Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (=) -- Adam Levine gets a second week at No. 1 thanks to the deal he made with the Devil. Recently I went on a kick of listening to a lot of Maroon 5's old music after someone asked me why I didn't like this song. I miss that Maroon 5. If you want to know why I don't like "Girls Like You," just go listen to "Harder to Breathe," "This Love," "She Will Be Loved" or really anything from their 2002 album "Songs About Jane." Then go back and listen to "Girls Like You." That will tell you everything you need to know. But yet because we live in 2018, this song has now been No. 1 on the radio charts for 10 weeks now and it's not letting up. It's down 2 percent in overall chart points, though, because streaming and sales are bleeding pretty badly. The question becomes will the radio for "Girls Like You" be strong enough to outlast the streaming of "Lucid Dreams"? Because, as you now know, Drake disappeared from that No. 2 spot, meaning Maroon 5 has a new competitor in the runner up spot.
2- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (+2) -- I figured Juice WRLD would jump up one spot to No. 3 since Eminem was set to drop after debuting at No. 3 next week. But I didn't think it would also jump ahead of Drake to get to the No. 2 spot. In terms of overall chart points, while "Girls Like You" fell 2 percent, "Lucid Dreams" gained 5 percent. I don't know how much of a margin there is left, but it's worth noting that "Lucid Dreams" has nearly double the amount of streaming than "Girls Like You" does while "Girls Like You" in turn has about double the amount of sales and radio than "Lucid Dreams." So it's a big question of how much does streaming count in Billboard's formula that will determine if or when "Lucid Dreams" claims the crown. Helping "Lucid Dreams" is that said radio is climbing pretty high as it's No. 9 on the radio charts, which includes it being No. 10 on pop radio, which is why its been able to stick around for so long and now contend for the top spot, despite being in its 20th week on the Hot 100.
3- "Better Now" - Post Malone (+2) -- Not only did "In My Feelings" fall past "Lucid Dreams," but I was also surprised to see it fall past "Better Now," which means we have a bit of a revitalized top three with these two songs. I'm fine with that. Neither song is necessarily a masterpiece, and "Lucid Dreams" is way better than "Better Now," but both of these songs are acceptable. I'm totally fine with them acting as placeholders until we have something better coming around. Now we just need to get that Maroon 5 song out of the top spot and all will be better in the world.
4- "In My Feelings" - Drake (-2) -- It was rather therapeutic watching the floor fall out from under Drake this week because I was expecting it to hang out at No. 2 for several more weeks before slowly sliding down the charts. But now it appears its fall will be expedited, which is a great thing because we've had way too much Drake in 2018.
5- "Killshot" - Eminem (-2) -- I rather confidently declared that this song was going to tank this week, because that's what usually happens to big debuts, especially ones from Eminem as he's not been able to get any of his songs to stick on the charts. Even most of the songs from "Kamikaze" are mostly gone. But I was a little surprised to see this only fall two spots instead of completely tanking. I guess it had enough residual streaming from its huge numbers last week. At that lyric video on YouTube for the song has gone crazy. But for this to gain real traction, it's going to need to get radio and radio doesn't usually touch diss tracks like this, so I'm expecting to see this song continue to drop. And as much as I want something from Eminem to stick, this isn't the one I want around. Let's bring back "Lucky You" or "The Ringer" instead.
6- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (+3) -- I'm not sure what to think here. None of these next four songs are any good, so I suppose the order doesn't really matter. I'll take this over "FeFe" and "I Love It," I suppose. But I still would've preferred for this song to go away instead of jumping three spots.
7- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (-1) -- It's good to see that, not only is Drake bleeding, but so is Cardi B. This was at No. 6 last week and I thought it was going to sneak back into the top five with the departure of Eminem. But not only did Eminem not leave, Cardi B fell a spot, which means that this song is really weak right now. And that's great because it's been here for way too long. Although Cardi's feelings probably aren't hurt since she's tagged onto that Maroon 5 spot, which is currently No. 1. But still, I'm glad that we're getting rid of one of her songs.
8- "FeFe" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Murda Beatz (=) -- This song can't fall fast enough. In fact, it didn't fall at all. It just camped here at No. 8 while the other songs around it switched places. Why we let 6ix9ine into the top 10 in the first place still baffles. Why we let him stick around for so long is even more baffling.
9- "I Love It" - Kanye West & Lil Pump (-2) -- I was going to just repeat what I said last week. "Why is Kanye West's Pornhub anthem still here?" And that question remains true for this week as well. Why is this still here? But at least it dropped two spots, so there's hope that this will continue its downward progression instead of sticking around.
