#105. Rudimental (feat Ella Eyre) - Waiting All Night (#24, 2013)
20th of 2013
This particular Rudimental song feels pretty pivotal to me in an accidental way. I largely just associate it with my period of listening to the UK top 40 chart as it was broadcast on BBC Radio 1. I can't remember if there was a particular catalyst that drove me to listening on the week that I did, but it was a pretty notable time, just after the Thatcher shenanigans and there was a new #1 (in fairness there was a new #1 most weeks) and a big arrival of a certain Daft Punk single that got right in the conversation despite not having a full week of sales. In that regard, Rudimental weren't really the big talking point at the time, but because they'd done their dues for a whole seven days, "Waiting All Night" debuted at #1 and became their second UK #1 hit, after "Feel The Love".
I'll get back to Rudimental, but I do just want to talk about how pivotal this period was to me. I think it still echoes out through my general positivity because it gave me a whole new lens and new things to look at in general. As a chart fan, if you stick to your own country's charts, you'll probably begin to feel a little malaise with it. You're probably far too close to all the processes that make the wheels spin, and it all becomes a little predictable and formulaic. Furthermore, if you do peer at other charts, you'll be left wanting for more. You won't even focus on the potential downsides because all you're thinking about is how novel it would be to see some of these acts, genres & styles as part of the conversation in your country. The UK charts had this in spades, with numerous debuts every week that were often never going to make any impression over here. The ones that did, often got a far bigger rollout. Like, I understand "Waiting All Night" being a hit song, and it went top 10 in Australia, but to go to #1, and have that just be an expected circumstance? It's greased a little by an internal engine to manufacture these bigger results (i.e. pre-orders), but there were still so many of these cases where they felt like they were getting more attention, and it was exciting.
The other factor I'll always spruik for is that the best way to get engaged by things like this is to actually engage with it. No half-hearted looking at the chart, taking a cursory look at the debuts once and only once. Actually listening week in, and week out, getting accustomed to the environment that houses this music. It gives you a feeling for why things work the way they do and it's an invaluable perspective of the bigger picture. I've gotten a bit lazy with it all lately but I always appreciate seeing anyone who still has that perspective because it can help you see where yours has been warped. You also have to put in the intent for it to work though, because being bogged down by cynicism will block it from working.
The one specific memory I always call back to is around 2011, where I'd listen to something that was in the charts, a Havana Brown song though I forget which, and thinking just how wrong it sounded as music. I'd then go back to my much cherished album by The National and think this is how music should sound. I look back to it in hindsight because I was so close to getting it, but instead drew the wrong conclusion. You'll get a serious juxtaposition between those acts and side with one and not the other. You have to learn to stop treating it as a competition, or a false comparison where you just make the illogical assumption that one is trying to make the other's sound and failing (or otherwise just making worse music because that's all they're capable of). That's when you start to realise that there's a place for both of them. It also just helps to be around voices who'll support the notion. Still, once I realised pop music from a British perspective could be good, it just unlocked a whole world to me. I'd spent my teen years and early 20s on the internet bad mouthing anything that didn't fit my narrow window of worthwhile music, diminishing even the mightiest of titans in pop music. It was all genuine too, I wasn't just putting on airs. Once I had this revelation though, I've just had so much more fun with everything, because music is so much more enjoyable when you can shut down that voice in your head that wants to say 'every Lady Gaga song is bad, actually'.
It also helps break a lot of contradictory thoughts that are waiting to get you caught in a trap. Like oh, you don't like pop music, but you like this alternative-approved artist who by all accounts is working on a similar level? Act in this way and you're just begging people to get one over on you. It'd be totally valid too for me because at the end of the day, there always were pop hits that I liked, just only the ones that played by my rules which might seem arbitrary to anyone on the outside.
Like, is "Waiting All Night" a big, bold step that challenges the zeitgeist, or it is just part of it? Usually the trick with this is that you just say it's a matter of execution. You listen to "Waiting All Night" and it's a glowing performance. Rudimental tighten the screws here. On their previous hits, they'd used their drum & bass motif to create big anthems that seem to explode on their climax. I hear the opposite for "Waiting All Night". I hear drums that are so tightly packed together that there's a new intensity to it. They start out in that same loose manner for the verses, but just keep closing in together as the chorus approaches. I think part of why I liked the song so much was that it gave me a new sensation, there was something genuinely exciting about this new iteration on the formula. I should probably mention Ella Eyre too. She was a relative newcomer at this point who'd go on and have hits in the UK for about a decade, but this was the first one and she absolutely announces her arrival here. Hard to figure out how to go up from here, and I don't think Rudimental had an answer to that either, which is probably why they explored different sounds after this.
