Movie, music and TV reviews by Matt Neal, a Rotten Tomatoes-accredited ABC Radio film critic (also an author, musician, journalist and all-round okay guy).
It's that time of the year again - a time when critics dig through their pile of reviews and compile a best 'of' list. So let's do it.
Firstly though I just want to point out I've been somewhat limited in what I've been able to watch this year, so forgive me if I haven't seen your fave. And release dates are based on Australian release dates.
A masterclass in screenwriting, acting, and directing, overflowing with great characters, brought to life beautifully by a stellar cast, and with a strong thematic and emotional core while still being wickedly and darkly funny. What more could you want in a film.
A story we all know but don't really know which proves fascinating in Chazelle's hands. His documentary-style delivery, aided by stunning performances from Gosling and Foy, makes for emotional, powerful, and gripping viewing.
The most innovative horror film since The Blair Witch Project. But it's so much more than its silent conceit - it's a repeatedly devastating story that will have you on the edge of your seat for the majority of its runtime.
The Coens' made-for-Netflix Wild West anthology is among their best stuff, with each segment gorgeously written, the lyrical qualities of the dialogue really singing in the mouths of an all-round talented cast.
Guillermo del Toro's worthy Oscar-winner poses the question "what if the monster got the girl?". It's a strange question, with weird answers, but it's one del Toro asks with beauty, delicacy and intelligence in this fable about acceptance and equality.
Infinity War makes some bold choices that render it not only surprising, but also devastating. It goes to the darkest places yet in the MCU, and yet is still brimming with the franchise's typical humour. It's had the biggest expectations of any superhero film to date, and manages to meet them and even exceed them.
With its eye-popping blend of hand-drawn sensibilities and CG wizardry, Sony's latest attempt to cash-in on its webslinging moneyspinner looks and feels ripped straight out of a comic book. It's a ploy that works better than expected and helps make this one of the best superhero flicks of the year.
Black Panther is great, boasting a sense of grandeur as it tells a sprawling Shakespearean tale that traverses the political, the racial, the ideological, the familial and the fantastical.
Despite being the fifth version of this story to hit the big screen in 81 years, the narrative arc at the heart of A Star Is Born remains compelling, with Bradley Cooper's version a welcome modernisation that's enjoyable, interesting, and boasts a great soundtrack.
It feels unpatriotic to slag off an Aussie movie, but on the other hand it's galling that this is the type of crap Screen Australia chooses to fund. Regardless of its country of origin, The BBQ is a shit film. Its screenplay is so horribly boring and inane that it renders the entire film dull and almost irredeemable.
Writers-directors Kohn and Silverstein are trying to make a movie about positive body image while getting across the idea that all you need is a bit of confidence and self-belief, but I Feel Pretty's script and delivery is constantly bodyshaming its main character (and a couple of side characters), in a sense belittling its target audience. The central premise seems to be that Amy Schumer's Renee is unattractive and we should be laughing at her for not realising she's unattractive. When a film has the exact opposite effect of what it's trying to do, that's a bad film.
The worst film of JK Rowling's Wizarding World is a hot mess that suffers from an excess of ideas and no solid narrative to hold them together. It struggles to keep its story and characters rolling along in a sensible fashion, and ultimately whimpers its way to an unsatisfactory climax. The whole thing is a shambles.
Pitch Perfect 3 is a great example of many things, such as "milking an idea dry", "the uncalled-for second sequel", "continued diminishing returns", "the wearing out of a welcome", and "not knowing when to stop". It's a shame - the first film was great, the second was okay, but the third one is bad enough to run the risk of damaging the brand.
Exactly as you expect it to be, but not as funny as it should be, Life Of The Party's "mom goes to college" premise rarely surprises, never shocks, and is lacking in laughs for too long. As a result, the whole thing is tiresome.
(M) ★★½ Director: James Wan. Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Kidman, Graham McTavish.
The new Pantene ads were off the hook.
DC Comic's Extended Universe is six films strong. No other big-budget franchise could have survived for six films delivering this level of quality - across the sextet, there is only one genuinely great entry (Wonder Woman) and five that range from terrible to okay.
And if there was one film to sum up the hit-and-mostly-miss nature of the DCEU, it's Aquaman. It perfectly embodies what is wrong and right with the franchise. Its script is a toneless mess filled with lengthy stretches of horrible dialogue, but it has enough high points to make you wonder if the next film is the one where the DC brains trust will finally gets its collective shit together.
It does manage to make its fish-summoning hero awesome though. Aquaman AKA Arthur Curry (Momoa) was introduced briefly in Batman Vs Superman and played a pivotal role in Justice League, but finally gets centre stage here as the son of a landlubber (Morrison) and an underwater queen (Kidman) who is seen by some as the perfect person to prevent an imminent attack on land by the sea kingdom of Atlantis.
But that means Arthur must visit a marine world he has never known, confront a half-brother (Wilson) hellbent on ruling the oceans and conquering the land, and claim a throne he's not that interested in claiming.
For much of its runtime, Aquaman is frustratingly unsubtle. It's the epitome of dumb screenwriting, partly painted into a corner by having already introduced the character yet trying to tell his origin story without actually telling his origin story, but also struggling under the weight of its mythology and its quest to find the right tone.
When it can turn off the exposition and turn up the explosions, Aquaman is one of the most visually impressive blockbuster spectacles in a long time. Its underwater world looks incredible, but even better are the CG effects used to make it a believable world. The work that has gone into creating a fully realised oceanic environment with its own set of enhanced-yet-natural-seeming physics is astounding. By the time we get to the final battle, much of the script's idiocy has been left for dead in a wave of stunning visuals.
But it's an often-painful journey to get to that point, largely thanks to the script. There are other factors though. In the first act, Morrison and Kidman have less chemistry than an arts school, and the CG de-ageing effect used on Morrison doesn't quite stick. But that's nothing compared to the truly turgid dialogue between Jesse Kane (Michael Beach) and his son David Kane AKA Black Manta (Abdul-Mateen II), which seems to have been dropped in from a shitty Steven Seagal movie. Aquaman also handles its flashbacks badly, despite the best efforts of Dafoe, whose character Vulko serves as part-Mr Miyagi/part-Mr Exposition.
