#845-#841

#845. Lime Cordiale - No Plans To Make Plans (#26, 2020)

83rd of 2020

This is the part where I note that the following paragraph was very much written before January 2024 and avid followers of the countdown will quickly be able to take note of the information that very blatantly became outdated last month. This is me working it out on the remix.

Back at the beginning of the Hottest 100, it was an all-time list. Kind of like the big radio countdown they have in the Netherlands every year, it's not necessarily about what new songs will pop in, but what can be done with righting the established canon. Fans of The Cure definitely took notice, as in these first three years, their stack of entries increased each time. From 4 entries in the 1989 list, to 9 entries in 1991. There was a point in that countdown where 5 songs by The Cure were played in the space of 14 entries. That's the most a triple j countdown has ever smothered us with the same artist, but in 2020 Lime Cordiale got mighty close. "No Plans To Make Plans" was their lowest entry at #26, but they would tally up to 5 entries at #11. Even including interviews & talk back, I spent about a quarter of that 80 minute period exclusively listening to Lime Cordiale. No one could've planned that.

It's the kind of proximity that makes you want to cry foul over people just voting for the band. Ruel's performances have occasionally appeared as such. Lime Cordiale's exception is the song "That's Life" which landed at #163, on account of being just an album track without much airplay. With their airplay for that year being split fairly evenly among those 5 songs ("Screw Loose" (#872) is one of them, the other 3 are yet to come), you probably just have to accept that they just nailed the single selection and every song was a winner, so fair play.

You can still make note that "No Plans To Make Plans" was the least popular of 5 songs that were heard roughly equally and speculate on that. It does make sense though. It's probably the most album track-coded of the 5. I would generally get behind it if not for the two distracting components to it.

The first is in the hook. It's a bit wordy, and that's alright, but it gives me the impression that they didn't know how to finish it. 'Plans that don't directly affect you' is a gymnast that did not stick the landing. The second is obviously the kazoo solo, Lime Cordiale sure know how to sabotage their own songs with gimmicks that run a touch too long.

#844. G Flip - I Am Not Afraid (#77, 2019)

81st of 2019

Let's get this out of the way first: G Flip did it again. They get it out of the way early, but it's another poorly placed f-bomb in a song that isn't shy about repeating lyrical excerpts for emphasis or meter. I promise it's not impossible to get it right. If we jump forward to 2023, I think "7 Days" gets away with it, they mention the floor in that same line as well but it's just a regular floor now I guess.

The song is generally pleasant but also a bit of a mixed bag. The percussion is extremely expressive at times, especially towards the end. It feels like the chorus is trying to give it more bite but it just hits a little bit flat in the final recording. The bridge feels like more of a stop gap than anything that adds to the experience. Reasonably catchy lower end list filler, not much more I have to say on the matter.

#843. The Amity Affliction - The Weigh Down (#71, 2014)

81st of 2014

This was high up on the list of songs I wanted nothing to do with when I found out that it managed to poll. I think I expected it to just miss out. The whole chorus was just nails on the chalkboard for me and it kept on going endlessly. Very possibly was my least favourite song on the list at the time.

I suspect I was a touch prone to being overly dramatic at the time. This isn't far removed from the typical Amity Affliction experience and I don't think I could justify holding onto that specific grievance a decade later. It's a bit hammy still, especially with the forced weigh down/way down wordplay, but it's not that bad.

It's hard not to pair it with the similarly polling "Don't Lean On Me" (#921). They're next to each other on the album and the only two songs on "Let The Ocean Take Me" that start with a 15 second piano intro before a sudden snap into loudness. To focus elsewhere, I think this one wins out through the verses. There's a bit more tempo to this that Joel can match to strong effect.

#842. Illy (feat G Flip) - Loose Ends (#95, 2020)

82nd of 2020

I hope to have succeeded in replicating the Lime Cordiale experience by slipping in 3 G Flip songs in quick succession that I don't have strong feelings about. Actually G Flip did it themselves in the 2023 Hottest 100 when they landed at #22, #24 & #26, but I'd laid down this part of the list before then, so that's real life imitating me. Or it would be if not for "Real Life" missing the party at #65.

This isn't G Flip's song anyway, it's Illy's. But with this song just sneaking into the list and Illy not troubling the list since, it's hard to escape the feeling that they helped him have this last hurrah. This comes from Illy's 6th album "The Space Between", which was also his second #1 album on the ARIA Chart. I'm writing this just after his 7th album debuted at #4, which is not a bad showing still, but probably cements the declining spotlight. He's getting really close to that 8 album career path he hinted back in 2012 on "Heard It All".

I listened to "The Space Between" to get a better feel for where he was at for this. "Loose Ends" could've just been a weird isolated single, but I don't think it is. The one song that stood out the most to me was the opening track "Wave". It's a little bit harder and more fired up than what follows it. Despite being the opening track it's also the 3rd least streamed song on it, so the people have spoken, they want these poppier collabs.

Quite a few of them on the album actually. I found it amusing that Carla Wehbe has a guest spot. It makes for the second time someone has featured on an Illy album and had me vote for them in the Hottest 100 in the following year. It may not have polled but it's not off the table to hop on board with me on the "is forever off the table?" saucer ride. She's wearing a cowboy hat in the music video, so maybe it'll pop off in a couple of years. Other features include two artists that will eventually appear on this list and otherwise would hardly ever be talked about side by side.

G Flip is fairly prominent on this song. They don't take centre stage until the bridge but their backing vocals are all over it. To the best of my knowledge, this is one of those 'sending files over' kinds of collaborations and I don't think they played any of the music on this. Again, it's all fairly pleasant and inoffensive. Another song from this album made the list too, so there'll be more loose ends to tie up then.

#841. Lana Del Rey - Young and Beautiful (#7, 2013)

87th of 2013

I had to read "The Great Gatsby" in high school. It's been said by plenty that this is the worst time in your life to read classic literature because all the enduring nuances will be lost on you and you'll be too focused on the obligation to get through it to have any leisurely enjoyment either. This is a novel about the squabbles of wealthy socialites in early 20th century America. No matter how much context my English teacher tried to slot in, it's always just going to sound like a foreign world.

I haven't sat down and read it since then but I appreciate it a lot more now. All the class dissonance and character motivations ring with a lot more power. Everyone is flawed but fascinating for it.

In preparation for this blurb I did something I've dreaded the thought of for over a decade, which is to watch Baz Luhrmann's 2013 adaptation of the book. I've never been drawn into his directorial style, and that's ignoring the fact that his name is attached to what is probably my least favourite song to make the Hottest 100 ever. "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" is so filled with hollow attempts at profundities that it irks me just to read it, much less spend 7 minutes listening to it.

I didn't dislike the film but it did slowly wind down on me after all the intrigue of the costume & set design faded. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually an entire two and a half hour movie, and not just a still image of Leonardo DiCaprio smugly smiling at you while giving a toast. Jay-Z executive produced the soundtrack, and I initially wanted to make a joke about how the wealthy elite listen to Jay-Z while Gatsby blasts songs made by Black Eyed Peas members at his parties, but that quickly stops being exclusive as Jay-Z just keeps showing up everywhere.

