Wrap Up

by Max Lavergne

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    THIS MACHINE KILLS FLORENCE

    It was a lousy year for Florence Welch: the first Hottest 100 countdown since 2008 to include songs from neither Florence nor her Machine. It wasn't an entirely Florence-free year, though, since her 2012 collab with Calvin Harris, 'Sweet Nothing', made it via Something For Kate's Like A Version cover (#68). Still - what's the deal, Florence? Make with the hits!!

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    2013: AN YEAR OF NOT SO GUD SPEELING

    The music may have been great, but the spelling was horrible. If bands weren't replasing the ryght letturs with wrong ones, they were adding unnecessary exckstra ones and getting creative as hell with olternut spellings. It's their prerogative as artists, but it makes for one heck of a garish Word .doc.

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    THIRD TIME (GET) LUCKY

    2013 marks the first time in nine years that a cover made it into the same Hottest 100 as the source material, courtesy of San Cisco's Like a Version rendition of Daft Punk's glittery disco revival 'Get Lucky' (#39). Plenty of covers have placed over the years, but a cover the same year as the original's so rare it's only happened only three times before: once in 1998, with Something For Kate's cover of Jebediah's 'Harpoon'; in 1989, with Art of Noise and Tom Jones' take on 'Kiss' by Prince; and in 2004, with Franz Ferdinand's poll-topping 'Take Me Out' and Scissor Sisters' own version.

    Songs recorded for Like A Version have made it in before - see Something For Kate covering Calvin Harris' 2012 jam 'Sweet Nothing' (#68) - but never in the same year as the original.

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    NOMINAL MINIMALISM

    A lot of bands get preeeetty creative when it comes to choosing a moniker, naming themselves after all manner of objects, places and colours, among other things. But in 2013 we gripped a band with the guts to shun fancy words in favour of a simple description of what they are: New York duo Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow, aka MS MR with Fantasy (#78). One woman, one man, MS MR. Simple. Refined. Elegant. Classic. MS MR.

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    STATISTICAL OUTLIERS

    The average number of musicians present on each song in the Hottest 100 was 2.8. Illy, who performed an all-star Like A Version Ausmusic Month Medley (#68) and included eight other musicians, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

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    CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR LOSING YOURSELF

    Other, previous Hottest 100 alumnus have given us plenty of suggestions for things to Lose Yourself to: the music, the moment, you want it you better never let it go (Eminem - Lose Yourself, Hottest 100 2002 #7). Daft Punk were much more straightforward in 2013: lose yourself to dance. That's it. Just dance.