There is also a real sense of "we don't know what this film is exactly", with the vibe shifting from scene to scene. It has echoes of an underwater Thor, which is probably where its tone should have sat, but it wanders off into Tomb Raider territory, and even has some horror elements. It can't quite nail its sense of humour either, which is at its worst when it actually turns Arthur into a squealing wimp at one stage. And any film that goes out of its way to look like a computer game on occasion is a worry.
Momoa is mostly good, and if nothing else he and this film have achieved their goal of making Aquaman a cool-as-fuck bad-ass, effectively killing off while simultaneously embracing the punchline about a superhero who talks to fish. Wilson gives an earnest and solid turn as the film's 'big bad' Orm AKA Ocean Master, and Lundgren seems to have hit a purple patch thanks to this and Creed II. Heard is patchy as Mera, while Kidman's performance is strangely the worst of the film.
But, as seems to be the usual now, DC have fumbled. The script is dire despite the story being okay, which makes whole stretches of the film cringe-inducing, and it continues to struggle with finding a balance between its moments of light and shade.
Admittedly, this was a tough play to make, and in some ways Aquaman is a success - its effects are off-the-charts, its action sequences are predominantly awesome, and it has succeeded in making its hero truly super and less joke-worthy.
But finding a second great film for the DCEU continues to be a white whale the comics company can't land.
And, like we just said, we’re nothing if not completists. So here are numbers 102-200. Read this the day after you read 1-101 and it will feel like the real thing.
102. Lateralus - Tool
103. My Mind's Sedate - Shihad
104. Israel's Son - Silverchair
105. Mayonaise - The Smashing Pumpkins
106. Violet - Hole
107. Abuse Me - Silverchair
108. The National Anthem - Radiohead
109. Sheep Go To Heaven - Cake
110. Viva La Vida - Coldplay
111. High-Fiving MF - Local H
112. Shutter Speed - Karnivool
113. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine - The Killers
114. Svefn-g-englar - Sigur Ros
115. My Name Is - Eminem
116. Sayonara Anyway - Klinger
117. E-Pro - Beck
118. One Headlight - Wallflowers
119. Ocean Breathes Salty - Modest Mouse
120. Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
121. Which Way To Go - Eddy Current Suppression Ring
122. My Only Friend - Bad//Dreems
123. Jesus I Was Evil - Darcy Clay
124. Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) - Deftones
125. I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At The Disco
126. Valerie - The Zutons
127. Be Faithful - Fatman Scoop
128. Bury Me With It - Modest Mouse
129. Bring It On - Gomez
130. You Can't Move Into My House - Frenzal Rhomb
131. Pace It - Magic Dirt
132. The Real Slim Shady - Eminem
133. Masseduction - St Vincent
134. Buggin' - Flaming Lips
135. The Kids Don't Stand A Chance - Vampire Weekend
136. Animal - Pearl Jam
137. Shitty Future - The Bronx
138. The Day I Tried To Live - Soundgarden
139. Fuck The Pain Away - Peaches
140. God Told Me To - Paul Kelly
141. Piss Up A Rope - Ween
142. The Day The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails
143. Some Nights - fun.
144. Bonfire - Childish Gambino
145. Big Empty - Stone Temple Pilots
146. Pinstripe - Something For Kate
147. Save Our Town - Philadelphia Grand Jury
148. Off White Limousine - Client Liaison
149. California - Phantom Planet
150. Drive - Incubus
151. Teenage Angst - Placebo
152. Harmonic Generator - The Datsuns
153. Wild & Weak - Waax
154. Muscle Museum - Muse
155. Something For Your MIND - Superorganism
156. B.O.B. - Outkast
157. A320 - Foo Fighters
158. Brittle Then Broken - Pollyanna
159. Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
160. United States Of Whatever - Liam Lynch
161. L'Via L'Viaquez - The Mars Volta
162. Numb - Linkin Park
163. Sarah - Eskimo Joe
164. The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret - Queens Of The Stone Age
165. For You - Angus & Julia Stone
166. Terrible Love - The National
167. Are You The One? - The Presets
168. Hot Thoughts - Spoon
169. Not Afraid Of Romance - Machine Gun Fellatio
170. Run - Tourist
171. Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines
172. Static - Screamfeeder
173. I Want You - Savage Garden
174. Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones - The Hives
175. Future Foe Scenarios - Silversun Pickups
176. Someone So Much - Bob Evans
177. Two Months Off - Underworld
178. Dark Necessities - Red Hot Chili Peppers
179. Walking With A Ghost - Tegan And Sara
180. Oh My Darling Don't Cry - Run The Jewels
181. These Kids - Joel Turner & The Modern Day Poets
When triple j did their Hottest 100 Aussie albums countdown in 2011, every Silverchair album made the list - hell, most of them made the top 50. But which one placed highest? That’s right, it was Frogstomp, the grungy-as-fuck debut they dropped while only 14 years of age. It was voted in at #2 behind Powderfinger’s Odyssey #5.
So it might be surprising to learn that Frogstomp is the Silverchair album with the fewest number of Hottest 100 entries. Good old Tomorrow made the cut at #5 but that’s it. No Pure Massacre, Israel Son, or Shade, all of which got considerable airplay at the time. So the inclusion of Pure Massacre in this list - a naive watching-the-news lament for humanity that could only have been written by an extremely talented 14-year-old - goes some way towards evening the ledger.
This list is all about the baffling results of the Hottest 100. That the ‘94 and ‘95 countdowns weren’t filled with Frogstomp songs is a pretty peculiar one. - MN
42. Tribute - Tenacious D
Frank Zappa once asked the question, “does humor belong in music?”, and if Tenacious D are anything to go by, then the answer is a resounding yes. Formed by actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the duo soon became a cult sensation thanks to a US television series and Black’s rising profile in Hollywood. However, when the group released their debut album in 2001, people outside the cult sat up and took notice.
