#405-#401

#405. MS MR - Fantasy (#78, 2013)

52nd of 2013

Something to ponder, who was the first artist on this list to no longer feel relevant? Escaping the discourse, and just unquestionably feeling like an artefact to see their name pop up again. There's a point against MS MR now because it was seeing them here that made me think this. They feel even more like it because all of their extended success just feels like an extension of the one big hit they had in 2012 with "Hurricane" (a song I adore). That would make me want to say that they weren't even relevant by the time this entry appeared here, but that doesn't sound fair. Because of some less than satisfactory chart survey handling, this is actually the only MS MR song to reach the ARIA Chart. Anyway, this is all moot because I had to accept that the MS MR tenure lasted a decent while when there was an LPX namedrop in that G Flip article I linked recently. That's the solo project for front-MS Lizzy Plapinger. We're not getting into Caroline Polachek grounds here, it's just that the duo was on hiatus at the time.

I might be uniquely placed for this one, just because my adoration of "Hurricane" lent me an interest in the project well beyond the average person. I bought the first MS MR album, thought it was pretty decent. "Head Is Not My Home" is a very strong cut buried among hits that are mostly contained to the songs that were on the prior EP. After that album, what did you think would happen? They released another album, what did you think would happen? I never bought that one, but I got into a couple of singles, what did you think would happen? All I'm saying is that they were ahead of the game, given how lucrative the notion of repeating a single question over and over again would be for Methyl Ethel in a couple of years, what did you think would happen? Many are pondering if I'm preparing for an almighty bit when that day comes, most of all, it's me that's wondering. Anyway, special shout out to "Criminals", that's just a killer single, no pun intended. It's a song that weaves the occasionally ominous sounds of "Hurricane" under a poppier coat of paint. I might say that it's painted, but then, what did you think would happen?

When we flash back to 2013 though, MS MR do seem pretty promising. Though you won't see it on the ARIA Chart, there had been some genuinely promising signs on the strength of how they were converting digital downloads. I seem to remember either alt-J or their label being able to notice an uptick whenever "Breezeblocks" got played on the radio, and I reckon the first couple of MS MR singles were like that too, to a lesser extent. We'd just gotten a generational star in Lana Del Rey, and now we've got this confident new duo welcoming us to the inner workings of their mind, it's promising. We're all suckers for those strings. After that gradual splash, "Fantasy" was the first single out to capitalise on it. It seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, not straying too far from the original formula, but dressing it up into something seemingly new. It's actually crazy how of its time it sounds, listen to "Fantasy" next to Woodkid's "Run Boy Run" and tell me MS MR weren't copying someone else's homework.

My praise for the song was quite high at the time, but I've found it slipping in hindsight. Not for how the MS MR adventure panned out, as I haven't had any issues elsewhere in their discography. Just something about this song leaves me wanting a bit more. All the pieces are there; it's just not really landing how I want to. It's so reliant on the aggressive percussion that the songwriting just doesn't land in the same way. This probably makes me sound like I don't like it, which isn't true, but I think to myself I find myself rationalising the shortcomings more often when it's a song that's cooled off on me a bit. Like the core structures of a MS MR song are a good starting point, this just doesn't quite soar like I thought initially.

#404. SBTRKT (feat Ezra Koenig) - New Dorp. New York (#34, 2014)

43rd of 2014

I guess I just don't think about Vampire Weekend very often. I know they've got entries still to come here, but I've also only mentioned them off hand once here and that was nearly a year ago. If only I could do it over again and not bring them up, and then I'd have been able to say that attempts to find them brought up a figurative 404 error. That'd be a good bit. After all, I can't do it for the locale of New Dorp, New York, because it's a real place. It's in Staten Island with its funny sounding name coming from Dutch settlers, where it meant New Village. I might have to cross reference it with some New Yorkers, but I feel as though its purpose here just serves to be a funny sounding thing for Ezra to say. I can lend some credence to this because by SBTRKT's own admission, he'd never heard of it before despite going into this to make a tribute to New York (he is British, to be fair).

