#400-#396

#400. Flume (feat Kai) - Never Be Like You (#1, 2016)

43rd of 2016

I follow the Billboard Hot 100 out of an obligation I think. One of those institutions that intrinsically matters to my pursuits regardless of my stake or trust in the system, like the GRAMMYs, The Academy Awards or The Game Awards. First and foremost, it's just the one that gets the most attention. I don't want to say it's the biggest, because all-encapsulating global charts exist and are undeniably a bigger show, but I don't see the same attention given to them. They're always going to be a matter of which particular isolated group is feeding on it the most, and it makes those outside of it feel like they didn't have a say. I've seen eras of global charts where it's dominated by J-Pop, or Latin music that may as well not exist in Australia. I thought for a while that Spotify's global charts might soon be dominated by India, a late adopter to the platform with a sufficient population threshold to dominate, in much the same way that T-Series was the most subscribed YouTube channel for a time. It'd be interesting because India's music scene is so isolated from most of the world, but I'm just imagining a world where all the chart & pop news channels have to suddenly bow down to the greatness of Arijit Singh for amassing a greater audience than Taylor Swift.

This is all to say that I don't really like the Billboard Hot 100 as a chart very much. You'll hear complaints about airplay as an easy target, and I won't dispute that (if anything it's the sheer combination of airplay and streaming, that allows any successes on both fronts to thrive unnaturally, until they lose controooooool), but it's the way they police the chart that just exacerbates that anyway. They've just recently put in new rules that are gonna have strange ripple effects I suspect, and create a dying gasp of relevance to that loathed radio inclusion. Hard to want to pay attention to anything that isn't the #1 spot, at least that's usually untainted by executive decisions.

I want to go back to that combined radio & streaming situation though because I think it sums up the biggest problem. A common pattern you'll get is that songs will rise high on initial streaming, and then cool down as the hype fades. It'll be followed by a slow ascent on radio that may potentially counteract the streaming losses. A lot of songs will peak very quickly, and then spend a long time with us pondering if they will or won't come back to that peak once airplay gets high enough, attaining some arbitrary significance there. The problem is that in practice, this just means the reliable or heavily marketed options stay on top. I know radio can be prompt with this, because Taylor Swift's recent single took about 2 weeks to reach the top 10 in all-format airplay, but that's a set up that rewards those chosen few. A lesser known act could potentially get the same coverage, but without that sense of urgency, it affects their potential showing on the charts. One of the most obvious examples where the illusion of a fair game is lost.

For me as the chart watcher, the main thing that it means to me is that it's all just so boring. The charts get locked into a small handful of dominant formats that suggest a very narrow interest in music from the American public. It's so common to see global hit songs that can't make the last step to America because it comes across looking like the fun police. We can't have your "The Days (NOTION Remix)", wouldn't you rather have another Chris Brown hit song? You're used to that, right? It's that same kind of numbing effect I get when I get really obsessed with something but I just can't share it because it's a bridge too far.

This is all just to say that the main thing that comes to mind when I think about "Never Be Like You" is that it's a complete outlier. Against all logic, this song that's a collaboration between a modestly famous (but without pop credentials) producer and an unknown singer managed to break the levee that stops songs like it from doing so. It's like the one big future bass hit that isn't from an artist with loads of hits. To make matters stranger, this wasn't even a colossal worldwide hit. This was a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and only a small handful of other countries. The UK in particular is one that sticks out, where this song could only get to #95. Maybe this is just all chart quirks and timing (RIAA has the single 2xPlatinum while the BPI has it at 1xPlatinum, not a huge difference really, and the BPI benchmark is harder to crack), but I guess it's bizarre to see it play out in a way that benefitted something like this. Flume of all people had a genuine hit in America, and did so without really compromising the ideals of his music up to that point.

But let's not just talk about everything in a US context because the Australian one is very important too. This was a #1 single in Australia. There have only been between 6 & 8 more of those (depending on your stance on "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)" and "Glimpse Of Us" (#453)), so it's a pretty big deal. Admittedly it was lucky to get there, just sneaking a solitary week between some big hitters, but that's all you need. A huge instant smash from an artist who'd never hit the top 10 before. It also has to be said that in spite of the genuine challenge that started to brew during the voting, this ending up as the Hottest 100 winner has to make for one of the most anti-climactic results ever in the history of the Hottest 100. There's an argument to be made that you could have figured out the 2016 winner before you even knew the 2015 winner, since this was released on the 18th of January. I don't think there actually is a winning song that raised more victory flags than this one, my reasoning being that "Somebody That I Used To Know" at least took until 2012 to full assert its global standings. It's only proven itself further in the years since, consistently Flume's most popular song on any given week, and as I write this, just now ticking over 1 billion streams on Spotify. Not bad for the kid who started making music with a program he got in a Nutri-Grain box.

