#330-#326

#330. Gang of Youths - the angel of 8th ave. (#6, 2021)

27th of 2021

I get unnecessarily bothered about the way chart positions are wielded to make an argument. Even when I was incredibly uninformed about it all, I could figure out the shortcomings of shorthand. You inevitably come into contact with a song that doesn't chart very high, but hangs around for a while. Something will come along in this time frame and chart just a little bit higher, only to bomb out as a brief curiosity. No one should think the latter is the bigger hit, but as chart positions become our future reference point, it ends up favouring the ones that didn't necessarily earn it.

When it comes to Gang of Youths, if you're trying to determine what their biggest hit is, you've probably got 4 options. There's "Achilles Come Down", which is by a wide margin their most streamed song, despite being 7 minutes long and not a single. Ponder on the idea that some might only know them for that song. The other songs you could choose include the one that got them the highest in the Hottest 100 and has some pretty well rounded stats without complete domination. Then there's that dark horse, the one that might be lesser known, but evokes a lot of passion and has proven to poll very well in future triple j festivities. Alternatively, if none of those float your boat, have you considered "the angel of 8th ave."? It's their highest charting single in Australia. It peaked at #48 on the week it was released, just one place higher than the band's only other ARIA Chart entry (which got there the week after the 2017 Hottest 100). Sure, it doesn't really have the cultural penetration of those other songs, but by an arbitrary metric, it got just a little bit closer to the top of the charts than any other Gang of Youths song probably ever will. That's why all of it is a bit silly. I should be completely fair to this song and stipulate that for the week it charted in question, it was sitting below almost the entire track listing for Olivia Rodrigo's "SOUR", meaning that there's every possibility it could have snuck into the top 40 on a less competitive week.

In saying all of this, I did tend to get interested in these kinds of hits. The scenario is that an artist has a particularly good year, one that allows them to emerge as a potential next big thing, and accrues them some steady fanbase growth. When the next album cycle comes along in a couple of years, we get to see all the fruits of that labour begin to ripen at the same time. Possibly they're an artist who never charted before, or maybe they did under unlikely circumstances, but what it usually can mean is that the charts are about to be rocked by something that doesn't necessarily belong. Often times, the charts are very rigid, and dictated by dominant trends, so it can be especially interesting to challenge that. In the case of Gang of Youths, it's thinking about the late 2010s and early 2020s, where you ask yourself just what it would add up to if you managed to build up the most popular contemporary rock band in the country, one that most people seem to like. They might stick out like a sore thumb, but numbers are numbers, and there's a small space set out for them. In hindsight, this might end up being one of the last of its kind, at least for an Australian artist (Linkin Park have done something similar in recent years, even had a UK top 5 hit). The shift from sales to streaming makes it harder to notice those small but passionate fanbases, so mass appeal and/or intrigue is a necessary component once again.

It's a little funny to say all this about "the angel of 8th ave.", which is not exactly a challenging song as much as it just isn't really a conventional pop song. All the emotional loft you come to expect from Gang of Youths is here, but it just isn't something you'd think the kids are gonna sing along to, far too wordy. In case you're wondering what the title means, it's referring to Dave's wife. I'm fond of the anonymous Genius annotation that explains that when Dave calls her 'the goddamn greatest thing that Laney ever made', he means that she's better than Michael Jordan, who went to the same school as her. I liken it to a bit of wordplay. Gang of Youths reside in London now, specifically around The Angel, Islington, which is mentioned in the previous line. It only stood out to me because once when I was...maybe 8 years old, I was playing UK Monopoly on a very old computer, and that particular light blue property always stood out to me, for its cumbersome name. For a long time I thought it was a very strange coincidence that only mattered to me, that Dave used both of those words in quick succession in the song.

Something that's worth considering when you think about the relative successes of these last two Gang of Youths albums is what Dave said about this song going into it. Specifically that this song is probably the only song on "angel in realtime." that sounds like their old music. I appreciate that artists don't want to stagnate, and that it's better to give an advance warning for something like that, but I can't help but think of the huge fanbase they had built up in the years leading up to this, in it for the exact brand of rock they were putting out. How many would feel betrayed, and how many would jump ship? The stats say quite a few, though it's very difficult to avoid that no matter what happens. I don't know if it's necessarily true of the album anyway, but I can see where he's coming from. "the angel of 8th ave." does in many ways feel like a concession to fans of their previous work. It's new, but familiar. I don't think I'd ever call it one of the best songs on their previous album if it was on there, but it could pretty easily slot in there. If nothing else, I'm glad that Dave is able to sing about someone who's important to him and is still alive. Listening to Gang of Youths can make it feel like it's nothing but tragedy, but then if you're able, why wouldn't you write about these things?