Supposedly written as somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek cover of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, the legend goes that the band tried to write an even better song than Metallica’s One after Kyle Gass proclaimed it to be “the best song in the world”.
Finding themselves unable to do so, the group wrote a tribute to the world’s best song, and performed it on their TV series before it became a hit in its own right. On paper, it shouldn’t work, but thanks to Jack Black’s comical and musical versatility, Kyle Gass’ technical proficiency, and a music video featuring the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl as the devil (he also drums on the song), the track was an instant classic, though triple j listeners apparently didn’t see it that way at the time. - TJ
43. Get Myself Arrested - Gomez
When UK band Gomez took to Australian stages earlier this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Mercury Music Prize-winning debut Bring It On, this was the track that drew the biggest singalong. But that record failed to lodge a single song into the Hottest 100, despite boasting such great Gomez singles as 78 Stone Wobble and Whippin’ Piccadilly.
Either or both of those could have made this list, but for singalong value alone it has to be this bouncy mix of reggae upstrokes, burnt-out slide guitar, and reckless euphoria. It’s certainly the song the 30-something and 40-something punters seemed to choose on Gomez’s most-recent Aussie tour, the ageing crowd voting with their voices and then some.
That Gomez only scored a total of four songs in the Hottest 100 over a 20-year career is a criminal act that someone should be arrested for. - MN
44. Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon - Urge Overkill
I am often subjected to ridicule by my girlfriend for repeated abuses of hyperbole but let me say before I even get to my latest gratuitous offence that I have no qualms on this one: Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon by Urge Overkill is not just one of the great covers of all time, it’s one of the greatest songs of all time.
Paired unforgettably with vision of Mia Wallace insufflating heroin mistaken for cocaine, UO’s interpretation of Neil Diamond’s US Top 10 hit from 1967 introduced a Bourbon-soaked grunge sensibility to the original tale of self-destructive unrequited love. Anyone who has ever loved someone who is obviously going around with the wrong partner can empathise.
The Pulp Fiction soundtrack was a cultural phenomenon, spending over a year in the Australian charts and belatedly propelling Jungle Boogie, Bustin’ Surfboards, Misrlou, and You Never Can Tell into the mainstream.
Urge Overkill had already broken in Australia prior to QT tapping them for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack - Sister Havana was #16 in the very first Hottest 100. Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon came to prominence at the end of 1994, ahead of a chart run that saw it peak at #21 in early 1995, but there is a suggestion that because Urge Overkill’s (tautology alert) original cover appeared on a little-known 1992 EP, it was ineligible. Those diachronic vagaries seemed to have been applied without much consistency. - The Order Of Death by Public Image Ltd made the grade at #95 in 1999, 15 years after first being released, after being included in The Blair Witch Project.
Regardless of whether it was ineligibility or simply lack of interest, this omission has been an open sore for me for more than two decades. As I said, one of the greatest songs of all time. — PA
45. Let Forever Be - The Chemical Brothers
This has all the hallmarks of a great Chemical Brothers track - an astoundingly cool rock beat, psychedelic noises galore, talented guest vocalist (Oasis’ Noel Gallagher), and a rad film clip (courtesy of Michel Gondry). On top of that, it is a great Chemical Brothers track; one of many over the years. Yet it’s not one of the 11 songs from the electro veterans to make the Hottest 100 over the 22 years since Setting Sun put them in the countdown for the first time.
For the record, Setting Sun also featured an astoundingly cool rock beat, plenty of psychedelic noises, a talented guest vocalist (Oasis’ Noel Gallagher again), and a not-as-cool film clip. Go figure. Had this race already been run? Surely not.
There are a stack of great Chemical Brothers tracks not in those 11 songs. Let Forever Be just happens to be one of their best, and for inexplicable reasons, it didn’t make the cut. How does it feel like? Weird - just like the grammar in that sentence. - MN
46. Obstacle 1 - Interpol
In 2002, Interpol became one of the biggest buzz bands in the indie rock genre. Cementing themselves as one of the leading acts in the post-punk revival of the early ‘00s, Interpol released their debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, in August to overwhelming critical acclaim.
Despite the fact the record has gone on to be considered one of the greatest of not only the decade but of all time, it’s rare to hear any of these songs played on the radio, or even alternative music television today. While tracks like Untitled and NYC are often considered highlights, the group would escape mainstream fame for a couple of years still.
The second single from the album, Obstacle 1, has however managed to worm its way into retrospective fame, with its driving guitar line, forceful vocals from frontman Paul Banks, and its somewhat cryptic lyrics. As time went on, the track would make end-of-year lists and even feature on the soundtrack to Guitar Hero, yet all of this acclaim was sadly delayed.
Who’s to say how popular Interpol would have been if modern radio was able to jump on this track with more eagerness? And who knows, we might not have had to wait until 2004 to finally see Interpol rightfully score a place in a Hottest 100 countdown. - TJ
47. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
What the hell has that tall handsome man near the viaduct been doing? Why is his right hand so red? It didn’t take long for Red Right Hand, perchance the most visceral song of all time, to creep its way into our waking nightmares. Soon after its release in 1994 it started appearing in TV shows like The X-Files and films such as the Scream franchise, Hellboy and Dumb and Dumber (yes, really) as a moribund theme song worthy of the most haunted charnel house. And Peaky Blinders. And Jack Irish. And so on and so forth.
The celebrated darkness of Red Right Hand is so established now to have reached parody: the Barossa Valley tourism honchos exploited South Australia’s serial killer notoriety and used it to glorious effect in one of the best campaigns ads ever thrust at your senses.
It goes without saying that Cave and fellow bad seeds Mick Harvey and Thomas Wydler could have purchased a trench coat factory with the money made from licensing this particular pre-Murder Ballads murder ballad. In fact, Red Right Hand came out right between #11 Do You Love Me? and #8 Where The Wild Roses Grow - that is, right at Peak Cave (would that be a stalactite or stalagmite?) so it’s not like this track suffered from being a moment out of time, not in Triple J’s wheelhouse or just too problematic.
