In the lead-up to triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs this weekend, the Blunt Mag team are counting down their personal top ten – here’s writer Jake Fitzpatrick’s top picks.
When I was first tasked with writing a list of my top ten Australian songs, I honestly didn’t think it was possible.
I grew up in Fremantle, a portside town that quite literally drips with music, so choosing my top ten Australian songs felt a bit like being asked to choose my favourite child. Sure, you’ve always had a name tucked away in the back of your head, but to actually say it out loud feels kind of wrong.
So essentially, what I’m doing here is introducing you to my favourite children. And to those that didn’t make the cut just know I love you very much too. I just happen to love my other children slightly more.
10. Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane
If you haven’t done a coastal road trip with this track echoing through the windows, I’m not sure you’ve truly done Australia. When I hear it, I hear the noughties. Salty air, burnt feet, an ocean breeze rolling in. Your head out the window, wind smacking you in the face. Crispy hair and a soundtrack that just fit. I didn’t actually know what the song was about until I got older I’ll leave you to do your own digging there.
9. DMA’s – Silver
Seeing DMA’s perform ‘Silver’ at Falls Festival 2022/23 was pure catharsis. I’d just finished uni, it was the summer break, and these were our last few months of being students before full-time jobs and salaries and promotions and all that. In that moment though, none of it touched us. We were just on shoulders in the sun, losing our minds to Silver.
8. Babe Rainbow – Peace Blossom Boogy
I heard this while staying in a teepee at the Arts Factory in Byron Bay. I kissed a woman with three tongue piercings and was attacked by a peacock. One morning I crawled out of the teepee, dusty as anything, and started talking music with an older guy named Rob who’d been living there for years. He showed me this song. My feet haven’t stopped grooving since.
7. Spacey Jane – Booster Seat
I make no apologies for the Fremantle bias here. Spacey Jane’s ‘Booster Seat’ is an anthem. This is a hill I’m always happy to die on. It framed so many of my best moments growing up. Drinking goon on curbs, running amok in town. Surely one of the greatest Australian songs ever written, and what’s better is they grew up just down the street from me.
6. Tame Impala – Let It Happen
Yet again, another Fremantle artist but I mean, it’s Tame Impala here. I simply cannot think of an artist more deserving of a place on this list. I mean, with Kevin Parker’s music, he has literally created his own lane. Let It Happen is also just one of those songs that you can’t help but be impressed by. Even if it’s not your genre, you’ve got to respect what he’s built.
5. Vance Joy – Riptide
Who could forget when Riptide came out. A simple song of a few chords and words, and it just set the world alight. I’m not even sure Vance Joy ever expected the song to reach the lofty heights that it did. I remember being about twelve and watching the music video on Rage. The song crawled into my ears and made a home there. That home still exists all these years later. Even more so perhaps.
4. Powderfinger – My Happiness
This is a classic if I’ve ever heard of one. You need only talk to anyone from the Southern hemisphere and they will understand why this song has a place on this list. It just reminds me of a community. Of weddings. Of putting your arm around the people you love. I have never listened to this song and not gotten goosebumps. Because that’s what it is. It’s pure Australia.
3. Daryl Braithwaite – The Horses
I mean, again. Another classic. Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ has to be one of the all time. There is nothing quite like going to a fiftieth birthday and this song coming on towards the end of the night. It’s like a healing balm for drunk people. Something that everyone can throw their arms up in the air to and feel like they’re sitting on some sort of cloud.
2. Royel Otis – Motels
You might have thought I would include ‘Oysters In My Pocket’ or something a bit more popular from Royel Otis‘ back catalogue to include on this list. But ‘Motels’ truly is the one for me. I first saw Royel Otis live early last year at Uni Bar in Wollongong. There with a couple of mates, the venue was quite literally the size of a bathmat. Nevertheless, there was an energy there. A promise of something greater. Sort of unfamiliar with their work, I did a top line Spotify search before I attended the gig. It was good, I thought, but not great. Then I saw them. It was only when they got to ‘Motels’ though where it really clicked for me: this band will do something. And sure enough they did.
1. INXS – Mystify
INXS are one of the best bands to ever exist and I will fight anyone that says otherwise. I mean they just contained all the perfect ingredients: a charismatic frontman, a clever lyricist, a shrewd manager and some of the best rock music to ever come out of Australia. And what’s more, the music still holds up today. All of my friends parents have a story about INXS. Whether they saw them at a bar, hooked up with Michael Hutchence or bought Kick as their first album. They are, in my opinion, Australia’s best band and ‘Mystify’ is my favourite song of theirs.
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