#235. SZA - I Hate U (#78, 2021)
12th of 2021
Since around 2014, triple j have held onto a pretty consistent ruling with regard to eligibility for the list. It's something that's been so hard locked in since then that it's well understood and remembered whenever the conversation comes up. The first day of eligibility is December 1st of the previous year, all up until November 30th. All roughly 2-14 months in advance of the countdown. It's not one of those things that falls out of place when the 365 (or 366) days of the year come into play, it's always those exact cut offs. So few hits actually end up released in December so they probably could get away with making it fully wrap around the year, but it's probably fair to give some more of a chance to build up hype, considering how poorly November hits tend to do anyway.
When the voting lists come out, this doesn't usually pan out exactly to plan. Understandable when you're dealing with a very large list of songs and the resources for accurate date checking not always being immediately obvious. It tends to be nowadays when the list comes out that some ineligible songs just end up on the voting list. Usually it's brief and fixed up once it gets pointed out, and it's no harm done. Save for all the people who just wasted a vote and won't get it reimbursed. Then I guess sometimes they just never fix it and we're stuck with it.
"I Hate U" probably should not be on this list. Well, maybe it should, but it probably shouldn't be on the 2021 list. It all depends on how you define the term 'released'. SZA originally put the song up on SoundCloud in August, 2021. The buzz around it was good, and so she released it fully on December 3rd, 2021. It starts to get a little odd here though because if you look at the upload for the song on SoundCloud now, it has that December 3rd release date, yet the oldest comments on it are from November 2021. I just don't know how the site works. The original upload is still around though, via an anonymous account that SZA was using to put out the songs (it was also titled "I Hate You" at that point). That's my proof that the song did exist in its very same form in August, 2021. I just don't know if I'd say that it counts as a released song like that. triple j didn't play the song once until the official release. This might just be me in the bargaining phase where I look at this song specifically as the one that kicked MAY-A's "Time I Love To Waste" outside of the top 100, a song I'd re-iterate as probably being my #1 pick for that list if it were there. This song's 12th place for me is a reasonable consolation, but the grass really is always greener.
In any case, another hit for SZA. Another notch towards finally releasing that album, and back when I didn't know what I might have been dealing with, was definitely a quick favourite for me. It's made to be a single. The synth hook is memorable and sets the tone for a nice pocket of spite. It's all that unbridled fury though, where at first she's being reasonable and calling out a shitty thing to do, but eventually the urge to just scream 'f**k you!' takes over. The switch up on the chorus is so unexpected but works so well.
#234. Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight (#65, 2015)
31st of 2015
I find myself wondering if there's an alternative universe where we're all just a little bit sick of Alabama Shakes. They achieved success right out the gate with their first album and even got nominated for Best New Artist at the GRAMMYs. They didn't win, but they'd cash in their cheque with the next album. The chart positions got better, and they actually started winning a bunch of GRAMMYs. The only one they lost out on was for Album Of The Year, losing to Taylor Swift. I do wonder if they may have been seriously in the mix to win it, but maybe Chris Stapleton diluted their votes a little bit. It's a fast track to being seen as one of those artists that are inexplicably obsessed over by the GRAMMY committee and that can tank your reputation pretty quickly. Instead what Alabama Shakes did was they just didn't release any more music. Their 2015 album "Sound & Colour" remains their latest full release. They did finally release a new song in 2025 called "Another Life", which I'll endorse, but at the time of writing, that's all there is. I'll update to say they also released "American Dream" a few weeks ago.
The part I'm leaving out here is that between these releases, Brittany Howard has embarked on a solo career. You might recall it from its specific characteristic of sounding absolutely nothing like Alabama Shakes. A lot of the time whenever I heard songs from her, I couldn't even pick out her distinct voice because the template surrounding it was just so different. Her debut album really just does everything all at once.
Brittany has always been the calling card of Alabama Shakes though. A singer with a big voice that's able to emote in such specific ways that stand out. I am one of the people who initially got fooled by her androgynous voice, something that sounds increasingly silly once you go back to "Hold On" and realise she name-checks herself and her much less gender-neutral first name. Part of me hopes this whole entry has been a big 'WTF' moment for someone reading it. It's always nice to teach & learn new things. Another interesting thing about the band is that they're from Athens, Alabama. The state makes sense, but the city provides the opportunity to have to say 'no, not that one' twice. It feels fair to say though that no city punches so far above its own weight in the world of music than Athens, Georgia.
"Don't Wanna Fight" has always been a big standout for me for all the same reasons. It feels like it should be their big breakout hit because it perfectly nails that crossover friendly blues sound akin to The Black Keys before them. Just hit 'em with a funky riff and it'll go a long way. It helps contribute to an extremely catchy hook though, where Brittany finds an even higher note to go crazy on. Well, I guess it's not as high as she goes, because there's the infamous introduction to this song that sounds like a kettle boiling. I forget who made that observation first but it's the only thing I ever think about now.