Red Right Hand is one of the rare tracks to appear in an all-time Hottest 100 — #96 in the 1998 edition — but not in annual countdown. It failed to make subsequent appearances in 2009 (all-time) and 2013 (20 Years of the Hottest 100); a surprise, as one woulda thought all those licensing deals would have only broadened its appeal. — PA
48. Pretty Pimpin - Kurt Vile
Having formed the critically-acclaimed rock group The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile is basically a member of indie royalty. Performing with the group until 2009 before leaving to work on his solo career, it wasn’t until 2013, courtesy of the release of his fifth album, Wakin On A Pretty Daze, that Vile began to see any sort of widespread fame, followed two years later with his stunning single Pretty Pimpin.
As it was, Pretty Pimpin was in with a good chance of making the Hottest 100 countdown in 2015, but sadly just missed out and stalled at a very respectable #106. While the track was somewhat of a different vibe for triple j listeners, featuring a country-tinged finger-style guitar line, and seemingly rambling lyrics that focused on Depersonalisation Disorder, it was a stunning tune that quite likely did a lot better than many expected.
However, while many may have found the tune as something of a slow-burner, and one that they needed to grow on, they may have waited too long to finally come around to it, and managed to rob the track of a well-deserved place in the top 100. - TJ
49. Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G.
2Pac made the Hottest 100 in 1996, the year he died. There was no such tribute for Christopher George Latore Wallace AKA The Notorious B.I.G. AKA Biggie Smalls. Mo Money Mo Problems would have been a good candidate for a posthumous inclusion, given it went to #10 in Australia in 1997, about four months after Biggie’s death. Sadly, this didn’t happen, despite Hottest 100 voters having a good track record in voting for the recently deceased (Cobain, Buckley, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, 2Pac).
But if we’re going to give Biggie his dues, it’s hard to go past his rags-to-riches breakthrough single Juicy. Its belated accolades make it one of the most highly regarded hip hop tracks of all time - VH1 and rap mag Ego Trip called it the best hip hop song of the ‘90s, Q called it the ninth best rap song of all time, and it has featured prominently in lists from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Blender and The Source. Respect. - MN
50. Elastic Heart - Sia
Sia is the twelfth and final (to date) Australian artist to top the US Billboard Hot 100. She did so with her dancehall crossover toe-tapper Cheap Thrills, with Sean Paul. Before reaching this apogee of commercial success, the Adelaide native traversed a rocky outcrop on the indie-pop fringes, battled alcohol and substance abuse issues, and fought to break out from her nook as a songwriter into fully-fledged independent stardom.
Early albums OnlySee and Healing Is Difficult were barely noticed but then Colour The Small One gained some traction off the back of #87 Breathe Me, leading the way for Some People Have Real Problems and We Are Born, which propelled her to the b-list. Guest spots on some pop jams by Flo Rida and David Guetta threatened to derail her triple j cred but the authenticity mavens stuck solid and the release of 1000 Forms of Fear, swinging on the highs of super single Chandelier, was supported with significant airplay for, intriguingly, supporting tracks Burn The Pages, Hostage and Fire Meet Gasoline.
Maybe it was the blowback to Chandelier qualifying for the same Hottest 100 Shake It Off was denied, but there was no repeat for that song’s spiritual sequel Elastic Heart, which is just as amazing. — PA
triple j’s love affair with Courtney Barnett still has a few albums left in it. In the meantime, expect her rather excellent 2018 album Tell Me How You Really Feel to yield a stack of entries in this year’s countdown, to go with the four off her previous album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. But where were the votes for tunes off her “double EP” A Sea Of Split Peas?
A lot of people did vote for this track in the 2013 countdown, but it wasn’t enough. Avant Gardener landed at #140 and we can’t help but feel that in years to come, future Hottest 100 devotees will wonder why the brilliance of Barnett wasn’t noticed earlier and why this didn’t land higher.
Bonus points for turning the word “emphysema” into a verb. - MN
92. Moving Out - West Thebarton Brothel Party
An ode to share-house living probably isn’t the first thing that you would write a song about, but then again, there are very few bands who take an approach to music like Adelaide’s West Thebarton (formerly known as West Thebarton Brothel Party). Self-described as a “seven-headed soul-rock hydra,” West Thebarton (and no, it’s not pronounced ‘The Barton’) burst onto the Aussie rock scene a few years back, playing intense live shows supporting the likes of Bad//Dreems and Courtney Barnett.
Serving as the first single from their debut album, Different Beings Being Different, Moving Out captured the feelings of generations of young Aussies as they go through that rite of passage which sees them living with friends, hoping for those unrealistic mates rates, and always looking forward to better accommodations.
Bolstered by fuzzy riffs, pounding drums, and the powerful, soulful vocals of Reverend Ray Dalfsen, Moving Out occupies a relatable corner in the Aussie indie-rock world, easily becoming an anthem for today’s youth as they head out on their own. While a mere glance at their live shows confirm they’re one of the most intense and beloved young bands on the scene today, it remains a mystery as to why it was overlooked by triple j listeners. - TJ
93. iFly - Ball Park Music
In the seven years since their first album, these talented Brisbanians have scored eight songs in the Hottest 100. That debut record Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs even scored two tunes in the 2011 countdown (and another at #196). But rewind even further and you find their second EP and this little pop delicacy, which earned a five-star review from Richard Kingsmill on Unearthed.
And who are we to argue with the King? There was certainly a good amount of people in agreeance with him regarding iFly - it was voted in at #130 in 2010. But that’s still not good enough. Listen to the King, people. This is a five-star song. I haven’t done the math on how many songs Kingsmill has given five stars on Unearthed, but I can’t imagine that happens too often. - MN
94. No Diggity - Blackstreet (feat. Dr. Dre & Queen Pen)
If Chet Faker can get a guernsey with this song, why couldn’t the original? It’s smooth AF and features Dr Dre (another rap legend largely overlooked by the Hottest 100) and some cool rhymes by Queen Pen. Plus there’s a serious lack of new jack swing in the history of the poll (there - I said it).
