tough to rank in a list like this. Most songs set their general vibe pretty quickly and your mood will rest in a consistent way. Even when you get to songs with big, belting choruses but otherwise space-filling verses, knowing that release is en route can quell the boredom. This is a song that challenges this notion by absolutely never resting on being too boring.
This is Glass Animals making an AJR song. Not literally but the general hallmarks are there. It's spitting on the face of regular expectations because 'why shouldn't we put this in the song?' I don't even particularly hate AJR. I feel like they're just not a big enough deal to justify the massive anti-jerk they've cultivated online. Like yeah, I probably wouldn't enjoy "The Click" either, but I've got enough foresight to realise this and not listen to it out of morbid curiosity and then get angry about the fact that it exists. I started collecting Hottest 100 entries before I'd even heard of Glass Animals though, so I wasn't able to get away from "Tokyo Drifting".
On a pure sonic level, this might actually be my least favourite Hottest 100 entry, for the most part. I'm just equally fascinated and baffled by the decisions made here. The goofy sounding horns, the haphazard drum programming, Dave just completely slurring all of his delivery in a weird register that totally clashes against the instrumental. It just sounds so bad. It's definitely doing nothing to convince me that Wavey Davey's on fire, no matter how many times he says it.
If it's not exceedingly obvious at this point, Denzel Curry is the only thing that saves this. A lot of rappers doing guest verses can end up sinking right in with whatever song they're on, but Denzel manages to salvage it with his agonisingly brief verse. He brings a level of energy and intensity that perks me up for a solid 23 seconds before we're back where we started. It's also fortunate that this wasn't just a one-off fluke appearance by association, and I'll get several opportunities to talk about Denzel Curry while not being surrounded by all of this. I guess you could say that this is simultaneously the most and least I've enjoyed a song so far on this list.
#967. Adrian Eagle - A.O.K. (#95, 2019)
96th of 2019
As far as artists on this list go, Adrian Eagle has one of the smallest discographies around. This song comes from an EP he put out in the same year. He did a Like A Version then as well, plus one other single he put out in 2016, and another he put out a month ago, that's it. Well, it is for him as a lead artist, because he's put out just as many songs as a guest performer. It's obviously how I first heard of him because this isn't his only appearance on this list.
I'm not super enthusiastic about this song. I think the chorus just doesn't quite land right. Partly because I'm not sure who it's supposed to be targeted at. The use of the word 'them' implies some sort of antagonistic influence that isn't really expanded upon. Or otherwise I guess 'A-OK' as an expression just feels too passive to be properly empowering. I was having a discussion online not long ago, where a lot of words with a meaning of 'moderate' tend to slowly gain negative connotations through the way they're used over time. It's partly because we're only usually interested in things that are good, so while mediocre just means middle of the road, it may as well mean bad at this point, because who would ever spend a significant amount of time trying to sort through things they think are either bad or mediocre?!
It's a shame because I do think that in general, Adrian Eagle's positivity is pretty infectious. There's a cute moment in this song where he talks about how important his mother is to him, helping him getting into music and now getting to hear him on the radio. Actually another song on his EP, "Housing Trust" has him recalling the days before the heights of the ARIA Awards. He won an ARIA Award for his forthcoming entry on this list, but this song was also nominated. From what's been documented on Genius, the only other time someone has mentioned them in a song was a comedy skit by Aunty Donna that has Hamish Blake calling in and citing his Best Comedy ARIA Awards as credentials.
On the whole, his EP is pretty pleasant stuff. It's mostly produced by Jerome Farah. He's never had a big breakout as an artist (I'm a big fan of the song "Tuesday" he guested on with KYE), but as a producer, it's not the last you'll see of him on this list. One alliterative artist in particular he's worked with many times, so he's racked up quite a few.
#966. Ruel - Younger (#87, 2018)
93rd of 2018
Ruel was born in 2002. He's been in the spotlight for so long at this point and yet at the time I'm writing this, he's still only 21 years old. It was basically his gimmick to an extent. Much like Usher with regards to a certain prodigious Canadian (who will appear in this list eventually), Ruel has been M-Phazes' golden ticket for quite some time. Back in 2015 Ruel's father sent him a demo and he just went all in on him. The partnership remains too, Ruel released his first full-length album in 2023 and M-Phazes produced every song on it. One of those songs will appear in this list too, as well as quite a handful of songs he released in-between.
The question I've had to tackle for many years in this regard though, is whether or not Ruel has always been ready for the big stage. Young artists are great for marketing, as well as having so many years ahead of them, but they're also not yet in their prime. When you're a teenager, you're still trying to figure out who you are. You're still doing that afterwards, but you're generally going with the flow. You're definitely not usually putting out pieces of work to be immortalised in lists that some people like me take too seriously. I've got so many snapshots of what teenage Ruel was thinking about on my computer.
That's generally what's held him back at times for me. I just can't quite connect his dramatic soul singing with what essentially amounts to a bit of teenage angst. The best I can say with this song is that it's either jokingly or cruelly making you feel really old. This is a song about Ruel having a falling out with a childhood friend. This song came out when Ruel was 15. I was 25 when this song came out. The chorus of this song has him reminiscing on back when they were younger! It all just feels so low stakes for all the dramatics. Well there's that and I just also find it to be his least catchy song, very stiff in melody when all the lines are separated the way they are. We'll see how he goes up from here though.
