The Church’s Steve Kilbey recently had a listen to the top 10 of the latest triple j Hottest 100 countdown, at the request of The Guardian who have now published the professorial frontman’s less-than-enthusiastic opinions about the state of modern music.
He reserves some especially caustic sentiment for The Rubens’ ‘Hoops’, which as you may recall was the song most beloved by triple j listeners. As far as Kilbey’s concerned, the fact that ‘Hoops’ won is a sign that triple j listeners have gone “soft”.
“Nope, my readers, the Rubens do not rock,” Kilbey writes. “It’s another wry bouncy (little) song, pleasant and innocuous and harmless and twee. No electric guitars were harmed during the making of this record, and no revolution is preached.”
“Catchy to the max, but no oomph or grunt or even twist. This old curmudgeon shrugs his shoulders. Why this song is No 1 eludes me. Triple J listeners have gone a bit soft, I guess.” Kilbey goes on to call the top 10 “easy-listening romantic pop almost all the way”.
“And so popular music continues to, uh, baffle the pundits. Tell me what the youngsters who like a bit of bite listen to these days, ’cause it surely ain’t Triple J … is it? File under: mostly forgettable.”
Elsewhere in his acerbic review, Kilbey says of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘King Kunta’, “if this is second only to the bee’s knees at No 1 then I am flummoxed, because it sounds like a million other things I’ve seen and heard before”.
Though his opinion of Major Lazer’s ‘Lean On’ is even harsher, describing it as, “Meaningless machine-age pop that could have been and probably was written by someone’s laptop while they were getting a tattoo of a skull on their calf.”
Kilbey also slams The Weeknd’s ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ as “insipid yet totally infectious pop” and thought triple j would have “a lot more edge” than to play the “smooth, manufactured fare” of Jarryd James’ ‘Do You Remember’.
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However, Kilbey does heap praise on ‘Magnets’, the collaboration from Lorde and Disclosure, which opened the top 10 and which the singer describes as “urbane, swinging, cool electropop, with some really good lyrics too” and “unbelievably catchy and yet always still believable”.
However, it’s Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker that really blew Kilbey’s socks off, describing the Perth native as “an amazing wunderkind who plays and sings and engineers everything himself; a bona fide genius without a doubt”.
“The brilliant chord progressions summon lush sweetness and light, and remind me a bit of Brian Wilson,” Kilbey says of ‘Let It Happen’, whilst summing up ‘The Less I Know The Better’ as “an enigmatic song with high-pitched blurry vocals”.
Whilst Kilbey certainly wasn’t as kind in his appraisal of The Rubens, we don’t think it’ll be raining on their parade any time soon. The band recently responded to criticism of their Hottest 100 win during an interview with ABC News Breakfast – check it out here.