Take a look back at the ‘96 countdown and this wouldn’t have been out of place. Hell - nothing was out of place in a year when the top 10 boasted Tool, Allen Ginsberg and Babybird’s You’re Gorgeous. There’s also a few songs that could’ve been bumped to make way (I’m looking at you, Matt Trapnell & Trapazoid).
But, yet again, timing is everything. The song only poked its head into the ARIA top 50 in December ‘96, which is too late for Hottest 100 voters. But it would spend 23 weeks in the charts, peaking at #21. Having said that, I don’t recall it getting played on triple j at that time, much like a lot of (now influential) hip-hop of the era. Hindsight and Chet Faker have 20/20 vision. - MN
95. West Coast - FIDLAR
It’s rare that a song can so perfectly encapsulate the feelings of hanging out with your mates and doing whatever the hell you want to, but that’s exactly what Los Angeles’ FIDLAR managed to do with West Coast. As laid-back and easy-going as the phrase their name is derived from (an acronym for ‘Fuck It Dog, Life's A Risk’), West Coast describes the band cutting school and going out on a booze-cruise so legendary that they just had to write a song about it.
Hitting #157 in the 2015 Hottest 100 countdown, this track resonated with fans enough to almost make the list, showing that singing about your mates while revelling against the dreaded nine-to-five workday is more than enough to become a hit in Australia. - TJ
96. The Way - Fastball
It’s hard to tell sometimes why one emerging band and its catchy riff makes the j-grade and another doesn’t. Whereas triple j likes to own the infrastructure for local artists through its outstanding Unearthed project, when they foster and promote talent they haven’t, err, unearthed, we are more beholden to their nebulous whims, especially when it comes to international acts.
The Way is a sublime piece of guitar-based narrative pop-rock, penned solo by Fastball lead singer Tony Scalzo, complete with a delicious period of silence for sing-alongers to navigate, but it was largely overlooked from triple j’s playlist in 1998 and, as a result, that year’s Hottest 100.
That year’s countdown alone featured similar one-hit wonders and one-hit wonder-adjacent ditties like #21 Sex and Candy, #34 One Week, #35 Flagpole Sitta, #38 The Impression That I Get and #78 Shimmer. Maybe there is some barely visible line of artistic merit those songs are breaching that The Way just falls short of, but it would only be just. — PA
97. Violet Hill - Coldplay
Viva La Vida was the first Coldplay album released after triple j started sending back their albums to the record label un-opened and un-played. An importunate pity, really, because VLV was a return to form after the ghastly X&Y and a proper indie rock LP, even if one does suspect it was overproduced in order to sound so underproduced.
Violet Hill is a small mound near Lord’s in London, unmemorable to tell the truth, but the song Violet Hill with its talk of rime-crusted limerence and dearly beloveds rendered mute is redolent of some of the darker Nick Cave murder ballads that have not aged particularly well in these woke climes.
While it is hard to imagine Chris Martin killing someone and turning all that beautiful white snow scarlet, colour me problematic because I much prefer him dark and brooding - “you better lie low” - to whatever the opposite of heroic couplet exemplified by “if you try your best but you don’t succeed / when you get what you want but not what you need”. Fix You was #26.
Violet Hill fixed Coldplay’s reputation but they were never to chart in a Hottest 100 again. - PA
Before the popular music industry became dominated by producers working with a variety of vocalist to create genre-bending LPs that sounded like self-contained 100% Hits compilations - think Disclosure, Flume, Rudimental, Snakehips, Major Lazer, etc, etc - there was Duncan Bridgeman and Jamie Catto (late of the parish Faithless), two electronic artisans who created a multimedia music project (mere seconds before Gorillaz) called 1 Giant Leap.
The pair recruited some true A-listers for their self-titled debut, including Robbie Williams (at his apogee), Michael Stipe (only in partial decline), Michael Franti (during one of his bearable phases), fellow Faithless fellow Maxi Jazz, and the always magnificent Neneh Cherry.
The standout track was Braided Hair, featuring Neneh and Arrested Development (not that one) frontman Speech. These two nonpareil vocalists have championed social causes throughout their careers, never afraid to leverage their own experiences to connect with audiences about their journeys, which are typically full of twists and turns that braid like hair.
It’s a song that bursts with enthusiasm for celebrating your uniqueness no matter the obstacle. The sort of message that shouldn’t be diminished by the work’s relative obscurity.
At one point during the denouement, Neneh background ask-sings “what’s it all for?”. It’s for all us. - PA
99. I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness
When The Darkness hit the scene back in the early ‘00s, they were an anachronism. Theatrical glam metal hadn’t been popular for close to a decade, but these English lads were determined to make it work. With I Believe In A Thing Called Love serving as the third single from their debut album, Permission To Land, it had everything that rock fans would love; a catchy rhythm, a charismatic frontman, and a healthy dose of self-awareness that made the band as endearing as the music they created.
Sadly, it never really resonated with Aussie audiences (it peaked at #40 on the ARIA charts), though its predecessor, Growing On Me hit the 2003 Hottest 100 despite charting six spots lower. To paraphrase Chuck Berry, it goes to show you never can tell what will crack the Hottest 100. - TJ
100. Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Ray Dalton)
Australian ARIA #1 hits have a rich history of success in the Hottest 100 - it’s the mode peak position of the 25 annual winners - and, alongside success in triple j’s own album poll, success on the sales chart is the strongest predictor of Hottest 100 success. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis scored two Hottest 100 megahits (#1 Thrift Shop and #15 Same Love (with Mary Lambert)) off their debut LP The Heist but by the time their third Australian #1 single was dominating commercial radio, the powers that be at triple j had slowed down their rotation and voters had become exhausted of the duo’s (well, Macklemore’s rally) schtick.
