#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.