#375-#371

 #375. G Flip - Killing My Time (#62, 2018)

42nd of 2018

It's one thing to have the vague haze of hype. Lots of bands have it, the intangible feeling of popularity that comes from the fact that they're being talked about. It's something that gets weaponised as an easy criticism that I've never really understood. As if it's all a hoax that everyone's talking about someone who's not only not topping charts, but they're not even participating in them. I really believe in the wholesome approach that it's just a natural consequence of echo chambers and genuine enthusiasm. If it seems fraudulent that you know more people talking about Geese (2 million monthly listeners) than Tyla (46 million monthly listeners), that's on your own circle, but I've never believed in this notion that it's a gotcha that proves people don't actually listen to these artists.

What's this got to do with G Flip? Well, "Killing My Time" was their first song to actually reach the ARIA Chart. It did so with some handy playlist promotion, but that's just playing the same game as everyone else, and we overlook that over time. A certified Platinum hit should be enough to hush the naysayers; it's the first true sign that we're looking at a genuine future star. Though I suppose the arbitrary nature of it all is highlighted by the so-so Hottest 100 performance. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it soak its tune rag.

While it's not really as potent as "About You" (#419), I have always found myself leaning towards this one as a more instantly rewarding listen. There aren't many other G Flip songs that so effortlessly find a catchy hook. This one knows it so much so that it puts the title lyric in both the verses and the chorus. We're looking at a rate of about one 'killing my' every 4 seconds. I guess it's impossible to accuse them of hypocrisy when they almost never go 30 seconds without getting back to it.

#374. RÜFÜS DU SOL - Underwater (#22, 2018)

41st of 2018

With that, we close the book on another RÜFÜS DU SOL album. Two down, two to go. I never purchased this album like the two that came before it, so I'm not quite as familiar with it. Listening now, I'm finding it hard to identify a point of intrigue outside of the big singles. It all feels like a triangle of proximity between them. Not much in the way of 'ooh, this deep cut feels like it's worth hanging out for'. It just sounds like RÜFÜS DU SOL had a few ideas they were tossing between. I'll let you decide which single is 'We have McDonalds at home'

Still, taken on its own, I think "Underwater" represents a slight change of pace. It's fairly long, though not the longest on the album, and I think it shows an attempt to try something different with that. They've always made long songs, and they're not subtle about it, but this is them trying to fit the radio friendly side of RÜFÜS DU SOL into that template, so there's not quite as much down time. I feel like they succeed because it's a 6 minute song that breezes by.

Like with Gang of Youths in "the man himself" (#494), you've got backing vocals that also recall a bit of that "Touched" by VAST sound and add a layer of intrigue. I still feel like we're building to something bigger, which is why I'm vaguely gesturing to some later entries, but something's definitely clicked with "Underwater". Even if only narrowly, it's managed to assert itself as the most popular song on this album, and it feels like the shape of things to come. Can't believe it's the only aquatic song title RÜFÜS DU SOL have ever used though, that feels like it should be their bread & butter. Music to study to on a rainy day.

#373. SZA - Good Days (#22, 2021)

32nd of 2021

I always veer away from being a bully because I think it's a crutch that we're all too quick to fall back on. Maybe most people won't consider themselves a bully, but the patterns are there. It's just a matter of finding an acceptable target that's fun to pick on. Maybe they wronged you, or maybe they're just an easy target because you know you're not going to offend anyone in your periphery. You and your friends might differ on occasional issues, but you can unite in your hatred of...I dunno, Jacob Collier? It's rare to see such smug disdain towards someone so avoidable, but it's usually only half the story. Jacob Collier is a vessel to project all disagreements you have with the GRAMMYs onto.

This might be something that's already getting a bit out of date. The GRAMMYs have a reputation where they can't decide if they should be leaning into a commercial tilt, or a critical tilt, but they'll often askew both, in favour of their own strange depiction of what matters. I remember watching Jon Batiste announce the nominations one year, and a year later he was accepting the award for Album Of The Year. Not necessarily a bad album, but one that will frustrate people on both sides of that previous equation.

Jacob Collier plays a part in this as well. He's won numerous GRAMMY Awards in his career, and even twice been nominated for Album Of The Year, ready to test the faith of anyone who takes the award seriously if he were to win. Behind all of this, he was previously mentored by the late, great Quincy Jones who had some amount of influence at the time. Jacob Collier's music is eclectic, probably the prime example of that GRAMMYs disconnect because it doesn't play to any popular conversation, just maybe some industry insiders with an inclination towards his influences. When you see people talk about Jacob Collier's music, you'll likely hear some combination of criticism that says he's very talented but has no idea how to make music that's remotely enjoyable. All the complexity of Tool, but none of the marketable aura. Just a nerd who wants everyone to know how clever he is.

It's become so widespread that I start to think people have started spreading this without actually listening to his music. I think I might have even done it at one point. I decided to correct this and listen to both of his Album Of The Year nominated albums. I wouldn't say it's all for me, but it's not a total disaster either, just some strange projects that get lost in a huge sea of collaborators. I much preferred whenever he kept the songs to a reasonable length.

This is admittedly me giving up a lot of my time in defence of Jacob Collier, but I had good reason to do it, because he made one of my favourite songs I've heard in years: "erase me" by Lizzy McAlpine. It's one of the first few songs on her second album, and when I was listening to it for the first time on the back of liking a couple of the singles, it was one of the assuring cuts that let me know I was getting into something special. Now, it's definitely a team effort, and Lizzy gives a heck of a vocal performance, but it's Jacob's production and backing vocals that give the song that little extra something to push it to greatness. It's so good that I felt like I could no longer disregard Jacob Collier. A little later on and they teamed up again which earned Lizzy her first GRAMMY nomination (didn't love the song but there's a spark of excellence in it). In fairness too, it wasn't his first point of good will, as a year prior, he also made "Good Days".

