Hottest 100 of All Time: How I Voted

So far we have examined, analysed and criticised how everyone else is voting in Triple j’s Hottest 100 of All Time.

Now for a look at how the Bawley crew voted?

The approach I took when choosing my ten hottest songs of all time was reckless with speed taking priority over comprehensiveness. I am pretty sure that if I voted again today I would pick a different set of songs. Regardless here are my votes (in no particular order)


The Cure – A Forest (1980)

Seventeen Seconds is my favourite album by The Cure and I could have just as easily selected Play for Today in my hottest ten tracks. But I choose A Forest for the way it draws you in, into the trees.

Joy Division - Dead Souls (1981)

I first heard Dead Souls as a cover performed by Nine Inch Nails on The Crow soundtrack. Already a Joy Division fan I chased up the original (it’s on the Still and Substance compilation) and just loved the haunting guitar and broken vocals.

The Nine Inch Nails version of the track remains a highlight of their live performances but it is the Joy Division original that I really love.

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends (2007)

All My Friends is typical LCD Soundsystem: starting out slow, loose, and clumsy, then tightening up for the mid-section before blowing your tits off at the songs climax. What is not typical about All My Friends is the seriousness of the lyrics; James Murphy sings about getting old, making big decisions, moving away and never forgetting the value of your friends.

Not sure if I wouldn't love it regardless, but for me this song came out at exactly the right moment, cementing its place in my favourite tracks of all time.

OutKast - Hey Ya! (2003)

This is the most fun I have ever had.

Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (2000)

It was Kid A and Everything In Its Right Place specifically that showed bands how to use the internet as a promo tool, introduced the free track/video download, and paved the way towards the choose your own price download only album.

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds (2005)

Urgent and angry lyrics, a stomping drumbeat, crunching guitars, screaming synthesisers and a dancefloor ready beats this track is Nine Inch Nails at there loud best.

TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me (2006)

Swirling feedback, pulsing drums, howling guitars: music to lose your shit to. Wolf Like Me blew my mind live and the recorded version does the same every time I hear it.

New Order - Blue Monday (1983)

d-d-d-d-d-dddddd-d-d-d-d-d-dddddd-d-d-d-d-d-dddddd

Hearing the drum machine and programmed synths at the start of Blue Monday will always get me on the dance floor (no matter how dodgy a club or bar I am in)

Hot Chip - Over And Over (2006)

When Triple j first started playing Over and Over I found the song repetitive and irritating. Of course the track was added to the stations high rotation playlist and it became almost unbearable; then I finally got it. Now I say "if you are not dancing by the time the kazoo comes in you are not alive"

The Cure – In Between Days (1985)

My original plan in making this list was to choose only one song from each artist. This was not working for me so I decided that maybe I need to pick two songs from The Cure, the idea was that this would make it easier to choose which Cure tracks to put in and which to leave out. It didn’t.

In the end I went with In Between Days: it is perhaps the perfect pop song.