We've got some interesting personnel on this one. It's technically the only time SBTRKT will come up here as he had a previous entry before the cut off. That's the period I think of mostly with him. He was all over the radio with the singles from his self-titled album, and they've aged pretty well. In particular I remember "Pharaohs" sung by Roses Gabor who you might recognise from Gorillaz's hit "DARE", and "Hold On", an early introduction to Sampha, who's always a welcome voice whenever he pops up. I was blindsided when "Wildfire" was the song that polled instead, the kooky Little Dragon collaboration that seemed to lean into the sounds of the time. If you remember anything from that song, it's all the peculiar stutters and buzzing sirens. Not an easy sell but I grew to love it.

SBTRKT scored his biggest hit here and it certainly felt like a one off fluke. At least this time it was easier to predict. I heard other songs at the time. Sampha once again stellar on "Temporary View", and we had the novelty at the time when Caroline Polachek released a solo collaboration in "Look Away". This was a year or so before the last Chairlift album, and maybe an early showcase of her idiosyncratic singing outside of that project. Actually I've been freely mentioning her a bunch of times along the way but did you know that she actually has made a Hottest 100 before? When was that you ask? You're looking at it. That's her singing backing vocals from the 15 second mark on "New Dorp. New York". She doesn't return to the song after that section. I guess the whole thing just has a feeling of throwing everything out there and seeing what sticks.

It's a weird thing to wrap my head around because I truly cannot work out why anything in this song is the way that it is. Where do the priorities land between saying things that evoke New York and saying things that sound distinct and memorable? Is the bizarre 'drop' that the song keeps building up to, an intentional homage to New York legends Beastie Boys? It just makes me want to say 'hey ladies! get funky' every single time. It's interesting to see that the song actually makes regular appearances at Vampire Weekend live shows, where they turn it into a 7 or 8 minute jam session. It barely resembles the original recording at that point but it's hard to say which one feels more normal. If nothing else, the way the crowd seems to react to figuring out what's going on is a good sign that this entry is just thriving off that early period where Vampire Weekend could do no wrong and just littered these polls with appearances. I could believe that this was gonna be SBTRKT's last appearance ("NO INTENTION" is a fantastic single he released a few years ago though), but this is also still the last time Ezra's ever been in the Hottest 100, which is so strange to think about, almost as strange as gargoyles gargling oil.

#403. The Chats - Pub Feed (#21, 2019)

30th of 2019

A week or so ago, I caught a North American streamer reference the barking dog man. It's a huge part of Australian culture, just this man being interviewed on A Current Affair who seems to be possessed by demon for about 5 seconds, yet snaps in and out of it like nothing's amiss. It makes me appreciate the bizarre culture of Australian memes that occasionally have a habit of breaking their way out into the wider world, provided they're not too niche to understand (I don't think many would appreciate me pointing out how much the Chris Fagan 200 AFL games coached image looks like a certain John Howard newspaper clipping).

I'd say the most famous one of all, and perhaps my favourite is the Democracy Manifest video. It's basically a gold standard and deserves a Logie award for performance and writing. You're left wondering what on earth is going on in the first place, why it had to be filmed, but how this man turned into an opera performer with an unimpeachable gift of the gab. Then the rumour starts going around that he's an incognito Chess grandmaster who steadfastly refuses to ever pay for a meal. No wonder he doesn't know what the charge is.

You probably know where this is going and I wish I could make the perfect segue but I can't. Truly one of the all-time great crossover moments in Australian music was when this man, thought to be dead or in jail, just inexplicably returns to the small screen to appear in the music video for The Chats' "Dine N Dash". He's just there to run through his greatest hits but it was so completely unexpected. I'm not completely certain on what the truth is here because the man himself is prone to exaggeration, but it seems like the likely story is that he was being arrested for using a stolen credit card to pay for his succulent Chinese meal, who was in police custody but released on bail straight away. What's very funny is that we got some of this story from a professor at the University of Queensland, who just happens to be one of the police officers in the original 1991 video. The absurd man at the centre of all of this passed away in 2024, so it's all part of history now.