This song also pops up a few times. Firstly when Gatsby re-acquaints with Daisy Buchanan for the first time. The song is supposed to be written from her perspective but I've never been able to buy into that. Daisy strikes me as being more interested in financial security and luxury, rather than true feelings of love. At no point do I believe she's having an existential crisis about aging out of the interest of a man who's gone to great lengths to express his undying adoration for her. It's a crisis more befitting of Gatsby if anything. Someone whose entire lavish entourage abandons him without second thought once he's incapacitated.

Lana Del Rey probably didn't actually write this song with Daisy in mind. She wrote it with frequent collaborator Rick Nowels which gives off the impression that it was written for either her first album or its accompanying EP, making it possibly ineligible for an Academy Award. A point of controversy is whether or not the song was finished beforehand. There's mention of Baz Luhrmann having re-written the song to better suit the film but he doesn't earn a writing credit. The song did not receive an Academy Award nomination so it's possible it was disqualified.

In what I can only attribute as Australia patting its own industry on the back, this song was remarkably successful and became Lana Del Rey's first ever top 10 hit. It's still the only one of her four top 10 hits that doesn't feel like she's just technically credited while someone else is driving. It became a top 10 hit for a second time thanks to Cedric Gervais working the same remix trick he did with "Summertime Sadness". That remix is so utterly forgotten that it's been outstreamed by the orchestral version from the film soundtrack, and beaten fiftyfold by the original. In typical ARIA fashion, the single went 10 times platinum in 2024, with Cedric Gervais still being credited. In triple j's Hottest 100, it came within one place of matching "Video Games" as her highest polling song to date, she's not made the top 20 since.

I just don't feel very strongly about the song itself, and it has me at odds with trying to understand what people want from Lana Del Rey, or music in general. The orchestral bombast just feels a little bit empty, and it's in service of one of Lana's most unsatisfying melodies. Not terrible, but its pecking order of persistent popularity in her discography has me more prone to picking apart its problems.

#850-#846

#850. alt-J - U&ME (#95, 2021)

87th of 2021

You can't put it all down to a science but if you look at alt-J's general downward slide with every album, it's very surprising that they managed to make the cut off once more, even if only slightly. I always find it interesting when you can spot the last hurrah as it's happening, because unless alt-J hit the right nostalgia point, this has to be the last Hottest 100 entry they ever get.

Then again, maybe this already is that nostalgia wave. We'll get to more alt-J songs from the middle of this list that have some different ideas in what to do to stand out. This song plays it all as gimmick free (in alt-J's terms) as their debut album. If not for the punchy guitar solo, it wouldn't feel too out of place there.

It's not really a song that I've been able to latch onto. It doesn't manage to get me excited when it's largely just stuck in its lax tempo. The chorus feels a little underbaked, and any intimacy it might put across is killed when it's the one line of the song that's shouted with backing vocals.

#849. The Amity Affliction - This Could Be Heartbreak (#76, 2016)

86th of 2016

I don't want to say that this Amity Affliction song is completely by the numbers. I think the main guitar riff that leads us in and comes back for the chorus leans it into pop punk territory, or at the very least something that doesn't sound too objectionable on the radio.

I can't really engage with it in any case as Ahren's delivery just feels flat. The imagery is fairly vivid, but the sadness is blocked out when the performance doesn't really commit to it. He does a better job on the pre-chorus, but it just feels so constructed when he's filling in space to say 'I think this could be heartbreak'. I've written sentences with more certainty than that, possibly.

#848. G Flip - Hyperfine (#7, 2020)

84th of 2020

Something I could say about a handful of G Flip songs rears its head most strongly on this song. I've never really seen anyone point it out so it might be something that I, someone who doesn't usually partake would take issue with. There is no artist I can think of that is as bad at swearing as G Flip.

I absolutely don't have a problem with explicit language in music. I'll be the first to point out that it's often cheaply used as a scapegoat to justify disinterest in rap music. I just don't think G Flip tends to do it right. Once the notion of someone putting it in to sound edgy takes root, I can't help but notice it. Just like how they can't avoid the crutch, and I think it diminishes the song. If they want to use it for emphasis, that might be hyperfine, but you get the f-bomb in this song followed up immediately by another one. If they got rid of the first one it might actually work, but it sounds so ridiculous here, like there was no way to keep up the syllable pattern against the already laboured song title. I just zone out completely because I can't take the song seriously anymore.

Otherwise I do think the song is hyperfine. There's a good pulse to it that keeps it moving. Maybe a better version exists where the chorus really pops out. When it was performed as an original for Like A Version, the live guitars & drums give it a bit more kick. I can almost forgive my minor squabble but when I already wrote two paragraphs about it, I'm probably condemning myself to die on that hill.

#847. Post Malone - Wow. (#93, 2019)

82nd of 2019

If I had a nickel for every time Post Malone had the 7th biggest hit of the year but it only landed in the 90s in that year's Hottest 100, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right? For how much 2019 was another big year for him on the charts, "Circles" (#883) really just swallowed up all his votes that year. "I Had Some Help" was also the 7th biggest hit of 2024 and faired reasonably better. Actually "Circles" was the 7th biggest hit of 2019 too; I've discovered something else that's weird.

If you choose to look at this in a charts perspective, then this point in time is a good representation of Post Malone's stranglehold he had over them. He's had plenty of bigger hits than this, but none that sound so ill-suited for the job. From the opening seconds of "Wow.", you're greeted by a faint wisp of a beat that's already cowering away from you. It picks up afterwards but largely just meanders behind one of Post Malone's most casual performances. I have no idea why US radio loved this so much, even more than the super radio friendly soundtrack single he released just before it, which will eventually appear on this list. Australian radio was very hesitant on the other hand, but it still managed to climb to #2 here. The chart run makes it look like it's due to him touring, but it pre-empts his Australian tour by a month, it's thanks to a remix with Roddy Ricch & Tyga that it peaked at #2 instead of #4. That remix is a footnote now but it shaped chart history in that brief moment, and there are plenty more examples of that along the ride.

Like with "Circles", I know I liked this a touch more initially but the charm has worn off a bit. Still, it's hard to get too mad at it when it's never showing its face anywhere. Not a song to ever encounter in the wild.

#846. Vance Joy - Lay It On Me (#9, 2017)

86th of 2017

Everything I said about "Mess Is Mine" (#881) re-applies here. So you had a successful album-and-a-bit cycle off the back of one very big song? That don't impress me much. Now you gotta do it again from scratch. So your next lead single spent half a year in the top 50? Fair play actually. With "Lay It On Me", Vance Joy is back and hornier than ever. What? Listen to those horns, what else did you think I meant?

I'm always curious of song title politics. I can't help but wonder if Vance Joy came up with this song, and was going to call it "Lay It All On Me", but then remembered Rudimental & Ed Sheeran already did that recently so he did a slight alternation. It's probably the best choice out of all the tweaks you could do, not too wordy, not too succinct.