10- "Youngblood" - 5 Seconds of Summer (=) -- I'm glad to see that this song stuck around this week. But it would be great if this at least jumped ahead of the four songs above it that don't seem to have a whole lot of strength. Heck, I certainly wouldn't be upset if this jumped ahead of everything in front of it.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Falling Down" - Lil Peep & XXXTENTACION (+34) -- I'm crediting this to this song's huge gain this week to its first full week of tracking. And I hope that it has a huge drop in its second full week. The original song, "Sunlight On Your Skin," is a pretty good song. Go listen to it. The remix with X is significantly worse. Plus, word is that Lil Peep never wanted to work with X, so nothing like honoring the memory of both artists by releasing a song that would've never happened if they were both still alive, right?
15- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (+16) -- Oh hey, welcome to the top 15 Bastille and Marshmello. Although my quick investigation into why this song jumped up 16 spots revealed that an official music video was just released, so that makes sense as to why this got so high this week. That means it might experience a bit of a dip next week. But I'll happily accept being wrong because I would love to see this in the top 10.
18- "Trip" - Ella Mai (+3) -- Ella Mai sneaking up the charts, hoping to get her second top 10. Meanwhile, I'm hoping this stalls out in the teens because I really don't care for this.
24- "New Patek" - Lil Uzi Vert (+14) -- Why is this going up this week? Because apparently people drool all over themselves listening to Lil Uzi mumble about all of his new watches and jewelry.
31- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (+11) -- I think I'm getting convinced that this is continuing to gain momentum because the title of the song and the artist are pretty cool names. A dude named Sheck Wes writing a song called "Mo Bamba" should be an awesome song. But no. It's a piece of trash. Which is I guess why people like it.
46- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (+10) -- After a string of trash, at least there's one thing to be happy about. Give us a glimmer of hope. I can only hope that this continues to gain traction, because imagine this song all over the radio and on the top of the charts. That would be glorious!
53- "You Say" - Lauren Daigle (+11) -- Hey look, a second good song in a row! This song has had an interesting month or so on the charts. It keeps bouncing up and down the charts. Thus I have no idea what it's actually going to do each week, but if it can continue an upward motion, that would be really nice.
62- "Lie" - NF (+11) -- I wish I cared more about this song from NF because I've liked some of his stuff from the recent past. This song is more forgettable than anything. But I'll still take it over most of the other rap rising on the charts right now.
77- "Speechless" - Dan + Shay (+10) -- A much better effort from Dan + Shay than their recent hit "Tequila." A simple wedding song about them being speechless after seeing their brides walk down the isle. It still doesn't quite connect with me, though. The instrumentation doesn't quite fit the lyrics. I would've preferred a more stripped back piano ballad instead of the typical heavy drums and guitars that make it feel like they got lazy in constructing the song.
81- "Leave Me Alone" - Flipp Dinero (+15) -- I can barely remember this song and it was just last week when I covered it. An untalented rapper with an annoying voice whining about life. But of course it's going to become a hit.
83- "Noticed" - Lil Mosey (+17) -- I learned since last week that Lil Mosey is a 16-year-old kid. No wonder his song sucks. Now lets push him off the charts and encourage him to go back to school and get an education. At least finish high school. Otherwise he's going to drop out of school and be a punk idiot the rest of his life, writing awful rap music that makes it sound like he stopped paying attention in school shortly after leaving elementary school. That's not what we want, do we?
86- "Best Shot" - Jimmie Allen (+11) -- Almost a good song from Jimmie Allen. Certainly better than a lot of country songs that pass through these charts. I like his vocals, his genuine sounding nature, and his more simple-sounding music. I just wish there was a bit more substance in the lyrics because this is about as basic as it gets.
New Arrivals:
47- "No Stylist" - French Montana featuring Drake -- I almost forgot that French Montana was a thing. He's only shown up once this year and that was with 500 other people back in June on that "Welcome to the Party" song that I bet you already forgot about. I can guarantee you that the only reason he made an appearance with this song is because he conned Drake into joining him. Not that it's that hard to do. Drake is one of those losers that will lazily jump on a song with anyone, regardless of how talented they are, just so that he can keep adding more zeros to his paycheck. And that's all that he's doing here. Drake delivers one lazy verse where it sounds like he put no effort into and that's surrounded by French Montana bragging about all of his new fancy jewelry that he's wearing. That's literally it. The song doesn't necessarily grate at my ears, but it's one of the more lackluster, empty rap songs that I've heard lately. I don't know how people can be a fan of empty nonsense like this.