#104. Frank Ocean - Pink + White (#84, 2016)
13th of 2016
Whenever there's any form of discussion about the selection process for artists who either are or aren't being played on triple j, it's always the complicated edge cases that come up. When there's a collaboration that goes across the aisle, it immediately becomes a decision for whose status is more important to maintain, the artist who is always played, or the artist who is never played. This can potentially be a push to move the window. Bridging the gap where an artist who was initially only played because they made the right collaboration, can now hit the field on their own.
I can't say that this is what's going on here because the timeline doesn't match up, but I always think about the way we've had artists go from a small feature to the main stage. Miley Cyrus once could only be heard on triple j via alt-J (#356), but step forward a number of years and then Mark Ronson is giving her a larger role (#406). It'll depend on just how radically you hold to these standards as to which step bothers you the most. The segue I'm building to on this is that Beyoncé is an uncredited guest vocalist on this song. She technically had already been getting played just a few months earlier, but the countdown working as it is meant that when "Hold Up" (#287) caused a stir by getting voted in, it was overlooking the fact that Beyoncé had already appeared on the list a moment earlier. It's possible that there's some overlap between the people who were very mad about this, and those who also voted for "Pink + White". I don't think Beyoncé's contribution to this song is enough to get mad about this sort of thing, but it does highlight how silly this kind of tribalism can be. At the end of the day, she's a capable singer, and any stigma you attach is secondary to the whole process.
This song and its polling performance serves as a great reminder of just how chaotic it is to track music's popularity. We can hold onto records of what was seen as popular in one point of time, only for them to be made gradually redundant. It's especially true nowadays as it feels like a combination of algorithms and viral spread has often completely upended expected norms. Bands and albums whose stories were originally written and understood are upended without any notice. Songs from Weezer's 2014 album & Michael Jackson's 2014 album are fast rising to be one of their most popular songs, stuff like that.
When triple j held a Hottest 100 of the Decade for the 2010s, it started to illustrate some of these cracks. The voting list was largely made of the songs that had made the respective top 200s for each year. On the surface, that's pretty reasonable, because it's quite a leap to go from outside a year's list to trying to crack the whole decade. A big bolstering will just be offset by the immensely bigger contest. triple j partially caught this issue, because they included a handful of songs that never qualified in the first place, and some of them even got over the line. Songs like "Rolling In The Deep" and "Levels". Those ones are obvious though. The thing we often learn here is that a lot of popularity is subtle and doesn't pronounce itself until it gets a chance here.
For Frank Ocean, it was a pretty complicated beast. He's an artist whose popularity doesn't always show itself through specific hit songs, it's not really what he does. The praise is served for the whole albums where everyone has their own favourites, and that story keeps developing as everyone goes back to them. The 2016 Hottest 100 is a snapshot that's very early in the life of "Blonde". It shows the ecosystem where triple j picked out a handful of potential singles and spun those, with "Solo" (#623) coming out on top. That's very much not a signature song from the album nowadays and feels increasingly random as a time capsule. triple j were at least a little aware of this because they also included "Nights" on that decade poll, and rightly so, because it ended up being the only song from "Blonde" to poll, with "Pink + White" getting no love either.
That decade poll from 2020 has now become a fascinating time capsule for a new reason. The tidbit of information I've been withholding here is that in the space of a decade, "Pink + White" has gone from being one of the big hits from the album, to a less important one, to being comfortably the biggest hit from the album. It's eclipsed everything from Frank Ocean now. Even what was once his obligatory crossover friendly hit "Slide" (#108), even his eventual delayed hit "Lost". They both pale in comparison to this much more reserved effort. It's another one of those hidden hit songs though, because even with its big resurgence around 2023, it doesn't have many chart positions to show for it. It was the 40th biggest hit of the year in Aotearoa but has never actually made their weekly chart (which in fairness only goes down to #40). In Australia there's no way of knowing because it was never included on the survey, but given that the song spent pretty much all of 2024 hovering in Australia's Spotify top 100, it'd be fair to say that this was a lost year end hit here as well.
I'll admit that I don't often change my views very much from their starting point. When it comes to "Blonde", I'll freely admit that "Pink + White" was my highlight at the time. I felt a little boring for it being that way because there are far more ambitious songs on the album, but when I get lulled in by an R&B groove, it can be a powerful thing. I have flipped a little where I'd say I prefer "Nights" now. I think it's fair to say that there wouldn't be this much need to constantly find new favourites on this album but that's what happens when we haven't gotten a new album in a decade, we're starved.
