Thursday, March 16, 2017

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - March 25, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I may decide to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:




1- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran (=) -- It's an Ed Sheeran sort of week. As Ed claims his seventh week at No. 1, he officially claims the top spot on all three of Billboard's tracking metrics: sales, streaming and radio. Not just that, though, with the arrival of his new album taking effect on the charts this week, he debuts 10 additional songs on the charts this week, meaning all 12 of the songs from his regular album have debuted on the charts as well as one of the four from the deluxe version of the album. Confirmation that Ed Sheeran has achieved superstar status.

2- "Bad and Boujee" - Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert (=) -- Can this song please die? Ed took the lead on streaming, which is the only thing this song has going for it, but the streaming for this song is still insanely high. I don't get it. It's now spent a total of seven weeks at No. 2 for a grand total of 10 weeks in the top two and 11 weeks in the top three. This is a travesty in my opinion.

3- "That's What I Like" - Bruno Mars (+1) -- Bruno snuck by Zayn and Taylor this week, meaning this song has officially charted higher than "24K Magic," which peaked at No. 4. Now can it go higher and take that No. 2 spot away from "Bad and Boujee"? I'm not a huge fan of this song, but I would much rather have it at No. 2 than "Bad and Boujee."

4- "I Don't Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)" - Zayn & Taylor Swift (-1) -- Once this song goes away, I can officially give you my list of the top 100 Billboard hits of all-time according to my system. Maybe that's motivation for us all to hope for this song's demise?

5- "Love on the Brain" - Rihanna (+1) -- Rihanna now has her 22nd top five hit in her career, officially passing Elvis Presley for fifth place all time in that category. The four artists ahead of her are The Beatles (29), Madonna (28), Mariah Carey (26) and Janet Jackson (24). And this might be Rihanna's easiest top five hit yet as she still hasn't even released a lyric video or done much promotion for it at all. Her team just released it as a single and the radio fell madly in love. Perhaps more has gone on behind the scenes. I don't actually know. But that's what it seems like.

6- "Tunnel Vision" - Kodak Black (+2) -- How high can a song get with no radio and no sales? This song has huge streaming and that's essentially it. That's the story for a lot of rap songs these days, though, as "Bad and Boujee" is currently proving.

7- " Paris" - The Chainsmokers (=) -- "Something Just Like This" bows out of the top 10 for now while "Paris" remains consistent. That's kinda what I expected. Although I'm expecting "Something Just Like This" to come back as soon as possibly next week as it's currently sitting at No. 11 right now after soaring up to No. 5 last week.

8- "Bounce Back" - Big Sean (+1) -- How many times can use the bounce back play on words to talk about this song before it gets on people's nerves?

9- "Rockabye" - Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul & Anne-Marie (+15) -- Wahoo!!!! Clean Bandit logs their second ever top 10 hit in the U.S. as "Rockabye" tops "Rather Be," which tragically peaked at No. 10 (should've gone a lot higher). "Rockabye" is here due to a huge spike in sales following an iTunes discount, which most songs strategically implement these days and in this case it resulted in a top 10 hit for Clean Bandit. It's probably gone next week, but hey! At least it got one week in the top 10 as this is one of the best songs currently on the charts. I don't know why we haven't embraced Clean Bandit more here in the U.S.

10- "Closer" - The Chainsmokers (=) -- It did it. The Chainsmokers have tied LeAnn Rimes for the longest a song has ever stayed in the top 10 in the nearly 60 year history of the Billboard Hot 100, which is arguably the most impressive record that you can have. It's one thing to hit gold and get a ton of weeks at No. 1. It's another to remain consistent on the charts for this long. Both "Closer" and "How Do I Live" have 32 weeks in the top 10, which is approximately eight months on the charts. "Closer" was released on July 29 of last year. We're now in mid-March and it's still here. And it's spent all 32 of those weeks in the top 10. Love it or hate it, we've been witnessing one of the most impressive streaks in Billboard history. There's a really good chance this is the last week for "Closer" as a few songs right under it are having great sales weeks. But all it has to do is surprise us one final week and it will have the record all to itself. Can it do it?

Rising on the Hot 100:




15- "Mercy" - Shawn Mendes (+2) -- "Mercy" has been very slowly climbing the charts and it's not too far away from giving Shawn Mendes another top 10 hit. I'm kinda hoping it stalls. Even though the song is a bit better than Mendes' previous works, at this point I'm morally opposed to Mendes achieving any more success with his mediocre music.

17- "Body Like a Back Road" - Sam Hunt (+3) -- What the freaking heck is going on here? Why in the world is one of the worst country songs I've heard having one of the best runs for a country song. Country songs rarely ever hit the top 10. If this breaks that streak, I'm going to throw a fit.

18- "It Ain't Me" - Kygo & Selena Gomez (+4) -- I'm happy to see a rise this week for this song. That's a good promise for its future after having an enormous debut and dipping down right after. I like Selena when she's not trying to prove to the world that she's now an adult. We get it. And Kygo is one of my favorite EDM artists. I love his tropical house style. He deserves mainstream status with the consistently good music he's put out and I hope this is his big break.