"Lay It On Me" was released in the middle of July which hits the sweet spot in the Hottest 100 I think. He also let the song go out on its own for most of that year, save a late release for "Like Gold" that mostly went under the radar. Everything came together to get him back in the Hottest 100 top 10, the only song of his other than "Riptide" (#885) to do so.

I don't begrudge it I suppose. We're arbitrarily up to the point in the list where I might find myself able to utter the bombastic praise of 'It's somewhat likeable'. It's all working up to that big blast of energy in the chorus, but I don't love the promenade getting there.

#855-#851

#855. Carmada - Maybe (#41, 2014)

83rd of 2014

Running back to back on one-off entries for electronic groups with minor pedigree. When "Maybe" was released, Carmada was a duo, consisting of Yahtzel and someone else who will eventually appear on this list. It's something that works out conveniently for both of them as said artist was finding more success on his own, and Yahtzel found more success with Carmada than he had previously. 'Creative differences' makes the most sense in hindsight.

It was a fairly fruitful team up on this song in particular. Though it never quite cracked the ARIA top 50, it did spend a solid 4 months hovering in the top 100, many of those weeks as the sole resident in the camp of 'this would cause a bit of disarray if top 40 programmers had to acknowledge it'. It's a song with vocals only serving as an instrument to pile on that largely consists of repeating a drop that embodies all the distaste that was given out to dubstep in the years prior. As an aside, that drop is actually one that they got from a trap sample pack. They've barely altered it. Their second biggest hit "On Fire" also does this and comes from the same pack. It's a defining part of their legacy now.

I took to this song when it came out. It sticks out on the radio and sounded pretty fresh. Nowadays I don't ever find myself seeking it out. I'd felt this way not even remembering the sampling controversy. There's just something about it that's a little slap-dash in hindsight. Like the drums don't have enough kick to them and the verses just feel empty. It sounds like the 128 bit rate version of itself. Flume's appearance in the music video is pretty funny. In all of the transport going on though, they forgot to get a picture of a train in it, despite telling us we don't have to choo-choo-choose.

#854. Peach PRC - Forever Drunk (#65, 2022)

88th of 2022

Probably the most Australian moment Peach PRC has in this countdown is writing this song about a breakup and framing it with a context of imbibement. You can read it as an exercise. How can you get a pumping chorus out of a miserable song? Simply relate it back to the double entendre of the vibe intoxication brings out. Meeting somewhere in the middle of being a drunken mess and just having a good time. She's certainly somewhere on that spectrum, but you the listener only need to be on one. It's a very effective singalong.

As for how it works on the person who does not drink, I feel like it's close to getting there but doesn't quite stick the landing. The drum beat that arrives with this song's chorus follows a pretty consistent pattern with every second beat hitting a touch harder. I always think of Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" or Metric's "Lost Kitten" as similar examples. It's closer to the Metric example with how Peach utilises it as it feels like she's leaning into the rhythm. You get this effect where the words really stick out. It just falters when she says the title phrase two dozen times. It feels like it's made for a meme video where the line just keeps coming in over and over again to the point of ridiculousness. Or you could make a TikTok compilation of videos that use the song, and not even have to restart it, you could just seamlessly run through it. Not a recipe for failure, just one that wore me down.

#853. Andy Bull - Baby I Am Nobody Now (#81, 2013)

88th of 2013

2013's poll is the only time Andy Bull ever managed to appear with more than just a single song. That's not easy to do and tends to indicate strong loyalty. The album that these singles landed on didn't come out until the latter half of 2014 though which probably hurt its chart performance when it landed at #23.

I mainly want to bring up the 2013 double up because it's how I frame my association for this song. It's a song that feels linked to his other song that outpolled it for how relatively similar they sound. I'll find myself trying to recall one of them and it'll turn into the other.

This song's chorus just feels a bit overwhelming. The percussion just overwhelms everything with nothing to balance it out, nothing to latch onto. When it's stripped away you get some nice moments, I think the synth on its own is used just the right amount. This is just a messy song that's never clicked with me.

#852. Allday - Right Now (#65, 2014)

82nd of 2014

Allday is probably Australia's most commercially successful SoundCloud rapper. I couldn't say for certain that he gained his following there, but he certainly exhibits the characteristics of it. His first Hottest 100 entry "So Good" has still never gotten an official release, and he's been entirely on independent labels all up until his 2024 album was released on the semi-independent Dew Process. His music has always given off that same vibe. A sort of not-quite-polished charm that makes it stick out and potentially endear itself.

Commercially, he peaked fairly quickly. His first album "Startup Cult" came out in 2014 and it's the highest he's ever charted, with slight diminishing returns ever since. Just like Andy Bull, it's just this one time he managed to land multiple entries in a single countdown.

"Right Now" was actually the more immediate of the two initially for me. It's his most direct hook, and with the lively production, provides a punch to it. This song where Allday waxes lyrically on aimless millennial hedonism is a good workout song.

I think he could have gotten away with trimming it down a little bit. It overstays its welcome just a touch, not knowing how to wrap things up. The bridge is memorable for the use of the word 'obscenities', but probably only because he says it 8 times. Truly we're on the cusp of me just saying 'yeah, this is pretty good'.

#851. PNAU - Chameleon (#11, 2016)

87th of 2016

PNAU's career longevity is pretty incredible. As someone who first heard of them in 2007, I'm both super early & super late to the party. Their first album "Sambanova" won them an ARIA Award for Best Dance Release in 2000. They wouldn't win another award until 17 years later in the same category, when this single got them the gold again.

Every time they do seem to re-emerge, they reach new highs in the process. They managed some crossover hits in 2008 without a remarkable chart presence. This song would end up being their first ever ARIA top 10 hit, and then they'd cap that all off in 2021 with a global #1 smash hit working with Elton John & Dua Lipa, which thankfully I don't have to talk about ever. At some point in the middle, PNAU felt like a side-project to Empire of the Sun, but it's probably flipped back again now.

At each iteration, save for when Nick Littlemore is providing vocals, they can hardly be recognised as the same artist. This part of PNAU's career I'm tackling is three songs that are easily linked together as they all have the same guest vocalist (who I can't name yet because they did eventually credit her), but it's hard to spot the band that made "Wild Strawberries" and "The Truth" here.

It never helped me trying to get into the song. I can recognise a solid piano house groove when it comes in, but afterwards you're left with a drop that's lacking. If both parts work for you then I can see how this would go down a treat, but I feel like their future iterations on this managed to get more right.

#860-#856

#860. Hilltop Hoods (feat James Chatburn) - Higher (#49, 2016)

89th of 2016

Hilltop Hoods might be excessively represented in the Hottest 100 but it comes with some bearing of standards. They don't have the ability to just occupy the pointy end of the list by default. Or maybe they do but not with everything. "Higher" might be unlucky in that regard. If we want to talk about the worst time of year to release something for Hottest 100 viability, if it isn't the very end of November, then it's the start of December. I feel like the average person still doesn't compartmentalise the cut off and doesn't get at all hyped to vote for these 'start of the cut off' songs. This is one of Hilltop Hoods' 5 ARIA top 10 hits. The other four all landed in the Hottest 100 top 10, but this one was so overshadowed by what followed it that it only barely made the top half.