#233. Tate McRae - she's all i wanna be (#74, 2022)
14th of 2022
Today when I was watching the footy I heard a bit of an interview that caught my ear. It was Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick looking forward to the current season with optimism. The club had what most would generally agree was a very lucrative trade & draft period. The phrasing that got my attention is how he referred to these new player acquisitions as 'toys' to play around with. Maybe on some level, that's how people see it all, but it was language that felt dehumanising to me, and it's something that's rubbed me the wrong way no matter who's doing it.
I don't know how you might feel about Tate McRae, but I'm writing this in 2026, and it's fair to say that she's one of the biggest pop stars of the decade. It's a winning formula to be prolific and while her pace of releasing albums might not be quite on par with the Rihannas and Taylor Swifts of the world, it's harder to find moments in time when she doesn't have a hit doing the rounds than when she does. I don't want to talk about that part of her career though, that's all largely in the realm of a hypothetical sequel blog. I want to look at the early part of her career, before she had even released an album, and when her bid to be a star was still up in the air, it's where the story begins for me, and eventually everyone else.
For most people, I think the first time Tate McRae enters the picture was with her song "you broke me first". I'm pretty sure it's the first one I heard though I don't have any recollection of that moment anymore. The song was a slow burner though, released early on in 2020 and taking about 4 months to take off. In that intervening period, I was getting acquainted with her music. I'd taken a liking to some of the subsequent singles, "vicious" and "don't be sad" back when I had no reason to suspect she was hitting the big time very soon. They're fun songs. An interesting blend of pop and trap that stood out quite a bit. It feels important for me to acknowledge this period because I constantly forget about it. Once an artist gets as big as she's gotten, and feels like the go-to vehicle for all the big pop producers, you can forget about those humble beginnings because the idea that she was ever approachably niche just doesn't sound right anymore.
Another part of this is the way that a lot of people tend to use persuasive language to try and drive home their point of view. The part I left out about "you broke me first" becoming a big hit was the internet's collective response to it. Words to the effect of her just being a Billie Eilish clone manufactured by the labels but with none of the talent. I think having known her music for just a little longer than most, it stood out to me as a little disingenuous, and reeked of that hesitance that always comes with new faces if they haven't been manually approved beforehand. Whenever these artists come back through again, there's that sneering, dehumanising statement that comes around. Stop me if you've ever heard something along the lines of 'I thought we agreed the Jessie Murph experiment was over'.
Tate McRae was firmly in these leagues for years. I think she's well past it now but it wouldn't surprise me if some of those more steadfast individuals still refuse to give her flowers, still treating her as a C-lister no matter how far up the ladder she's managed to climb. It certainly seemed like the remaining sentiment when "she's all i wanna be" came out. A chance to smugly stroke chins and declare that after copying the 2019 success of Billie Eilish into 2020, she was now copying the 2021 success of Olivia Rodrigo into 2022. You can sound extra clever if you wrap it up into meta-context on what the song is about. It's all so very surface level, tiresome, and feels amplified due to this uncontrollable urge the world has to subconsciously pit women against each other. I'll concede that this is a bit of a genre experiment she hasn't really stuck with, but there aren't a lot of opportunities to break through in your career by doing something that isn't a little bit trendy. What I mean to say is that if you're looking for these angles to be critical, you'll find them.
As a brief aside, I should note that "she's all i wanna be" is an odd inclusion in this list. triple j had been sporadically playing Tate McRae as early as 2020, but generally steering around her hits. "feel like shit" got a whole lot of time on the station. By end of 2022, "she's all i wanna be" had been played once on the station. It felt a little lucky to make it onto the voting list, and because it was a big hit in the wider world, it snuck onto this list. It was probably a reality check moment for triple j who took it as a sign to further get behind her, and she's had a very strong showing in the last 3 countdowns as a result. If not for a rare case of triple j ignoring one of her biggest hits in "Just Keep Watching", she'd already be up to 10 entries to date in the Hottest 100. She's had as many entries as Violent Soho, and more than Tool and The Offspring. She feels like a main character of the recent countdowns who is just making an early cameo at the moment, so often earlier in the list I'd wanted to reference her but had to remind myself this was on the way, just so out of place here.
