#295-#291

#295. Beyoncé - BREAK MY SOUL (#42, 2022)

23rd of 2022

For a number of years now I've been playing video game randomisers. It's taking a game you're already familiar with, but just moving all the key items (or potentially other things) around. It's designed algorithmically so it's still possible to complete, but it creates a very unique experience. An experience where you might get a powerup designed for the end of the game very early on, but be otherwise crippled because you're missing an essential starting item. Some of the most important story events can net you an utterly worthless reward while the key to beating the whole game is just lying on the ground. Sometimes you can learn some utterly bizarre consequences, like beating the final boss in Hollow Knight only to discover that you can't trigger the final cutscene because you're lacking the initial healing ability needed at that point. In some form or another, you just become Achilles, utterly unstoppable if not for that one issue you hope sorts itself out before it becomes a burden.

I'm likening this to my experience writing this blog. As far as I can tell, I've still never mentioned an artist by name before they turn up properly, and we're at the point when there aren't too many major players still embargoed. When it comes to artists with multiple entries, Beyoncé has been one of the biggest. She's had a vice grip over pop culture for close to 3 decades now. I've wanted to refer to the American pop star so many times before now, but we're finally here. I've finally found the Beyoncé key item.

There's a certain caveat to it all. Beyoncé is obviously a pop icon, but we're talking about the last 10 years. I wouldn't really say that her star has faded in that time, but it's taken a different turn. It's something that's better suited to discuss when I get to another song, but if you think that she hasn't had a "Crazy In Love" or "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" sized hit in a long time, then it's hard to argue with that. She presently seems to capture the exact moment of excitement when she puts something new out, only for it to be pretty memory-holed by the end of the year. Maybe that's not right to say when she's polling pretty well here, but her hits lately don't seem to have the longevity associated with their initial peaks. Did you know "BREAK MY SOUL" was a Billboard #1 hit? It was her first as a lead artist in over 15 years, and yet it doesn't really feel like it's earned that status.

Not a knock on the song at all, mind you, I think it's pretty great. It's a glorious tribute to early '90s house music. Every element works in tandem to create something that sounds equally retro and fresh. You might think the Big Freedia sample is a big intrusive at first, but the more I heard it, the harder I could imagine taking it out. Beyoncé jumps into all of this with a level of confidence that avoids the trappings of sounding washed or out of her depth. Here's an industry veteran who's still willing to try new things, and can stick the landing.

#294. Beddy Rays - Sobercoaster (#57, 2020)

21st of 2020

Beddy Rays were so insanely ahead of the game. They released this song in April 2020, and I presume to promote it, they created a Twitter account. The account still exists, but it's been 6 years now and they've still never tweeted a single thing. At the very least it gave the triple j accounts an @ for whenever the band got played. I would not ever encourage anyone to tweet anymore. Just let that fascist hole collapse in on itself.

Pop punk is not really my area of expertise. As a whole I just feel like I'm looking for something different in it than most people. It's very hard to get a grasp on what works when you don't have the same priorities as everyone else. Sometimes I feel like it's just pop music masquerading with some edge that ends up not getting the best of either world. I look at some of the pop punk music I do like and I don't know if I could tell you what it's doing right, because it probably all just sounds the same either way. Maybe I'm just falling prey to image and reputation, or maybe I'm just falling for different variations on the same song over and over again.

In 2008, Anti-Flag released their 7th album, "The Bright Lights of America". You probably had to be there at the time because it's not really a big career highlight for them, and given what's been said of their lead singer in the past few years, I'm not encouraging anyone to jump on the Anti-Flag train. In any case, I find myself pointing towards the title track on that album whenever I hear something that sounds a bit like it, which is surprisingly frequent. Much like my white whale melody that sounds a little like "Someday the Dream Will End" from Final Fantasy X, I don't think it's actually the origin point. In both cases I'm not sure the song exists and it's probably just a more idealised version I invented in my head. I'm sure there are earlier examples of it though. Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" has a bit of that energy itself, though the similar title probably helps. It'd be nice to have a less problematic example.

Beddy Rays have within my periphery tapped this well twice. "Sobercoaster" was the first, and then "Week On Repeat" was the second. I do wish I had the chance to have the latter here as well, but alas it landed at #110. Much like MAY-A's "Time I Love To Waste", it might be a contender as my favourite song on that list if it had the chance. Shout out to whoever ends up the Steven Bradbury of that year when we get there. Admittedly I'd just want it there for the purposes of there being another song I love in the list, I feel like I'm pretty spent on things to say about Beddy Rays here.

"Sobercoaster" is still an adequate substitute anyway. I think it slots itself into a certain niche that we don't catch here very often. It's a strange one though where the verses are probably catchier than the chorus. I suppose when you start things off at 11, there's no way to keep going up from there. It's not like anyone's ever invented amps that go up to 12; it just can't be done.

