#590-#586

#590. Ocean Alley - Breathe / Comfortably Numb / Money - Like a Version (#54, 2021)

63rd of 2021

In 2006, the Australian Broadcasting Company ran a poll asking everyone for their favourite album, which was later revealed on TV. The results aren't particularly interesting on their own, it heavily leans on the history of rock and very little else. No hip-hop, no electronic music, just the token "Kind of Blue" jazz pick, and the occasional Australian time capsule with Anthony Callea and Delta Goodrem's debut albums finding their way in. There's also Darren Hayes' second album which I suppose is the only electronic music to be seen. Actually the Australian music canonisation is interesting. Midnight Oil narrowly lead the pack with "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1", only just ahead of Silverchair's "Diorama", but at the same time, "Frogstomp" only just barely made the list. Despite triple j being affiliated with the ABC, even Hottest 100 darlings Powderfinger narrowly sneak in with their latest album at that point "Vulture Street", no love for "Odyssey Number 5" which would go on to win a triple j poll for Australian albums 4 years later. Anyway, I was watching this TV special because it was on and I was starting to get interested in learning more about music. They reached the end and the poll was won by Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon", something I'd never heard of before.

Maybe that sounds silly to you, but it's a good way to check in with just how little I knew about music at the time, mostly only knowing the stuff that would get played on our local top 40 station growing up. The reach of Pink Floyd's iconic album just did not make it over to me, and with a lack of easy resources in those quaint times of the mid 2000s, I could only wonder in mystery for years. What does that album sound like and how amazing could it possibly be?

I actually wasn't totally unaware of Pink Floyd at this point, I just didn't know it. I was aware of "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2" without knowing what it was. I recognised the familiarity to it with The Living End's "Wake Up" that was released earlier in 2006, and it was also sampled by Salt-N-Pepa in a song I heard quite a lot when I was younger. I'd then get another helping of it when Eric Prydz remixed it for "Proper Education" just a few months later in 2007, although the band were always credited as just 'Floyd' when I saw it, so it was a little obfuscated from me, as if the universe did not want me to connect the dots. When Pink Floyd were more properly put in front of me with triple j's Hottest 100 of All Time in 2009, it was with two songs that weren't even on the album, but I was very impressionable at the time and willingly bought into the hype.

At some point I downloaded the album and listened to it. I wish I could tell you what my first impression is. I feel like the album has such a self-sustaining legacy brought upon by people like me who simply must know what the music on this album must sound like, and being lightly puzzled when they find out. You find out that it's just not this immensely catchy fun rock & roll record but something much more spacious and considered, outside of the obvious single "Money". The main thing I noticed was the way every track flowed into the next. Not something that was new to me, as I'd already heard Cut Copy's "In Ghost Colours", but this made it really feel like it was just a small handful of tracks that really weren't made for listening on their own. I was still very impressionable at this point so I bought into the hype again and decided that I thought the whole thing was brilliant.

I think my constant pursuit of new music is the only thing that stopped me from going full into Pink Floyd worship, the kind of person whose unique ranking between "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "The Wall", "Animals" and "Wish You Were Here" would get the whole crowd clapping for how daring & contrarian, yet admirable it would be. I haven't really explored it all properly but I'm probably a "Wish You Were Here" guy.

This brings us to Ocean Alley, look how much I can say when I'm not actually talking about them. Nonetheless, this is a very interesting turn for them, and Like a Version in general. While the segment is often criticised for how often bands & artists are just checking in to be the first one to cover the new hit song of the moment, here we have veterans of the segment, coming in for their second innings (the first will also show on this list), and once again going full dad rock, covering a bunch of roughly 40-50 year old songs in sequence.

It's funny to think about how "The Dark Side Of The Moon" all runs in sequence, which would make for an obvious thing to replicate, but Ocean Alley actually do include multiple tracks from that album and don't even put them next to each other, inventing their own medley in the process. I think it's a nice move to start things off with "Breathe (In The Air)", as not necessarily the obvious choice to those who grew up on it (it is admittedly a popular cut nowadays). It's a nice way to pay tribute to an album that reminds those who already enjoy it that it's more than just the big hits that come to mind first. I felt the same way when twenty one pilots covered My Chemical Romance's "Cancer", and I think I gained a new appreciation for it in the process. After that, you get to the more obvious headline choices in "Comfortably Numb" and "Money".

I think the first two segments of the medley work best because it serves as a further reminder that these two bands that very few are speaking of in the same breath, actually have more than you think in common with how they sound. I'm not saying Ocean Alley is the second coming of Pink Floyd, but they slip so easily into their sound that it has me questioning all my preconceptions about music. The medley ends up packing multiple songs into shorter segments that add up to a slightly longer than usual length, and it's a good system. I always like making segmented compilations of my favourite songs because it's an efficient way to speedrun all of the best bits.

