#630-#626

#630. Something for Kate - Sweet Nothing - Like A Version (#68, 2013)

68th of 2013

I'm feeling like a thespian right now. The arbitrary rule I set upon myself to never utter the name of any artist yet to make their first appearance in this list. It's been about 8 months now and I still can't utter the Scottish DJ. It's all just in the service of a single entry as well, just one that's frustratingly good enough to be avoided again and again. Maybe later this week?

"Sweet Nothing" is a song that fills out the charts but maybe doesn't go further than that. Think that sweet spot around #25 to #50 on a Billboard Year End list ("Sweet Nothing" landed at #44), so I wouldn't necessarily assume the average person even still remembers it at this point. To be clear and still slightly vague, Scottish DJ gets Florence sans her Machine to belt over a huge EDM record. Thanks to some strong airplay prior to release, it managed to debut at #2 in Australia (behind "Gangnam Style"), putting it in another weird chart run perspective where it basically spent its entire life falling down the chart and rarely stabilising, the kind that makes something look unconvincing as a hit. It was voted in at #11 in the Hottest 100 for 2012, it was a hit. It was enough of a hit that a year later, we got another helping of it, from a very different source, one of Australia's stalwart '90s bands.

Something For Kate have been going strong for over 30 years now, 27 of those years with the same lineup, fronted by...I forget his name, let's just say a very tall man with a gravelly voice. They've released 7 albums now and for me there's at least one stunner of a single on every one of them. They've got songs like "Monsters" and "Hallways" that touch on isolation, paranoia and existentialism that you really don't see elsewhere in any realm of popular rock. As has often been the case, just me writing all of this has gotten me stuck listening to "Hallways" again, what a perfect song.

They scored their last #1 album in 2006 and then slid away from mainstream attention into just serving their fans, though only scarcely as they've only put out two more albums since then. They narrowly missed the Hottest 100 in 2012 with another great track in "Survival Expert" (it finished at #103), so it seemed like their time in the spotlight was up, but they came back just a little bit stronger a year later, covering one of the 102 songs that they fell short of in 2012. Maybe they could've kept this up, I'd love to see a cover of "Bangarang" or "Internet Friends".

That sounds facetious but honestly I'm sure they could pull it off. If Something For Kate aren't known just for their songwriting, they've also got a great reputation for pulling off cover versions. Their Best Of album has several of them tacked on at the end, and they've since gone and done Like A Version several times. This won't even be the last instance here because the lead singer was also properly appraised when he came in on his own, hence my awkward introduction. Getting Something For Kate to cover you should be a rite of passage like when "Weird Al" makes a parody of someone.

So yeah, this is a pretty rollicking cover! I'm not really interested on whether or not it's better than the original, and for all convenient purposes, I don't even need to figure that out. I do think there's inherently more to be expressed through an extended instrumental break than a looping EDM drop, but there's certainly a place in this world for both options. Shout out also to the singer for enunciating it all far clearer than Florence ever did. You won't be making any 'sexy gherkin' jokes with this one.

#629. Omar Apollo - Evergreen (You Didn't Deserve Me At All) (#95, 2022)

60th of 2022

Some of the cynicism that comes with TikTok hits is the difficulty in shaking the perception that songs are picked out to set a mood for just a brief spell. There might be another 3 or 4 minutes beyond that. You can debate whether or not the whole song is good but it's like you're not even operating on the same measure as the people who are taking it to the stratosphere. I've said before that I don't think this is overly different from the way generations prior have interacted with their favourite hits of yesteryear, just that you probably can have more trust that they have heard the whole song in its original version, as opposed to the frequent sped up recordings that muddy the understanding of what the 'popular' version is.

"Evergreen (You Didn't Deserve Me At All)" has all the makings of a TikTok hit. A talented artist without a likely route to pop stardom, and a song that would never be picked out to get a push for success under normal circumstances because it just doesn't sound modern enough, outside of a few memorable choices in vocal mixing (namely the chirping response vocals and the shift in tone on the bridge).

