2019 Triple J Hottest 100

It’s a new year, a new decade. And my main resolution is to make more free time.

I know that sounds quite ambiguous. “Make” free time? With what ingredients? Does that mean there’s an infinite potential? How much time does one have to spend to make time?

The economist in me wants to bring up marginal cost. But let’s just say, I want more free time this year, to do stuff (and not do stuff). Hopefully, that includes writing more often.

To start the year, here’s my regular post about my votes in Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown. Voting in the world’s largest online music poll closed today, and we have five days before the results are announced in the annual pre-Australia-Day celebration.

2019 was, in my opinion, a very good year for my sort of music. Much better than 2018, anyway (but, statistically, I guess that’s supposed to happen). Here’s my list; I’ll update it with the official rankings when they come out.

 

1.  “Everything I wanted” – Billie Eilish (#16)

This was the year for Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (yes, that’s her full name). It’s the first time I’ve voted for an artist born this millennium, with the exception of…Billie Eilish, last year. Her song “Bad Guy” will probably finish stronger than this track, but the more philosophical pick is my favourite.

 

2. “Better In Blak” – Thelma Plum (#9)

In the past few years, indigenous music has made something of a surge in Australia, beginning with the rapper Baker Boy. This year, Thelma Plum stood out as the next wave, making inroads into the indie rock scene. This track is very clever, garnishing its strong message with a sufficiently catchy tune to grab the attention of every demographic.

 

3. “Dance Monkey” – Tones and I (#4)

Tones and I (real name Toni Watson) was quite the story for Triple J listeners last year. She started out as the typical Triple-J story: discovered on the station’s sister station for new music, Unearthed; quickly attracting a large local fan base; pushed onto the main station, with huge acclaim.

Then, commercial radio started to like her, too.

This song hit number one on the charts in over 30 countries. And some Triple J fans really, really didn’t like that. They took to social media, calling her a sell-out (hardly her fault that her song was so popular). Anyway, despite the backlash, it’ll no doubt rank highly in the Hottest 100, along with two or three of her other tracks.

Mysteriously, Wikipedia says of Toni, “There is speculation about her age, with year of birth believed by some to be 2000 and others 1993.”

 

4. “The Piss, The Perfume” – Hayley Mary (did not rank)

You might recognise Hayley Mary as the lead singer of The Jezebels, a hugely popular indie band over the last decade, made up of students from the University of Sydney. Mace Spray was my favourite song for the 2010 Hottest 100. Mary’s gone solo now, though I’m not sure whether the band is still kicking around. This track feels like a classic, grungy Australian rock song, with copious references to “Sydney town”.

 

5. “Charlie” – Mallrat (#3)

I tried to vote for this song when I cast my votes early last year, only to discover that it had been released in early January 2019 and therefore wasn’t eligible for the 2018 countdown. “Poor strategy”, I thought at the time; surely releasing as close as possible to Christmas is the way to maximise attention. Yet, here we are, and “Charlie” is forecasted to finish strongly in the 2020 list.

It’s nice that I can include a Brisbane artist again. Mallrat’s “Groceries” was such an incredible introduction to her music, and it finished unsurprisingly highly (seventh) in the 2019 countdown. “Charlie” is softer, even soppier to some extent. For once, a chess reference isn’t a selling point (“She says that love is like a chess game: boys gotta do the chasing” – what?!). But it still makes my top 10.

 6. “Hey, Ma” – Bon Iver (did not rank)

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Bon Iver. Justin Vernon’s debut album in 2007, For Emma, Forever Ago, was one of the few albums to make it onto my at-the-time-extremely-limited mobile phone storage. The album’s creation has a nice story to it. After a bad breakup and a recovery from hepatitis, Smith moved to a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin and spent a couple of months in isolation. He had some basic recording gear with him, so he just re-recorded his own voice on top of itself over and over again, in addition to playing and recording all the instruments separately. Originally, he sung each track in a word-less melody, and then wrote down the words that “floated into my head” when he listened back to it.

Hard to believe no drugs were involved. Still, I can’t begin to guess how many times I’ve listened to the break-out track Skinny Love. Smith’s 2011 Bon Iver, Bon Iver is one of my favourite albums of all time, and I’ve eagerly awaited – and, frankly, been a little disappointed by – each new release since then. His latest album is also a little hit-and-miss, but perhaps my expectations are now too high. In any case, this is my favourite track from it.

 

7. “bad guy” – Billie Eilish (#1)

There’s not much to say about this song or this artist that hasn’t already been said. She’s a massive star, and this song is arguably her biggest hit – even if, as I’ve mentioned, it’s not my favourite. This track is also probably the reason why music critics haven’t yet been able to settle on a genre to describe her music. Perhaps ‘Indie-weird’.

 

8. “Supalonely” – BENEE (did not rank)

A much poppier song to #7, but also with deceptively dark lyrics. BENEE’s “Soaked” was a massive hit of 2018 and reached number 58 on the countdown that year. It made my shortlist, but not quite my top 10 (else, it would be another notch for the post-2000 generation of artists). Weird that as I age, my favourite artists are getting younger. At this rate, my music tastes will eventually dovetail with Leo’s, and we can go and see the Wiggles together.

I like the cameo on this track from rapper Gus Dapperton, whoever he is.

 

9. “Tokyo Drifting” – Glass Animals, Denzel Curry (#34)

Glass Animals’ crazy tune “Gooey” was my eleventh pick for the countdown of 2014. Its film clip is even weirder than its lyrics. And that’s saying something, considering the chorus:

Ride my little pooh bear, wanna take a chance
Wanna sip this smooth air, kick it in the sand
I’d say I told you so but you just gonna cry
You just wanna know those peanut butter vibes

The collaboration with Denzel Curry is a strange one in many ways, but the tune still has that classic Gooey feel. Surprisingly, this will almost certainly not be Curry’s top placing, as his Like a Version cover of RATM’s Bulls On Parade looks like being the very unexpected number one on the countdown. Unexpected, that is, until you listen to (and watch) it; it really is an outstanding cover.

It doesn’t make my final list. But speaking of covers and parades…

10. “Welcome to the Black Parade” – Alex Lahey (#83)

Alex Lahey’s choice to cover My Chemical Romance for her Triple J Like a Version performance was a brave choice. Yet, somehow, she really pulled it off. The Triple J textline and twitter feed went nuts after she delivered this spine-tingling performance, and it’s been all the talk for the last few months about whether it could be the highest-ranking cover of all time. Ironically, that record will most likely be broken (so says the eerily accurate 100 Warm Tunas prediction site) by Denzel Curry. [EDIT: Curry’s cover finished #5.] But I prefer this parade. Plus, I was always a closet MCR fan. Carry on.