Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time Part 2

Straight into the review:

19. (Position 2) Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine
Okay, to start off, I like this song and I don't really know why. The first reason I can think of is the anger. Music contains anger all the time, often culminating in a noisy mess. This song not only expresses anger, but makes people angry (in a "good" way). This song urges people into action over the injustices of reality and actually is quite effective. With a melody, vocals and lyrics that would be out of place in any other genre, Killing In The Name truly does deserve its position at 2nd. Honestly, this would have been a million times better than Smells Like Teen Spirit, but than again there aren't many songs that wouldn't be.

20. (Position 42) Banquet by Bloc Party
I have a love hat relationship with Bloc Party they seem to switch from great music to absolute crap. This song is pretty good. A really good melody, it also has decent lyrics but the vocals don't really work for me most of the time. The title of the song is very interesting. I don't think it really gets the point of the song across, but it certainly draws attention. Honestly though, I think Mercury is the best song ever made by Bloc Party. Banquet, as I said, is nothing to be sneered at though.

21. (Position 32) Blue Monday by New Order
What I expected from Daft Punk after hearing the press over their music. Blue Monday is a weird, confusing, twisted, effective piece of music. The lyrics and vocals are pretty good, but the best part of the song is the music. This song is like watching a news reporter while a hurricane passes by in the background. The music is a mess, but a brilliantly chaotic one that I truly recommend listening to.

22. (Position 45) No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age.
I don't know hw I feel about this song. I know I like it, but I don't know how much I like it. Some days it shines as a great piece of music that just oozes talent. On other days it's just another song with a good beat and not much else. At the time of this review, it's somewhere in between. I don't overly like it as much as I could, but I can certainly see how many people could like it. The lyrics aren't really that interesting, but the rhythm and melody are pretty solid, keeping the song well above the garbage it could have been. The vocals are pretty good to. To give a show of how much I like this song, I have never done the slightest bit of research into Queens Of The Stone Age or any of their other work. There is also some weird Spanish radio thing going on at the end of the song. What the hell s that about? No one knows.

23. (Position 52) Berlin Chair by You Am I
This song is not one I would ever say I liked, but it certainly is better than I feel it could have ben. The first two seconds make me internally moan that he song will be a mess, but it does get better from there. The music and vocals are a bit of a mess in my opinion but what do I know? There is something vaguely appealing about this song, but I truly cannot put my finger on it. Maybe it just all comes together well. Maybe two messes of sound make a half decent song. The most interesting part of this song for me is the title. Apparently the song is named after a statue in Canberra, the very city I happen to inhabit. Despite this, I have never heard of, seen, or been privy to any reference of this statue. Whatever it is, the name makes it sound pretty interesting. To be fair, the sculptures in this city seem to change every two-three months. Who knows?

24. (Position 38) Mr Brightside by The Killers
This song is pretty damn good. The tune and lyrics are just brilliant and the vocals aren't too bad either. I honestly can't tell if the lyrics refer to the appearance of happiness whilst completely hiding your true feelings, or if the title is ironic and the song is about misery. Considering I'm too lazy to check, I suppose I'll never know. This tune is pretty good and I don't have anything against the Killers, despite the fact I am not very familiar with their discography.

25. (Position 72) New Slang by The Shins
A rather forgettable song, but by no means a bad one. It starts out like a Fleet Foxes song, but has better vocals, in my opinion at least. These reviews seem to be more and more positive. Maybe I should just claim I hate a song without listening to it. Anyway, this song is a pleasant, gentle tune with, as I've said, really good vocals. It's good to know that a band can have good vocals on top of decent music. In many cases there almost seems to be a tradeoff between the two in many songs, but I have no idea why. I can't say much about the lyrics, primarily because I can't pick many of them up, but the sond decent although unimportant.

26. (Position 43) God Only Knows by The Beach Boys
An oldie but a goodie. God Only Knows is a nice simple song that is just generally awesome. The one thing I will say is why does this song sound so christmasy? Maybe I just heard this song for the first time around Christmas or something, but think it might be the bells or tambourine or something in the background. Strange. Anyway, I do like this song, even though it is disappointingly short (though some other songs should take up this practice). Good. Really good.