#103. Röyksopp (feat Robyn) - Monument (The Inevitable End Version) (#59, 2014)
14th of 2014
I suspect in the electronic music scene, making albums is just for the love of the game. It's not a genre of music that gets very much credit or discussion in the space of all-time great albums, outside of Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and a handful of lucky exceptions. That feels like a product of very American discourse where the tastemakers are just so accustomed to it not being in the conversation that the very notion of this music being important just never makes it over. A lot of fans treat it the same way. It's often hyper focused on specific singles and specific mixes of those singles. Once you put it down to an album format, you're limiting the range of possibilities.
This was the impression I got from what Röyksopp said in 2014. In case you're wondering about the ominous title above you, "The Inevitable End" is the name of the Swedish duo's 5th studio album, billed as their last ever traditional album. They did however make it clear that they didn't plan to stop making music altogether, which certainly has been the case. As for the statement on the album, they stayed completely true to it for quite a while, only breaking it on a technicality in 2022 when they released 3 albums in quick succession called "Profound Mysteries". That's all part of a wider multi-media universe with short films attached to them, so I'm willing to give them a pass. As for why the sub header needs to be attached to the song itself, it's to differentiate it from the original version of "Monument" which was released 4 months earlier as part of an EP (whose title track will eventually appear on this list). That original version is just shy of 10 minutes long while this one cuts it down to a brisk 4:47, getting away from more technicalities as the longest ever Hottest 100 entry.
Part of the notoriety around this (and another single) is the teaming up with Robyn, who I will certainly discuss more on that future entry. It was a big commercial boon for both of them at least, as their collaborative EP became Röyksopp's highest charting album in Australia, and actually it was the first time Robyn had ever made the album chart top 50 here (she only outpeaked it earlier in 2026 with her latest album "Sexistential"). The album didn't have quite as much of Robyn on it, but I have to imagine the ominous title and premise added to the curiosity. I suspect this album was also my first impression of Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør, who would garner a lot of praise for me a year later with her excellent "Ten Love Songs" album.
Credit has to be given to this particular version of the song. It's not a simple case of chopping up the longer version of the song and selling it as a radio hit. They've largely overhauled the feeling of the song, giving it considerably more punch. I'll admit a certain fondness in the original version after around the 7 minute mark, there's a moment where the synths and Robyn fade into the background, and we're treated to very lively drums & brass as an extended coda to the song. It stops really sounding like Röyksopp, though I am reminded of the duo's regular moments of brilliance in spacing things out. A little reminiscent of what's probably their most famous song, "What Else Is There?", which balances out a strong performance of Karin Dreijer from The Knife with some strong moments of calm to take it all in.
"Monument (The Inevitable End Version)" doesn't really do that as much (there's a very brief moment of calm after the second chorus, that's about it), and jumps right into things with thick, throbbing synths. Robyn actually gets demoted from co-collaborator to featured artist in this version, but I wouldn't take too much stock in that. You could very easily pretend that this is a solo Robyn track as she controls the flow of things. If you're just here for her, she's absolutely in her element here. I'm very fond of what Röyksopp bring to this version as well. Aside from that deep electro sound (which feels like a precursor to the Furi soundtrack if I'm being honest), there's a great moment on the bridge where they just seem to bring out all these fresh squelching sounds that feel entirely new to me. Just feels like a nice dance to metaphorically cap a very respectable career.
#102. Haim - If I Could Change Your Mind (#56, 2013)
19th of 2013
I don't really get down with the discourse about how streaming has ruined album campaigns through immediate wide-spread availability. I understand there's a desire to keep things as they once were and how it disrupts the previous drip feed of hits, but it's largely been an artificial withholding. For every hit that's been lost to not getting the chance to lead the charge of excitement on its own, you've surely had a chance to hear way more that you like because it's so much easier to sample them. Sometimes songs that were never going to be hits because they'd never pass the focus group testing suddenly burst out the gates and that's interesting too.
On the other hand, I guess I do have a certain fondness for post-album singles too. In a sense they've always been disadvantaged due to not having as much hype as what came before them, and having to feed off whatever's left. Often times they just won't be built for that anyway, it's the part of the album cycle where you're just trying to show off the idea that there's more left in the tank beyond the initial gimmicks. It's the time for the sordid, professional single. Sometimes in the age of streaming, we've learnt that these less eventful hits are in fact what people wanted the most. They often just hold up the best for repeat and return listens. I can't technically say that's the case for Haim, but I do think that "If I Could Change Your Mind" has aged tremendously well.