#293. Daft Punk (feat Julian Casablancas) - Instant Crush (#58, 2013)

45th of 2013

As I write this, "Instant Crush" is currently available to unlock as a goal song in Rocket League as part of the Battle Pass. I would almost be tempted to indulge in this (let's just say my current one is a tad stale), but Rocket League is also running a promotion in tandem with that series of very popular children's books written by someone who in her own words, uses her profits to fight against trans rights. I used to go out of my way to pay charities whenever I encountered her work, but I've since just set up regular payments. It feels good to fight back against a bigoted monster, I encourage you to consider it.

You've heard of The Strokes, I imagine. They went on a hiatus after the release of their 3rd album. They returned 5 years later with their 4th album, "Angles", and it was quite successful. It's their only ever #1 album in Australia. This is despite numerous reports of turmoil in the recording process, including a general rumour I kept hearing that the band only did it for the money, and didn't seem to enjoy each other's company. Whatever might be the case, they've continued to stick together through all of that. They released their 5th album, "Comedown Machine" in 2013 and it didn't land quite as well. They've been relatively out of the spotlight ever since. If I was to point to one particular reason, I might highlight the lead single "One Way Trigger". I'm quite fond of it myself, but it's a hard sell. If you're used to the traditional Strokes sound, get ready to completely abandon it for a strange bit of synth pop. A brazen bit of "Take On Me" biting that "Blinding Lights" (#786) and "STAY" (#669) could only sniff at by comparison. Julian's vocals are also at times heavily distorted outside of his typical range, both muffled and high pitched. The one moment it does sound like him comes with a serious strain. I could see this singlehandedly just killing the band's momentum on the spot. It's possible they could recover still. The next album was well received, and some of the songs on it have held up to be very popular in the long run (you might not guess that "The Adults Are Talking" is their second biggest song on Spotify now, and it's pacing for the top spot this year). It's all just funny in hindsight when we consider what else was happening in 2013.

"Instant Crush" is taken from Daft Punk's last album "Random Access Memories". It was obviously not the big hit at the time, but it put its hand up early on as a popular deep cut. One of those areas where the Hottest 100 serves as a better time capsule than the charts do, but more on that for another entry. In it, Daft Punk recruit Julian Casablancas to be barely recognisable as he croons through a layer of vocoder to sing a mostly slow jam. It's the kind of collaboration made to upset rock guys, as they're potentially promised something that was never going to be delivered. If you're willing to give it the chance, "Instant Crush" is a bit of a rock song. The whole thing is anchored by steady bass & drums, while the second verse throws up a genuine guitar solo. You're just not getting rock star Julian, and if you were already let down by him earlier in the year, I can't imagine what you're going through.

"Instant Crush" has only gotten more popular in hindsight. Not a patch on the biggest Daft Punk songs, but it's certainly doing alright for itself when it wasn't really smashing out the gate as a hit single at the time. On Spotify it has more streams than any song by The Strokes, so it's possible that there was some hesitation at the time that's been lifted from a new generation of fans who aren't as bothered. Personally, I think everyone's just falling for the fact that it sounds like "Last Christmas", streaming candy if there ever was such a thing. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police is huge at the moment and the same thing applies. Everyone just longs for that warm, steady lullaby. Maybe they're right to do it. I've always liked "Instant Crush". It's a 5 and a half minute song that never feels overly long.

#292. Cosmo's Midnight & Ruel - Down for You (#83, 2020)

20th of 2020

"Down For You" was released in January 2020. When Cosmo's Midnight were gearing up to release it, they'd so far made the Hottest 200 in 3 different years without cracking the main list, including a very near miss in 2018 when they got to #107 with "Get To Know". That's the kind of result that makes you want to smash the emergency glass and finally break the hoodoo. The solution is to just team up with Ruel, because he knows the way to reach the top half of the charts, maybe if they work with him, they can perfect the art.

They'd have no way of knowing it's a moot cause because they did end up landing in the top 100 with "C.U.D.I. (Can U Dig It)" (#840). No need to use the Ruel wizardry anymore! Well, suffice to say that it also proved itself to work, and it landed a little bit higher, so it's a worthwhile tactic. I'd also go so far as to say it's a really good song, so it has that going for it as well.

I don't know if this is a popular view. I approached it with a high degree of cynicism, especially as I hadn't been fond of Cosmo's Midnight in a while. I think it ends up as a very successful team effort where they both cover for each other's potential shortcomings. Cosmo's Midnight craft a nifty backing track, though maybe not one I'd consider listening to on its own. It fits Ruel like a glove, and we get a great performance out of him in absolute simp mode. I think that's where Ruel's performances are most engaging. I'm not sure who else would be able to pull it off, really. From the same album, Cosmo's Midnight had the song "A Million Times" which I really love, and is possibly even more lovelorn than this one. The vocals come from one of the two brothers in the band (I wanna say Patrick, if I can trust their overalls in the music video. They're twins so it's hard to tell most of the time). I think he works really well there, where the sentiment is a little more exaggerated, but I can't imagine it being quite as convincing as Ruel. Kid's come a long way.