#589. Lime Cordiale & Idris Elba - Holy Moley (#93, 2022)

58th of 2022

I've said before that Lime Cordiale had an arguably unprecedented hold over the voting populace. There's polling every album cycle, but it's another step ahead of that to have literally every single that ever gets pushed to radio wind up on the poll, and typically in the top half at that. they only really broke this in 2024 when there just wasn't the usual space for an Australian contingent as there usually is, so I find myself not wanting to blame them for it. I also should technically point out that one of their most played songs ever on triple j is the song "Ticks Me Off", another track from "14 Steps To A Better You (Relapse)" like "Reality Check Please" (#719), but that didn't start getting spun until the year after, so I also can't put that on them. When you poll so well, so consistently though, it starts to feel unearned or at least it doesn't feel special because you can see it coming a mile away. It's like predicting the next Taylor Swift album will debut at #1. You need some kind of exception to prove the rule.

"Holy Moley" is as close as we were getting for this. It's the third single from the "Cordi Elba" project, released while the first two were presently being voted into the 2021 countdown. It would get attention taken off of it later in the year when Lime Cordiale released several more singles on their own (not that one), but they've never had trouble juggling multiple hits. They thrived on it. A year later and we finally get to see the result we've been building up to...and "Holy Moley" just barely sneaks in.

The key factor I've been burying is that "Holy Moley" was largely disliked when it was on the radio. It felt like a bridge too far for people who were just tolerating the project before, but really were just fed up with the stranglehold that Lime Cordiale had on the radio for the past 3 years which just wasn't getting any better. Those who were here for the ride evidently weren't especially impressed either. It's understandable there too, because you don't get your usual dose of Lime Cordiale on this song, as Idris Elba is taking all of the time behind the microphone to himself. What does he do with this precious time? He tells us that he's shitfaced all the time. If that's not being high on your own supply I don't know what is.

I never approached this song as any kind of contrarian. At most it was just a guilty pleasure for me, the sheer bluntness of Idris Elba's lyrics somehow wrapping around to being oddly cathartic, but mostly just very catchy. Outside of that chorus, the song is mostly just Idris Elba going on a middle-aged rant. If nothing else, it's nice to know there's a Hottest 100 entry that opts out from doing shoeys. He sounds livid to even acknowledge it. My favourite thing I learnt is that the song was originally going to be named after a celebrity but even Idris Elba couldn't get them to go along with it, now we've got no way of knowing who it even was. I had hoped it might accidentally turn up in the APRA AMCOS catalogue but it does not. This is the worst "You're So Vain" mystery because no one could possibly mistakenly think it was about them, it's just a secret that maybe four people know about.

I do want to give Lime Cordiale credit on this song though, because despite the vocal distribution, they're doing a lot to make this work. The groove is infectious, but they don't let it linger on endlessly, so you get a rather exciting bridge where they suddenly turn into Daft Punk but also go on a strange rock odyssey. I don't drink so I can't say I want what they're having, but I'm happy they've done something productive while potentially being shitfaced.

#588. The Jungle Giants - Bad Dream (#57, 2017)

56th of 2017

In 2013, The Jungle Giants were the latest plucky young band coming in the wake of all those other plucky young bands. They snuck onto the Hottest 100 with their single "She's A Riot", and it wouldn't necessarily have been surprising if that was all she wrote. The signs were there when the second album came around in 2015. It's a worrying sign when your debut album charts higher than the follow up, and the margin wasn't particularly close either, as they went from #12 to #25.

For a lot of bands, that's a flop, or might just spell the end of your career as it becomes evident that your audience has moved on. "Speakerzoid" is a strange album. I don't hear much of the band as they started, and instead I hear shades of Cake, Pond & Pixies, a bunch of disparate ideas that don't really mesh well.

I became fascinated about this part of Australian music history when I was doing research regarding their next album, 2017's "Quiet Ferocity" and I caught an interview with lead singer Sam Hales who admitted that they'd gotten ambitious with a desire to step forward from the last album and couldn't quite get it how they wanted, and so the third album was a more realised version of that.

It proved a remarkable success. The Jungle Giants had enough good will that they were able to turn around from a misstep and come back more popular than ever before. They generated 4 Hottest 100 hits just on this album, well on their way to reaching Platinum sales with all of them (I suspect they're there; it's just not updated).

The first one we're getting to is "Bad Dream". I don't see it as the dud of the lot, but something has to come first. It's actually quite likeable and might be the most unique one. It has some remnants of the last album hanging on it. Unusual songwriting, only this time I think they manage to get away with it. It's memorable because the most striking hook that you get from it is just more aggressive (relatively speaking) guitar paired with a strange 'ahhhh' vocal line. They know when to put the drums away and let the track float in space, makes for a pleasant little journey.

