#925-#921

#925. Juice WRLD & Marshmello - Come & Go (#40, 2020)

90th of 2020

On the surface this feels especially exploitative. It sticks out for Juice WRLD for extremely obvious reasons and became one of his biggest hits all the same just for it. At the time I went digging for answers, and I remain surprised that they lay relatively dormant and undercover in the world of Juice WRLD bootlegs. That's the lengthy way of saying that this song probably would've sounded very much like this if Juice WRLD was still alive to finish it himself.

Originally this song was called "And Go" and had been teased a release at least a couple of years prior. For reasons not limited to the eventual title of this song, it remains difficult to get around some serious SEO issues with the title. What I found from it is that the version of this song with the big EDM drop first surfaced pretty soon after he'd died. This isn't like 50 Cent trying to make a marketable star out of the late Pop Smoke, I genuinely think that it's a sound he was interested in exploring.

I can live with the fact that it's Marshmello who ended up behind the decks for it. I'm generally not a fan of his production, where it feels like he's more interested in the quirky image than actually making anything substantial. He can occasionally mix up his sound though, and I don't think what we end up with here is all that bad. If it suffers from anything, it's that the drop sticks out so much that the song feels like it's just passing time before it can pull it out again. There's a spark missing from it which is pretty common with these sorts of releases.

#924. Client Liaison - World of Our Love (#35, 2016)

94th of 2016

I do not enjoy Monte Morgan's singing. Client Liaison are extremely inoffensive and one of the least likely artists here to cause up a stir, I tend to not bring it up because who wants to hear it? There's just something about it that just drains all the energy away from the music. Especially so in a song like this which feels more driven by the vocal melody than usual for them.

It's not all bad obviously, otherwise it'd be way lower on this list, but the exciting moments we get in this song are far between, and separated by a lot of slow, empty verses. I think the hook is boring but there is a good pulse going around it, and a solid throwback house sound as well. At the end of the day though, the song rides just over 4 and a half minutes and my patience is stretched beyond reason.

#923. Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave (#100, 2017)

93rd of 2017

There's an often noted shift in the sound of pop music around the mid-2010s that's traced to the huge success of a certain song that MØ sings on. That song will eventually appear in this list, but for the meantime, we're looking at what came in its wake. When this song rolled around, it was another day in the park for both artists, or at least it felt like it at the time. Now many years later, neither has really had a hit since it. We left.

This might sound contradictory but this song seemed more interesting to me at the time than it does now. I guess it's one of those things that doesn't settle in properly straight away. Snakehips & MØ sounds like a curious combination to be hovering around in the top 40 for months on end. In the long run though, the song just leaves me wanting more. Both artists bring their usual flair to the table but it still manages to feel like we're just going through the motions here. There's nothing surprising enough to warrant the intrigue in any pay off. It's the lingering breath of a sound that's losing its foothold over the populace.

#922. Dean Lewis - 7 Minutes (#46, 2019)

92nd of 2019

I feel a little wrong putting this up as the highest of the Dean Lewis entries. It's one of those cases where I feel I'm choosing not to lean into the more objectionable elements because it's better to shut my brain off. This is a song that is anchored around a really boneheaded set of lyrics that fall apart as soon as you pay any closer attention. It's just 'I forgot to love you', oh how sweet...wait what did he just say? Dean Lewis has too much of a sensitive voice to convince me that he's intentionally playing the asshole in his relationship drama song.

The best way I can look at it is that it's all just a flimsily put together song concept to anchor all the sonic emotional swells. I think he does a good job of it here so I don't find the song to be quite the momentum killer if my shuffle playlist decrees that it's time to jump in again. It does somewhat make me wish "Waves" was here instead. It's not a huge favourite of mine but it's well-rounded enough. Most of the hit singles he's put out to spark that flame again just feel like they're shooting for a template without much to dig into once he gets there.

#921. The Amity Affliction - Don't Lean On Me (#64, 2014)

93rd of 2014

Song titles are important. They can go a long way in making a song appear more striking, either going in or recalling it later. In the likely event that it's a lyric in the song, it's probably the first thing that goes into your head when you see it, assuming the song's chorus doesn't evoke a line so strongly that it feels like the real title has been overlooked.

It helps to be distinctive as well. Officially, The Fray's debut single is called "Over My Head (Cable Car)", the parenthetical being the original title when they wrote it. I can understand why they changed it, "Over My Head" is the title that feels most pre-ordained when you hear it. But I like "Cable Car" as a title more. It doesn't lead you straight to the hook, but it reminds you that there's more to the song than that. On top of that, it just feels more evocative and original.

"Don't Lean On Me" falls into the opposite camp. Just seeing the title bores me before I even listen to the song. I don't have the same issue with Bill Withers, or that same MØ song that will eventually appear on this list, so maybe part of the blame does lie with the song itself, but I also don't have the same problem with another hit from this album that does basically the same thing, so maybe the title really is cursed. Maybe they could've called it "Let The Ocean Take Me"? We're just stuck with a boring hook that telegraphs itself into being more boring.

Also I voted in this year's Hottest 100, I've posted it here before anywhere else. Vote or lose your right to scrutinise