That's just on a meta level that it's out of place. I think this pop rock pivot makes for a generally easier sell than the more 2000s R&B influenced pop she's putting out now. It's the kind of song that I could completely imagine hearing on triple j, especially if it were by an Australian artist. I'm somewhat cautious when things like this happen, but I was ready to welcome this instance because it's always been a song I've really enjoyed. Enough so that I've gone so far as to put it above all of Olivia Rodrigo's pop rock adjacent songs, I don't see this as a pale imitation at all. Maybe my bias as something of an early fan still influences my feelings on her music. Hard to say really. I forget about that so much that it has to be on a subconscious level you'd think. Even when she's moved so far away from making music that's marketed for me, I can often find something to take away from it. No caveats for this one though, just highly enjoyable.
#232. The Jungle Giants - Love Signs (#18, 2021)
11th of 2021
There's a long running, well recognised bit that the signature component of all ska music is the phrase 'pick it up' being repeated very quickly. You don't even need to be able to think of a song that does it, it's just the calling card. It goes way back, even beyond the '90s, though if you want an archetypical example, then you want "Sound System" by Operation Ivy. Maybe the most famous ska song to do it is "Superman" by Goldfinger, but it's also entirely possible you know an entire Tony Hawk's Pro Skater two minute run of the song and have not even noticed it's there, slightly buried in the mix. I've always joked to myself that "Love Signs" is officially a ska song, because it says the phrase considerably more times than the songs I've mentioned here. The cadence and speed aren't right at all, but you can't tell me they weren't shitposting with this one. It's that and the fact that the opening words to this song are 'Love signs, baby'. I can think of exactly one 5 letter word that begins with S that I'd expect to see in that space and it isn't signs, or space. Who knew The Jungle Giants simply had no limits to what kinds of music they'd gentrify with their new sound?
I jest of course. Given what came before and after, there's an argument to be made that "Love Signs" is probably the least challenging Jungle Giants song. It doesn't sound remotely interested in threatening your perception of their music. I think they wanted a hit, because that's what they do. To an extent, they got it. Not quite on the level as the two that came before it, but you look at this sitting pretty snugly in the top 20 on a competitive year and you have to conclude that they did alright with this one.
There's a soft spot for me in it too because it's probably the only Jungle Giants song I've really gravitated to on my first listen. They've fared pretty well on this list overall, but they're all the consequence of me giving them the time to thrive. This one was just sending & receiving love signs immediately. I think they hit on a nice chill sound for this one, something that reminds me of deep cuts on Chairlift's "Something" album. It's the kind of song that helps you forget about what Subway's former spokesperson did.
#231. Childish Gambino - 3005 (#43, 2013)
40th of 2013
I have never been overly familiar with Donald Glover's writing & acting work. I've seen the occasional clips of Community and enjoyed those small bites (the GIF of him walking into a burning building with pizza is an all-timer), but otherwise it's pretty separate from me. With that in mind, I think of him as a rapper first and foremost. I'll probably exclusively call him Childish Gambino in all of these entries because that's my entry point.
Along with Disclosure, he's been something of a surprise package for this list for me. I've never really seen myself as a big fan or anything to that degree, but when we actually look at his stat sheet, we're looking at a pretty unimpeachable set of entries. He'll appear in this list 5 more times after this one, all with an eclectic set of songs that hardly sound anything like each other, taking big swings and consistently finding intrigue. He's had one more Hottest 100 entry since the cutoff with "Lithonia", and I greatly admire that one too. Inexplicably getting away with making a Weezer sounding rock ballad in the year 2024. I think it'd still be to come in this list if I subbed it in, so it's an incredible innings all up.
We have to start somewhere, and "3005" is the likely case. Jump back into 2013 and I was not fond of the song at all. It wasn't actually my introduction to Childish Gambino because I knew "Heartbeat" and "Do Or Die" by then. Good songs, and they had me generally rooting for him. "3005" felt like a step back to me where I just didn't enjoy the hook at all and that got in the way of everything else. It just felt a little more dull compared to my expectations and I started to resent its popularity.
I held onto these feelings for a really long time. I've been waiting years to share the story but it was actually in early 2020 when I had my revelation. I was at the BROCKHAMPTON show and there was a DJ playing assorted hits as a warmup, which I was vaguely paying attention to since that's the level of music nerd I am. I don't really remember what else was part of it, just that it was a lot of hip-hop. "3005" was in that mix though and maybe it was the good vibes of the time, maybe it was being outside, maybe it was seeing a bunch of people having fun in the mosh section, but something about it just clicked right there. That same hook that always felt momentum crushing just felt euphoric in the moment. In hindsight, I think it's always had that effect, but it's amplified much more strongly on the second iteration, after which I was usually checked out. Now I think it's probably the best part of the song, the glue that holds it all together. Gambino's rapping is still pretty fun though. I think he sets the tone pretty early with the legendary line 'Girl, why is you lying? Girl, why you Mufasa?'. I think if you can manage to accept that corny bar into your life, it's very easy to get on board with the whole thing. Surely won't be the last time he pulls off something like that in this list.
