#240-#236

#240. Telenova - Bones (#91, 2021)

13th of 2021

It's very peculiar to have Telenova be part of this story. They feel especially modern even though they're not on the final year of this cut off. It is however their debut single that shows up here and it's the only time they've ever made the list. I have no idea how they wrangled this kind of support just this once and never again, and it's making this once-off just feel stranger by the year.

Telenova to me land squarely in that niche of extremely tasteful indie pop. It's basically my bread and butter and almost never amounts to anything. In fact, while "Bones" was getting the attention, I was more focused on some other Telenova songs that were meeting the usual quota. "Tranquilize" might still just be the quintessential Telenova song to me still. Something about the way Angeline delivers the title lyric is just hypnotic. I understand for many that "Bones" came in first and the two don't sound especially different, but that's the refined formula. The band has only gotten to be a tighter unit in the years since. The vocals are shining once again on songs like "Why Do I Keep You?" and "Temples", but it's that added instrumental punch that sends them over the edge. They've slowly turned into more of a rock band, which might not be as algorithm friendly, but it's worth keeping them around. A very solid grasp on catchy melodies.

If I had to guess what it is that got "Bones" over the line, it probably is that minimalist flair. There's a popular British band who will eventually appear on this list who probably set the stage for what popular indie pop was to sound like, and who asserted it when they were regularly pulling incredibly good stats for listener retention. "Bones" feels like a slight translation of that away from the more electronic elements. Also a little MS MR here just with a more light, feathery outlook. That and the way the chorus is just one unending hook with these big affirming statements that all look like they want to be the centre of attention. I always zoom in on 'run, baby run', because it's follows by a line that matches the exact syllable cadence of We The Kings' "Check Yes Juliet", and I'm here to make sure you never unhear that.

#239. The Preatures - Is This How You Feel? (#9, 2013)

41st of 2013

We've had The Preatures here before. I'm going to summon a magic link that roughly takes you to the post for "Somebody's Talking" (#397). This is the big one though, their crowning pop glory that took them to Platinum sales and a top 10 finish. Not bad for a fledgling band, but evidently something they had trouble navigating alongside a bunch of other things crumbling apart.

Something that might strike you if you listen to the first two Preatures EPs is how different the setup is. It's easy to forget if you never heard their initial breakthrough single "Take A Card" that Gideon was a main vocalist in the band, who sings half of the songs on those two EPs. In an interview with TheMusic back in 2013, Isabella Manfredi takes time to note the set up and how they both weighed up importance for those contributions. In any case, "Is This How You Feel?" turned out to be a big hit, and by the time the album rolls around, Isabella has become the face of the band. It's just her on the album cover and she sings on every song now. I don't know if this relates to Gideon's future departure from the band but it might factor in somewhere.

I had mistakenly believed Isabella and Gideon to be a couple, but it was actually Jack, the band's guitarist. They broke up in the late 2010s around the same time the band did, and from what I've heard from Isabella, it was the result of him taking advantage of her naïveté to control the relationship and also commit adultery. They were on good enough terms to briefly reunite in 2024 but it's gotta rattle the foundation. The band also cite an outdated record contract which brought everything to a halt. Everything points to The Preatures being a short-lived burst of excitement that could've been more, but at least they'll always have this song.

"Is This How You Feel?" is the sound of everything coming together. That undeniable hit that has everyone scratching their heads wishing they'd thought of it first. I always think about the Roxette songwriting process where they seemed to operate with a perfect understanding of how the listener took things in. A hook every 6 seconds, that sort of thing. I don't know if I'd say this song quite reaches those lofty standards, but as I listen to it, I never find it falling into the doldrums. The guitar and bass keep trying new things and the chorus keeps ascending to new highs. Not a moment wasted. Even the bridge, which feels more minimalist than the rest of the song, manages to land in that zone of intrigue, where the repetitive refrain just sounds so unique that it becomes one of the finest moments.

#238. One Day - Love Me Less (#92, 2014)

29th of 2014

Australian hip-hop lesson time. One Day is a supergroup. They might just be the biggest Australian hip-hop supergroup because there isn't a lot of competition and though short-lived, their credentials are pretty solid. They've got in them all the members of Horrorshow, Jackie Onassis, Spit Syndicate, and also Joyride. We've seen Horrorshow in this list before (#644), and Joyride also had a guest appearance as he loves to turn up on a Like A Version (#566). Spit Syndicate might be the most important segment for this entry because Jimmy Nice is singing the hook and first verse. I've got some familiarity with them because they were several albums deep at this point and have a handful of songs lodged in my head permanently. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" is a good one (and actually features Solo from Horrorshow), as is "Beauty in the Bricks", probably the one I heard the most. Jackie Onassis enter the scene a little later, and also have a Solo feature on one of their early releases. I want to say they're the "Crystal Balling" duo, a triumphant song it has to be said. One Day was formed out of mutual respect where they all basically grew up together and it seemed like a good idea to strengthen that bond.

If you need proof of concept for the supergroup concept, then here's what happens when you take some mostly less well known artists and put them all together: You get a #2 album. Well, in fairness Horrorshow did that on their own just a year before this one but it's impressive to pull the same weight like this. When P!nk & City and Colour made an album together, it got to #2 as well, so maybe the lesson is that unifying a tightly knit fanbase can work better than trying to lodge disparate ones together. At least that's in terms of album sales, the increased attention given to artists' top tracks on streaming services is certainly adding a bonus to ending up on as many of those lists as possible. It helped also that One Day has a bonafide hit with some minor chart presence, enough to get the word out and lend some credibility.