19- "Green Light" - Lorde (+81) -- Lorde skyrockets up the charts after getting her first full week of sales. "Green Light" debuted last week at No. 100 after a day on the charts, so you can essentially call this it's real debut. As is the case with most big debuts, this week experience a dive on the charts next week. Let's just hope this gains enough traction with radio and streaming so next week isn't too harsh and this can become a hit for Lorde leading up to her new album coming shortly. I would love to see Lorde at the top of the charts again, especially since this song is pretty great!

20- "Cold" - Maroon 5 featuring Future (+12) -- This can go away, though. Neither Maroon 5 nor Future deserve another top 10 hit. Keep this away!

32- "Mask Off" - Future (+14) -- Out of all of Future's new debuts on the charts in the last two weeks, why is this the one that's catching on? None of them were that good, but this one one of the worst. Why do we accept awful music today? Can't we reject awful music for once?

38- "Location" - Khalid (+13) -- Quietly becoming a hit is Khalid's "Location" as it hits top 40 for the first time this week. And I'm down with that. Now I'm just curious if this gets stuck in the 20's and 30's or if it can breakout and get higher. We shall see!

39- "Castle on the Hill" - Ed Sheeran (+36) -- Boosted by the Ed Sheeran week is "Castle on the Hill"! I wish this would stick around because it's the best song from his album that we're about to dive into here in a second!

41- "Believer" - Imagine Dragons (+18) -- Can Imagine Dragons conjure up a hit after coming up completely blank in their second album? This is a very sub-par Imagine Dragons song, but if it means they catch on again and gain traction on the charts like the did with their first album, then I'm all for it!

46- "Make Me (Cry)" - Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth (+10) -- Here's a song that can't decide what it wants to do. One week I think it's going to start climbing high, the other week I think it's heading off the charts. I wish it would do the latter, because this is a really annoying song. Although speaking of Miley's little sister, Noah has a new collaboration with Marshmello and Ookay called "Chasing Colors" that debuted on the EDM charts last week that I think is fairly decent. I'd be fine with that crossing over to the Billboard Hot 100. It's better than this song.

48- "Rolex" - Ayo & Teo (+12) -- This song better not become a hit. Let's stop it before it gets too high.

69- "Redbone" - Childish Gambino (+14) -- I don't think I've actually had the opportunity of talking about Childish Gambino on this new segment. I can't say that I'm madly in love with this particular song, but it has a nice little groove to it and I'd be happy if it actually caught on because it's been mostly in flux on the bottom half of the Hot 100 since debuting a while ago. But I will say I've been super impressed with the career of Mr. Donald Glover. I'm sure you already know, but he was one of the stars on the TV show "Community" and his film career has started to take off. In addition to a few small roles here and there, he has recently been cast as our new Lando Calrissian in our upcoming Han Solo movie as well as the voice of Simba in Jon Favreau's upcoming live-action remake of "The Lion King." Doing all that as well as having a successful music career under the stage name of Childish Gambino is super impressive. How many people can say they've been a TV star, movie star and music star essentially at the same time?


New Arrivals:





37- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran -- The rest of this week's analysis will essentially be an album review of Ed Sheeran's "÷" album. Because, guess what? As I previously stated, he has 10 new debuts. And those 10 debuts are the only songs that debuted this week. Nothing from anyone else. Just 10 Ed Sheeran songs. I'm almost tempted to go in the order that they showed up on the album, but I will cover them in the order of how they arrived on the charts. We Start out with "Perfect," which is in the vein of "How Do I Feel (Paean)," which showed up two weeks ago on the charts as "Perfect" is another simple love ballad. With how successful "Thinking Out Loud" was, it makes sense for Ed to have several of these on his album as he's pretty good at them. Now if that's all Ed were to do on his album is write love ballads, that would make a boring album as a whole, but individually these songs are pretty good. I wouldn't grade "Perfect" quite as high as "How Do I Feel," but it's a nice little song that means you can have plenty of Ed at your wedding reception if you want.

49- "Dive" - Ed Sheeran -- Another song that could be classified as ballad, although this one probably isn't as appropriate for a wedding reception. "How Do I Feel" and "Perfect" are both basic love songs that are really sweet and romantic. "Dive" is a slower song that has Ed trying to figure out this girl. It's obvious he likes her, but he sees her as very unique and mysterious. And he wants to learn more of who she is before he dives in. Specifically, he is asking for her to declare her intentions and feelings towards him before he makes a decision on what to do. It's a fine song, but it feels more like album filler that comes right in between "Castle on the Hill" and "Shape of You" on the album.