Here's the part that doesn't get talked about very often: Who on earth is Kai? Well, she's a Canadian singer with a small assortment of credits in the lead up to this collaboration. Most notably she appeared on one of the more popular tracks from that album with an occasionally animated cover, by that actor/rapper who still hasn't showed up here. She didn't remotely cash in on the success of "Never Be Like You" (though the royalties may have been nice), as she was pretty silent in the subsequent years. In 2021, she rebranded under her real name, Alessia De Gasperis, and has been releasing music again. There isn't much so I just listened to her whole discography and I'm pretty impressed. It's a bit of a slow R&B vibe so 'if you like Kehlani/that Australian singer I guess I can't mention yet'. In particular I liked "Rain in the Summer" but I think "Evil Eye" and "Life's A Bitch" have some crossover appeal. I can't really recognise her as the "Never Be Like You" singer but I suppose it's been nearly a decade.

When it comes to "Never Be Like You", it wasn't really an instant thing for me. Nothing about the song feels like it's Flume's catchiest single, and while the chorus sentiment has some power to it, it's lost in a sea of scattered syllables and sounds. Some of them are pleasant. The twinkling intro is distinctive even if it doesn't really sound like the rest of the song. I suppose I can see the crossover potential as it's a very tidy sounding track. Annie Wilkes might tell you it lacks nobility, but alas.

#399. Angie McMahon - Pasta (#72, 2019)

29th of 2019

Angie McMahon occupies a relatively rare space in modern Australian music. That's a matter of falling into the specific window where she's relatively acclaimed among those who know her music, but she hasn't gotten the big international profile boost to justify that. We've decided she's one of the greats and we don't need Americans to tell us that. This isn't unheard of in the past, I've never really seen anyone outside of this country acknowledge Something For Kate or You Am I, but it feels harder to keep secrets like this anymore. That's why Angie McMahon isn't entirely a secret, but the big waves haven't happened yet. When Fred again.. remixed one of her songs, it instantly became one of her biggest hits, but one of his least big hits. Maybe that could change with the next album, but for these purposes, I'm only looking at a handful of tracks on her debut album.

We're following one of the classic trajectories here. Angie McMahon has continued to poll progressively lower after landing her highest entry from the get-go. You could maybe pay some extra credit for 2024's efforts, where a royal mass of Billie Eilish & Charli XCX left no room to play around with, and Angie landed at both #101 and #103. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to scream 'Royal Blood' in the mirror three times because I'm perfectly allowed to do that in these premises.

"Pasta" is the weakest of the current set but I mean no denigration to it with that, rather just awaiting compliments to the other two. It's a deceptive one that appears to be in with a slow burn until the exciting build up happens. Except it still doesn't happen, it takes a second run through to fully rev up the engine. We're well within the Ruby Fields school of songs about just being a total aimless burnout. Can't ever have too many of those.

#398. Genesis Owusu - GTFO (#87, 2022)

38th of 2022

I've wanted to mention this memorable news story and only now am realising there's a great excuse to do so. In early 2022 during a Genesis Owusu show at Sydney's Enmore Theatre, there was a collapse of the floor right at the start of the show. I think I'm allowed to find it amusing because no one was actually hurt, and because it happened while he was performing "The Other Black Dog" and singing lyrics like 'All my friends are hurting but we dance it off, laugh it off'. I don't know if it's a coincidence that the next single he released after this happened was "GTFO", a song with the lyric 'A party as I fall in the crevice'. The song was released 4 months after but he also never performed it live until it was released so it's not impossible that it was written afterwards. Just an odd bit of poking the bear I suppose. Maybe the whole song was inspired by whatever the security guards must have been saying to the crowd at the time.

This one slipped past me a bit at the time. I might have heard it and just moved on because it wasn't as immediate as other singles, but I don't remember ever really acknowledging it until the Hottest 100 came around. It sticks out a little next to all of his other entries, that feel more essential. "GTFO" never even made it onto an album. That's also true of his other 2022 single but who could possibly forget that anymore? The foreshadowing will continue until morale improves.

This song does two very important things with its lyrics. Firstly there's the line about how 'The Lord giveth, I forget the second part', which I'm willing to count as part of my favourite line of jokes about proverbs & idioms and taking them literally. Things like 'Me when I reap...' or 'Me as a bird having a late morning: hope there's still a worm for me!'. Just inject it all into my veins. The second thing he does is some very creative slant rhyming that somehow manages to fuse 'called', 'pedestal', 'dog', and even 'card' from like 4 lines earlier into rhyming. If you never even noticed it before, then there's enough proof that it worked.

