#230-#226

 #230. The Smith Street Band - Death to the Lads (#21, 2016)

26th of 2016

You might astutely have noticed that I placed the majority of the entries from The Smith Street Band within a very small amount of space (and the other two weren't far off). It's something that I tend to be self-conscious of. I don't want to fall into that trap of voting for the band, or otherwise assigning a rough cap to what they might be capable of. To me it just represents the incidental chance of this happening with a randomly selected set of songs. A faux linguist is breathing a sigh of relief that I finally didn't end a sentence with a preposition. I had no intention of doing this but it just ended up this way. In a sense, great, it's a solid set of entries. In another sense, just terrible here because I've never been able to recharge myself to find something new to put into this.

If I were to add a new tangent to all of this, I barely scratched the surface on the fact that most of The Smith Street Band's entries here were produced by Jeff Rosenstock, this included. I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of his music but I do like "WORRY." quite a bit as well as that Bomb the Music Industry! album that tends to get the most love. I wouldn't say the Smith Street collaborations are a carbon copy, but the best parts of his music just remind me of the best parts of PUP's music. It's an appropriate team up though, because who else would pair up extreme wordiness with anthemic singalongs?

"Death to the Lads" has one goal in mind which is to become exactly that kind of anthem. The moment I first heard of it, all I could think was that it was a deliberate attempt to engineer it. The great thing about it is that 'the lads' doesn't even need to be a specific sub-group. There are probably groups of people who are considered 'the lads' to one group, who have their own 'the lads' to push below themselves on the ladder. I don't even think this song is taking aim at any particular group. Rather it's about recognising our own shortcomings, so really, we're all the lads. I'm here thinking over this list for a solid year and I still end up putting the 'get out of my f**king face, mate' song ahead of all the more intricately introspective songs instead. If you've mastered the art of ranking things why would you spend half your time choking with blatantly uncouth decisions?

#229. Travis Scott - SICKO MODE (#3, 2018)

26th of 2018

This was a long time coming for Travis Scott. He'd been on the cusp of a big breakthrough for years but without a crossover hit to show for it. It was so willed into existence that a significant portion of his album swarmed the charts on the week it came out, despite his only top 50 hit prior to this being a feature credit on a moderately sized Major Lazer hit. It gives us one of those ascents you can map out as a projection of the general populace. "SICKO MODE" debuted in the top 10 at #7, but that was just the eager Travis Scott fans, and maybe some Drake fans as well. The song spent the next two months slowly sliding as those early listeners weren't maintaining the same enthusiasm, the way I imagine most people who obsess over an album probably will reach their critical mass for how frequently they listen to it very quickly. The song levels out, but then picks up a second wave of momentum, as everyone who was detached from the album cycle hype is now just tuning into what has turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the year. It's even easy to imagine someone half-heartedly trying it out, dismissing it as messy album filler, and only later finding that connection that makes the brain click with the idea of it being a hit song. The song got back to #7 another 2 months later, and when they seemed like it might be the end of it, the result of triple j's Hottest 100 a further 2 months later finally got it that shiny new peak. It got to #6. A tremendous result for a song as weird as this.

*TRANSITION*

They seem to get an unpopular reaction but I love the extra fluff that comes along with the Hottest 100 countdown. Maybe not necessarily calling up drunk parties (though I understand why they do that), but I'm talking about the extra sauce that puts more life into the countdown appearances. Little intros, interviews and that sort of thing. If you're in any way voting in the countdown because you want your favourite songs to get more exposure and commendations, then you should absolutely, more than anything else, hope that they get an introductory segment. I've found through watching the response to it on download & streaming charts that getting the extra bit of focus goes a huge way towards making people pay attention to them. We just like things when we know more about them and it makes them feel more important.

It's not often something that gets commented on very much, but there's one big exception to this. Before the #3 song was played for 2018, triple j played one of these info sections to build up to it. It starts with a clip of Anthony Fantano saying 'This generation's "Bohemian Rhapsody". It's taken from one of his 'Let's Argue' videos where he's reading a quote from a random Twitter user. If you listen to the whole thing in context, you'll find there's a degree of reluctance to it, where even though he likes the song a lot, the flaw(s) really makes it hard to fully support the idea. triple j's segment keeps running with it, but it's clear to me they're just having a bit of fun.