I've only used the word 'perfunctory' throughout these entries 3 times before now so I hope I'm not overdoing it. It's the time to say it though. As a returning single, it does everything it needs to, showing that they've not lost a step in being able to rap. Just like their previous lead single "Won't Let You Down" (#910), it features a singer with no built-in fanbase overlap. This is more for the fact that I don't really know James Chatburn for anything else, and never noticed him after the fact either. Perfectly competent, doesn't thrill, doesn't bother. This was also the lead off to what wasn't a proper studio album, but another Restrung affair like they did back in 2007. This song and another I'll get to eventually are crammed into the track listings of their previous two albums on here as if they were always there. I've never minded the Restrung concept. It's basically a decades old Simpsons joke, but one that works surprisingly well. This song on its own just isn't much to write home about, or here as it were.

#859. Travis Scott - HIGHEST IN THE ROOM (#41, 2019)

83rd of 2019

Travis Scott fans are not especially good at getting themselves organised for the Hottest 100 vote. For someone who is consistently one of the most streamed artists in Australia with regular triple j airplay for nearly a decade, he only has two Hottest 100 entries to his name thus far (plus a feature credit he barely snuck in with in 2024). It all just feels like a very incomplete snapshot of his career, especially with this song being one of the two.

I do feel a bit of a disconnect with the fandom in general. I recently witnessed the chart spillage that came from his Australian tour and it just felt like a different kind of incoherent snapshot. One where "BUTTERFLY EFFECT" and this are apparently the go-to songs from his back catalogue. The former has always felt like a throwaway that was salvaged into a bigger hit just by getting housed on "ASTROWORLD", and this has always felt like a throwaway with the perfect imperial era release window to smash out the gate. Maybe I'm way off the mark but I feel like Travis Scott had a lot of songs that just sound like this already and there was nothing to get excited about. The only brief change of pace you get is the song's outro, but even that doesn't live up to the excitement because it just ends.

#858. Rudimental (feat Emile Sandé) - Free (#47, 2013)

90th of 2013

Back when I was inclined to scope out any cheap deal I could come across, I bought Rudimental's first album. I didn't have many strong feelings about the album and only really took away from it the song "Powerless" which seemed like a logical progression with the drum & bass hits they'd had at the time. It also introduced me to an artist who wouldn't make their Hottest 100 debut until many years later, on a song I'll eventually write about. Usually the release of an album marks the end of a run of hits. It's way harder to build up buzz for a song in the streaming age that's already been available to hear. Against all odds, many months later, Rudimental pulled it off with "Free" becoming one of their biggest hits in Australia.

If I was ranking the 2013 list at the time, I suspect I'd have put this song right near the bottom. I've previously had a feeling of resentment whenever a song becomes a hit independently of triple j, but sneaks onto the voting list and gets into the poll. It's the feeling of betrayal when I think I've gotten away with being able to ignore a song until it turns up in my Hottest 100 collection forever. Especially true when I can justify to myself the lack of regular rotation through the song's quality. "Free" wasn't entirely unspun on triple j, but it did get the majority of its plays by that point during Rudimental's feature album stint. They played it 3 more times in 2013 after that.

The resentment was probably stronger too as I felt betrayed. Rudimental had quickly asserted themselves as a reliable hitmaking machine, and justifiably through their intense drum & bass hits that managed to be crossover friendly. "Free" had none of that energy and was just a 5 minute repetitive slog. I couldn't see the appeal at all. Even Emile Sandé was betraying me a little, as I'd generally enjoyed what she was putting out at that time too. Teaming up with Rudimental to possibly make something like "Heaven" just seemed natural, but that's not what we got.

I still don't love the song but time has done it a bit of favour. It's fairly rare to see a hit song nowadays that actually commits to a build-up all the way to the end. The steady strumming & keys give it an amicable warmth as well. The song also holds up fairly well with the foresight of what Rudimental have done since. They've exercised their creative right to try on a whole lot of hats, enough to make them near unrecognisable. Any criticism I may have put towards "Free" 10 years ago can now instead get put onto "These Days", a true nothing-burger of a song that's easily their biggest hit now. triple j were kind enough to properly pull the plug before that, though we will still have more Rudimental to get to in this list. As for Miss Sandé, this sole entry still makes her the only woman named Adele to make the Hottest 100, unless you include the extra-curricular lists. C'est la vie.

(Also as a side note: For the entire time this song was in the ARIA top 50, it was credited as the version featuring Nas. Said version was not at all driving its popularity but technically it's Nas's biggest hit in Australia by a big margin. I assume these sorts of things make Wikipedia editors so mad that they won't even acknowledge that it's objectively what the chart says).

#857. Illy (feat Vera Blue) - Papercuts (#7, 2016)

88th of 2016

I keep wanting to say that this song is Illy's full transition into crossover pop rap. I think it's just the chart positions egging me on though. In 2010 Illy released the song "It Can Wait", with a guest vocalist who was a finalist on Australian Idol 2 years prior, and achieved decent success. In 2016, Illy released "Papercuts", with a guest vocalist who was a finalist on The Voice Australia 3 years prior, and came within an inch of becoming an ARIA #1 hit, until the instant success of a new song by MØ and two other future list entrants spoiled the party. Don't bring fire to a cold water fight.

In any case, this song is one of the most obvious pitches to be a hit to go around. Everyone involved was primed to go bigger, and the song itself follows the classic template of rap/sung collaborations with intense imagery to go with the dramatics of the performance. Think "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rihanna, or "Battle Scars" by Lupe Fiasco and another Australian Idol who will eventually appear in this list. It feels like one of the last of its kind too. An Australian song that just immediately blows up and has the streaming numbers to back it up. "Be Alright" by Dean Lewis (#986) is just about the only song since that feels comparable.

I am once again reporting that the song did not really gel with me on release. I spent all of 2016 just quietly happy to see Illy & Vera Blue have this sort of success (at the height of tropical house, this song sticks out so jarringly during its ARIA top 10 stint), but not really ever wanting to listen to this song. For the most part, it's a song that accomplishes what it's going for so well, that it's a largely thrill-free listen. It's the kind of song that has you surprised it didn't exist sooner. The metaphors aren't particularly laboured and it gets it across without effort. I could almost see it working in America if not for that one glaring issue.

The drop in this song isn't very good. It's a sharp synth stab that just doesn't sound very good next to Vera Blue and her own sharp tones. It's probably still the trendiest thing about it; you can hear shades of Flume in the chirpier parts of it. But it's something that's never rested well on my ears and comes across as the amateur Australian version of something that Americans are doing better. It has grown on me a little over time. I think it almost works in the final chorus, and maybe live instrumentation has it go down a treat. In any case, welcome Vera Blue, I'll have a lot more to write about her in the future.