"Good Days" was a moment of belated gratification for SZA's pop star career. This was following a much loved debut album that didn't make an especially big splash around the world, but steadily built up its reputation over the years. For me, "Drew Barrymore" and "Pretty Little Birds" are two of the best songs she's ever made. She also kept busy between album releases, a lot of collaborations and soundtrack singles that merely hinted at what was to come. When we finally got "Good Days" to start the campaign for album #2, I want to say it was instant, except the song was released on Christmas Day and missed out on instant exposure you'd usually get. It doesn't matter how big you are, you just won't find many glued to new releases on that particular time of the year. Once 2021 went underway, "Good Days" bolted into the top 10, perhaps an alarming sign when it wasn't the most obvious crossover single. Take yourself 2 years in the future and SZA has a solo #1 single, I don't think it was particularly surprising by then.

I really think the 2020s have opened up a new world of possibilities for the kinds of songs that can become hits, and this is a prime example. In the past, this would be tidied up and trimmed down for radio, but this song just completely does its own thing. SZA lays down her last line (a good one too, 'half of us chasing fountains of youth and it's in the present'), and there's still over a minute and a half to go. Equally a sign of things to come, but also a sign of how much cultural cache SZA had built.

#372. Lorde - Perfect Places (#71, 2017)

38th of 2017

When it comes to longevity, one of the most important factors to work with is the initial audience size. It's not a guarantee, plenty of very successful artists & albums have fallen aside. It is however a lot easier to pitch the idea of a classic when it's something you're already familiar with. I say this as a millennial and while I can't speak for other generations, I feel pretty confident in saying we've got a strong tendency towards idolising the things we grew up with.

What does this mean? It means that Lorde's first two albums have a peculiar place to sit as the years go by. The massive success of the first album vs. the great acclaim of the second one. Not that the first album wasn't also well liked, and the second didn't also achieve some level of success, but it's the situation where you'd expect the initial hype to die off and see the favourite emerge for those who are still sticking fat. I think this happened to a slight extent initially, "Melodrama" is just packed with those fan favourite songs that are primed to turn into belated streaming hits. What we've seen instead is a regression to familiarity. Whenever Lorde comes back into discussion, it pools people into a nostalgic lens, taking them back into the songs that they remembered listening to many moons ago. For many people, this is a subset that includes "Pure Heroine" and not "Melodrama".

At the present moment, the most popular Lorde song is "Ribs", a cut from her first album. It never had a real single push at the time, but by being part of an album that sold a lot of copies (I think you could still do this in 2013), it has potentially attained greater familiarity than almost any song Lorde put out afterwards. Anyway, to move along, four of Lorde's five most popular songs right now are from "Pure Heroine". The one outlier is "Supercut", one of those aforementioned "Melodrama" fan favourites. I guess it's just interesting to see time go by and have things return to a slightly twisted version of the original populist assessment.

I've always thought "Perfect Places" sits uncomfortably in all of this. It's the last track on "Melodrama" but it was pushed as a single before the album came out, to a modest amount of fanfare. It does reasonably well nowadays but I feel like I see some skepticism towards it. Almost like it's just the pop friendly taste of the album that got a bigger spotlight than it deserves. This isn't a view I held (it was always one of my favourites), but I've seen it quite a bit.

I love a big cathartic hook, so it went down a treat for me, but I'll admit it's cooled off a little since it came out. Maybe again it just suffers from being telegraphed to a fault, or otherwise I just lean towards other Lorde singles now that it's not the new one to look at. I'll admit also that I have some mixed feelings towards the lyrics. I think in the wake of that other song I'll get to one day, it can be a bit much to have Lorde take aim at mindless teenage (or thereabouts) hedonism as if she's the first person to ever realise this. On the other hand, it still gets to me. By the end of it, it feels less like a criticism of young people doing what they find fun, and more a lament of the unattainable high. Not the last time we'll deal with something like this in the list, and it's a great way to send off the album.

#371. Juice WRLD - Righteous (#39, 2020)

31st of 2020

Though I couldn't say I'd likely be particularly glowing in my assessment if we had it otherwise, it's a shame that Juice WRLD pretty much only appears here in a posthumous sense. Not entirely true, but he died a week before voting opened in 2019 which led to his first appearance (I'm not certain he would have polled otherwise). That will be the last time he appears in this list, but before that I've got to get through the last of these songs from "Legends Never Die".

I'm not normally someone who goes into these kinds of releases with an open mind, and the speed in which it was released was a giant red flag. It's possible that these Juice WRLD songs caught me at a good time, given what I was listening to when this came out. On the other hand, I think "Righteous" is just one particular example where they got the absolute best out of what they were working with.

I'm not even sure I can pinpoint what it is in this case. It just feels a little self-evident. Emo rap without any bells or whistles attached, just a man reflecting on where he is in his life and how little joy there is to it all. Juice WRLD made a lot of songs about sour experiences with women that don't always come across in the best light, so I think the introspection puts his skills to their best use. He's a man of a thousand ways to say 'woah', and it all just finds a good balance here. Instrumental is great too, wouldn't change a thing about it. Can't say for sure how this would land if he were alive to release it, but as the first posthumous cut, it's setting things off in the right way.