Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "That's What I Like" - Bruno Mars (+2) -- Open mouth. Insert foot. Last week after "Humble." was the song that dethroned Ed Sheeran after 12 weeks, I said that the prospects for "That's What I Like" looked even dimmer. Shows what I know, ha ha. Or better yet, shows how unpredictable the Billboard charts can be. Looking at the numbers, Bruno is here because he was able to stay a bit more steady in all the metrics than Ed was and Kendrick Lamar came back down to Earth a bit after his album's debut helped "Humble." soar up to the top. This is Bruno's seventh No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, all of them coming this decade. He only trails Rihanna and Katy Perry for most No. 1 hits this decade. He's also now pulled off the feat of having at least one No. 1 hit from each of his first three albums. So it's a big week for Bruno. Even though I'm not a huge fan of this song, I'm happier that it jumped to No. 1 rather than seeing Ed return for a 13th week. I just hope this is a temporary placeholder until something better comes around. Perhaps "Humble." can return or maybe even "Despacito"?
2- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran (=) -- While everything shuffles around it, "Shape of You" manages to stay stead at No. 2 instead of returning to No. 1. I'm happy with that. It's finally peaked on radio and has started the slow decline. I imagine this will still stay steady in the Hot 100 for a while, but if it were up to me, I'd say it's time to leave. I still enjoy the song, but it's now overstayed its welcome.
3- "Humble." - Kendrick Lamar (-2) -- Quite frankly I'm disappointed that this song couldn't hang onto that top spot for more than just a week. I really love the *censored* version of the song and I can only hope this can stick around and maybe go back to No. 1?
4- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (+5) -- Here's another shocker. I was stunned to see this song in the top 10 last week and I'm almost equally stunned to see it in the top five this week. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised given that this was its first full week of tracking following the Bieber remix. Now I'm wondering how high this can go. Again, this is the first time that a song mostly in Spanish has even made the top 10 since "Macarena" by Los Del Rio spent 14 weeks at No. 1 back in 1996. Even though I didn't need Justin Bieber added to allow me to enjoy the song, if it means that this song becomes a phenomenon, that's an overall win because this song is super infectious. I'm now envisioning this song going No. 1 in my mind and the thought of that makes me super happy.
5- "Mask Off" - Future (=) -- At least I can be happy that this song didn't rise any higher in the top five. The stupid Mask Off Challenge that Future is using to help this song achieve success is really dumb and I'm upset at how gullible our generation is by wanting to be part of every new internet challenge that comes around. Let's end this trend and get rid of Future in the top 10.
6- "Something Just Like This" - The Chainsmokers & Coldplay (+2) -- After seeing some opposition and getting shoved down to No. 8 last week, I'm glad to see this song rebound and go back up to No. 6. Now if it could replace Future in the top five, that would be really great. Also, this is officially the 52nd straight week that The Chainsmokers have spent in the top 10. Yup. That's exactly one year. The only other person to achieve the feat of staying in the top 10 for a whole year consecutively is Katy Perry, who managed 69 straight weeks with her "Teenage Dream" singles
7- "DNA." - Kendrick Lamar (-3) -- The fact that "DNA." managed to stay in the top 10 this week after every song from Kendrick's album debuted last week is a good sign moving forward. It's worth noting that the rest of the songs from the album took a huge tumble as there are only three other songs outside "Humble." and "DNA." remaining in the top 50, and those three fell at least 14 spots each. The other seven songs that remain between 51 and 100 all fell at least 30 spots. In comparison, Kendrick had a total of 11 songs in the top 50 last week. So I'm not expecting any of these songs to last much longer. I'm just hoping "Humble." and "DNA." can stick around. But at least "Humble."
8- "iSpy" - KYLE featuring Lil Yachty (-2) -- It's good to see this song starting on its exit after camping out between No. 4 and 6 for a few weeks. I don't hate the song as much as I do other rap songs, but I still wasn't happy to see it in the top 10 in the first place and I'm glad it at least hasn't overstayed its welcome too long.