Thrift Shop had the novelty factor and Same Love was a powerful, prescient tune, but Can’t Hold Us is actually the standout rap-pop track off The Heist, overcasting its omission with a characteristic Pacific Northwest rainshower. The same love that propelled Mack & Ryan to the top of both charts would blossom again via Downtown (#18) and Glorious (#52; sans Ryan, avec Skylar Grey), both huge hits on the sales charts, proving that mainstream success doesn’t have to be a barrier to entry, unless you’re Linkin Park. - PA
101. This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race - Fall Out Boy
Because we’re nothing if not completists, here’s the song that just missed the list of songs that just missed the Hottest 100.
Legend has it this song got played once on triple j. Would it have been out of place on their playlists back in 2007? Unlikely. The year before, a similar brand of pop-punk/emo-rock cracked the Hottest 100 with the annoyingly punctuated Panic! At The Disco (#91 for The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage) and AFI (#45 for Miss Murder and #67 for Love Like Winter). Oh, and My Chemical Romance were a big thing on triple j at the time, scoring Hottest 100 entries in 2007 and 2006.
So it’s hard to say why this dual-speed collection of witticisms and woo-ooo-oohs didn’t make the cut. Was triple j emoed out? I’d take this tune over anything AFI put out, that’s for sure. - MN
I'm a big fan of triple j's Hottest 100. I've listened to it and voted in it pretty much every year since 1994. In recent times I've written articles predicting who was going to win (with pretty solid accuracy, if I may say so myself) and dissecting the results with admittedly disturbing enthusiasm. My wife and I hold a day-long party to coincide with the countdown each year, and I'm the one that organises the sweep.
Why the obsession? Well, for me (and thousands of others), each and every Hottest 100 is a time capsule. I can remember where I was when Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out surprised exactly no one to win in 2004, or the stunned looked on people's faces when Muse pipped Silverchair in 2007, or when Augie March seemingly came out of nowhere to win in 2006. I recall sitting in 40-degree heat in a Brunswick backyard when QOTSA's No One Knows took out #1, the tenterhooks of the final placings of 2013, and being appalled when The Offspring won in 1998.
But beyond the personal, the countdown represents exactly where triple j and their listeners were at every year. This in itself summarises a pretty big slice of young Australia and the alternative wave that runs through youth culture, as well as the musical tastes of a nation as perceived through the ears of those most plugged into new music.
But the people who vote for it aren't perfect (and neither is triple j, bless its cotton socks). Which brings us to the songs that missed out.
Back in February of 2018, about a month after the most recent edition of the Hottest 100, I found myself pondering the songs that had missed the list over the years. I knew Everlong missed out back in the day, and that The Flaming Lips had never made the countdown outside of a Chemical Brothers cameo. So what other amazing songs and bands hadn't polled in the world's biggest musical democracy?
As I pondered this question and began my own preliminary list-making, I realised this was a job too big for one Hottest 100 superfan. Out of the blue, and trying not to sound like a total fucking nutjob, I emailed the two other biggest aficionados of the countdown that I could think of.
The first was Tyler Jenke who runs this super-impressive database of all things Hottest 100. His site is my bible when I compile my prediction/dissection articles every January. The second was Patrick Avenell. He's the guy triple j calls when they want someone to go on air to talk about who polled where in what year. His brain is a thing of wonder.
I had never met either of these guys (and still haven't) and they most likely had no idea who I was. But they were immediately on board. As mentioned in this interview on ABC Darwin, we began creating a list of every song we could think of that was potentially worthy of our attempt to rewrite history.
(And yes, I got a few exact details wrong in that interview, such as when Knights Of Cydonia won. That's why triple j calls Patrick Avenell and not me.)
The "omissions masterlist" is close to 400 songs. From there, we voted on what we thought should make the cut - the songs with a vote from each of us were put into a final 101. Then we drew up our own Hottest 100s from those 101 songs, and mathematically squeezed them into a final order. Voila.
I'm very proud of this list. The blurbs we each wrote are illuminating I think, and the list itself is a pretty killer playlist that flows like a regular Hottest 100.
I'm yet to hear from Richard Kingsmill about it (and for the record, as an ABC employee, I did offer this article to Double J and triple j but they politely passed, which is totally understandable and also the reason as to why it ended up on Tone Deaf) but I hope he and his crew take this list with the love it was created with. It's meant to be a quirky celebration, a loving retcon, a nostalgic re-writing of history, and the missing piece that completes this wonderful institution.
There are two Cranberries-related crimes from the first annual Hottest 100. The first one is immediately obvious: the adjective problematic’s Denis Leary denying the Limerick squad the runners-up with their breakout hit Linger. The second is only obvious on reflection: the single before Linger, Dreams, missed out completely.
Linger was the song that got everyone pumped for Irish West Coast lilting but it was Dreams that set the scene for the extraordinary world takeover that Dolores O’Riordan (vale), the Hogan brothers and Fergal Lawler implemented through the mid-90s. The Cranberries (original name: The Cranberry Saw Us) even got namechecked in Clueless.
Dreams is one of the effortlessly cool tracks that invites you to step outside commercial pop guff and take the hand of something a little bit more alternate for a dance. The arrangement is no Bohemian Rhapsody and the lyrics aren’t quite Paranoid Android but this particular air’s general air of carefree happiness is insanely refreshing, and it was doubly that upon its release in competition with all the flannel-clad Seattle man-bands growling about how sad the whole world is.
The Cranberries was my bridge band from 2DayFM to triple j. That was a time when my life was changing every day and, Dolores, it’s been a nightmare losing you, because you’re a dream to me. Dream to me. — PA.
32. Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley
As previously mentioned (see #2), this song snuck its way into the hearts of triple j listeners. The year after Buckley waded into the Mississippi River, never to return, Lover, You Should’ve Come Over placed #47 in the 1998-held Hottest 100 of All Time, despite not making the annual countdown when it was released in 1995. It was one of three songs from the singer-songwriter in the All Time poll.