The people were not happy about it. For weeks upon weeks, any and all triple j threads about anything were at risk of being derailed once someone brought up the quote. This may have all been amplified by the fact that the "Bohemian Rhapsody" biopic was very recently released, so Queen idolisation was at a generational high. It eventually cooled off but as recently as a week ago I saw someone bring it up again and specifically attribute the quote to Ben & Liam, who were hosting breakfast and that segment of the countdown at the time. There is some slight truth to this in that they did say this (I apologise but I've never been able to distinguish which one is which so I can't correctly attribute this. I saw one person say it was Liam but I'm not about to take that as gospel). Once "SICKO MODE" ended, you hear Ben or Liam say 'They're calling it this generation's "Bohemian Rhapsody", except their microphone wasn't turned on at first, so the first three words came in very quietly. It's possible this one very slight radio gaffe amplified the situation, but it's impossible to say. It's certainly one of the all-time over-reactions though. It's so blatantly superficial and silly in an era where everything surrounding Drake was turning into a meme. It's not even the most famous "SICKO MODE" meme because it was around the same time as a screenshot from "The Polar Express" was being exploited to make people debate their preference between it and Sheck Wes's "Mo Bamba". A battle where the hits were not remotely on the same scale to make it fair, but it has that certain 'yob or wanker' feel to it in the world of memey but very popular hip-hop songs of late 2018.

*TRANSITION*

I do want to emphasize just how weird this song is. Everything about it (except the feature) screams of an accidental hit, the kind that is just not going to be pushed along by the machine unless it's forced to keep up. A song running for over 5 minutes, shifting between beats that have nothing in common. That's all while it's operating in Travis Scott's typically hazed out modus operandi that's never really proven itself to be pop viable. Even in those bounds, we're not done, because (especially during Travis's verse) you're caught off guard by every strange idea that has entered the man's head. I'm adverse to ever denoting this song as 'Travis Scott featuring Drake' because it's ignoring all the other contributions. Swae Lee says all of 3 words on the song but makes an amazing impression with it. Biggie even has 3 words of his own two decades after his death. Just the words 'gimme the loot' alone add 14 songwriters to this behemoth. At long last, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Phife Dawg, DJ Premier & Guru have co-written a Billboard #1 hit, I'm happy for them. Feel like I've left out a name or two there, I'm sure they'll get their moment.

Drake does naturally get most of the attention here. This makes sense because it's 2018 and this song is just a victory lap for him, though you can have fun with the fact that he's not normally credited on the song. I was strongly considering writing this whole entry without mentioning him once but it was too awkward to write around him. He's just a beacon for things to talk about, or maybe he's like a light, like a light, like a light, Lisa needs braces, pick up Bart, a part of us all. His best part of the song is the intro, where he lands on the sorrow, remorseful Drake mood which I find always connects with me. Perhaps put a pin in that for a future entry.

If there's something to be let down about in the whole experience it's that there's not nearly enough chemistry in here. The very fact that they tease it at the end probably makes it worse. I want to pretend they're in the same room trading bars, rather than emailing them back and forth. Still, the era of "SICKO MODE" is always one I'm happy to re-live. A tremendous high point for the people who made it, and the people who made it a hit.

#228. Arctic Monkeys - Body Paint (#79, 2022)

13th of 2022

Welcome back to the Arctic Monkeys lounge experience, enjoy your stay, we have jet skis on the moat. It feels miraculous to say that this is the second entry here from "The Car", given the album before this one only managed one, and at a lower position. They shouldn't have been able to get away with this again. At the time I had a brief inclination to say that I might prefer "The Car" to the couple of albums that came before it, but I'm not sure that holds anymore. Admittedly I've not gone back to those ones as I'm saving them up for later dates.

I can only guess that it was an accidental master stroke in timing. This album was released in mid-October. Normally I'd say aim for a month or two before that, but it's not quite as important if you're an artist of Arctic Monkeys' stature. They're guaranteed to get the necessary attention early on, and it's just a matter of holding onto it for long enough. A lot of albums like this run the risk of falling out of focus for the next big thing and then the enthusiasm dries up quickly. This is exactly that kind of album but they made it work for them. We are looking at Arctic Monkeys a solid 17 years into their career though. I wonder if younger listeners would see them the same way that I might have felt when Pearl Jam were finding their way into the list as late as 2006. Even Pearl Jam's big second commercial burst they had when "Last Kiss" became a #1 hit was more recent then, than Arctic Monkeys' "AM" success was in 2022. Unctic Monkeys, or something like that. It's not like the actual music would dissuade anyone from thinking that.

My personally biased point perspective here is that part of the success came from them holding onto the album's secret weapon as a second single. If there was an obvious beacon for votes like there was last time, they'd probably be doomed to repeating the performance, but here you had the pretty likeable lead single (#417), and then this one later down the line that's just a little more straight forward to get into. I can't exactly claim Arctic Monkeys aren't able to get away with lengthy song titles given what the early part of their career was like, but they had a certain whimsy you don't get from the ode to demanding a mirrorball. "Body Paint"? Much more straight to the point. It didn't quite take the lead as their most popular song here, but landed awfully close given how much less attention it got from the outset.