27. (Position 54) Close To Me by The Cure
I've never been a fan of The Cure. I don't really know why, nor can I say that I am overly familiar with their songs. I've heard A Forest, something about Friday and this. Close To Me is undoubtably the best, but once again has weird shaky vocals. I mean, sure, if that's your style, go for it. The fact that many bands do this is where it gets weird. Anyway, a half-decent song but nothing I feel I can really rant or rave about. Just a good song and I feel The Cure should have made more like it.

28. (Position 100) Take Me Out by Franx Ferdinand.
This is just ridiculous. Sure, the song is fantastic. Sure, the tune deserves to be on a CD compelation. But this CD should only contain the very top songs on the list! If Triple J couldn't get licensing on some, sure, I could understand somewhat erratic numeration. But why is Number 100 not the last on the CD? Who arranged this CD? This is like me saying "Bob Brown should be Prime Minister.". Sure, I believe it, but I'm hardly going to rig an election. Whoever arranged this CD has to realise, even if we don't like it, we should really respect democracy a bit more. I can understand some changes to the godamn CD lineup, but number 100? What. The. Hell? Anyway, Franz Ferdinand. Accompanying a name which naturally appeals to a history nerd, Franz Ferdinand is plain awesome. I think this song is also plain awesome. How this was position 100, I don't know. Damn you, democracy! Maybe mystery CD arranger has a point. Anyway, this song has great rhythm, great vocals and is from one of my favourite UK artists, up there with Fatboy Slim, The Kaisr Cheifs & kasabian. The Prodigy aren't bad either...

29. (Position 70) Breate by The Prodigy
What can you say about The Prodigy? A mass of noise with a good rhythm. That's what. This is one of my favourite...erm...sound groups? I really don't know if there is a word for what these guys are and I'm really unsure wheter I can compare them to anything. Anyway, Breate is not my favourite Prodigy track ever, but is full of chaotic Prdigy goodness anyway. The best Prodigy songs in my opinion are Invader Must Die and Omen. This is really crazy stuff, but damn good too.

30. (Position 97) Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil.
I try not to let my opinion of individuals impact on my opinion of their music. People have accused me in the past of disliking the music because I dislike the person (the example that comes to mind is Pink. No, I don't like her. But me hating her music is a completely separate fact). If I dislike the musician, I won't automatically hate the music. If I like the person, I won't automatically like the music (The one example that comes to mind is The Conglomerate. This band had all the makings of awesome. It had shared members with the Cat empire. It was named one of my favourite words (seriously. Conglomerate is one of my favourite words. Right up there with Sociopath (please, nonexistent reader, don't get Freudian with that.))However, The Conglomerate, left the awesome beats and the majority of the soul of the Cat Empire behind it sucked. Felix Riebl of The Cat Empire recently released a solo song too. It was really meh). The one time I break this internal rule is called The Midnight Oil Exception. Peter Garrett is an Australian "politician" (to use the term VERY loosely). He is the very definition of a knob (well, secondary definition). He is also in Midnight Oil. Midnight Oil, as you may have guessed, is the one occasion where I have been unable to overcome my outright loathing of the individual to enjoy the music of the group. I would say I'm ashamed of myself, but I would be more ashamed if I liked it. Please be aware, this review is going to get biased. Now the song starts out with some of the most twisted and weird vocals to ever come out naturally out of any human mouth. The chorus is okay, however, but far from what many fans claim the song to be. Overall, trying to finish this song as fast as possible. The people suck, but I encourage everyone who is not reading this blog to make up their own minds. I just can't do it. Garrett, both musically and politically, shut the hell up. Forever, preferably.

31 (Position 77) Hearts A Mess by Gotye.
So, first thing first: Gotye is friggin awesome. Just...awesome. This guy has made some of the trippiest, weirdest and must intriguing music ever to come out of this great country. Hearts A Mess is no exception. I will make no attempt to analyze the music. Let's just leave it as worth hearing. The vocals are soothing, warm and cool. The lyrics are sincere, sweet and fit in perfectly with the tone of the song. The end result is like (to give one godamn weird allegory) a storm make of noise hitting your house. Did that make even less sense than I thought it would? Yes. So listen to it. I know I have.