That bridge is the important thing to look out for. If you're as largely absent from the TikTok hit factory as me, then you might not realise that it's the focused part of the song. Not any of the chorus with all the title drops, but the spiteful retort. The clue is in the added parenthetical, but it's very easy to miss the fact that those are actual lyrics from the song given the clashing inflections on how the line comes out. It also tends to be sped up, no alarms and no surprises.

But if it's on me to assess the whole song that was voted in for 2022, then I can't really complain with what's been given a spotlight. I think Omar Apollo does a great job with the anguish in his delivery. At times he reminds me of a certain contemporary R&B artist that I sometimes forget technically does have an entry to come here. It might not be wall to wall excitement, but if you've only ever heard 20 seconds of it, the surrounding minutes are worthwhile as well.

#628. G Flip - Lady Marmalade - Like A Version (#78, 2020)

57th of 2020

I really considered doing it. This blurbing adventure has already tricked me into watching two Baz Luhrmann films, as he keeps finding ways to get soundtrack hits into this countdown. This isn't really the same thing, but I'm definitely in the age bracket for whom "Lady Marmalade" is that mega collaboration between Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa & P!nk, from Baz's 2001 film "Moulin Rouge". No disrespect to Patti LaBelle of course, but G Flip is definitely drawing from the remake and the idea that the song is made to be a posse cut with a rap verse. The only reason I'm not doing it is because I ended up sick for a few days and no longer have the spare time to do it. If at some point in the next 2 months I change my mind and end up watching it, I'll append some more to this (this did not end up happening, sorry).

For the time I can always retell a moment of internal embarrassment for me. Back in 2001 I would watch Channel [V] quite a bit. The combination of that & So Fresh compilations gave me a supreme knowledge of popular music at the time. I don't remember what the programming was like, but I remember one of their music shows tended to always play "My Way" by Limp Bizkit to close it out. Then one day the host said they were going to play the #1 song, and that it was the same as last week. I confidently declared that I knew what it was going to be, and then I was blindsided when they played "Lady Marmalade". I'm uncertain if this was a made up chart or not, but it would pin it to sometime around June, just before Limp Bizkit debuted on the ARIA Chart ("My Way" peaked at #57), when "Lady Marmalade" was finishing its 3 week run at #1. If nothing else, it was a reality check for me in how the charts reflected a strikingly different picture of what was popular that wasn't just whatever I liked. That can go a long way to enjoying the pageantry of it all and not getting hung up on difference in taste. Or it would if I knew much of anything about how music charts worked then. Later that year (or possibly in 2002), my music teacher showed us a chart show in parts that was my first and only proper exposure to charts for years. I know it had to be after my initial gaffe because Michael Jackson's "You Rock My World" was in it.

This cover was aired in March 2020, 2 days before International Women's Day, and it truly is the Avengers of antipodean women. Alongside G Flip you've got the main vocal duty shared with Thandi Phoenix, Jess Kent and two other artists who will eventually appear on this list. This is maintained with an all women instrumental section as well. Impossible not to shout out Alex The Astronaut on the cowbell here. It's a shame I can't yet name her because the New Zealand rapper makes an absolute show of cosplaying Lil' Kim here. When you're going back to this to look for something fresh, she's delivering.

It might have been lingering spite from 2001 but I never did much like the song in the first place. It's served me wonderfully in trivia for decades because I've seen few questions come back over and over, more than having to name all the artists on the "Moulin Rouge" cover. At some point I stopped having to hear the song and must have gotten over it. Having a likeable cover version doing the rounds in my library might help too, as does spending 15 of the last 45 minutes listening to multiple different versions of it. Pop music is a lot more fun when you just let it be fun.