I like to count it as a win for "Body Paint" anyway, because it otherwise had no business getting through here. If I were to vote for an Arctic Monkeys song that year, it'd be this one. It takes their extremely mild chill out zone to new places, ones that feel a little less indulgent. I contain contradictions though so my favourite part of this song is the ultra-indulgent guitar solo at the end. So predictable, I know. It's just a very nice feather in the cap that they'd been building to the whole time. So while I might not go back to "The Car" very often, this is a very worthwhile cut to take away from it, was stoked to see it here.

#227. Violent Soho - Vacation Forever (#69, 2019)

18th of 2019

The funny number. The original funny number if you will. It is a number that does not discriminate in the Hottest 100, and is willing to be home to the deeply serious (gestures to Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", and the deeply unserious (gestures towards "(Let's Go) Smoke Some Pot", "Waving My Dick In The Wind"). It's so thoroughly random what we get here that in all our time of Hottest 100 countdowns, just one artist has managed to slot in there twice. It wouldn't be right if #69 didn't have a partner, and fortunately, 3 years after their first stint, Violent Soho found their way in there again. I really thought they had a chance to do it again another 3 years later but it wasn't to be.

I sometimes forget that "Vacation Forever" wasn't just a loose single. The album came out in 2020 and went to #1 on the charts, forcing Dua Lipa to wait a little bit longer to hit #1. There were no further Hottest 100 entries though, a considerable drop off when they had 6 on the previous album. The reality of it is that they had two near misses, "Pick It Up Again" at #113 and "Lying On The Floor" at #117. I very much enjoy the latter which feels like the closest approximation of all the hits on "WACO". Good build up, good hook to lock it into place. Maybe a lot of time felt like it passed in 2020 and everyone just forgot about it. In general though, I don't think the album showcases their best for the most part. It's short and sweet, but drags on a bit, nonetheless.

"Vacation Forever" is a solid single though. It's the gift that keeps giving. You get a big hook, and then the chorus just keeps on going, and going. Only then do you finally remember that this is that one song with the 'baby boomer' lyric and it's the cement that holds it all together. Such great worldbuilding, what on earth is the context?

#226. Mallrat - Charlie (#3, 2019)

17th of 2019

"Charlie" was released on August 7th, 2019. At the same time it was released, there was a new #1 single in Australia. With the exception of a week when Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" took over, that same song remained at #1 all the way up until the end of the voting period for the 2019 Hottest 100. In that same time, "Charlie" could not quite managed to crack the ARIA top 100 (though it would reach #50 in 2020, Mallrat's only ever top 50 hit). That song landed just behind "Charlie" in the Hottest 100. I'm not making any comment on that song here (although you may have realised it still hasn't appeared), just that it is one of the most monumentally extreme examples of how the charts don't always dictate the poll in the way it might feel they do. It's a David vs. Goliath situation where admittedly, Goliath has been getting his fair share of victories lately, and arguably he still did in 2019 (another song is being omitted from discussion), but you never really know how the dice are going to land, and that's very interesting. Just this idea that a song can be well beloved, but in an 'off the grid' kind of way.

Maybe for Mallrat, it wasn't so surprising given that all the momentum was on her side. She was climbing higher and higher on the list each year with this being the logical zenith. Maybe "Groceries" (#313) really was the bigger hit, but it also fully put her on the map as an undeniable hitmaker. Maybe on those metrics she didn't do quite as well here, but she succeeded in a different way by pulling at the heart strings.

Do you know the story about Hachikō? He was an Akita dog born over 100 years ago who would wait for his owner after work every day. One day, his owner suddenly died at work, but Hachikō would continue to come back to Shibuya Station in Tokyo almost every day waiting for his owner to come back. He continued doing this for a decade until he also passed away. There's now a statue of him at Shibuya station. You might also know this story via that one episode of Futurama. I am informed by people who have very deep affection for dogs in general that this is a heartbreakingly sad episode. Don't let my dog agnostic feelings get in the way of that if you feel this way.

Mallrat doesn't go into that sad aspect of it, but it is a song about the joy that comes with returning to her dog when she gets home. Nothing about this is particularly explicit in the text unless you know her dog is named Charlie, and even then, it won't turn up until you're nearly at the end of the song. I am undecided on whether the whole song is about Charlie, and it's just a misdirection before that or not, because you can read a lot of these lyrics as being about a prospective partner as well. I promise there's nothing suspect in that. In any case, the Hottest 100 has a long history with songs about how dogs are great, and Mallrat has just set a massive benchmark for the next comer to try and top.