#329. The Avalanches (feat Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu) - Running Red Lights (#35, 2020)

27th of 2020

One of my favourite unusual chart stats is a record held by Weezer. They have reached the ARIA top 100 with 7 different singles in their career, spanning from "Undone - The Sweater Song" in 1994, to "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" in 2009. Not one of these songs, not even "Buddy Holly", not even "Island in the Sun" managed to crack the top 50. No other artist has ever charted so many times without reaching the upper half. Actually, Tame Impala briefly did it. There was a brief window of time in which the project had managed 10 chart entries, but then one of those songs won a big triple j poll and belatedly redeemed itself. If you don't like that re-writing of history, well two more Tame Impala songs have made the top 50 now, so it's back to Weezer. Recent new chart rules have increased the possibility of songs landing within that range in the future, but it's so hard to ever imagine Weezer's record being matched because it's just so hard to get the ball rolling. I should also note that Rivers Cuomo actually has two top 50 hits on his own, or rather, singing hooks for B.o.B & Simple Plan, so cross out the second or sometimes third guy from the left I guess.

What does one make of the career of Weezer anyway. By all rights they probably should have flamed out decades ago, unable to recover from the changing tides of popular music and the initial uneasy reception to "Pinkerton". They seemed to pull out a lucky sort-of crossover hit every now and then when they needed it, and now they're just too established to ever really disappear. So few of their peers have stuck around quite as long. This is all the while being a band that is scarcely taken seriously, constantly ridiculed for their penchant of releasing absolute abomination albums that have never set the charts alight either (their highest charting album got to #11 in Australia). More often than not, they just seem like a joke, where the punchline is either the riff to "Buddy Holly", or some remark about Rivers Cuomo's very open fetish for Asian women. It's been a very long time since I've been able to consider them a band that I can take seriously.

They persist though, and here's Rivers Cuomo guesting for The Avalanches and making the Hottest 100 again, 26 years after the first time he did it. That's a near unrivalled longevity that dwarfs pretty much anything other than a couple of fluke Kylie Minogue entries 3 decades apart. The Avalanches also have entries that span 3 decades. It's pretty impressive...I guess.

"Running Red Lights" comes from The Avalanches' 3rd album, "We Will Always Love You". It came out 5 years after "Wildflower" which is relatively brisk pace by their standards. Clearly they'd forgotten how to build up anticipation. It was harder to get caught up in the hype. I liked a lot of the stuff on the album, but haven't really gone back to it, not in the same way the first two albums have a hold on me. Unlike those albums, this one is just loaded with featured artists and it's harder to sniff out what could be perceived as core Avalanches sound. It's almost as if they worked especially hard to make it not sound like what they'd done before.

I mean, I'm not sure there's anything about "Running Red Lights" that makes me think of The Avalanches. Maybe the intro, but it all feels dwarfed behind what ends up being one of their poppiest songs to date. Very funny how The Avalanches & Rivers Cuomo are relying on each other to remain relevant with a new generation. Pink Siifu might have a case but his contribution is brief and he doesn't strike me as an attention-grabbing feature. No, more than anything, this song reminds me of DC Talk, the Christian rap-rock group from the '90s. All my life I've lived in bewilderment that another kid at after school care used to sing the phrase 'Jesus is still alright with me'. I found the song and was still confused, but now I've learnt that it's part of a legendary TV commercial for the Christian Television Association that was on the air for years and years. Hook it up if you ever feel like singing something else over the bridge of this song. You could also take the Doobie Brothers version, because Michael McDonald will always be an improvement on anyone else. I guess I could also mention that there's an age old joke that every visual novel ever written will find a way to mention Schrödinger's cat. This doesn't necessarily hold up to scrutiny (although since I wrote this entry, I've started reading another one that's already mentioned it), but I just really want to share a moderately high effort meme I made 5 years ago, again.

#328. Thelma Plum - Clumsy Love (#79, 2018)

35th of 2018

An exciting upgrade of the stakes for this one, because this song reminds me of not one, but two other completely unrelated songs. I hinted at one of these about a year ago if you can remember. The instant this starts, there's an odd familiarity with benny blanco's "Eastside" (#888). They diverge a bit after that. Thelma Plum gets to the chorus quite a bit faster, even though her's is the longer song, but the intros have been throwing me for a loop for years. The other one is a little closer to my heart. Thelma Plum repeats the phrase 'Is she ever gonna go away?' at least 10 times in this song. She's got some competition in this regard, as a decade before this came out, Metric were asking 'Is it ever gonna be enough?'. Same cadence, mostly the same placement in the song (post chorus & extended outro), while both songs are very high tempo and close to a match (Metric run 180 BPM, this is at 170 BPM). Just some funny things to listen out for here, and another chance for me to confess my undying adoration of Metric.

Anyway, remember Thelma Plum? This is the first time I've covered one of her own songs in over 200 entries, just shy of half a year. A pretty long time ago, but when this popped into the Hottest 100, it was her first lead artist entry in 4 whole years, the equivalent of 400 entries here. Suddenly that's the big stop gap, and it makes this feel like a kick-starter to a second wave in her career, one that'd take far greater heights than the first one.