When a similar “best ever” countdown was done in 2009, Lover was there again at #56. The strange thing in ‘09 was that the song had leapfrogged ahead of Grace, which came in at #69, despite Grace being one of only two songs to be voted into a Hottest 100 during Buckley’s lifetime.
triple j fell hard for Jeff Buckley, and when he died they - fans and staff - were collectively crushed. That lasting aching sadness felt throughout the station and its listeners is personified in Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. - MN
33. Charmless Man - Blur
For all that Australia loved Britpop, and Britpop was so heavily personified by Blur and Oasis, it’s interesting that, combined, these two heavy-hitters of the decade only contributed nine songs to Hottest 100s during the 1990s. That’s the same number Garbage clocked up on its own during the pre-Millennium days of Adidas jackets, Ben Sherman shirts, foppy hair, soccer ball motifs and confected feuds. Just thinking about Euro 96 gives me nostalgic goosebumps.
Of course, Garbage never scored a Top 10 Hottest 100 hit, let alone a #1 or #2, like with Oasis (Wonderwall) and Blur (Song 2). In the year Blur ran second to The Whitlams, there was a general mood that the London fourpiece was Cherry Ripe, ready to parlay success in the Colonies to finally, unequivocally cracking the United States, just as the Gallaghers had done over the 12 months prior.
This perfervid optimism grew out of the critical and commercial success of Blur’s preceding albums, the genre-defining Parklife and the more experimental, expansive, Popbrit stylings of The Great Escape. The latter's lead single Country House and it was released on the same day — 14 August 1995 — as Oasis’s Roll With It. This north-versus-south, working-class-versus-university-class battle was dubbed the Britpop War and the bands, their fans, the media, and pretty much everyone with an interest in conflict paid attention. Country House won the day, debuting at #1 and ending up #53 on the Hottest 100 of 1995.
This is all just to set the scene: Blur has just won the Battle of Britpop. Soon Oasis will release one of the most iconic songs of all time. Between those two historical bollards comes the story of a Charmless Man.
The final single from The Great Escape tells the story of gauche slob completely lacking in self-awareness, a void comfortably filled with self-possession. Think David Brent, but with a red wine stain on his shirt and, somehow, more pretension. The opening bars are classic Britpop: twanging guitars, a little fuzz, persistent but never overbearing drumbeat. There’s a “na-na-na-na-na-na” in there and Damon’s vocals uptick to a nice falsetto on the verses. It’s a masterpiece of narrative songwriting.
Strangely, Damon would later say Charmless Man was the end of something. Having won the Britpop war, Blur was turning to new frontiers, both geographically and musically. The self-titled album that produced Song 2 was heavier, darker and more obviously influenced by the London punk bands the crew grew up listening to and the US indie scene guitarist Graham Coxon was increasingly enamoured with. Then came the dark, moody, break-up record 13, which was more a harbinger of what Radiohead would do on Kid A then reminiscent of anything Blur had done before.
When Coxon departed subsequently, it left a three-piece to release the under-appreciated proto-punk-revival LP Think Tank. The biggest twist of all would then see Damon, seemingly out of nothing, create one of the most successful hip hop groups in history. The band would eventually get back together to extrude The Magic Whip, a magnificent collection of old-school Britpop numbers infused with east Asian themes of vertical neighbourhoods, perfected loneliness, megacity sameness and, presciently, a new wave of North Korean turmoil.
Damon said he was inspired to write Charmless Man by some poetry scrawled across a toilet stall he had visited. Somewhere in middle England, there is a tiresome fool returning a wine, lecturing someone over best deployment of wingbacks and misquoting Fawlty Towers (or maybe he was a tourist, or maybe the Charmless Man is gender non-specific). Either way, this Charmless Man inspired a song that proved to be an inflection point for a band and a genre.
Or, perhaps, deep down, we know that the Charmless Man has been us all along. — PA
34. Edge Of Town - Middle Kids
Sydney’s Middle Kids are a perfect example of a modern band bursting out of the gates with an absolutely killer tune under their belt. The biggest track from their 2017 self-titled debut EP, Edge Of Town struck a chord with listeners all around the world. Even Elton John declared himself a fan of the track, helping both Edge Of Town and Never Start to reach a combined total of 3.5 million Spotify streams just months after their release. Needless to say, the group were well on their way to success.
However, by the time the Hottest 100 of 2017 came around, almost a full year after the release of their debut EP, the group were nowhere to be found (though Never Start managed to hit #127 in the top 200). Was it a matter of timing, with the song being released too early? Well, maybe, but there’s also every chance it was outshined by the admittedly fantastic Like A Version cover of the track by Paul Dempsey, which did manage to chart at #88 that year. Was the cover so good that people just forgot about the original? Or will Middle Kids be one of those acts that we wonder about for years to come, lamenting their absence in the countdown during their early days? Only time will tell. - TJ
35. Around The World - Daft Punk
Around The World is not the most lyrically creative song of the past 25 years. Its songbook simply comprises “around the world” being fuzzy-sang 144 times in just over 7 minutes. The music video is something else altogether: directed by Michael Gondry and choreographed by Bianca Li, it features ghost-skeleton dancing in a mesmeric MC Escher-esque routine that is almost as hypnotic as the transglobal mantra those two kooky French robots keep Dextering (the matchmaker, not the serial killer) out.
Daft Punk would eventually place Around The World at #58 of the Hottest 100 of All Time (2009) and #59 on the Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years. Around those two achievements, Daft Punk would solidify itself as true Hottest 100 legends, having gone Top 10 with #7 Harder Better Faster Stronger (Alive 2007) and #3 Get Lucky, along with three other entries from Random Access Memories. It’s hard to imagine there will ever be another retro Hottest 100 without a significant Daft Punk presence, and yet for some reason or another, Around The World failed to take off. — PA
36. Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney
When Sleater-Kinney first formed back in 1994, its members had already performed as members of some of the most influential punk groups in America’s Pacific Northwest. However, after releasing seven albums in a decade, it was 2005’s The Woods that finally saw the group receiving the widespread critical acclaim they so deserved. Sadly, it was also their last album for another decade, with the trio calling it quits for a period of time while they worked on other projects.