#856. Panama - Always (#80, 2013)

89th of 2013

I forget where I first heard it, but an observation I've always thought about is how the worst Maroon 5 songs tend to be the ones that start with Adam Levine's voice being the first thing you hear. It's an immediate jump scare that you get no chance to steel yourself for. It's not just a Maroon 5 phenomenon though, I think it's a first impression that runs the risk of souring any song. You get sick of something much sooner if the first thing you think of when you hear it, is also the first thing you hear.

There's a surprising amount of pedigree to this song. Late 2000s triple j listeners might just recognise primary member Jarrah McCleary as the lead singer for The Dirty Secrets. It appears that the project has morphed into just a solo identity now, but he's also had Tim from Operator Please as a drummer on hand as well. Panama is still around now, racking up fairly impressive streaming numbers that aren't exclusive to this song. "Always" was featured in "Grand Theft Auto V" which is not bad in terms of audience reach.

The Dirty Secrets connection hits close for me. They never really made it big but were a personal favourite for me with their run of singles at the time. The exact kind of intense up-tempo rock I was into with a tinge of electronica. It's very hard to recognise anything resembling it here. It's probably for the best that he developed his vocal approach. It's a blessing and a curse in this instance with how well it blends into this song's steady mood.

To go back to my initial point, it is a problem for me that the worst part of the song is how it starts and it's always the only way I can think of the song. Once you get past that, the song does get better, but it also doesn't do enough to get you engaged. Starting with the chorus means that it never feels like catharsis in the long run, especially when the song stays at pretty much the same pace the whole way.

#865-#861

#865. Lime Cordiale - Country Club (#60, 2022)

89th of 2022

If we exclude "Dirt Cheap" (#980) on the grounds that it's just on the cusp of the band blowing up, then Lime Cordiale have had 17 Hottest 100 entries from 2019 to 2023 and only 2 of them haven't landed in the top half of the list. The only two songs they've landed in the second hundred were both album tracks. What I'm saying is that it must be the mark of absolute failure for any single they release that can't crack the top 50. What I'm also saying is that no, that other one has not yet shown up. "Country Club" doesn't have an excuse either. It was released as a single in the latter half of the year and got plenty of airplay. Perhaps it's just the exception that proves the rule. Every other entry really is that popular, because here's a lower baseline.

I can't really pinpoint anything about this single that makes it stick out as a dud though. It sounds a little goofy, especially with the sharp layering over the main vocal melody. Maybe it's a bridge too far, but I'd question nothing if this slotted in nice and high like all the other ones did. But I guess nothing hurts more than knowing a song isn't the best version of itself it could be. There is a decent tune in here, but I'm just another data point to put the overall package in the lower tier.

I should probably add in a paragraph to note that I wrote this around the time I started this blog, something of a milestone moment I guess. We've also got another Hottest 100 worth of data to look at since I did this. Not only did Lime Cordiale not make the top 50 in 2024, but a couple of their highly played songs on triple j didn't even make the top 100, which is unprecedented. There's something utterly brutal about the Spotify algorithm where unless you're drastically adding on new waves of fans by the day, your early catalogue with the most baked in saves will just pounce in, ready to overtake your new stuff. Lime Cordiale's Spotify top 10 right now contains nothing later than 2019, save for their grentperez collaboration "Op Shop Lover", which is probably sinking down the list as we speak. When the Hottest 100 relies on constant new hits, life and algorithms can come at you awfully quickly. It's lucky for them they banked these entries while they could, because I've still got another 10 to go here.

#864. Lorde - Homemade Dynamite (#14, 2017)

88th of 2017

As a general rule, I'm not very fond of the remix meta in the music charts. If it's an actual remix then sure, but the ones I'm talking about are the ones where the only difference is stuffing another high profile artist on there to not only pool together those fanbases, but also pool together streaming numbers with the original version (and if it's pushed hard enough, significant digital sales of the remix for 1 week), all for the purpose of a chart peak that is used as a shorthand to boast an implied level of success that the song doesn't really have. Is said remix any good? It doesn't have to be! The more perfunctory the better. Even if it does mark for an improvement, the upfront cynicism of the whole thing sours everything for me.

"Homemade Dynamite" is one of the more popular cuts on Lorde's much beloved second album "Melodrama". It also has a remix that was pushed many months later that features Khalid, Post Malone & SZA, three very lucrative artists to sign onto your project given their rapid upwards trajectory at that point in time. It's actually hard to figure just how popular the remix was though. At the time I remember thinking that it was being heavily pushed by Spotify playlists beyond anything reasonable. You can actually still see it on the song's Spotify streaming performance, where after spending 6 months on Australia's most influential playlist (and much of that time nestled in Australia's top 50), it's eventually shoved down the bottom and removed, spending all of 5 weeks in the top 200 after leaving the top 50. On the other hand, Australia is a drop in the ocean, and the remix still now boasts over 300 million streams on Spotify (twice as much as the original). Perhaps that's enough to justify it, but it still felt cheap at the time.

It's always left me in a weird position with this song. Like I've always rooted against it as a result of a remix I never have to listen to and would completely have forgotten about if I didn't follow music charts. I want to say that it never was one of my favourite songs on "Melodrama" anyway, so it's possible that seeing it get that inflated attention bothered me more than if say, "Supercut" got that same treatment. Its top 20 finish in the Hottest 100 feels very generous unless you imagine a lot of people were voting for it in place of the remix (which couldn't be singled out, or would be combined anyway).

In any case, even if I ignore the baggage and just listen to the song on its own, it still doesn't quite do it for me. I'm somewhat repeating my feelings I just had with Lime Cordiale because this song also features synths layered over the main vocal line in the chorus that sounds a bit ugly. Actually though, the song this reminds me of the most is Muse's "Undisclosed Desires". Regardless of what you think of that song overall, it's got a slick, consistent groove that keeps it moving along. The programmed drums in this song sound stiff and lock up that momentum. I hate to tear into a song from everyone's favourite Lorde album like this, but I also know she can and has done better.

#863. Tones And I - Cloudy Day (#74, 2021)

88th of 2021

Tones And I's debut album "Welcome To The Madhouse" will go down in history as one of the most loathed albums of the 2020s. As with the case of many albums that garner such a reputation, it's one that's so obvious without even listening to it. A self-fulfilling prophecy of nobody wanting to like something and it doing very little to challenge that initial perception. It's an easy target. Like a blank canvas to put out all of your desired barbs without possibly getting knocked back because this is one everyone agrees on. There's gotta be at least someone who hasn't heard that 'My father was in a coma but then heard this album and snapped out of it to turn it off' joke before.

So I listened to the album. My computer crashed twice before I got to the end of it, allowing me to experience one of those cursed computer-crashing audio nightmares, suddenly I was hearing the Tones And I everyone else seems to hear. Anyway, it's a largely harmless album. It does manage to slot in the occasional moment to add fuel to the fire. Mainly the songs "Westside Lobby" and "Bars (RIP T)". The former breaks the fourth wall acknowledging her success and paints herself as the heel in the scenario. The latter finishes the album with Tones rapping as the ultimate mockery to anyone who made it that far. The rest doesn't really match up to the so bad it's bad qualifier and largely just feels ready made for plugging in Australian radio quotas. The most interesting thing about the album is probably that unless you've got the deluxe version, you're actually not going to hear the very song she brings up on "Westside Lobby", that I must once again forewarn will eventually appear on this list. It's a career credibility measure I can respect. I rescind it with the bonus fact that this was proudly brandished as the first ever ARIA #1 album to include NFT sales in its tally. It'd be a remarkably unstreamed album if not for the inclusion of "Fly Away" (#938), and this song.

