#915-#911

 #915. Client Liaison - The Real Thing (#92, 2019)

90th of 2019

There's an artist we'll get to eventually that feels unlucky to be a one hit wonder in Hottest 100 terms. Clearly they've got one song bigger than the rest, but they've had so many other contenders that it's unlucky none of them just happened to slip in. The opposite happened with Client Liaison. They easily could've had just the one solid placement with "World of Our Love", but they managed to just barely sneak in two more times.

This is the first of those which means I'm tackling their entries entirely in chronological order. This one has some of the same issues I brought up with for "World of Our Love". It's 4 and a half minutes long, the verses feel like padding, the hook is unsatisfying and Monte Morgan is still the one singing it. I can see why this isn't as popular but I do think it balances out a bit better. The chorus doesn't experiment as much, but it's tidy and catchy enough.

#914. Dune Rats - UP (#49, 2021)

93rd of 2021

We nearly had something incredible in the 2021 list. Two songs that share so little of their audience but have the same title, fighting a battle of popularity that makes no sense in the greater scheme of things, but is one of the great things about the Hottest 100. Dune Rats exist to bring chaotic energy and get Hottest 100 votes, and in this one metric, they slightly outperformed a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit that shared the same name as their song. Really wish they could've been next to each other though.

Dune Rats have managed 8 Hottest 100 entries with the general premise of being a little bit silly. I think there's an interest in drugs too but I'll leave that to the imagination. This is a bright, summer song and absolutely makes sense to make the Hottest 100. A little different sounding for them but not extremely so. In the end though, it just falls a little flat on the execution. Credit for trying to make a chorus out of 'Should I get up?', but it never sounds as fun as it wants to be. The juxtaposition of this being a Dune Rats song that frequently mentions tax returns is a little charming but it can't carry us all the way.

#913. DMA'S - Dawning (#89, 2017)

91st of 2017

You've reached the DMA'S hotline. Here are some words that rhyme with dawning: warning, warning, warning, warning, warning

If I'm being honest, this album helped start to win me over with DMA'S. There's a handful more singles that made the list still to come, and I found the title track "For Now" to be a big stand out at the time. It's absolutely steeped in '90s nostalgia but it's the kind of re-creation that stands on its own with a lot to like about it.

This song is harder for me to extend the interest towards. In some regards it's more off-putting than something like "Criminal" because it's the sort of song that tries to tell me that they've got another dozen of these in their pocket and this was somehow the best one of them. I think the mixing is the biggest issue though. It probably sounds fine live, but the studio version is just flattened all the way through and it kills all the energy, you're just left with a deeply unsatisfying rhyme scheme in the chorus.

#912. 360 (feat Pez) - Live It Up (#75, 2014)

92nd of 2014

There's something quaint about this entry. Like if we're splitting up the Hottest 100 into 10 years sections, then 360 and Pez belong firmly in the back end of the 2003-2012 one. They both had their first entry together with "The Festival Song" in 2008, and then both had their last entry to date in 2014 with "Live It Up". It's like 360's last album was so big that he was destined to slip through like this on the next one. If you look back at it though, 360's 2014 album "Utopia" was a huge success. It debuted at #2 behind Lana Del Rey, and hung around in the top 50 for 14 weeks, that's way more than any Australian album has done in 2024. It actually had 3 top 40 singles, including the second run with Gossling, "Price Of Fame", which I think would've made this list if triple j played it more at the time.

The other single is probably the most interesting one. Much like Muse had done so a couple years ago, 360 made his big return with dubstep beats. But it wasn't just his return, because the single "Impossible" also featured Daniel Johns from Silverchair. He had done work behind the scenes in the interim, but hadn't put out anything with his voice on it since 2007 when Silverchair's last album came out. This would have been a huge single if it was at all well-received, which it wasn't. If it was just 360 on his own he might have been able to get away with it, but the Daniel Johns hype made it fall way too short of expectations. So I say that it's the first single from the album, but really it's one of those songs where the message was delivered and it got snuck away into the deluxe version. Most of the album tracks have more streams than it on Spotify.

If I'm being honest though, going back to "Impossible" nowadays, I have a slight bit more fondness for it. It's fascinating to see what gets thrown at the wall, but not quite as jarring as I remember at the time. It's preferable to this, where it's hard to imagine it having any less in the way of surprises. The last 360 & Pez collaboration of note (they've teamed up about 10 times now), "Just Got Started" was built on a Whitest Boy Alive sample and has one of Styalz Fuego's best hooks. It's a breezy, good time. This one just seems worse in every way. I recall being so disappointed when this made the cut because it just doesn't feel like there's anything to reward in this.

#911. Kanye West - Hurricane (#44, 2021)

92nd of 2021

This is the elephant in the list. There are so many Kanye West songs in this list, and depending on who you ask, most of them come after the fact that he became so far gone as to not be taken seriously, respected, tolerated or what have you. I'm writing this years later when he's managed to take that all even further and it's gotten to the point that I largely avoid acknowledging him. It sucks that it's come to this, because I've previously been a very outspoken fan of his music, and found a lot of strength through his lyrics of perseverance and self-empowerment. I cannot in good conscience endorse his music anymore. I'm more lenient than most people on these sorts of things, but there has to be a limit on giving benefit of the doubt.

I will still rank his entries as I see fit on this list. I don't see much value in say, dropping all of the problematic entries at the very bottom to make a point, because then it feels like you're ranking atrocities. I also considered just leaving all of his entries blank but that's not very interesting to me either. Compared to other artists with loads of entries, at the very least it's usually easy to write about Kanye's music. Whether for better or worse, it's provocative, it gets the people going, all that. I know me writing this doesn't change anything, but it would feel strange to just talk about Kanye West and not bring it up, as if to hide my shame and tacitly endorse it.

Anyway, Kanye has a lot of entries from "Donda" so it makes this first one easier to skim over quicker, even if it is the big hit from the album. None of the singles from this album have official credits, so it's touch & go if I'm even able to say what they are. This time I can, because it's The Weeknd & Lil Baby. A common trend with a lot of songs on "Donda" is that Kanye is not especially present on them, ironically giving way more airtime to his uncredited guests. He doesn't show up on this song until the 2 minute mark, halfway in, then after a minute long verse, he's gone and The Weeknd finishes it off.

It's easy to be cynical and say that the guest list is what made this a hit. The Weeknd & Lil Baby were both practically at the peak of their powers when this song came out. I can see how it would work for others though. The Weeknd comes in with a pretty powerful chorus that's backed well by the instrumental chords. It's just never clicked for me to enjoy it very much. Kanye has evoked this sort of church choir vibe (sometimes literally) so many times and it's something that has definitely worked for me. This one just has me pining for better options.