#291. Post Malone (feat 21 Savage) - rockstar (#24, 2017)

31st of 2017

Depending on how you look at it, "All The Right Reasons" by Nickelback might be the last truly big rock album. There are other close contenders around it. Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" was the last rock album to sell 10 million copies in the US. Evanescence's "Fallen" came out in 2003 and has sold a little more than Nickelback's album, but then you just immediately run out of options. There's a case to be made for Arctic Monkeys' "AM", but it's not even close on sales, and dare I say, cultural impact compared to Nickelback. The thing that seals it for me is something that tends to work across generations. When you hear the titles "Photograph" and "Rockstar", you think of Nickelback first, right? By all chart merits you can find, there have been substantially larger hits of the same name since, but they just can't seem to unseat the cultural cache of Nickelback. It helps that most cases of the latter are typeset a little differently, but I doubt that makes a difference. I'm one of a rare few who will bother differentiating "Rockstar", "rockstar", "ROCKSTAR" and on occasion "Rock$tar" if I feel like bringing it up. Another one will come up later on this list, but for now, we're dealing with "rockstar".

The term 'cultural reset' gets thrown around a lot. Usually just by fans of an artist who are looking for a new form of hyperbole to build excitement around their latest hit, but it can warrant mention. Sometimes a new single or album comes out and it immediately changes the game. Our very notions of what can and can't be a hit gets completely flipped as we have to recalibrate everything to explain what's going on in front of us. It went from 'oh, Post Malone has a new song, maybe that'll be able to sneak onto the chart', into a sudden realisation that it was immediately asserting itself as one of the biggest hits of the year, one that turned both of its artists into bona fide stars going forward.

Arguably, the signs were already there, but they were hard to put a lot of faith into. Two months before "rockstar" came out, 21 Savage released "Bank Account" and it became a pretty big hit, especially in the US where it was a streaming monster but just missed the Billboard top 10 due to lack of airplay. It sat on the cusp of the top 50 in Australia but was a tougher sell for the market. Post Malone was coming off the back of a pretty successful breakout with his gimmicky single "White Iverson", and had found another big hit on the same album with "Congratulations", the mother of all slow-burning hits when it came out. Spending 9 months in the top 50 and only getting as high as #30 is just incredible. Maybe teaming up two of the hottest names of that moment was a surefire hit, but I don't think anyone could've predicted just how well it would do.

I mentioned previously how "Panda" (#324) was a harbinger for the future when it got to #1 in the US. It was followed by numerous more trap-influenced #1 hits, but the important distinction here is that they'd always underperform outside of the US. "Black Beatles" did not hang around very long in Australia, and that 'rain drop, drop top' song not long after barely cracked the top 40 (both artists on that song will eventually appear on this list). Not only did "rockstar" go all the way to #1 in Australia, but it stayed there for 7 weeks with a monster chart run. From this point on, trap was able to thrive in the mainstream without any reservations. Post Malone would pick up more #1 hits in the next year, and even 21 Savage eventually had a solo #1 album too. Fair to say that Post Malone abandoned the genre shortly after, but I still think he was a big part of making it what it was. I guess we just needed a goofy white guy to ease us into it.

The success of "rockstar" felt pretty self-evident once I'd heard it. Sometimes trap can be about trying to find the most cold, sterile beats to flex over. From the first few notes you just know that Louis Bell and/or Tank God have nailed the assignment. Both the beat and Post Malone take turns at being the main character, just poking out with intensity. Post Malone will revert to the tried and true vibrato on his voice, something I've thought he overdoes at times, but strikes a good balance in this case. More than anyone else though, it's 21 Savage that this production feels made for. I mostly just stick to his hits so as not to overdo it, but he strikes me as one of the most reliable rappers. Even on his pop hits he's still sounding menacing, like he's incapable of any other mode. So yeah, I was into this one. Great artwork too. Just can't imagine anything better to fit the tone that this song carries.

Whenever someone releases a song called "Rockstar", the peanut gallery come out hard and fast to make their declaration on credentials. It's such a small range of artists who'd be able to get away with it, massive poser-core otherwise. Post Malone is an odd one because I don't think he necessarily sells it on this song, but he has had surprising rock pivots at times. I remember listening to "beerbongs & bentleys" and occasionally being surprised at how he could fit the mold. "Over Now" comes pretty close to it (the guitar sounds a lot like "Closer" by Kings of Leon). Then of course a year later, he teamed up with the prince of darkness on "Take What You Want", which can't really be denied.

It should also be worth noting that it's a funny inclusion in the Hottest 100. Post Malone was not a known triple j entity at this point, and they only played this song a couple of times in 2017. It was belatedly included on the voting list and evidently soared up the list despite the airplay handicap. It's gotten more common to see these kinds of success stories, and they go their own way to shape the future of the station's sound as it becomes clear that there are many hit songs that absolutely have their audience in triple j's audience.