#775-#771

#775. The Wombats - Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This? (#82, 2022)

77th of 2022

This could possibly be the last Wombats song that ever polls in the Hottest 100. They couldn't quite make it in 2024 with their latest lead single, which doesn't bode well for next time. On the other hand, maybe they just need to do another Australian tour at an opportune time to win everyone over again. When they were promoting their second album, they toured Australia three times in less than 12 months. As it stands, this mouthful of a song title is the most recent Wombats song to poll, and if it's the last, 16 years is a pretty good innings.

"Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?" probably just makes a strong case for their pulling power over the Hottest 100. Here we have a song whose biggest layer of intrigue is a super lengthy title, and the fact that they actually do say it in the song's hook. Back in 2008 we more or less got two helping of that with Ida Maria and The Black Kids (the latter isn't quite right I know, but the spirit is there). Also it's so funny how vintage those references are and yet The Wombats still pre-date them.

The Wombats are just a competent band usually I think. There tends to be a solid foundation, and I think with experience, they've gotten better at getting the most out of the mixing process. I'm not immune to the rough edges of "Let's Dance To Joy Division" or "Backfire At The Disco", but we've all gotten quite a bit older since then, and it can be nice to hear this smoothly polished rendition of a band that's done more than enough to prove their value. Or I don't know, maybe someone outside of Australia is reading this and is as perplexed and amused as I am sometimes when I find out about the most unusual careers that are being kept aloft in Japan or parts of Europe.

#774. Glass Animals - I Don't Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance) (#23, 2021)

81st of 2021

I can't help but keep slotting in references to the latest countdown, so I suppose congratulations should be in order for Glass Animals. I haven't seen all of the current season so there's a small chance I'm outdated on this, but a peculiar Jeopardy! fact is that no contestant has ever won exactly 10 games in a row since the show removed the limit on streaks. Plenty have fallen on all the nearby hurdles, but the dozen or so who came in as a 10 day champion have always won that next game. Why am I saying this? Because I'm autistic, but also because Glass Animals scored their 10th Hottest 100 entry this year, and then 5 minutes later they had an 11th. Much like The Wombats, that's a lot of longevity. Are they perhaps coasting on the success of that one song I'll definitely get to eventually? It's possible. This particular song is probably the best case for that argument.

You can never fully prove that voter FOMO is acted upon. Psychologically it's interesting to think about. It's the manner in which the overall feeling and perception of the artist outside of the voting list influences where the votes go. You can talk about voting for the band, but there's a specific breed of it when the right circumstance arrives. That circumstance could be Glass Animals having the most popular song of 2021 and it not being eligible for that year's Hottest 100 because it already polled the year before...and won. When people talk about how "Sweet Disposition" or "Pumped Up Kicks" should have gotten a second chance, I like to joke that this particular Glass Animals song that clearly got more popular in 2021 also deserves a shot.

This would be a great segue if this song was just a like for like re-tread of that one, but it's not. This is a deluxe album track coming in a year late, so they probably already had it ready to go way before their listener stock multiplied. #23 is a very generous finish for a song with that kind of pedigree, but anyone who thought 'Sure, I'll vote for the one available Glass Animals song' has done their part to make it happen. Maybe that sounds too harsh on this song as if it doesn't have merit. I can certainly understand "I Don't Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)" as a concept. It's much more upbeat and immediately catchy than most Glass Animals singles. Might have been too instant though because I burnt out on it in record time.

#773. Tash Sultana - Mystik (#28, 2017)

80th of 2017

Maybe this isn't the right thing to get hung up about, but I think there are two important things in writing. Firstly having your own voice, and secondly being able to communicate what you're trying to say. The former will probably become more obvious over time as we bear witness to more pieces of writing generated by ChatGPT and the like, and it winds up standardising and learning from itself. The latter is just an important ability to recognise when you're waffling too much and any central idea is just lost in a sea of words. Smart writing isn't just stuffing your sentences with obtuse words, but instead the ability to convey complex ideas without them.

I have absolutely no idea what's going on with the stream of consciousness word flow in this song. Tash says it's about ego death, and the last lyric of the song supports that, as well as a few others, but it sure is a lot of odd lines to go side by side with it. This isn't a huge deal breaker for me, I love a lot of songs that I take no specific meaning from. I just need an angle to write about this song because it's not the kind of song that lends itself to much analysis.