Maybe it's an unassuming kind of song to do this, but I posit that it has the pedigree. Once upon a time my random asides to Metric promised some degree of relevance to the greater picture. They've only ever had one Hottest 100 entry but you might have forgotten in 2009 they had 4 songs in the top 200. "Gold Gun Girls" is one of those at #132. There's another turn of the decade reference I can make, because "Clumsy Love" is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It's the first song she made alongside Alex Burnett of Sparkadia fame, and he's been all over her discography since then. It's almost the majority of his Hottest 100 entries at this point, as he's still picked up a handful of others along the way. His discography is just filled with songs that you might have thought had a chance but didn't quite get there. I wouldn't say I entirely see the throughline to this, but then he's put out some very eclectic music post-Sparkadia so there may be no limits.

#327. Sofi Tukker - Purple Hat (#14, 2019)

23rd of 2019

I like to root for the underdogs. It's easy to get invested in them because if they've never won anything, breaking through can be a monumental occasion. For all intents and purposes, it's a big part of what makes Fremantle my second football team to root for. It helps that I live in their neck of the woods, but I just can't help but feel bad for them. The oldest club in the AFL to have never won a premiership, blowing their one shot at it a decade ago when their best player forgot how to kick straight on the big day. They're currently on a new wave of potential with a new and exciting squad that just have to get over the hurdle of every other team that's equally primed.

They're just such a goofy team that's easy to be ridiculed. They're the little brother to one of the most popular and successful teams in the country, and rather than have a regular animal nickname like most teams, they're dock workers. They even stray away from the usual colour combinations because they're the one and only purple team. It's just as goofy but I wonder if they could pay to rebrand themselves as rockers. When I go to their games, that's the vibe I get. There's a dude who plays AC/DC on the roof of the stadium at the start of their games, and at three quarter time, there's a Tame Impala hype anthem, which he wrote because he's literally their number one fan. They also usually play "Purple Hat" before the games start. Probably a no brainer there, as you don't get too many purple themed hit songs to come along. You take these opportunities when they come. I don't know how appreciated it is, but it's a fun part of the experience.

What we've got here is a pretty natural evolution on "Drinkee" (#363). It takes some similar ideas from it but re-arranges them into something that feels more accessible. When I go back to "Drinkee", I always forget that it doesn't have a guitar riff quite like this one. Everything else comes along with a big ramming thud, but it's nonetheless a winning formula. It never has to be too deep, just a thorough exploration of how many times you can change up the percussion, but stay consistently dancing on the people.

#326. Bring Me The Horizon - Parasite Eve (#38, 2020)

26th of 2020

A couple of years ago when I was in London, I got taken to a shop for comic books, manga, and assorted items of a similar fancy. I didn't buy anything when I was there, but I had a strange distracting feeling in my head at the time. Namely that there was a non-zero chance that a member of Bring Me The Horizon could possibly frequent the place. Maybe they might have actually been there at the time, it's not like I'd be able to recognise most of them. They've never been shy about their interest in weeb culture. Here's another one of their songs named after a Japanese video game and/or novel of the same name. I'm leaning towards the game because in an interview Oli Sykes gave about 18 months before the song came out, he said he'd like to spend his last day alive conquering a speedrun of Parasite Eve on the highest difficulty. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day wondering if he's ever watched one of my speedruns.

I wish I had anything to say about Parasite Eve, the video game. It's just never really been in my periphery. Understandable in the first place because it came out long before I was ever buying my own games, on a console I didn't own, and honestly I don't play many RPGs. It feels like one of the widest mediums to sink into because of the usual time demands, and I'm reminded of this whenever I play video game music quizzes and I have a get rate of around 5%. Just an absolutely impractical number of things to choose from, and many of us are just very picky eaters.

The interview in 2019 is important here because this is one of the many early pandemic hits in their truest form, but obviously the idea was on his mind before it possibly could have been. There's a pretty quick turnaround for this, so it's possible that the main skeleton of the song was around, but the lyrics were purpose-built for the moment. As tends to be the case, it's not remotely subtle. You've got a fake sneeze, lyrics about 'washing hands', 'pandemic', and a general feeling that we're presently going through something. I can only conclude that Oli Sykes is again like me, seeing what's in front of him and finding a way to insert his hyperfixation. If I had a platform I'd totally try to get more people to play Stephen's Sausage Roll.

If there is one thing that makes this song stick out in its era, it's the length. This is not a quickly cobbled together song because it's nearly 5 minutes long. Much of that is taken up by quiet interludes, so it probably won't feel that way, but it's a lot to put into it. I can call back to "the man himself" (#494) here because this is the other song that uses the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, though Bring Me The Horizon did it first, and managed to outwit, outplay, and outlast Gang of Youths given theirs landed a little bit higher. As for me, while I do find this to be a bit scattershot in composition, it does stand up as one of their more immediate singles. A big hook that just cuts through can do a lot on its own.