#627. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under (#16, 2021)

66th of 2021

I mentioned the BBC Sound Of... poll some weeks back when I was talking about Jack Garratt (#687), and made a note to myself to bring it up again when I got to Sam Fender, only to completely forget about it and write an entirely different spiel. So this is me, unable to slot it in the middle of all of this and mentioning it at the start. Sam Fender made the shortlist in 2018. That's an incredibly stacked year which includes Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi, Nilüfer Yanya, Superorganism & Tom Walker among others. None of those names even cracked the top 5, which does boast another star in Khalid in 4th place. The winner for that year was Sigrid, who I'm not going to besmirch, certainly not years later as I fell in love with her discography clearing single "It Gets Dark", but it is a reminder of just how hard it is to pick out future stars. Even when they're right there in the front, people can't help but chase the wrong leads instead. Anyway, onto the completely unrelated blurb I wrote a few days prior to this.

Ranking 1,000 songs takes a really long time. I did it all one at a time and was meticulous so as not to overlook anything along the way. It took months. By the time you're seeing this, it'll have been at least 2 years since I started. Even that doesn't feel real to me and the only reason I remember is because I took a break around the end of 2023, both because I was pre-occupied, and also because I went on holiday to England at the start of 2024. All the time I was there, I remembered that this was the last song I had ranked. Everything after this point has been shaped by the changed person I became when I got really sick and still had to take a solo commute back home for 20 or so hours. I did not allow my firsthand experiences with the general misery that living in England during the winter entails allow me any extra sympathy for the plight of Sam Fender. Or maybe I did, he's still got another song to come after this one.

I'd never really thought about it before but it's possible I have some slight biases that come into play when you get into the world of artists who are hugely popular just in the UK. There's something of an older sibling relationship going on, a chain from the US, to the UK, to Australia and then to New Zealand (I don't know where Canada goes), where everyone demands acknowledgement from those below us in population, but has very little interest in returning the favour. It might just be petulance on my part, with regard to how routinely Australian music gets the short end of discussion because we just don't have enough seats in music parliament to have any sway. It makes me not want to give them the time of day either.

I dunno though, I'm not beyond listening to music from the UK by any stretch, just sometimes the vibe is off. In the case of Sam Fender, it's probably just the name. It's his real name and I just can't take it seriously. It's always made me think of the Peggy Lee song "Johnny Guitar", a song I've now heard so many times thanks to "Fallout: New Vegas" (a video game I've never played). I can't even think of a logical extreme of the joke because I feel like we're already at it. Great Quiplash prompt, but you won't catch me listening to his music.

If you think this is incredibly unfair, I agree with you, and it's something I venture to try and improve on. I never really had to deal with it until he suddenly hit a new level of popularity on his second album and I wasn't able to just ignore him anymore. The fact I've taken so long to get to him now is hopefully a sign that I've sufficiently taken to the task seriously, but I also recognise that to some, this might be about 600 places too low to the point of sacrilege. Maybe I am overselling that to an extent. I had a conversation a few months ago that put some of my insecurities of my misgivings in perspective. To me the idea of just saying 'nah, stupid name, dated genre, stick it in the bottom 10' is so implausible and yet deep down I see so many people make even more dismissive responses without a shred of regret. So compared to that, maybe I do apologise too much, but I just want to lay all that on the table as a starting point for why I am not obsessed with Sam Fender or the song "Seventeen Going Under".

I didn't set it up this way or even realise when I was talking about TikTok hits two entries ago that this was on the pipeline. I think it's an interesting continuation on the thought though because this 5 minute rock revival song about bottled up anguish with life actually did become a surprise TikTok hit. Specifically, it was used to soundtrack victims of abuse, using the lyric 'I was far too scared to hit him, but I would hit him in a heartbeat now' as a means of catharsis and moving forward. Next to all of the 'hey, silly dance' and 'hey, funny beat switch punchline' trends, that's genuinely powerful, and goes some ways to acknowledging the way music can change your life with meaning. Who knows, there might just be a mental health healing block somewhere at the pointy end of this list, I ranked it so long ago and I haven't checked. This song's message doesn't connect to me on any specific level, but I do appreciate how meaningful it is to others.