32 (Position 36) Into My Arms by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
This song is truly the Australian answer to Hallelujah. This song is insanely beautiful. Just so beautiful. Nick Cave has done some weird and wonderful music over the years, but it would take another career for him to come out with something that could even compete with this song. It has lyics which convey emotion like nothing else, the wonderful vocals typical of Nick Cave and is just a masterpeice, which is, as far as I remember, the first time I have used that term to describe any song on this CD. Hopefully not the last.

33 (Position 33) Tomorrow by Silverchair
Silverchair has produced its fair share of good music over the years. This is not part of that music. The worst thing about Tomorow is that every turn it seems like it's getting better, while it's getting, if nothing else, worse. This song is full of pointless noise, jilting vocals not to say there isn't worse on this very CD) and just more noise. The music video is pretty disturbing too. I really don't get the point of this song. If you are going to make a song, at least have a semblance of a point. Unless this song speaks out against capitalism and Western society (If you listen to the actual song, you might see how I could come to that conclusion), in which case I have much more respect for it, it's just kids with instruments. And too much sugar.

34 (Position 81) Common People by Pulp.
I know nothing about Pulp. Perhaps this is for the best, because this song is awesome and I don't want to find out these people kill puppies for kicks or vote Republican or something. The song outlines how a rich girl wants to go "slumming" with the "common people". This, at the very least, makes me think Pulp does not vote Republican. The song contains the usual strange voclas I keep hearing on the album, but it works on this one. Maybe this was the nspiration for all those other albums. Would explain a lot. The music and rhythm are really good and this is the first song on the CD (except maybe Gotye or Nick Cave) that lets people hear the lyrics easily. I don't know if the other songs are ashamed of their lyrics (which is justified in many cases) or if this song is just really proud of their lyrics (also perfectly justified). A good song that actually tells a story, which is actually a good idea (Hint, hint, Silverchair, hint, hint.).

35. (Position 23) Throw Your Arms Around Me by Hunters & Collectors.
This song actually started off very much alike to Tomorrow, which of course scared me shitless. It gets better from there. Containing the typical shaky vocals (which typically don't work), this song ends up feeling like a home-brand version of God Only Knows to the tune of Tomorrow (if the musicians had heard about the songs from a friend of a friend of a friend who is partially deaf). The tune is..okay. Luckily, they try to reproduce a good song. If they were trying to make a home-brand Smells Like Teen Spirit, however, I'd have much less sympathy. Truly, not worth listening to. Just an okay song, nothing special.

36. (Position 3) Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Okay. Last song. The producer of the CD has crossed the line. WHAT THE HELL? CD two, last song. THAT IS WHERE YOU FEEL THE THIRD BEST SONG OF ALL TIME DESERVES TO GO? Why? OK, I suppose this is a good song to end on, but there are a ton of good songs to end on. If the actual Top 36 had been on this CD in order, this position would have been held by Into My Arms by Nick Cave, which is basically the Australian versoin of this very song. So, producer of this CD, why don't you like common sense? Are you afraid of people understanding what you're trying to do? Do you just like a good mindscrew? The only way I can understand it is if I find out that the producer of this CD had been given their two weeks notice right before this CD was to be made and decided "How can I make Triple J lose an inordinate amount of money without being too obvious?" In that case, I applaud you. Sigh. I feel sad after trying to work thig bloody CD out. Anyway, Hallalejah. This song is brilliant. When I was a kid, I couldn't work out why people would listen to music that mkaes them feel sad. I still don't understand the psychology, but this song would be the perfect way to explain it to somebody. This song contains the essence of human sadness. In a good way. Longing, pain, sadness, misery, hope. It's all there. What I don't know is how someone could listen to this song then go to their computer and vote for Nirvana. I suppose marijuana affects everyone differently. This song just cannot be put into words and everything i write is a feeble, hopeless attempt to do so. Just. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.........................Jeez. Wow. It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard and is possibly the only song I've ever heard that I cannot imagine that anyone dislikes. From the most hardened forum troll to the happiest person on earth, this song just can't go without stirring something deep, deep inside. Just. Wow. That's it. That's Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time. Just. Wow.

Most of the CD sucked though. Sorry, that last song was awesome but it doesn't go even half the way towards making me forgive every Nirvana, Silverchair and Midnight Oil song on here. At least there was no AC/DC. And for that I am grateful. But the numbering. Dear god, why?