If I could change one thing, I'd pop this track a little later onto the album. "Days Are Gone" starts off with 3 singles off the bat before jumping into this song, and I think it'd do well to prop up the back end which can't quite live up to the early excitement. Maybe the strategy was to hit the ground running once you step into the unknown for the first time, but I'd trust the process that enough ears would find the song in due course either way.
A lot of Haim's earlier singles had a certain stiffness to them. They stick out because of all the rapid decisions that circle around them. "Forever" with its peculiar drum loop, the occasional rapid fire delivery of "Don't Save Me", and the general stomp of "The Wire" (#111). "If I Could Change Your Mind" takes things in a different direction, and we're treated to much more carefully laid down synths. The drums & guitars are a little rickety still, but less jarring to the ear. It's helped also by Danielle's performance as lead vocalist, where she puts everything down slowly but affirmatively. All up, it's the most normal Haim song and that in itself is the strangest quirk of it. Well either that or the way it sounds like they're talking about pigeons of our love on the bridge, that one's stuck with me for 13 years now.
#101. Anderson .Paak - Bubblin (#85, 2018)
10th of 2018
In all their years of doing this, I don't think triple j have ever addressed the elephant in the room regarding polls like this. For as much as you'd like to just avoid it, and big voter turnout can help here, there just isn't a way to confidently assure that a tie won't happen. It's a complicated thing to try and map a statistical model for, but by all accounts, you can safely expect gaps in the range of 50 voters and under for big portions of the list. Once you get to the 101-200 section, those gaps get much smaller, and that's where you'd really expect to see them. One tie every year or so is about what I'd imagine if I'm being lenient, but it just never happens. I can understand wanting to avoid it, this is something that could ruin a spreadsheet after all. There must be a tie-breaker system in there somewhere, even if it's just a basic one like alphabetical, or first-in. In any case, someone's getting screwed over in the democratic process here. What? You're gonna tell me you never pondered that?
I'm not just saying this because I'm at the inauspicious position of #101 here. At no point did I ever consider making #100 a tie so that Anderson .Paak gets to find a space in there. It helps that he does still have a song to appear higher up this list. Maybe that song is #100, imagine that? No, this was my opportunity to do a rare compliment for the GRAMMYs, who must also have this issue crop up from time to time, where the reduced vote count is only mitigated by the fact that they don't have to worry if it's not a tie for first. This actually happens roughly once every two years, often in very niche categories. The big exception was in 1978 when the Song Of The Year GRAMMY was miraculously split between "Evergreen" and "You Light Up My Life", two songs that I would imagine are primed to split each other's votes, but apparently with enough support to beat "Hotel California" and "Nobody Does It Better", among others. A more recent one of note was when "Bubblin" tied with a song by Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future and some other guy who is not a rapper for Best Rap Performance in 2019. It's a spectacular tie because now two guys who you would not normally consider for this award got a piece of it, and also Aftermath Records released both singles, so they got the best possible result from this. Also as a bonus, you get to see Shaggy reading out the names for the first time and start to say Jay-Z before correcting himself.
The reason I say it's odd is that by all accounts, Anderson .Paak is a rapper, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from listening to him. He featured on the 2016 XXL Freshman list (which is in hindsight a pretty notable one, one of those artists is still yet to appear on this list). This came about 5 months after he released his acclaimed album "Malibu" which doesn't really have any rapping on it from him. If you haven't given the album a look-in for a while, or maybe never did because 'oh look at this album critics love from an artist you otherwise have no reason to care for' isn't an enticing offer, then allow me to add onto the pile because it's still incredibly exciting. It doesn't matter if he never matches this, but then again, any speculative hype no longer became speculative once he scored a #1 hit (#218).
"Bubblin" is a considerable change of pace from "Malibu". The instrumental is two different brands of chaos that turns the whole thing into stress incarnate. Suddenly Anderson .Paak's usually friendly performance sounds sinister. The whole thing just took me by surprise. Furthermore, it was released in early 2018, in advance of Anderson .Paak's next album "Oxnard", only it never ended up on it, not even as a bonus track. There's every chance it'd be the biggest song on the album if it had that proper chance to shine, though I can understand if it doesn't really fit the vibe. I just love that something this frantic can seize the opportunity here, because it quickly became one of my favourite 'discoveries' from that year's list.
Also welcome to the final stretch. Starting from next week, I'll be changing the posting schedule to one song every weekday at roughly the same time (forgive me if my rough sleep patterns get in the way).
No comments:
Post a Comment