Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (=) -- I'm counting down the days until this song is NOT No. 1 on the Hot 100. And there will be much rejoicing when that happens. After Lil Wayne failed to top Maroon 5 last week, Juice WRLD yet again falls short in dethroning the sort-of group. And it's all because the radio won't let this die. Yes, it's down on radio, but only by 1 percent overall and thus now has led the radio charts for 12 weeks. That's the most by a duo or group this century (gross) and is coming way too close to matching the overall radio songs record which is held by Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" with 18 weeks back in 1998. If "Girls Like You" is the song that breaks that record, I just might travel around to every radio station in the country and slap them all in the face for refusing to STOP playing this song.
2- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (+1) -- After a brief interruption by Lil Wayne, Juice WRLD is back at the runner-up spot. Unfortunately for me, both songs remained essentially even overall in terms of chart points this week, so Juice WRLD got no closer to dethroning Maroon 5. Let's hope those numbers fluctuate a bit more in the coming weeks so we can get rid of the travesty that is Maroon 5.
3- "Better Now" - Post Malone (+1) -- As I kinda expected, the release of the "Better Now" music video didn't really impact Post Malone's chart positioning. It was up 7 percent on streaming and 44 percent on sales, but neither of those metrics was remotely strong enough for Post Malone to even sneak into the runner-up spot. This song rose because of the disappearance of Lil Wayne.
4- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (+21) -- Ew, gross. Who let these two into the top five? Oh, an album they released which caused an album bomb for them this week. That makes sense. It also means that this is going to go away next week, right? Hopefully? I suppose I'll cover this album bomb to some degree, but I'll give much more focus to the soundtrack of "A Star is Born," which saw four additional songs debut on the Hot 100 in addition to "Shallow" soaring into the top five. And speaking of which...
5- "Shallow" - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (+23) -- Last week I had to admit that I had not seen "A Star is Born," so I refused to give my analysis of this song without knowing the context of the film. Since then I have repented and seen the movie, as well as the three previous versions, so now I can give you my official thoughts on the song. And four others from the movie that showed up in the new arrivals this week.
And yeah, I'm obsessed. To the point where there are moments in the day where I just sit there and listen to this song on repeat while I do other things. Lyrically this song is simple. It's a love song where Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga take turns saying how much they love each other and are ready to dive into this relationship. But even though the lyrics are simple, they are quite powerful and the two singers do a great job of selling their chemistry with each other. You can tell they are madly in love. For someone whose not a professional singer for his profession, Bradley Cooper does an excellent job starting the song off. But then Lady Gaga kicks in and blows it away. And all of that is the analysis of the song without the context of the movie. If you want to know a secret, while I refused to analyze this song last week, I had already become obsessed with it before seeing the movie. But when you add the context, this song is the central theme of the movie. It's the song that gets Lady Gaga's character famous. She sings the lyrics to Bradley Cooper in the parking lot on their first little get together, then on stage the next day, he reveals that he took her song and created a full-length duet out of it. He forces her to come sing the song with her on stage and after some initial hesitation, she does. And boom. The world loves as the performance goes viral. And it doesn't feel superficial or forced. It's a beautiful moment in the movie that sets the tone for the rest of the film. If this song hadn't worked so well, the movie may have not worked. But the movie works because this song is so great. And Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga did indeed record the song live on set in front of a festival audience. No lip-syncing in the movie, which makes it feel that much more real.
6- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- Do you want to know a funny story? For the first time in 37 weeks, Drake is NOT a credited artist in the top 10. That's since January 27 of this year. And I bring that up here because Drake has uncredited vocals in this Travis Scott song. Had Travis not been an idiot to Drake by leaving off his credit, Drake's streak could've continued. But on the records it's over even though Drake's vocals are still heard in the top 10.
7- "Youngblood" - 5 Seconds of Summer (+1) -- An overall win for 5SOS this week, I suppose. Last week this song was the fifth highest song not from Lil Wayne, but since three Lil Wayne songs debuted it front of it, it had to be content with the No. 8 spot. This week, all three of those Lil Wayne songs fell out, but two of them were replaced by other songs that soared into the top five, leaving "Youngblood" with just a one song rise. But hey, this is a decently fun pop song, so I'm glad it's at least sticking around. I hope it can get higher, though.
8- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (+5) -- Here's a welcome entry to the top 10. This is Marshmello's first ever trip to the top 10 after being barely held out with "Friends," a collaboration with Anne-Marie, which peaked at the infamous No. 11 spot. This is also just the second time for Bastille being in the top 10, with the first time being their monstrous hit "Pompeii" in 2014. Granted, I think both artists have done better, but if this hit helps propel their careers forward and gives them more mainstream recognition, I think this is a win. Plus, an average Marshmello and Bastille song is still way better than most of the crap that has festered in the top 10 lately. So on that note, it's relieving to have a song in the top 10 that's not a smelly pile of dog crap.
9- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (+2) -- I figured that this would return to the top 10 after being momentarily pushed out by Lil Wayne. But despite the two spot rise, this song is still on the downward track, which is good because this overstayed its welcome a long time ago.
10- "FeFe" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Murda Beatz (+2) -- The other song that unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, returns to the top 10 after the Lil Wayne album bomb last week pushed it out. And while I'm not happy this is here, I'm happy that this doesn't seem to have a whole lot more momentum left because this should never have even hit the top 10 in the first place. The world needs to reject the awful human being that is 6ix9ine, not reward him with a career simply because he desperately collaborated with Nicki Minaj on what he himself admitted was a lazy effort. On a non-6ix9ine related note, I am happy that Kanye West's "I Love It" and Tyga's "Taste" failed to return. And I'm happy that Drake's "In My Feelings" finally tumbled out of the top 10.