9- "XO Tour Llif3" - Lil Uzi Vert (+1) -- After getting excited last week that this dropped to No. 10, my heart sunk after seeing it rise a spot this week. I was hoping for a quick exit here, but I am sad to see it still around. Even more sad is that I think it's going to rise all the way up to No. 7 next week. At least it's not in the top five like that awful Future song, but this needs to go away, too.
10- "It Ain't Me" - Kygo & Selena Gomez (+3) -- Hallelujah! After this camped out just below the top 10 and even dropped last week, I was nervous that this was going to be another song that fell victim to peaking right before hitting the top 10. That would've been sad. Thankfully it's here and now we can all celebrate Kygo's first ever top 10 hit! If this is your first introduction to Kygo, I'd highly recommend you go back and listen to some of his previous work because he has some pretty great tropical house music that never got recognition by the general public. As long as he stays down to Earth, I'd be happy if this led to even more success for Kygo. But if not, I'm glad that he at least got one top 10 hit. And yes, congratulations to Selena, I suppose. But this is all about Kygo, not her.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Say You Won't Let Go" - James Arthur (+4) -- After last week saw just three risers on this list due to Kendrick's album debut, naturally it was expected that we have a ton of songs rising this week as the Billboard charts even out. James Arthur is the biggest winner this week and I'd be fine if this was top 10 bound. I think its a pretty good song that's already achieved a ton of international success. We're just slow here in the U.S.
16- "Location" - Khalid (+9) -- For some reason I keep expecting this song to stall out, but it has now arrived at No. 16 and is that much closer to hitting top 10. I'll be cheering this song. It's a good one!
18- "Passionfruit" - Drake (+9) -- If we have to have a Drake song from his most recent album do well on the charts, I'm happy that it's this one and not any others. As long as this doesn't hit "One Dance" levels, this is whatever for me. If it can replace Lil Uzi, KYLE or Future in the top 10, that's an overall win.
24- "T-Shirt" - Migos (+5) -- This I am not happy about, though. If any Migos songs get anywhere near the top 10, it's time to throw a fit. Luckily this is not yet top 20, so no need to panic just yet.
26- "Swang" - Rae Sremmurd (+8) -- No need to panic here either, but Rae Sremmurd need to stay away from the top 10, too. I'm still furious that "Black Beatles" was such a monster hit and I can't handle anything else from them, so lets hope this stalls out.
30- "Slide" - Calvin Harris featuring Frank Ocean & Migos (+14) -- I just said that if any Migos songs get near the top 10 that I would be upset. Well, I retract that just a bit because out of any song that has anything to do with Migos, this is the one that is most enjoyable because Calvin Harris has a weird talent of featuring awful singers and making them seem not quite as awful as they are. This is still not the best Calvin Harris song by a long shot, but it's an enjoyable one.
34- "In Case You Didn't Know" - Brett Young (+9) -- The award for biggest country riser this week goes to Brett Young and I'm happy about that. Sam Hunt has left the top 10. Let's hope it stays that way. Next step is for Brett Young to pass Sam Hunt as the top country song. I'll be really happy if that happens because I really enjoy this song. One of the better country songs to chart as of late and I'm happy that it is now a top 40 hit.
37- "Believer" - Imagine Dragons (+14) -- I want to be happy for Imagine Dragons. I really do. They're a local-ish band that I knew of before they became big, but I'm sad when they do average music because I know they can do a lot better than this. Like the recent Zedd song, if this opens the door to more Imagine Dragons success, that's an overall win. But I just can't cheer on this specific song as much as I want to.
41- "Hurricane" - Luke Combs (+14) -- Still a better song than that Sam Hunt garbage, but I'm not quite as happy for this song as I am for Brett Young's song. This is an average at best country song that mostly exemplifies why I am very meh about the genre in general.
43- "Both" - Gucci Mane featuring Drake (+5) -- This is very much a no from me. Let's hope it only rose because of the Kendrick fallout and won't get much higher.
45- "Redbone" - Childish Gambino (+11) -- It's nice to see this back in the top 50 this week. Now let's see if it can get over the hump and go top 40!