"Love Me Less" is that hit. I feel like it might have just gotten a little lost in the shuffle by the time voting opened because I was expecting it quite a bit higher than #92. It starts to look like the beginning of the end for this era of Australian hip-hop, where only Hilltop Hoods are able to carry the mantle going forwards. They're all usually on the fringe anyway, but the crossover hits very quickly became few, far between, and then nothing.

"Love Me Less" sounds like a crossover hit to me though. If not just because Urthboy flipped a similar sample just a year later on "Long Loud Hours" (#334), with the high pitch sounding like a crying child. I'm more convinced it actually is the sound of a crying child on this one though, and it's one of those funny samples that feels like a joke but then oddly just fits into place. Well, I listen to them rap about all these infidelities and it still pokes through at times and makes me laugh again.

It's a peculiar song from the jump that's asking us to make a moral judgement. Are we going to root for the anti-hero who is gleefully boasting about how unfaithful he is on the first line? Is it even the truth of what's going on though? Jump forward to the first verse and Jimmy is contradicting himself by saying he doesn't cheat on every girl. He's right that he's got my attention from that but I am left quite riddled by it. My best guess is that he's just presenting the dichotomy of how he might be perceived, or where the relationship might go. Engaging with a new person in your life is always going to be that question of whether or not you hit it off, and then whether or not you find out that they're just diametrically opposed to you on some key issue. Sometimes you've just got to decide if you're gonna take that risk. I'm also obliged to mention that later on in the song, Solo mentions a flat battery in his phone and then mentions receiving some flattery. It's been 12 years now and I still think of this song as the 'flattery' song, only that I'm reading it as a bizarre portmanteau. Haven't really added it to my lexicon but in fairness I tend to keep my phone charged.

#237. Spacey Jane - Weightless (#81, 2020)

15th of 2020

This is going to sound like a backhanded compliment but my favourite thing about this song is the pre-chorus, where everything calms down for a moment before ripping right into it. It'll be back-handed because for me, it's just emulating another song that'll be higher on this list. Not enough to call it a rip-off by any measure but I suspect my positive reaction to it is simply my brain being reminded of something I like a lot.

It's with this that I get highly critical of the way this band tend to be perceived. It sure sounds snappy to say that Spacey Jane, Ocean Alley & Lime Cordiale are all the same band (real comment I saw). The sentiment is so inherently uninformed on the outset but with all three bands occupying that mental slot of 'boring Australian band that inexplicably gets loads of Hottest 100 entries' for many, they become an outlet for the laziest of derision just because even within echo chambers that don't really ride for the bands, the affirmation of 'It can't just be me who doesn't get it' rings so loudly. You'll cling to any incoherent message that vaguely points in the direction you're facing. Relevant Simpsons clip. It's the kind of adversarial way of experiencing music that garners no sympathy. A mere sidestep away from inventing a person to get mad at them.

Don't deprive yourself of these moments. Sometimes all it takes is one song and suddenly everything clicks into place. You put it through the lens of them being able to make this, so the rest can't be so bad. This just feels like the pinnacle of it all. A similar build up to "Good for You" (#434), but added experience to make it really ascend.

#236. Baker Boy (feat JessB) - Meditjin (#98, 2019)

19th of 2019

Remember 9 months ago when I was talking about the "Lady Marmalade" Like a Version (#628), and how there was this cool rapper from Aotearoa on it that I couldn't mention. Here's the resolution to that and it's all because JessB snuck onto the list just prior to that. It was only a matter of months in fact, "Meditjin" was released quite late in 2019, and that cover was (unsurprisingly) very early in 2020. Just before this song came out, I heard of JessB through her song "So Low". That might have just been a vehicle for Paige singing the chorus, but they both show up well on it, she's absolutely got the Lil Kim flow on lock. JessB also used to be a professional netball player, gotta grab those multi-hyphenates when you get the chance.

"Meditjin" is absolutely a song I associate with sports now. It spent quite a while being used on TV commercials as a hype anthem, and more recently it's been part of the brutally small rotation of songs played after goals at Perth Stadium for Fremantle. I'm writing this just before the 2026 season starts and I'm just hoping they change it up this year (Update: they have). I'll grant that this is a good selection anyhow, but I've been to enough games to know that no one is feeling the "Viva la Vida" chant, where it seems to be an attempt to get everyone to say 'Freooooooo' over the bridge but it just isn't happening. That one game last year where it took 1.5 quarters and 8 behinds to get a goal might have just completely ruined it. "This Girl" by Kungs & Cookin' on 3 Burners though, goes pretty well for a song that I imagine most people do not know a scrap of metadata for, and wouldn't know how to look up either.

Also, "Meditjin" is the medicine. That's what the song means too. It's basically Baker Boy's mission statement boiled down to its simplest form. Baker Boy is once again proving he's a fanboy of Kendrick Lamar by referencing a song that I've not yet written about (or maybe I have by the time you're reading this, who knows). I don't think it's intentional, but I also get a bit of Sergio Mendes' "Mas Que Nada" in the wordless chanting, always a tick in my box. It's surprisingly intense for such a feel good song, but it's a level that Baker Boy and JessB are both capable of matching up to. Guest verses often run a little short so I'm fond of ones like this that give us enough time with the up and comer.