I have once again delayed talking about a song that doesn't give me much to work with. It's very much in the same vein as her previous entries, a fairly safe sounding song with inspirational platitudes. There's a little more bounce to this one thanks to the horn section, but it's fairly autopilot on the way there. Tones And I's hitmaking has severely shrunk after this, so it's possible that this is her last ever Hottest 100 entry. Still a couple more here though.

#862. Chet Faker - Talk Is Cheap (#1, 2014)

84th of 2014

Few songs have felt more groomed to be the Hottest 100 winner than this one. Like "Big Jet Plane" or "Somebody That I Used To Know" before it, it just had to be this. It was released right at the start of the year so there was ample time for this song to lead the charge in making 2014 the year of Chet Faker.

I was admittedly part of this movement at the time. It was obligatory at that point. We had our fun with Flume, who did his part and then some to boost up his Future Classic labelmate for a few years, now we get to see what he's doing on his own. It's got a catchy hook, the synths line up tastefully with the organic instrumentation. The saxophone announces the song's arrival in absolute style. All good and all, but in the long run I start to wonder if I actually enjoy listening to the song very much, and I can't give a very enthusiastic answer.

I do find myself thinking, especially with this song, whether or not Chet Faker is actually admired as a lyricist. I mentioned it previously for "Gold" (#887), but it's hard to escape this song as just another template to fit words into. He does a better job here, because he actually keeps up with a rhyme scheme, but it's just so filled with lines and word choices that feel laboured for the purpose over anything. The closest thing to a consistent throughline is the first verse's incessant book-related chatter, where he talks himself down, complains about his girl, and then promises the least appealing serialisation possible. It seems to all boil down to him asking her to not talk and just make love. As it turns out, I can't get myself to root for him.

As a Hottest 100 #1 song, it's the kind that just blocks away all meaningful discussion, like a giant broken hand that's not permitting us to look any deeper (I like the album cover, I just think it's funny to draw attention to it). No one's ever going to call it the worst Hottest 100 winner anymore, because it was too long ago and there's always going to be something more brazen to object to. Most Hottest 100 Top 2's can fall down in hindsight as the safe option that makes sense, and the one that's a little bit different that would stand out more. As we go through this, I'll make it clear that I do like a lot of those safe choices. In some respects, songs like "Talk Is Cheap" can provide a comfortable underdog status to the songs they beat, never having to face that extra scrutiny. I mean, have you ever had a social media post go viral? It can be fun to chase that thrill, but inevitably you just get constant notifications from the most annoying people who can't help but chime in with nothing new, weeks and months after the fact. I'll get to that Peking Duk song that finished at #2 eventually, but maybe it's just in their best interest to have a Chet Faker crumple zone.

#861. Thundamentals (feat Mataya) - Sally (#8, 2017)

87th of 2017

Outside of Hilltop Hoods, the heyday for Australian hip-hop is largely confined to the late 2000s and early 2010s. There are two top 10 exceptions to this rule: 1200 Techniques' "Karma" in 2002, and "Sally" by Thundamentals in 2017. A couple of Australian artists who are sometimes described as rappers have made the top 10 since, but this is definitely the last one that fits the template to a tee.

That in itself is a bit peculiar because it defies the career arc of Thundamentals. Their previous album had a big spread of entries across 2 years, while this album was lucky to limp through outside of this song. In a fairly stacked year, it just feels like it finished at least 10 places higher than seems sensible, but democracy is democracy.

I've spoken before about how I generally dislike the cynical use of a common name, usually female, usually in a way that goads mockery in songs. This absolutely fits that description but I almost want to give it a pass because I've genuinely never met a Sally in my life. Most people with the name are baby boomers and older, which is a long reach for Hottest 100 audiences to want to tag and gain amusement from. Their mothers are probably too young to be called Sally. This is also a callout post to ROLE MODEL who released a song called "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out" today.

Once you move on from that, there's not much to talk about. There's a little repeated sound effect that sounds oddly similar to that '!' soundbite from Metal Gear Solid, and I think Mataya's contribution to the song goes enough beyond the 'just get a girl to sing the hook' template. Otherwise, they're having fun but I'm fairly indifferent.

#870-#866

#870. Ocean Alley - Home (#62, 2022)

90th of 2022

Sometimes artists can get a little unlucky with their Hottest 100 success. Plenty will slide under the radar and not catch much attention, but in the case of Ocean Alley, their 2022 haul of three entries landed all within 7 ranks of each other. If you don't like Ocean Alley, you're definitely not gonna like having to hear three of their songs in the space of half an hour. Especially at this stage of their career.

For me this is the kind of entry I feared having to write about the most. The extremely adequate Ocean Alley song with no alarms and no surprises. As well as that, it's the kind of Hottest 100 entry that provides no significant insight into the changing landscape of the music scene, or even the band's own developing story. It really just is what you're expecting without much to remark upon. I guess the drumming has a nice bit of punch to it.

#869. The Griswolds - Beware the Dog (#28, 2014)

85th of 2014

This is one of the first Hottest 100 entries I remember really taking me by surprise. You'll find unexpected songs at the bottom of the list as a given, but this song that wasn't at all on my radar at the time landed all the way in the top 30. It didn't lead to anything either, just a quick burst of success from a band who never went anywhere further with it.

I was aware of who The Griswolds were. Their songs "Heart of a Lion" and "The Courtship of Summer Preasley" were fairly inescapable just 2 years prior. The former requires a bit of tempered cynicism to get through its easy ploys at being catchy, and the latter just sounds incredibly similar to Vampire Weekend and the odd title being the only real layer of intrigue. In short I didn't really think they were ready for the big time.

"Beware The Dog" feels closer to that mark I suppose. If you're in the market for hooks, it never stops dishing them out. I'd almost accuse the song of trying too hard at that. The writing hasn't especially matured two years on either. The repeated 'oh's in "Heart of a Lion" are gone, but instead we get an exasperated 'woo' that doesn't match the tone of the lyrics preceding it.

Really though, the whole song has taken a pretty unpleasant turn in hindsight. In 2020 the band's lead singer was accused of pretty bad things (that happened while this song was making waves) which he admitted to. You can look them up if you want to, I'm not going to re-post it here. The band had just released an EP before that, but have gone completely radio silent since then. It's also a reminder that for every famous person who seems to dodge all the consequences of their actions (or even just allegations), there are plenty who don't have the financial backing to do so. Same reason I won't be talking about The Football Club or Rancid Eddie here.

#868. The Wombats - Give Me a Try (#67, 2015)

86th of 2015

It's truly a marvel of perseverance just how many entries The Wombats have managed here. If you ever considered their haul of 5 entries from their second album to be hype excess, then they've more than managed to satisfy it by continuing to stick around. Their most recent entry is in 2022, and they've never had much of a gap between appearances.