It's a good hook too. Just a crazy juxtaposition between the angelic chords building up and the blunt title drop. One of those lines that have no business being as catchy as they are, but that's what it's like when you're on a hot streak. The song does have 4 writers & 3 producers credited, so it's fortunate that we're not making soup here, I've heard bad things about broth under these conditions.

#397. The Preatures - Somebody's Talking (#29, 2014)

42nd of 2014

It's early 2012 and a new band pops up on triple j rotation called The Preachers. Their song is called "Take a Card", it's a bluesy number with some old school sensibility, both in the way some of the instruments sound and how the vocals are mixed. The keyboard solo sounds straight out of the late '60s. I can't really get a good read on them because they sound a bit out of place. I also thought their religious name was a bit distracting, and that was before I found out that the guy singing was named Gideon.

This didn't last for very long and they ended up changing their name to The Preatures in 2013. I'm not sure I ever found out why they did this but may have taken the false assumption (but not the card) that they did it to use a more secular name. It also lined up with them signing to a major label so that probably factors in as well, in addition to probably being how they took off so quickly. They put out a second EP and scored a very big hit with it, but that's not today's story, we're talking about the debut album.

It's hard to tell if "Blue Planet Eyes" is looked back upon fondly as a classic Australian album. It reached Gold sales, and last year got to #7 on the Vinyl chart when it was re-released. It just feels like the classic case of a quickly put together album when a band needs to capitalise on their buzz. It's only 10 tracks, and includes the big hit from before, while the opening & closing tracks feel more like extended intro & outro so it feels a little quaint. When you're in the thick of it though, it's definitely hit after hit. I think it's just "Cruel" that doesn't hold up well, leaning into a rockabilly vibe but with some daggy rhymes that don't connect right (almost sounds like The Wiggles).

I do also want to point out that it's not only their own name they changed, but in the lead up to the album, they released the single "Better Than It Ever Could Be". That's still out there, but the album has the almost identical "It Gets Better" on the track list instead, and though I can't put it all down to that version of exposure, "It Gets Better" has started to severely trump the streaming numbers on the earlier version.

It's strange to think that this lead in single to their debut album ended up being their last Hottest 100 entry, but I guess there was some slight band turmoil that may have stunted their momentum. In the moment it just felt like they were going from strength to strength. "Somebody's Talking" teeters very carefully on the edge of being the lucrative re-write of their previous hit. Mostly to the extent that you'll want to shout a different song title when you get to the chorus of this one, and you very easily can. I'm letting them get away with it just because it's the only one we've got.

#396. Kingswood - Ohio (#53, 2013)

51st of 2013

I wasn't really a die-hard riding on the Kingswood train at any point, but I was willing to go along with it. I still felt a little betrayed by their output from 2014 onwards because it just didn't seem to match the intensity they were previously bringing. It wasn't a complete waste of time, I think I've ranked them pretty reasonably along the way, but this was the Kingswood I was after. Exciting blues rock that recalled the best parts of Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age, and let's just chuck Jack White in there so I can get a whole deck of cards going. My favourite song has always been their early single "Yeah Go Die" which takes it to an even further level and promises a very different band to the one we ended up getting.

"Ohio" came out a year later and follows a similar lineage. I've never been certain on why they chose to name it "Ohio". Apparently they recorded it there but I can't confirm this. There's also supposedly some UrbanDictionary definition that implies it's about being someone who gets drugs for another person, but I also couldn't find that. Whatever meaning was found in the name Ohio has been thoroughly lost in the years since, as it's become incomprehensible dadaist Gen Z slang. Whatever it is, I think it works, 'Ohio' is just a nice set of contrasting syllables that don't need to mean anything.

Did you know that "Micro Wars" (#503) was not the first time Kingswood made an extra-long music video? The video for "Ohio" is 9 minutes long and doesn't even cheat by secretly being a double feature. Plenty of cameos yet again. This time it's got Seth Sentry, Thelma Plum & Kira Puru, as well as the return of Sticky Fingers again. The inclusion of as 'him/herself' in the video's credits is doing a lot to add to the lore implications of it. You might not be shocked to learn that it ends in another gun fight, one that's slightly incomprehensible not due to the cuts made, but the impossibility of determining when someone's out for the count. I'll be honest, I thought they genuinely got Seth Sentry into the video so he can get shot 2 seconds later and be just that, which is always a good bit (shout out to Brad Pitt's cameo in "Deadpool 2"). If you just want to listen to the song though, the music video probably isn't the place for you. The YouTube description makes it feel like a bonus perk that the song is in it, rather than the intended purpose of it. Kingswood will be touring Nationally in 2015 by the way, maybe they'll be carried by a swarm of bees.