The Woods, while one of the most accessible albums in the group’s career, also contained one of their most beloved songs, Modern Girl. Featuring lyrics that touch on feminism, consumerism, and love, while painting a simple image of what it’s like to grow up, lose your innocence, and be forced to make it on your own. Featuring simple guitars, a harmonica, and a hell of a lot of fuzz as the tune goes on, its simple lyrics have resonated with listeners since its release, who relate to the track’s statement of ambition and desperation.
Why this track was overlooked by listeners, we may never know, but we can take comfort knowing that Sleater-Kinney have more than received the acclaim that was so owed to them in their prime. - TJ
37. New Slang - The Shins
Ask anyone with an insight into the indie music scene and they’ll tell you that The Shins are one of the groups who brought the genre to the mainstream. But again, unless you were in the know, there’s a strong chance they passed you by for a few years. In fact, it wasn’t until three years after the release of The Shins’ debut album, Oh, Inverted World, that its strongest song, New Slang, gained widespread attention after being featured on the soundtrack to Garden State, which went on to win itself a Grammy Award and upped the standards for soundtracks.
“You gotta hear this one song,” proclaimed Natalie Portman in the film. “It will change your life, I swear.” From the very moment music fans heard those words and were treated to the delicate majesty of New Slang, that sentiment rang true and has continued to change lives every day. With lyrics that express feelings of disdain for relationships, jobs, life, and one’s hometown, the track found a way to be relatable to almost everyone who listened to it.
But sadly, the fact that this track didn’t hit the mainstream until three years after its release meant that it was robbed of a well-deserved spot in the Hottest 100 countdown for 2001. It seems that listeners realised their mistake though, and when the 2009 Hottest 100 of All Time rolled around, it was voted into the #72 position. Sandwiched between The Smiths and The Clash, the track well and truly received the recognition it so deserved, even if it was eight years in the making. - TJ
38. Fuck And Run - Liz Phair
When Liz Phair burst onto the indie-rock scene in 1993 with her post-hookup anthem Fuck And Run, the track was almost universally misunderstood by her legions of new fans and music critics everywhere as being a song which painted herself as a sex object. On the contrary, this song was about female empowerment at a time when that very topic appeared to be largely absent from the genre.
Described by Liz Phair as a song in which she lamented her ability to find a meaningful relationship and ending up in meaningless hookups, the tune propelled her onto the world stage, and resulted in her debut album, Exile In Guyville, correctly being named as one of the greatest records of all time.
Despite this response, and the underground success of a powerful track that aimed to normalise female sexuality, Liz Phair never really saw the level of success that she deserved in Australia. While 1994 would see Supernova, the lead single from her follow-up album Whip-Smart voted into #33, Exile In Guyville was criminally overlooked in the annals of Hottest 100 history. - TJ
39. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
Stop a music buff on the street and ask him or her what number Sweet Disposition came in the Hottest 100 and you’ll probably hear something like “Top 10”, “right up there” and even a few “it was #1 wasn’t it?”. One of the great mind-bogglers of the Hottest 100 era in Australian music is that The Temper Trap’s sublime composition did not feature at all in an annual countdown, a victim of poorly applied eligibility rules and the slow-burning nature of its rise to prominence (one that mirrors the songs own mellifluous passage to crescendo).
Originally released in September 2008, Sweet Disposition was no overnight sensation. It received some radio play in Australia and was voted to #102 in the Hottest 100 of 2008. In June 2009, The Temper Trap released its debut album Conditions, which was overlooked for Feature Album honours for Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear. In August 2009, the release of (500) Days of Summer nudged Sweet Disposition towards the mainstream, and it eventually cracked the ARIA Singles Chart during the first week of December.
Prime time, one would think, for a serious if late Hottest 100 challenge. Only problem was, eager fans trawling the voting list would find #21 Fader, #48 Science of Fear, #58 Love Lost and Down River (#141 , FWIW) but no Sweet Disposition. I actually wrote in Sweet Disposition that year, blissfully unaware that it was 18 months old (didn’t stop those Knights of Cydonia) or that it would’ve, kinda, charted twice (didn’t stop the six times a song has actually appeared twice).
Sweet Disposition received its much deserved moment in the spotlight through the first half of 2010, as it approached the two-year anniversary of its release. By this stage the band had made three distinct music videos to support it. It peaked at #14 in Australia and #8 in the UK, and scored the deeply credible #38 slot in the Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years in 2013. Furthermore, Conditions was voted #20 in the Hottest 100 of Australian Albums in 2011.
Sing it with me: Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet dis—po—sition… - PA
40. My Own Summer (Shove It) - Deftones
Okay, you got us - there’s not much metal on this list. But like hip hop, the Hottest 100 has only ever had a tokenistic relationship with heavy music. So the fact there’s only two metal songs here (spot the other one!) is pretty reflective of what a normal Hottest 100 list looks like.
But why was this track, Deftones’ breakthrough single, ignored by voters, beyond the annual lack of metal love in the poll? Probably because the album that spawned it, Around The Fur, was a super-slow burn. It didn’t even crack the ARIA top 50, yet somehow still went gold. By the time the alt-rock masses caught on to its brilliance - that swaggering hard groove, that whisper-to-a-scream, that incessant riff - the moment had passed.
Deftones never made the Hottest 100, not with this track, not with Be Quiet & Drive (Far Away), and not even with their “biggest hit” Change (In The House Of Flies). Maybe it was due to their love of a parentheses-infused song title.
Whatever the reason, to many of us '90s kids this is genuinely surprising. In fact, to those of us who were there in those brief moments in ‘97-’98 before nu-metal became a joke, this is an outrage. Hopefully this somewhat makes up for that. - MN