46- "Swalla" - Jason Derulo featuring Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign (+7) -- I'm not very happy to see this in the top 50, but I'm not surprised. Although it's worth noting that it didn't rise as much as some of these other songs, so hopefully that means its momentum has slowed down a bit?
47- "Castle on the Hill" - Ed Sheeran (+14) -- If you missed the news, this is officially Ed Sheeran's second single from his new album following "Shape of You." As "Shape of You" now begins its slow decline, let's hope that "Castle on the Hill" will continue to gain momentum and eventually replace it in the top 10. That would make me happy as this still stands as one of my favorite new songs from 2017.
50- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (+9) -- French Montana gets a top 50 hit. His third as a lead artist. The highest he's gotten on his own was No. 36. With this specific song, I'm not upset at this.
52- "Now or Never" - Halsey (+14) -- I'm still curious to see how well Halsey does after "Closer." Can this song be a hit? If not, I certainly won't be upset. But if it does, I won't be super angry either. I just watched the music video for this song for the first time and I was surprised to see that it gets pretty violent. Just a random thought.
54- "Heavy" - Linkin Park featuring Kiiara (+14) -- Much like Imagine Dragons, I want to cheer for Linkin Park to do well, but I'm certainly not going to cheer for this song at all. In fact, I really hope it fails so that Linkin Park can get back to making their usual good music and not be inspired to follow this route for their future.
55- "Drowning" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring Kodak Black (+17) -- I'm not upset at Kodak Black's "Unforgettable" doing well. But I am upset at his featured turn with this rapper whose dumb name I refuse to type twice. This is not top 50 yet, so it's not quite time to complain.
57- "Shining" - DJ Khaled featuring Beyonce & Jay Z (+13) -- A very strong no from me here on this Beyonce and Jay Z garbage that features DJ Khaled yelling a few times and calling it his song.
59- "Good Life" - G-Eazy & Kehlani (+17) -- This is the song from "The Fate of the Furious" that debuted along with all of Kendrick's songs last week and I'm surprised to see it jump this high. It seemed like a generic, forgettable theme song from an otherwise fun movie that I didn't expect to stick around.
63- "At My Best" - Machine Gun Kelly featuring Hailee Steinfeld (+35) -- Huge jump for MGK and Hailee this week. Biggest of the week, in fact. And I'm fine with that. Better than previous song from both of these two.
84- "The Night We Met" - Lord Huron (+15) -- The tragic love song from "13 Reasons Why" also jumps up this week. I wonder if this is really going to be a hit because part of me thought it was only going to be a one week appearance on the charts. It's only in the 80's, so no jumping to conclusions yet, but it's one I'll keep my eye on.
85- "How Not To" - Dan + Shay (+10) -- This is a country song that I'm also fine with. So two of our three country songs that made significant rises this week I am happy with. I'd call it a win for the genre this week.
New Arrivals:
44- "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" - Shawn Mendes -- The third single from Shawn Mendes' album "Illuminate" following "Treat You Better" and "Mercy." For the record, when I first heard "Stitches," I didn't hate it. But the love affair that the radio had with that song was so strong that it drove me crazy. Then we had "Treat You Better," which was an atrocious pile of dog crap. "Mercy" wasn't as bad, but at that point I was so done with Mr. Mendes that I just didn't care. Now we have this song, which I don't even know what he's getting at. More generic, empty lyrics where Shawn is trying to make things work with a girl. He starts out very creepy and stalker-like before moving to anger and frustration with a touch of insults towards this girl. There's nothing in the lyrics that suggest that this girl wants anything to do with Shawn, but we do get a lot of desperation and annoyance where I would assume this girl wants to turn around and slap Shawn in the face and tell him to go away, but he refuses to. Or something like that. I don't know. This song is all over the place thematically and I don't know what the title lyrics "there's nothing holdin' me back" refer to in context of the story being told. More nonsense from Shawn. Let's hope this fizzles and dies.
