Australian rules, especially the new stuff. That’s the broad message which comes from a new survey conducted by Australia’s Triple J network to find the country’s all-time favorite homegrown albums.
Recently retired Brisbane-based rock group Powderfinger won Triple J’s Hottest 100 Albums of All Time poll, which reached its climax Sunday after a two-week countdown and more than 47,000 public votes.
The five-piece band’s chart-topping 2000 set “Odyssey No. 5” (Universal) nudged Silverchair’s 1995 debut “Frogstomp” (Murmur) into second place, while AC/DC’s 1980 “Back in Black” (Alberts/Sony), the Living End’s self-titled 1998 set and INXS’ 1987 commercial smash “Kick” (WEA/Atlantic) rounded out the top five.
Those high-flying classics, however, seem positively ancient compared with a number of their lesser-ranked competitors. Of the 100 albums to make the cut, eleven were released in the last 18 months while 64 were released in the last 10 years, reflecting the tastes of Triple J’s 18-24 target demographic.
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As the countdown reached the pointy end, the poll started trending globally on Twitter. That chatter is translating to sales gains. Various featured albums have enjoyed spikes on the iTunes chart and a handful should re-enter the ARIA albums chart when it is published on Sunday.
The survey was “reinforcement that our audience really loves Australian music,” Triple J manager Chris Scaddan tells Billboard.biz. “For the whole campaign and especially during the countdown, there has been so much discussion on Australian music — albums that everyone should know, legendary acts, classics and not so-classics. It’s really heartening that there is so much pride in the music we produce. We know that people are prepared to dig a little deeper, listen to albums in full and hear stuff they may not have appreciated the first time around.”
Silverchair and Powderfinger may have both joined the ranks of the retired in recent months, but they also enjoyed the greatest spread of albums on the Triple J list. Silverchair dominated with all five of their albums rating a mention (“Frogstomp” at 2, “Diorama” at 22, “Neon Ballroom” at 27, “Freak Show” at 43 and “Young Modern” at 70).
Just behind was Powderfinger, with four albums (“Odyssey No. 5,” “Internationalist” at No. 6, “Vulture Street” at No. 14, “Double Allergic” at No. 41).
Steve Pavlovic’s Modular Recordings enjoyed a strong showing with The Living End’s self-titled album (No. 4) Presets’ “Apocalypso” (No. 7), Wolfmother’s eponymously-titled debut (No. 8) and The Avalanches’ “Since I Left You” (No. 9) all appearing in the top 10.
It was the first time the influential state-funded youth network had asked its listeners to name their favorite home-grown albums. And it won’t happen again in a hurry. “We’ll take another couple of years before we do a big “all time” themed Hottest 100 again,” Scaddan explains. “People love lists, but we don’t want to exhaust them.”
A “Hottest 100 Singles of All Time” poll in July 2009 had Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” come out tops. Each year, Triple J counts-down the year’s “Hottest 100” songs on Jan. 26, the country’s national day. The most recent January poll pooled 1.26 million votes, up 6%
Triple J’s Hottest 100 Australian Albums All Time
1. Powderfinger – Odyssey Number Five
2. Silverchair – Frogstomp
3. AC/DC – Back in Black
4. The Living End – The Living End
5. INXS – Kick
6. Powderfinger – Internationalist
7. The Presets – Apocalypso
8. Wolfmother – Wolfmother
9. The Avalanches – Since I Left You
10. Regurgitator – Unit
11. Gotye – Like Drawing Blood
12. Grinspoon – Guide to Better Living
13. Crowded House – Crowded House
14. Powderfinger – Vulture Street
15. Jebediah – Slightly Odway
16. Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road
17. The Whitlams – Eternal Nightcap
18. Crowded House – Woodface
19. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
20. The Temper Trap – Conditions
21. Midnight Oil – 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
22. Silverchair – Diorama
23. Hilltop Hoods – The Calling
24. The John Butler Trio – Sunrise Over Sea
25. Jet – Get Born
26. You Am I – Hourly, Daily
27. Silverchair – Neon Ballroom
28. The Cat Empire – The Cat Empire
29. Missy Higgins – The Sound of White
30. Karnivool – Themata
31. Angus & Julia Stone – Down the Way
32. Birds of Tokyo – Universes
33. Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust
34. Josh Pyke – Memories & Dust
35. You Am I – Hi Fi Way
36. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
37. The Vines – Highly Evolved
38. Angus & Julia Stone – A Book Like This
39. Birds of Tokyo – Birds of Tokyo
40. Something for Kate – Echolalia
41. Powderfinger – Double Allergic
42. Cold Chisel – East
43. Silverchair – Freak Show
44. Regurgitator – Tu-Plang
45. Karnivool – Sound Awake
46. Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream
47. Eskimo Joe – Black Fingernails, Red Wine
48. Spiderbait – Ivy and the Big Apples
49. John Farnham – Whispering Jack
50. Cog – The New Normal
51. Washington – I Believe You Liar
52. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads
53. The John Butler Trio – Three
54. Bernard Fanning – Tea & Sympathy
55. Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining
56. Cloud Control – Bliss Release
57. The Cruel Sea – The Honeymoon Is Over
58. Grinspoon – New Detention
59. Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night
60. Sia – We Are Born
61. Pendulum – Hold Your Colour
62. The Panics – Cruel Guards
63. The John Butler Trio – Grand National
64. george – Polyserena
65. Cold Chisel – Cold Chisel
66. Bliss n Eso – Running on Air
67. Bliss n Eso – Flying Colours
68. Art vs. Science – The Experiment
69. Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls – Gossip
70. Silverchair – Young Modern
71. The Presets – Beams
72. Something for Kate – Beautiful Sharks
73. AC/DC – Highway to Hell
74. Sarah Blasko – The Overture & the Underscore
75. Skyhooks – Living in the 70’s
76. Hunters & Collectors – Human Frailty
77. Pendulum – Immersion
78. Sleepy Jackson, The – Lovers
79. The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High
80. The Saints – (I’m) Stranded
81. Pete Murray – Feeler
82. The Waifs – Up All Night
83. Lisa Mitchell – Wonder
84. The Go-Betweens – 16 Lovers Lane
85. Hilltop Hoods – State of the Art
86. Dead Letter Circus – This Is the Warning
87. Eskimo Joe – A Song Is a City
88. The Butterfly Effect – Imago
89. Pnau – Pnau
90. Children Collide – The Long Now
91. Gypsy & The Cat – Gilgamesh
92. Frenzal Rhomb – A Man’s Not a Camel
93. Augie March – Moo, You Bloody Choir
94. Paul Dempsey – Everything Is True
95. Hoodoo Gurus – Stoneage Romeos
96. Machine Gun Fellatio – Paging Mr. Strike
97. The Butterfly Effect – Begins Here
98. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
99. Grinspoon – Thrills, Kills & Sunday Pills
100. The Cat Empire – Two Shoes