#australian1s

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Recent writings

(i.e., the entry I do where I update the tumblr after ages) 

The most recent thing: yup, One Direction have finally got to the top of the charts with ‘Drag Me Down’. I thus compare them to fellow chart-topping teen sensations Metallica, talk about Bob’s Burgers and wonder about the team of writer-producers who seem to put together most of their songs. 

Oh, and the previous #1 in Australia before 1D was Lost Frequencies’ ‘Are You With Me?’. They seemed unusual to me in being a purer sort of dance music than usually gets to the top of the charts here - it had dance music logic rather than pop logic. 

Before that: Meghan Trainor and John Legend’s ‘Like I’m Gonna Lose You’, more of a song-for-Idol-winner kind of thing than the problematic/cutesy 50s-rap thing she’s better known for. Seemed to me at the time to be a bit of a default #1.

ALSO! I have started writing some feature reviews for the Sydney Morning Herald, which is pretty awesome. Here’s the first: me weaving together my thoughts on recent albums by Desaparecidos, Frank Turner and Neil Young.

And that thing I do for Max TV where I figure out what happened on this day in music history and write about it. Max’s demographic means there’s lots of 1980s/1990s stuff which is fine by me, so here’s me on, e.g., Michael Jackson buying the Beatles’ publishing rights in 1985, and Weird Al getting into the 1985 Aussie charts with ‘Like A Surgeon’.

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Other recent writings

This March 25th Number Ones column on Lunchmoney Lewis’s ‘Bills’ (Lewis is the son of the one in Inner Circle who wrote ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Sweat (A La La La Long)’, and the song reminds me a bit of Cee-Lo’s novelty pop soul. If Australia’s recent track record as the canary in the coalmine for future US hits is any indication, America will hear more of this one.

My March Music Reader column, linking to lots of writing on Courtney Barnett, some writing about the recent ‘Blurred Lines’/Marvin Gaye’s estate stuff, Tom Ewing on Britney, people who are still fans of Gary Glitter, Michelangelo Matos on Aphex Twin, a tribute to the great Lesley Gore, Stephen Thomas Erlewine on the first flowering of rock retromania, and the forgetting of hip-hop.

My March Science Reader column, featuring stuff on the cancer treatment lies of Jess Ainscough, #thatdress, the role of junk DNA, science’s struggle to define emotions, why left-brain right-brain stuff is garbage, what foreskin does, and the amazing ability of astronomers to see supernova reruns.

This February 26th Number Ones column on Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’, a song from the soundtrack of 50 Shades Of Grey. I argue that the song is meant to parallel the audience’s reaction to what is apparently at least intended to be a sweet love story (and that it is really a bit too ‘song written to a brief’ even for Max Martin).

My February Music Reader column, featuring Johann Hari on the politically-motivated hounding of Billie Holiday, Anwen Crawford on the whole Beck v. Beyonce thing, Jon Ronson on the legend of the never-was-a-soul-singer Mingering Mike, an interview with Noel Gallagher that actually goes beyond the quote-a-minute schtick, Jessica Hopper interviewing Bjork, oral histories of Laurel Canyon singersongwriter stuff and shoegaze, and Marcello Carlin tearing Wet Wet Wet a new one. 

My February Science Reader column, featuring stuff on hypersomnia (the opposite of insomnia), the sad tale of JFK’s sister Rosemary, Aboriginal memories of the end of the last Ice Age, a piece with the amazing title “Barns Are Painted Red Because Of The Physics Of Dying Stars”, a piece on why people doubt science, how optical illusions work, the increasingly likely spectre of using geoengineering to solve climate change, why we are terrible at keeping our facts straight when we tell our stories, and why people who say Putin has Asperger’s don’t really know what they’re talking about.

And I continue to do a daily column for Max TV’s website called On This Day, which discusses something or other from music history every day. The content falls away into the ether unless the Wayback Machine archives it. What’s there today, as I look at the website: a thing about ACDC in 1980 - 35 years ago today - deciding on Brian Johnson as the new lead singer to replace Bon Scott.

Phew.

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Number Ones: Major Lazer, DJ Snake & MØ 'Lean On'

New #1 single in Australia is ‘Lean On’ by Major Lazer. To my ears, the song fits in a genre I’m calling jaywave - that is, the drowsy electronica that is currently the stock in trade of radio station Triple J (’Lean On’ is one of their most played songs at the moment). And because of Triple J’s recent Taylor Swift related controversy, the song was a good chance to think about the whys and hows of Triple J and the mainstream vs underground stuff in a music world where authenticity no longer matters in quite the same way it used to.

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Writing my New Number Ones column for the Vine, about Rihanna, Kanye, and Macca's 'FourFiveSeconds', I had the idea of making the Authenticity Bingo card above (with some help from some kind folks on Facebook). I also, predictably, talk about the Grammys, the actual song, the history and politics of authenticity, and liking music in 2015.

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Things I've written recently!

I am bad at updating Tumblr.

There's been two #1 singles and thus two Number Ones columns I've written since the last I thing I linked to on Tumblr (my Number Ones column on 'Blank Space'):

Mark Ronson feat Bruno Mars - 'Uptown Funk' (it was hard to avoid cataloguing the influences on the track, but also I wanted to show what was very 2015 about the song) 

and 

Omi - 'Cheerleader' (which I discussed in terms of it not really following the trends of #1s in Australia, and what pop is)

I also did an end of 2014 thing for TheVine where I went over Australia's top 20 highest selling singles according to ARIA, which features my thoughts on a bunch of songs I hadn't otherwise discussed, from 'Chandelier' to 'Stolen Dance' to 'Fancy' to 'Problem'.

I wrote three Science Readers, where I link to interesting new science writing:

Science Reader - Jurassic World, electric eels, torture confident idiots, more

Science Reader - Biggest Animals, Foetus Brains, Schwarznegger Raptors, String Theory, more

Science Reader - Feathers, Brain Tapeworm, The G-Spot, Cheese, Starfish, more

And a Music Reader column, featuring stuff on Jimmy Page, Sleater Kinney, Mark Ronson, Megan Washington, George Michael and more.

Oh, and I reviewed The Veronicas' album for The Guardian (!), and reviewed The Decemberists' new album and Father John Misty's new album (which I really think is great) for The Big Issue (who don't post things online).