I surprised myself having their lowest entry here be one of their earlier ones. I've not been enthused to see The Wombats poll in quite some time but I managed to warm up to them every time. So instead we're going back to their third album with arguably their last big haul when it netted them 3 entries in one list (and 4 overall).

This is not the last time I'll say this, but my favourite song on this album actually didn't make the list. That being the opening track "Emoticons", which I also can't fully explain except that I think they really manage to make it sound crisp & pretty during both the quiet and loud parts.

That's pretty much how I landed this one here. I tended to mentally link this with the other low ranking song from this album and I'm inclined to say I thought this one had a stronger hook which gave it the edge. I've flipped the script though in hindsight because when the chorus does hit, the whole sound just doesn't mesh right. It ends up sounding as dated as the idea of still listening to The Wombats would be to the least charitable onlooker.

#867. Matt Corby - Resolution (#8, 2013)

91st of 2013

This to me completely encapsulates just how fervently Australia was anticipating new music from Matt Corby. His song "Brother" was such a shock to the system that also became one of the most downloaded Australian songs ever. There's a parallel to Harry Styles' solo career, seeing the scruffy haired teen heartthrob mature into adulthood, and more than justifying his place in the music scene.

"Resolution" was the first taste of new music since that slow burning moment and it was an instant smash as well. It became his second top 5 hit despite making very little compromise to the popular sounds of the time. The closest contemporary at the time was probably Passenger's "Let Her Go", but that song's twinkly xylophone goes a lot further to expressing pop friendliness than this slow burn of a song. The biggest hook to this song feels like it's just the back half of the song where he brings back those vocal histrionics that everyone was waiting to hear again.

I was fairly underwhelmed at the time. Back before the streaming age changed all the parameters in a big way, I always got excited to see what artists would do once they captured an audience. You could often see some really left field songs attain chart positions they wouldn't dream of otherwise. That's definitely true here but I'd also feel especially let down if I wasn't fully on board with it, and there'd be the inclination to think you're not alone which would be gratified when their star faded afterwards. I think the song has aged fairly well but I do find it a bit of a chore to get through still. It is a shame too that this is the last time he shows up here as an artist, because I think he continues to put out a lot of great music. I think my favourite song of his is "Big Smoke" which came out in 2023. He's really expanded his sound quite a lot without losing his distinctive voice in it.

#866. Snakehips (feat Tinashe & Chance The Rapper) - All My Friends (#36, 2015)

85th of 2015

The previous Snakehips entry "Don't Leave" (#923) waned for me a bit, but not nearly as much as this song did. It's probably the song that's fallen off for me the most doing this ranking. Similar reasons really. This paragraph is too short so I'll also add that the backwards katakana on the single cover says 'Beer' and 'Ramen'. Gotta put those 12 years of Japanese lessons to use somewhere.

On paper it seems like a really intriguing combination. Adding to that, this song actually managed to get to the top of the Australian Spotify chart very briefly which is surprising for all three of these artists (Chance The Rapper did have a #1 single with DJ Khaled but that was a couple of years later). I can't really disagree with either of them either. I like Tinashe, and while it's really easy to be critical of Chance in hindsight, I do think his verse is good enough.

I think the chorus runs out of interest pretty quickly. We've seen the music scene go to and from the club, and that brought about the obvious angle of being critical of it. This somehow charted at the same time as Alessia Cara's "Here" which is basically the same song. At some point you have to conclude that the concept is so obvious that it's not worth paying much mind. In any case it's just not catchy enough. Of these three artists, we'll see Chance The Rapper again, in a credited and uncredited fashion.

#875-#871

#875. Tones And I - Never Seen the Rain (#15, 2019)

84th of 2019

I mentioned in the last Tones And I entry "Fly Away" (#938) how that song made her technically not a one hit wonder in the UK. Generally speaking, I feel like that's a mostly outdated term. If you're going by strict definition on chart position, then we do still get a lot of them, but so often that time in the spotlight can become an afterthought in the grand scheme. Future Hottest 100 entrant Mitski is technically a one hit wonder on most charts, but the rest of her catalogue so vastly succeeds beyond the grounded bar that the tag suggests, so it just feels like a moot point.

This song that was only a major hit in about 2 or 3 countries has over 400 million streams on Spotify. In Australia it actually is one of the biggest local hits of all time spending 5 months in the top 20 and several more just outside of it. That's such a remarkable run for a song that still spent its entire life trapped behind the shadow of another song which I will ominously write about eventually.

Hiding behind the spotlight has done this song a favour though. I scarcely ever saw it get a whole lot of backlash despite the fact that it sounds like one of the most proto-typical Tones And I songs out there. Landing as high as it did in the Hottest 100 is pretty incredible considering that it sounds so incongruous with the voting crowd. It feels more at home with the big hit song by the inaugural Australian Idol winner (who will eventually appear on this list) from the same year. I don't know if I'd necessarily call this an unobjectionable song because if you're not a fan of those classic Tones And I vocal runs, you'll get no respite here. I've just never felt particularly strongly about it either way.

#874. Jack Harlow - First Class (#12, 2022)

91st of 2022

Nothing will age you out of music faster than holding a grudge. You'll have a song you don't like pop up and have its moment. You won't even necessarily be alone in your feelings. But then a generation will pass, and that song will find its way back into the popular consciousness in a way that implies a welcome consensus. You'll look increasingly silly for holding onto that grudge.

This is a dramatic way of saying I never particularly liked "Glamorous" by Fergie. It came out at a time when I was less favourable to music in general, and seemed to represent the kind of opulent bragging that didn't want me to be involved. This song was basically the poster child for that whole ideal, propped up by the fact that the music charts were still decided by people who had the financial flexibility to purchase CD singles.

I don't especially dislike the song now; I think the production goes a long way in giving it a strong selling point. On the other hand, I do remember the time when Fergie felt like exactly the kind of artist who was never going to get played on triple j. I end up finding it kind of funny then that a very high placing song in the Hottest 100 heavily samples the song and it's not even especially novel. Not that it should be novel though, history is littered with this sort of thing. I'm not convinced that '80s listeners would be thrilled about hearing the Bee Gees, but "Stayin' Alive" would crop up eventually in the 1995 Hottest 100 via N-Trance.

Jack Harlow is a strange case. In just a few short years he's had multiple instances of seeming like his career is on the decline, only to pop out of nowhere with an instant #1 smash, all while not feeling like fan retention is a regular process. It's like he's just been unofficially ordained as the king of pop rap and we're left to marvel at his reign before slowly questioning why these are the songs to do it.

The companion piece to this song is naturally his 2023 single "Lovin On Me". I think that one fares a bit better as it's got more energy and the sample feels a bit more inspired. The recognition factor means that I have a slightly easier time understanding why this was a hit of some stature. It does make me wonder sometimes how many artists will intentionally fumble their lyrics for the purpose of getting attention. The same sort of engagement bait that's all over social media. If I deliberately leave a typo or say something plausible but clearly incorrect, I'm more likely to hear back than if everything I say is correct and agreeable. Jack has succeeded in making me acknowledge that he wrote the words 'sweet, sweet, sweet semen', but the joke is on him because I always was going to write something about this song. He knows what they like though, so he just keeps cheesin', and so he'll be back in this list eventually.