The first few minutes of this song aren't high on surprises or thrills. There's a sound palette that's not far removed from the "Electric Feel" Like A Version (#951) that came out in the same year. Not the strongest hook, but pretty standard all around. Then at the end we get a blaring brass section that itself breaks down into the closest a Tash Sultana song could come to being a club banger. That's a nice novelty at least.

#772. Bakar - Hell N Back (#62, 2019)

72nd of 2019

Depending on the era you're looking at, the Hottest 100 is a popularity contest contained in its own world. If we want the bigger picture, we can look at the ARIA Charts, or Billboard, or what have you. Since time immemorial, the Hottest 100 has played host to a mix of popular chart hits, and esoteric cuts living alongside them. It always begs the question, if #63 is a popular chart hit, couldn't the same happen to #62 if it got the same exposure? Sometimes we get that answer, and get to see a category 2 song turn into a category 1 song. Bonus points if the song in question sounded destined to stay as it was for all eternity, it gives hope for even more just like it. I might just be describing the life cycle of "Hell N Back" right now.

There are a handful of these cases. I'm definitely thinking of a different song that snuck onto the 2014 list right now. Sometimes the Hottest 100 manages to be a hotbed for those early adopters who are clearly hearing something the rest of us haven't noticed yet. In the case of Bakar, I think this was a song that was making a respectable impact on release, but the kind that doesn't show itself on any charts. On most days, it takes about 50,000 streams to reach the Spotify charts in Australia. But what about those songs that are doing 20,000 streams a day? It's hardly negligible but it's not getting any recognition. As such, landing somewhere in the middle of the 2019 Hottest 100 was the first tangible sign of "Hell N Back"'s success. It would follow that with some minor genre chart success in the US, and then becoming a fully-fledged hit song around 2023-2024. This is one of a growing handful of songs in this list that became a hit while I was putting this together.

There's a layer of amusement to this whole process too. This idea of having gotten accustomed to this song, and then watching everyone else, outside of this purview suddenly having to deal with it. It's fascinating to see that different perspective sometimes, like seeing Gotye discourse in 2011-2012 start with people who were previously aware of his work, and drastically shifting to those who weren't. I think there's a lot you can take away from it regarding your own experiences of being on the outside looking in.

Bakar's a bit of a weird one for this concept though because it's a bit of a weird song here. When I first heard the song in the countdown, I had a wave of confusion, not really sure how this unknown singer managed to generate so many votes. I still wouldn't say I completely get it, and given the score of its success has expanded so much, it's even harder to place it. The song is reasonably catchy though, and Bakar's distinctly British accent gives it a little more character. You're still left wondering why this was put in front of so many people, but on the other hand, once it's there, it's fair enough to understand why one might keep listening.

#771. Lime Cordiale - Inappropriate Behaviour (#13, 2019)

71st of 2019

Last year, Lime Cordiale announced a co-headlining tour with another popular Australian band. They did so by first kicking up a fake beef online based around the idea that "Inappropriate Behaviour" was ripping off one of their songs. I remember the night I found out about this and with my priorities in check, thinking 'Yes! I have an angle from which to tackle this entry'. It didn't occur to me until now that I'm sitting down to do so that the band in question still hasn't showed up on this list, so it's been all for naught. I will always respect commitment to the bit though.

You know how it's impossible to make the claim that something is pretentious without coming across as pretentious yourself? That's the bind that this song lands in. A song about finding that a friend's girlfriend is manipulating them, and wanting them to wake up to avoid those seeds of deception. You should listen to me when I tell you not to listen to them. That they call the very act 'Inappropriate behaviour' falls under that umbrella where it's hard to tell how seriously Lime Cordiale are taking these things. You wish they could have a face to face moment with this girl just to see how this statement of disapproval might go down.

It's a lightweight but pleasant tune. You'll notice a nice little guitar riff that's going around behind the track, but you'll notice even more when they take it away briefly in the verses. The song feels so barren and empty in these moments, compounded by the verses occasionally slipping out of the catchy cadence they've got going.