I just wanted to bring all of that up because it's very funny and also what better time than when I've got to talk about the other song by The Chats about wanting to eat food at some kind of establishment. The problem that always arises is that you know what you're gonna get and it's largely variations on the same joke. I do think that this is the most fully realised of all the Chats entries we got here (it's no "Smoko", but what is?). The one thing I do want to point out is that The Chats are cowards for not taking a side on the chicken parmigiana debate in Australia, opting for the pure centrism of shouting out 'chicken schnitties' instead. At least The Wiggles took a stand with their bizarre Tree of Wisdom album that was content with saying 'parmi'. I understand it's all just a matter of where you come from and I'm not going to judge anyone for their preferences here, but if it actually turned out that 'parma' was an internet joke from the eastern states, I wouldn't be completely surprised. I've just never heard that in real life and it sounds wrong to me. To tie all of this together, a number of years ago, I was at a pub, got a parmi, and then just walked out without thinking to pay. I realised in the middle of the night, called them up the next day and eventually made my way back to pay for it. On the phone they made it sound like I caused so much confusion on that day, but I was glad to sort it out because I didn't want to dine & dash, I just wanted a good pub feed. Don't we all?

#402. Florence + The Machine - What Kind of Man (#70, 2015)

45th of 2015

Look, charts are confusing, I'll never claim otherwise. They contain in them a mishmash of data that allows for ambiguous interpretation. You can push whatever narrative you want because everything works under different parameters, and there's no shortage of choices in how you want to limit it. A #1 hit is a #1 hit for eternity, and it doesn't matter if it stops being relevant in a week, a month, a year, or seemingly never. You can just isolate the part of it that suits your narrative. So what's the biggest hit from the 3rd Florence + The Machine album? Is it the one that charted the highest, the one that polled the highest, or the one that has the most streams to date and probably the most sales by proxy? The great thing is that you can pick whichever system works best for you, there's a different answer to all three of them.

The chart history for Florence + The Machine mostly fits into two categories. You've got the big hits, the ones that achieved top 10 peaks, crossover success. They're bonafide. Then you've got the rest. A jumble of assorted singles that mostly only hang around for a week or so, mostly on the back of being a new Florence + The Machine single at the time. There are quirks within the system of course. "Dog Days Are Over" and "Shake It Out" weren't necessarily unappreciated in their time, but largely locked into their niches. You've also got "What Kind of Man", the only Florence + The Machine single to reach the top 20 but not the top 10. It didn't last long either, but it just stares at me in the list, unable to be categorised because it just doesn't fit in with anything. That's all because it sold several thousands of copies in its first week, but it's a legacy that can't be taken away.

The signs are there for this to be another "What The Water Gave Me", the oddly ambitious teaser single coming before the more obvious hit. I'm just not sure all of the DNA is in it. The way it's introduced, you think you're in for that, but then the guitars come soaring in and it doesn't feel like it's heading that way anymore. Maybe that weird middle zone is where this song belongs, for the song that can't quite commit to either side. It feels a little shortchanged though. I hear triumph in this song, pure conviction. Maybe it's not the most compelling of hooks, but the sheer enormity is doing a lot of the work. I'm always here for the huge sounding Florence singles though, more on that at a later date.

#401. Hayden James (feat Boy Matthews) - Just Friends (#15, 2018)

44th of 2018

I wonder if entries like this seem strange to people who don't follow the ARIA Charts. You get songs like this, or DJ Snake's "Middle" (#454) that seem pleasant but not especially remarkable, and yet they're right up in the mix in the top 20 like they're among the most important and beloved singles of the year. It just feels like a different, larger conversation that not everyone is part of, so it can't be easy to grasp. I isolate these particular singles because they're not even the kinds of songs that sound like hits. They sound like they could've just completely gone by the wayside. That's just the life when it comes to modest and tasteful electropop.

It was probably easier to see this coming for Hayden James. He'd had a steady rise and a couple of singles that already snuck into the top 50. One I've spoken about (#604), another I'll get to later. From my perspective, I totally get it. Those previous hits had certain creative decisions about them that didn't feel primed for the big stage, but this is built around a much more agreeable hook. Boy Matthews is a proven success, under strange circumstances. I'm doing a lot of forward selling lately and I've got to do it again, there's a relevant song here, and a potential scandalous story. The only scandal I've got for this song is that the original single release (which has since been deleted) was blatantly missing an explicit tag. Spare some sympathy for anyone who unintentionally caught wind of Boy Matthews and his potty mouth.

I'm also not telling the full truth about the creative decisions in this song. It would feel very incomplete not to acknowledge the decision to take that humming melody intro and play it through the entire song. It stops occasionally in the chorus, and a couple of times outside of that as well, but it's extremely distracting. I wonder if the chorus is so catchy because you no longer feel like you're being chased by bees.