#873. Dave (feat Stormzy) - Clash (#79, 2021)

89th of 2021

Dave is unquestionably one of the most popular UK rappers ever. Multiple #1 hits and several other multi-platinum hits that may as well have gone to #1. Even in Australia, he's one of only a small handful to have a top 10 album. Even big names like Dizzee Rascal and well, Stormzy, have never done that.

As a consequence of unlucky voting results, Dave seems to only arrive in the Hottest 100 on someone else's coattails. This is actually the only song of his that will appear here, as 2022's "Starlight" finished in the unlucky #101 slot. All he has left then is this song where he's partly coasting on Stormzy's lingering popularity, and then in 2023 where he's partly coasting on another UK rapper (who will eventually appear on this list) and their soaring popularity. Truth be told, I really don't know how big a new Dave release could do nowadays, as it gets harder and harder to thrive without the US market. Then again, Stormzy had another UK #1 (and his best Hottest 100 finish) last year so you just can't count anyone out. I do wish there were more interesting avenues to bring him up here. He's put out a lot of songs over the years that are engaging and interesting in a way that this isn't.

Look, in 2021 if you're looking for guaranteed hits then this is one. Is it a good one? I find it hard to get especially into this one. There's something about the beat; it's an indistinctive one. But if we're talking about problems in this song, then rhyming cadence is the one. It wears itself out by the middle of verse one. Some people think internal rhyming is lazy and I'm not one, but using a number to rhyme is just such a lacklustre one. It just doesn't feel like Dave deserves this one. It's like in that Swedish House Mafia & Tinie Tempah song that peaked at #31. It might sound catchy when he starts rhyming acronyms until you realise that most letters of the alphabet rhyme with almost every other one. Almost better to put in no effort than the faint impression of one.

#872. Lime Cordiale - Screw Loose (#16, 2020)

85th of 2020

The people have spoken, "Apple Crumble" (#983) landed at #14, but this song that compares your life to a Violet Crumble could only manage #16. Anyhow, the real thing this song is doing is filling that Sticky Fingers shaped reggae fusion hole in triple j's programming circa the 2020s. It's reductive to say that's all the song is doing. There's a peculiar synthesizer running in the chorus, dorky horns and a peculiar sort of bridge that's on the cusp of something special.

Generally speaking it's not a Lime Cordiale song I ever have much to say about it. I once made a dumb tweet about the way the title sort of rhymes with Toulouse, which I still think about whenever I hear it. I shouldn't have to do all the work though. Just like with "Tangerine" (#997), I'm just astounded at how high this placed, even among Lime Cordiale songs.

#871. Amy Shark - Adore (#2, 2016)

90th of 2016

When discussion arises about industry plants & nepo babies, it's largely fairly frivolous ways to discredit artists through objective statements. It doesn't actually mean that they're worse for it, but it represents a betrayal of the parasocial paradigm. There's a delicate balance where so many of our favourite artists have gotten where they are through industry connections tipping the scales, but without drawing attention to it so they can maintain their underdog status. Fans of pop, rock or hip-hop music can all lay claim to underdog status against each other, despite their standing against all the other genres of music that are lucky to even get a slight look-in. Imagine an Arsenal fan wanting an Everton fan to feel sorry for them because they haven't had their birthright of winning the Premier League in 20 years (as a Brisbane Lions supporter I am aware of the parallel).

In many ways, Amy Shark is a real underdog story. She'd been making music for many, many years before hitting it big. She's managed to sustain success in the music industry as a woman in her 30s. For a comparison and a career with several similarities, Missy Higgins was 28 when triple j started to move her off the playlist, Amy Shark was 30 when she released this song. Aside from the backing vocal hook on the chorus, there isn't much of this song that fits in with the popular trends of 2016. It feels like it's just an unknown artist hitting it big because they just had that song that was good enough to defy the rules.

The issue for me is that all around the song is all manner of cogs in the machine that spoil the fairytale. Arguably this song was the exact point that she stopped being an underdog. She went through several rebrands before finally catching some proper attention with her single "Golden Fleece" (with the exception of "Spits On Girls", all her music prior to this has been taken down, I never like when artists do this). M-Phazes co-produced this song so she got her connections, and after several months she managed to land a Like A Version gig and a major label signing. In all fairness, not everyone would be able to pull this off even with a head start, I'm not about to start judging her for getting signed to Sony.

The problem that came up for me was when voting got underway for the Hottest 100. Alongside the obvious world conquering hits and perennially favoured artists, it's always interesting to see what less obvious songs appear to make an impression. With thanks to social media, we tend to know this well before the countdown actually happens. I can't remember exactly how long it spent leading the count, but a big surprise was the success of this song, finding its way into nearly one in five vote submissions posted online. Amy Shark was well positioned to debut on the Hottest 100 with a win, something that technically hadn't happened since Denis Leary in 1993. Ironically, this would end up happening in 2016 with a different singer.

I bore no ill will towards this potential result as I first saw it coming, but I found myself eventually frustrated by the campaign that followed. I started seeing promoted posts on Facebook from Amy Shark, writing words to the effect of wanting to see her little song possibly land on the Hottest 100. This is where she betrayed the parasocial paradigm for me. I'd seen her responding to every Instagram post that included a vote for her, hundreds upon hundreds. There's no way she doesn't know she's a contender for the top spot, but in response, she frames it as a disingenuous underdog story. She can't say she wants the win because drawing attention to her real position breaks the illusion. She has to pretend that she's on the cusp of landing at #100 and your vote could make the difference, all the while having a major label paying money so more people can see this begging. It's like the Season 15 episode of The Simpsons when Homer starts panhandling to help with his financial struggles, but keeps doing it afterwards and muscling out the real derelicts so he can indulge in luxuries. At the time I was very glad that Flume won instead because I never saw him engage in any such behaviour.

The entire Hottest 100 campaign was just the start of things though, it gave Amy Shark the necessary push to really take her to the mainstream. If not for a monumental double up of Ed Sheeran singles including the biggest song of the decade peaking at the same time, "Adore" could possibly have become a #1 single. Aside from the aforementioned fumble on "Weekends" (#948), it set her up for a fruitful career. She's been a judge on Australian Idol, and had a flawless streak of three #1 albums.

Again, I'm not going to begrudge her for most of this, but the end result is that I built a rocky relationship with this song, a song that already wasn't clicking much with me in the first place. I've come around a little bit to it. I like the detail-oriented songwriting. Maybe there's an Alanis Morissette level of updates on the arm situation but it fits the mood of the song. The song's known as a mite bit sluggish though, and that previously mentioned backing vocal loop can start to sound really distracting once you pay attention to it. There's a je ne sais quoi here though, I get the appeal even if it can't get there for me. I promise I will eventually have better things to say about Amy Shark, she's still got a few more entries to come.