#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.