Who Did it Best?

 

Who Did It Best? (No Hits Allowed)

Similar bands. Same eras. Deep cuts only.

Welcome to Never Never Land. A place without charts.

Without greatest hits. Without the songs everyone already agrees on.

Here, success is irrelevant. Memory is unreliable.

And the only thing that matters is what still works when the spotlight’s gone.

This isn’t a battle of legacies. It’s a test of who survives without their hits.

Same era. Similar bands. Head to head — but with one rule:

No hits allowed.

Blur vs Oasis

Britpop after the shouting stopped

This rivalry is usually framed as noise: tabloids, egos, accents, fists. But strip away Song 2 and Wonderwall and something more interesting appears.

Blur — the art-school outsiders

Deep cuts:

• Entertain Me

• He Thought of Cars

• Trimm Trabb

Blur’s deep catalogue is anxious, twitchy, observational.

These songs don’t shout — they watch. They question identity, masculinity, boredom, and Britishness itself.

Oasis — the bruised romantics

Deep cuts:

• Fade Away

• Going Nowhere

• Gas Panic!

Without the anthems, Oasis sound lonelier. More inward. Gas Panic! in particular feels like the hangover after the party everyone remembers.

Never Never Land verdict:

Blur dissect the world. Oasis survive it.

Which feels more honest when no one’s singing along?

Blink-182 vs Sum 41

Pop-punk when the jokes stop landing

Both bands are often dismissed as “fun.” But deep cuts tell a different story.

Blink-182 — vulnerability in disguise

Deep cuts:

• Waggy

• Every Time I Look For You

• Go

Blink’s best non-hits are restless and exposed. Behind the humour is insecurity, confusion, growing up too fast.

Sum 41 — anger with structure

Deep cuts:

• Handle This

• Slipping Away

• Pull the Curtain

Sum 41 lean heavier, sharper. Their deep cuts feel clenched — less ironic, more confrontational.

Never Never Land verdict:

Blink sound like kids afraid of adulthood.

Sum 41 sound like adults still fighting it.

The Smiths vs The Cure

Sadness, spoken in different languages

This isn’t misery versus misery. It’s wit versus atmosphere.

The Smiths — sadness with a grin

Deep cuts:

• This Night Has Opened My Eyes

• I Want the One I Can’t Have

Morrissey’s deep cuts feel intimate and conversational — sad songs that almost smile back at you.

The Cure — sadness as environment

Deep cuts:

• The Figurehead

• Disintegration

The Cure don’t describe feelings. They build rooms for them and leave you inside.

Never Never Land verdict:

The Smiths make pain relatable.

The Cure make it immersive.

Mötley Crüe vs Poison

What happens when the gloss wears off?

Hair metal is easy to parody — big hair, bigger choruses. But beneath the neon are very different instincts.

Mötley Crüe — chaos beneath control

Deep cuts:

• Danger

• On With the Show

• Louder Than Hell

Strip away the singles and Crüe sound darker, heavier, almost unhinged. There’s menace here — not just excess.

Poison — melody over muscle

Deep cuts:

• Look What the Cat Dragged In (album track energy)

• Bad to Be Good

• Something to Believe In (contextual, not chart-focused)

Poison’s deeper tracks lean emotional, melodic, surprisingly sincere. Less destruction, more reflection.

Never Never Land verdict:

Crüe burn the house down.

Poison try to remember why they built it.

Playlist: Who Did It Best? — Never Never Land Edition

(Alternate tracks. No hits. No apologies.)

This playlist isn’t designed to prove anything. It’s designed to surprise you.

Because the best songs often weren’t meant to win. They were meant to last.

Who Did it Best Playlist 

So… Who Did It Best?

That’s the wrong question.

Because Never Never Land doesn’t crown winners. It reveals character.

Deep cuts don’t beg for attention. They don’t need validation.

They just wait — patiently — for the right ears.

And maybe that’s the point.

When you remove the hits,

what’s left isn’t popularity —

it’s truth.