#587. Alison Wonderland - Run (#59, 2015)

59th of 2015

Years ago when I was first getting accustomed with the history of the Hottest 100, there was a discussion topic that always intrigued me. Who is the most surprising artist to have never appeared in the Hottest 100. You can look at overall popularity and impact, but usually what it comes down to is a question of what song of theirs could feasibly have done it. It's a poll that pans for a lot of gold but inevitably is always going to miss some in the process. Some artists just remain ever popular without having that one song to go by, or they have that song, but no one knew it at the time.

Some of the names I tended to see tossed around for this distinction were artists like Goldfrapp, Beach House, Sufjan Stevens, Spoon and Wu-Tang Clan. It's been quite a while though and perhaps there's a new generation that are about to learn startling things about their beloved Cigarettes After Sex or TV Girl. A name I left out of this, and maybe one of the more surprising exclusions is The Flaming Lips.

There's a good reason I didn't include them, because they have made the Hottest 100 before, but only as a featured artist, alongside a British duo who will eventually appear in this list, proving there was still time for The Flaming Lips to do the same. Still it's interesting. A point against their favour is that their big commercial hit "She Don't Use Jelly" didn't chart until it appeared on "Beavis and Butt-head" (I'm led to believe this, I'm not old enough to remember), and even in those loose eligibility years, triple j seemingly weren't having it. You'd think the back to back punch of "The Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" would find something, but still nope. Something I've believed for many years but never been able to verify is that The Flaming Lips landed at #101 in 2006 with "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song", I'm sure it was said on the air just before the broadcast but sadly no record of my vague memory seems to exist anywhere.

If there's any proof to the idea that The Flaming Lips might just be cursed, then Alison Wonderland gave us a new sequel in 2015. Her song "U Don't Know" featured Wayne Coyne, and was the lead single to her debut album "Run". It wasn't just a silly novelty either, it actually reached the ARIA Chart at #63, something the subsequent singles didn't manage, and yet voters just didn't fully go in to bat for it, so it landed at #113, meanwhile the title track I'm supposed to be talking about had a much cozier finish. I'm a big fan of "U Don't Know". I think it excels with the build-up of tension and release. It's the duet I never knew I needed. Need to make an 11th hour addition to also say that 8 hours ago I saw "Superbad" for the first time ever, and in addition to seeing someone wearing a hoodie related to that movie yesterday (after I had already planned to see it), McLovin stars in that music video. These are the kinds of bizarre coincidences that make you second-guess the suspiciously strange coincidences you also encounter. Nothing could have planned for this, but I know it's all stupidly random because I made it happen.

When I get to "Run", the thing that instantly comes to mind is Flume. Only, I'm not talking about Alison Wonderland biting him, because I think there are shades of "Say It" (#707) and "Rushing Back" (#619) in this, songs that weren't yet released. It's a little more intense than your typical Flume track but the skeleton is all there. By all accounts this was a success but I can't help but feel like she isn't getting all the flowers she deserves.

#586. Spacey Jane - Sitting Up (#6, 2022)

57th of 2022

We're pretty deep in the Spacey Jane weeds, what is there even left to say at this point? I've said before that I saw this band live back in 2018, when they were just the token local opening band, destined to go unremembered unless I randomly catch something that looks like their name and it takes me way back. The Jungle Giants were headlining that show. I would hesitate to say that I actually did see Spacey Jane live, because I spent most of that time playing cards. Some variety of Gin Rummy I believe. If any future hits were on that setlist I'm none the wiser. The best I can gather is that they probably played "Feeding The Family", but it's all fairly undocumented in that era.

How's that for an intro? They seem keen on the idea because they also started their second album with a non sequitur. I suppose it's difficult to avoid that. They go on to pair one of their more upbeat tunes with much more dour lyrics, recalling a depression cycle that lead singer Caleb went on during his final semester at university. I feel like that context is necessary with this song because otherwise it sounds like he's just not taking a breakup very well. It feels like a cry for help, the people he's talking about who change, that's him. It's all a curiously self-aware look at his own downward spiral, and showing how his internal & external process differs.

Obviously I relate to this on some levels. Not the drinking and debauchery, but the isolation, the feeling that even in your wildest dreams, you just cannot imagine reaching the same wavelength with anyone. There's a value to that though. I like to twist it around the other way and get a sense of purpose by not quite fitting in line with everyone else, and not just in the 'I think I'm different but just in the same way that tens of thousands of other people do'. More like the idea that you have something to offer that no one else is going to provide.

Otherwise you know what you're getting here. Nothing particularly innovative, and I might be inclined to dock points for a chorus that doesn't resolve with much excitement (it doesn't lift or go down, it's just strangely steady). Other things definitely work though. The somewhat brief instrumental break on the bridge is wonderfully nostalgic. It has the makings of a song that'd really belt it out of the gate from there (I'm thinking "Dakota" by Stereophonics but there's probably a better example), but I'm content with not expecting that out of Spacey Jane. What's important is that they're doing well with what they're trying to do, with who they are as a band.