64- "Head Above Water" - Avril Lavigne -- I've loved Avril Lavigne ever since she started releasing music in the early 2000's. She's always had a unique style and a fun, energetic personality that is super contagious in her music. We haven't had an Avril Lavigne album since her self-titled album in 2013, meaning that she's had a five year hiatus from music. Since that album, the only song she's released was a 2015 single for the Special Olympics titled "Fly." When artists I like go on a hiatus after album releases, I don't often follow their story. I just wait patiently for whenever they have new music for me to listen to. And thus is the case here. I haven't followed what has happened to Avril Lavigne since 2013, but when I saw this lyric video trending two weeks ago on YouTube, I immediately listened to it and was blown away by the raw and emotion and power behind it. After then researching the story behind it, I learned that in the last five years, Avril Lavigne has been fighting a serious case of Lyme Disease, which had her so weak at times that she spent the good majority of two years in bed. There were plenty of moments during that where she was so weak that she honestly thought that she was going to die and even had accepted death. She shared one of those moments recently on her website, wherein she states:
"One night, I thought I was dying, and I had accepted that I was going to die. My mom laid with me in bed and held me. I felt like I was drowning. Under my breath, I prayed, 'God, please help to keep my head above water.' In that moment, the song writing of this album began. It was like I tapped into something. It was a very spiritual experience. Lyrics flooded through me from that point on."
Thus this song and the upcoming album was born. And that's why this song is so emotional and powerful. It was written while she was on her death bed, praying to God to let her live and to help her keep her head above water. After reading through that story, then re-listening to the song, I was completely overcome with emotion in realizing how close we were to losing one of my favorite singers. Then to hear her pleas on this song to God and hear about her deeply personal, spiritual experience as she was able to fight through this makes this song powerful. She mentioned that when she was healthy enough to sing, she was worried that her voice wasn't going to be very strong, but she was pleased to find out that her voice was better than ever as that break from music improved her singing abilities and you can tell that on this song as this is possibly the best vocal performance of her career in addition to being perhaps her most personal and most emotional song. And if you've ever gone through a life-threatening experience, or knew someone that has, I think this song has the power to speak right to your soul. I don't want to speak too soon, but this song is a strong candidate for song of the year for me. It's a song that's almost too good for the current state of the Billboard Hot 100, but of course I would love for it to catch on with the mainstream.
74- "This Feeling" - The Chainsmokers featuring Kelsea Ballerini -- After covering Avril's new song, I almost just want to call it a wrap and end with that. But we do have three more songs and so I will do my due diligence in covering them. This song was curious to me because I love Kelsea Ballerini, but The Chainsmokers have been mostly disappointing for me, so I wasn't sure which way this would go. Turns out this is alright. It's not quite as sharp as pretty much any song from Kelsea's album last year "Unapologetically," but her voice is a decent fit for the groove that The Chainsmokers add. The problem with the song is the problem with a lot of recent songs from The Chainsmokers in that Andrew Taggart thinks it's a good idea for him to sing. He should just stick to the production of the songs while letting other people sing because when he comes on, the song is underwhelming. But when it's Kelsea singing, the song is pretty decent. Nothing super special and deep, but a song that's comparable to "The Middle," with Zedd and Maren Morris, but with a tad more personality than that song. If this helps Kelsea get more into the mainstream's eye, I think that'll be a net positive.
92- "Backin' It Up" - Pardison Fontaine featuring Cardi B -- And now we have to remind ourselves that we are still in 2018, a mostly awful year wherein Cardi B is everywhere. And everything she touches turns to gold in terms of chart performance. I mean, just ask what she did for Maroon 5 when they lazily added her to boring album filler song. I don't know who Pardison Fontaine is, and the internet isn't doing a good job of teaching me, but I can guarantee you that the only reason this song is here is because he got Cardi B to be a part of the song. For me though, I could hardly care less about Cardi B at this point. Granted, she's still better than Nicki, but that's not a very high bar. In this song, Pardison spends his portion of the song talking about how amazing Cardi is, getting a little to graphic for my personal taste. Then Cardi spends her portion of the song bragging about how amazing she is, as well as how good she is at backing up all the trash talk she speaks. I don't know, maybe Cardi fans will like this as they can't seem to get enough of her bragging about how awesome she is.
96- "Rich" - Maren Morris -- Speaking of Maren Morris, after taking a detour into pop and EDM with Zedd, which landed her one of the top songs of the year so far in "The Middle," as it camped out in the top 10 for 16 weeks after peaking at No. 4, she is now back on her own and I'm honestly curious to see if that song can boost her solo career. Although this specific song isn't anything new from her per se, just another cut from her 2016 album "Hero" that also delivered "My Church," "I Could Use a Love Song" and "80s Mercedes." I haven't listened to all of "Hero," but of these four songs, I prefer "I Could Use a Love Song." In fact, I think "Rich" might be the lesser of the bunch, but I still enjoy her brand of country pop. Her songs reminds me a bit of Shania Twain's older music. She has a fun personality and character to make her songs work. This song has her saying that if she got money every time this boy crossed her or broke a promise that she would be rich. She seems to be having a good time throwing him in the dirt. But I don't know. The song doesn't have as much fire to it and thus I'm a bit surprised that this is what Maren turned to after "The Middle." I'm curious to see what she comes up with when she gives us a new album, whenever that happens.
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