You can tell it was a big viral hit because in addition to charting endlessly in the UK, the song even made a charge in Australia. It peaked at #69 and dropped out pretty quickly which doesn't seem like much, but I think that was just unlucky timing. The song rose rapidly and took just a few days to crack the Spotify top 50. The next day Taylor Swift dropped "Red (Taylor's Version)" and swallowed up all the attention from there, completely draining all of the 'next big thing' momentum as it was pushed back in the queue. I can't say it never recovered because Hottest 100 voters still backed it very strongly, but it does make me wonder if it could have been a much bigger hit. At least it got to be counted on the ARIA Chart, not everyone's that lucky.

On a sonic level, I get it. If it's the kind of rock music you like and want to hear more of, then this is probably the platonic ideal. It's firing on all cylinders, instantly locking into that riff and building momentum like a runaway train. It's got those great horns too, hard to know what else you could want. It's a bit of a tired sound for me (probably something to cover in a later entry), but I can appreciate what's going on here on at least a few levels. But put yourself in my shoes. What do you do when you can recognise something as objectively good, never want to engage with it, but also don't want to come across as disrespectful or obnoxiously above it (i.e. the 'yep, I understand their entire schtick and offhandedly dismiss them and move on' kind of music fan)? Sometimes I might ramble on because I have so much trouble articulating my thoughts without them getting misconstrued, especially if it's to be unintentionally rude. I guess that's why Akon just gives up and calls her a sexy bitch.

#626. Cub Sport - Sometimes (#30, 2018)

68th of 2018

It's 3am. Firstly, of course I'm lonely Mr. Rob Thomas, but also it's June 1st, 2025, the first day of Pride Month, and I'm sitting at my computer so I can write about one of the most outwardly queer bands in Australia writing a song about the emotional turmoil that comes with being public about that status and also serving as spokespeople and role models for others. I'm still tragically very cis and straight. I'm not trying to say I'm oppressed or anything, but when it comes to articulating on the topic, this is so not my wheelhouse.

What is in my wheelhouse is talking about Cub Sport, because I've been listening to them for a lot longer than most people. They're one of the longest thriving bands in the scene of early 2010s Australian twee indie pop. Back then they were called Cub Scouts. Entirely inoffensive, unless you were associated with actual Cub Scouts which is why they had to change the name, but for all intents and purposes, a band without necessarily high ambitions, or at least they didn't really show them. There's nothing wrong with this though, I maintain a very high opinion for their song "Told You So" from 2012. Some of the best layered harmonies for such a dreamy sound. Instant good books for that.

It's a story for another entry, but Cub Sport basically re-invented themselves in 2016, arguably shooting themselves to the A-list on the back of one highly beloved single, and many more along the way. This band went from having two albums that couldn't quite crack the Australian top 50, to having a #1 album in 2023. They'd become stars, and doing so means a whole new layer of scrutiny that not all are willing to confront, much less internalise and then express in the form of a song.

On those grounds, I think "Sometimes" is great. I often like the idea of introspective writing more than the actual result (I'm not going to cause an endless feedback loop by reflecting on my own writing right now), but this is one that nails the concept and gets it across. The big emotional swells and shifting pace tell a story on their own, it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

I've never been fully in love with actually listening to it. There is possibly a recurring theme where I can recognise significance in writing but it's simply impossible, and wouldn't be right for me to connect with it on the same level as the minorities for whom (and by whom) they're written. So it never fully connected with me and I was always distracted by the components I didn't love. The verses sound strangely reminiscent of "Arty Boy" (#760) and I wasn't enthused with the set up then either. The song wasn't unmemorable but also never made me feel like I was rushing out to hear it more than I already was. It certainly sounds better looking back, but it just wasn't anything I was ever able to relate to.