53- "Galway Girl" - Ed Sheeran -- If you find Ed Sheeran's love ballads too slow and boring for you and prefer things closer to that of what he's given us with "Galway Girl," then this might be your jam. Personally I'm a sucker for a good ballad and I've talked about two great ones on his album already, but that's just me. "Galway Girl" is an upbeat Irish folk song combined with Ed Sheeran's typical pop signature and it's a lot of fun. Comparing this to "Shape of You," this is slightly less catchy than "Shape of You," but slightly more wholesome than "Shape of You" as there's less blatancy with Ed lusting after this girl's body and more of him just having a great night with her at the bar or wherever they're at. We have an Irish folk band called Beoga helping out with all of the folky stuff which adds a lot of spice and groove to it.

59- "Happier" - Ed Sheeran -- Coming after "Galway Girl" both on the album and on the Billboard charts right now is "Happier," which is another ballad. This time being a bittersweet ballad for Ed as he learns the girl he just broke up with is with another man and looks happy with him. Ed is trying to be happy for her, but still has feelings for her, thus making it a hard situation for him. It also makes it a fairly relatable song as I'm sure we've all had situations where we broke up with someone and then had to painfully watch as they hook up with someone else. Possibly more album filler and nothing too amazing or unique for Ed, but it's fine.

72- "New Man" - Ed Sheeran -- There's a few times on this album where Ed does a little bit of rapping. Nothing crazy or extreme like actual rap songs on the charts, but he's going for a different sound instead of just another pop song or ballad and I respect the attempted change. He actually does a bit of rapping on "Galway Girl," but that crosses more into folk and fits the tone of the song. For me, "New Man" is the song that doesn't really have much of a catchy groove at all and doesn't really say anything interesting. It's similar to "Happier" as both songs are about his ex-girlfriend being with a new man, but "New Man" seems less earnest and bittersweet and more angry and stuck-up. It's one of the songs on the album that's kinda worth skipping. 

75- "Supermarket Flowers" - Ed Sheeran -- We now jump to the last song on the album if you didn't buy the deluxe version. Track No. 12. And this is a really beautiful song to end on. While most of the album are safe love songs, some of which work really well, this branches away from that and instead is a beautiful tribute to Ed's late grandmother, I believer. While "How Do I Feel" and "Perfect" can be played at wedding receptions and "Shape of You" and "Galway Girl" can be played at dance parties, "Supermarket Flowers" would be a song fitting for a funeral. Ed starts the song being broken up about the loss of this individual before being consoled and when we get to the chorus we have the beautiful line, "Spread your wings as you go; when God takes you back he'll say, 'Hallelujah, you're home.'" I love it. Arguably the second best song on the album behind "Castle on the Hill."

83- "What Do I Know?" - Ed Sheeran -- Backing up a little bit to track No. 10, we have the song with a message for the world. This isn't about romance or death or breakups. This is song more about politics, but doesn't dive super deep. Ed isn't taking a stance on one specific issue, but realizes that there's a lot of commotion going on in the world and is doing his best to ask for peace and unity. He admits that he doesn't know exactly what to do or say, as inferred by the title of the song, but he wants to do something and he's using his stage of being a music star to do something. This is not an upbeat song to dance to at a party or a slow ballad good for a wedding. Thus I don't ever imagine this being a single, but it's a really nice song with something good to say about the world that I'm sure Ed will use during his concerts to provide a nice change of pace and provide his attentive audience with something to think about.

90- "Eraser" - Ed Sheeran -- Now we back up even more and cover the song that starts the album off. It's not the best song, but it's a pretty good introduction to the album. This is one of the songs that Ed dives into a bit of poppy rap in his verses, but he seems to be telling a bit of a story about his life and his upbringing, which is why it makes for a good introduction to the album as we learn more about Ed and his experiences before diving into the specifics with the individual songs that follow. It's not a song that I will remember as time goes on, but it's a decent song.

93- "Hearts Don't Break Around Here" - Ed Sheeran -- Filling things out with the regular album before we dive into the one deluxe song that showed up on the charts is "Hearts Don't Break Around Here." This falls in at No. 9 right after "Happier" and "New Man" and right before "What Do I Know?" Admittedly this is the portion of the album that loses me a bit. We end the album on a great run with "What Do I Know?," "How Would You Feel" and "Supermarket Flowers," but "Happier," "New Man" and "Hearts Don't Break Around Here" are the low part of the album. This is again a slower song, but a slower song that in this case isn't super romantic, but more just slow and kinda boring. Ed had good ideas of how to start and end the album, but this fills like filler in order to make the album complete. I'll take a pass. But now that I've dove into all 12 of the songs from Ed Sheeran's album, I've looked at everything closely and overall I would give the album a B grade.

96- "Barcelona" - Ed Sheeran -- "Barcelona" is one of four bonus songs to come with the deluxe version of the album. The other three are "Bibia Be Ye Ye," "Nancy Mulligan" and "Save Myself." The latter three didn't show up on the charts. Only "Barcelona." I can tell why this was included as a bonus song and not on the regular album, but it's a fun dance song with a nice groove. It has no real depth or emotion to it. Ed is saying that they should pretend they are on the streets of Barcelona dancing, which sounds like a great place to be. This is certainly not a bad song. As I said, it's a fun song that works best as a good bonus song.

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