64- "Lust for Life" - Lana Del Rey featuring The Weeknd -- I normally love Lana Del Rey because she is so good at the hauntingly depressing songs and she has the perfect voice to match that. Not every song of hers is a home run, though, and this unfortunately is one of those that isn't. Her and The Weeknd definitely mix very well together, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of depth or emotion this time around. There's two short verses that kind of give us an idea of us an idea of what's happening, but for the most part there's a ton of repetition here and it's not super interesting. They take turns telling each other to take off all your clothes over and over which is followed by the chorus, which consists of repeating the line "And a lust for life keeps us alive" over and over. If lust is the only thing keeping you alive, I don't know if you have the right outlook. A human emotion perhaps, but the content is just uninteresting for me, which is disappointing.
68- "Attention" - Charlie Puth -- I've learned in the last couple of years that Charlie Puth is pretty good as a side dish to a song, but not very good as a main course. I say that because he's introduction to the world came on "See You Again," which he did a great job of balancing out Wiz Khalifa's rap in providing a great tribute to the late Paul Walker. But nothing he's done on his own since that song has been that interesting. This continues that trend. While perhaps slightly less bothersome than Shawn Mendes' new song this week, this song just comes off as annoying and a bit arrogant. He's just spending the whole song talking smack about how horrible his ex-girlfriend is and how awful she's been since their breakup. I don't understand how anyone could find this interesting at all and if this is a lead single for an upcoming album, count me out.
87- "do re mi" - blackbear -- "Sound of Music," rap version? The rapper blackbear is new to the Billboard charts, but apparently he's done several albums and EP's that never charted and now for some reason we're giving him his chance in the spotlight. This is sort of similar to the previous song by Charlie Puth in that blackbear is saying he's done with this girl and that he wishes he could go back to the day they met and just stay in bed. The difference here is that the production of the song is actually pretty awesome and it almost makes the song work if it weren't for the lyrical content that's a bit meh. And I don't really know why the "do re mi" tie in was necessary, but it is what it is. Even so, blackbear does provide a lot more attitude and personality to the song that makes this a lot more interesting than what Shawn Mendes or Charlie Puth provided us with this week and if this becomes another viral rap song, it's better than most of the crap we've had in the top 10 recently.
90- "Hard Times" - Paramore -- Well here's a surprise. It's been a while since we've had anything from Paramore or Hayley Williams on the charts. Last time they charted a song was in 2014 with "Ain't it Fun," from their 2013 self-titled fourth album, "Paramore." And now we have a fifth studio album coming up here real soon with this being the lead-off single. And boy it's good to have them back. This song is super catchy and a lot of fun. I've always wanted there to be more female-led rock bands that hit mainstream. Not for political correctness reasons, but just because it's a fantastic sound, which is why I love Paramore. Unlike some bands today, this feels like a song where Paramore is sticking to their roots. Hayley Williams has a great voice and the rock back drop is great, but this is also poppy enough that I can see this crossing over to pop radio as well. It's a good balance between pop and rock. Lyrics aren't super out of this world, but this would be a good summer jam that I hope catches on and gives Paramore another hit.
93- "My Girl" - Dylan Scott -- I saw this song and it immediately made me think of the classic 70's hit of the same name by The Temptations. I had to go give it a listen before checking out this current song by Dylan Scott. Great song! Moving forward, though, this new song of the same name is actually a decent country rock song. Dylan Scott has a really deep, rich country voice and the rock and piano backdrop play nicely. It was also refreshing after a week of listening to a bunch of idiots complaining at their girls and how awful they are to get a song by Dylan Scott where he is bragging about how awesome his girl is. He loves her with no makeup on. He loves hearing her talk to her mom. He loves hearing her rap to Eminem. Normal, everyday things that he's fallen in love with. He's not sexualizing her. He's not bragging to the world that he has the sexiest girlfriend alive. He's not lusting after her. He's just grateful to be with her. He loves singing in the car with her, going to baseball games with her and seeing her pray at night. This is a very positive, uplifting song. It's a bit of mixed genre instead of a pure country song, but that makes it better in this instance.
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