Rising on the Hot 100:
12- "Love Lies" - Khalid & Normani (+4) -- There's a whole ton of songs in this region this week thanks to the floor disappearing out from under Lil Wayne this week, heavier than I even expected. Even though Lil Baby and Gunna got a minor album bomb and "A Star is Born" charted four additional songs, there still managed to be a lot of movement here as the charts reset themselves back to normal. So let's go through this pretty quickly. "Love Lies" returns to No. 12, but I'm mostly sad that this song's life in the top 10 was short-lived after it completed the extremely long journey to get there. I hope that this comes back, but I'm not crossing my fingers.
13- "Natural" - Imagine Dragons (+6) -- As the college footballs seasons continues, meaning ESPN still is playing this song during every commercial break, "Natural" manages to remain consistently in the teens. Although I'm a bit surprised that it hasn't had enough traction to crack the top 10. If it does, I'll be happy with it. But I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't.
16- "Trip" - Ella Mai (+4) -- Ella Mai is hoping to get a second entry in the top 10 after her previous smash hit "Boo'd Up" exploded. Unfortunately for her, she seems to be having a tougher time getting there with this, which I'm not complaining about.
19- "Nonstop" - Drake (+4) -- I keep expecting this song to sneak back into the top 10, but I'm happy that its momentum doesn't seem to be super strong because the world doesn't need any more Drake. I heard that the Michael Jackson song might be Drake's next single from "Scorpion." That's interesting. And I'm a bit surprised that he didn't try to mooch off that earlier, although I'm not a huge fan of this idea of taking advantage of an artist's death to boost your sales, which is the only reason Drake somehow managed to get away with including a Michael Jackson vocal recording in his song. But anyways, we'll talk about that more if the song ever gets here.
20- "Eastside" - Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid (+9) -- Hey, here's a song that I'm happy to see in the top 20, even though I still can't seem to let go of the annoyance of Benny Blanco being a credited artist when he's simply a producer who didn't contribute any vocals. There's hundreds of songs that Benny Blanco could've done like this, so why start now? I suppose I'll thank him for putting this together, though.
24- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (+14) -- I'm disgusted that this keeps climbing. This song needs to go away, but will sadly probably be a top 10 hit because we always have to have an awful rap song towards the top of the charts.
26- "Yes Indeed" - Lil Baby & Drake (+5) -- Lil Baby's album release pushed this song up. I'm just happy that this couldn't get much traction in the top 10 when it was there.
27- "YG featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean & Nicki Minaj (+5) -- I expected this song to soar into the top 10 after it gained a whole bunch of initial momentum. And I was ready to be upset. But I'm happy that it hasn't managed to actually do so because the world doesn't need this song around.
35- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (+14) -- I've been begging for this song to become a hit because the world really needs this song around. To see it soar 14 spots and land in the top 40 this week is super promising. I remember a time where this band called fun. charted at the top of the Hot 100. Imagine if, in 2018 or 2019, we let those times come back by having great songs on the top of the charts? That would be so great.
38- "Psycho" - Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign (+6) -- I considered not including this because this song is not on the rise. It's just hear because Lil Wayne plummeted. But whatever. "Psycho" rose six spots. Enjoy it Post Malone fans. Because I don't think this song is going to last much longer on the Hot 100 given Billboard's rules for declining songs that have been around for a while.
39- "Broken" - lovelytheband (+9) -- I've been really mad at 2018 for being an awful year for the popular song. But if this could continue to gain momentum, perhaps it's a sign that it's possible to have alternative songs like this actually do well? I'm not expecting a complete resurgence for the genre, but I do wish we had more variety on the Hot 100 instead of being spammed by endless amounts of rap and hip hop.
46- "Wake Up in the Sky" - Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars & Kodak Black (+5) -- Yuck on all three accounts with this trio. Make it go away. Although I remain happy that it only had a five spot gain. It certainly could've been worse.
47- "Beautiful" - Bazzi featuring Camila Cabello (+5) -- I think this song is officially done. It rose enough this week to be included, but it doesn't have any momentum to be a true follow-up hit for either artist.
48- "Simple" - Florida Georgia Line (+5) -- I'm also not sure how much momentum this song really has, but I'd be happy if it did do well because I think this is a fun song.
55- "Breathin" - Ariana Grande (+13) -- Is this the next single from "Sweetener" for Ariana? Excellent choice, girl. Out of the songs that charted during her partial album bomb, this was one of the more enjoyable songs. Now let's see if this can get some momentum because "No Tears Left to Cry" and "God is a Woman" proved to be a little more frontloaded than Ariana was probably hoping for. And the girl deserves to get a hit that gains traction and stays around. Let's make "Breathin" that song.
69- "Speechless" - Dan + Shay (+13) -- Not that great of a week for country as they didn't get too many noticeable rises on this long list of rising song. I'm sure the genre will recover, though. And I wouldn't be upset if "Speechless" became a country hit. It's not particularly great, but it's alright.
76- "Better" - Khalid (+11) -- Khalid can do much better than this. I even totally forgot this song existed and had to relisten to it to determine why I was unimpressed. That's not usually a good sign.
82- "Lost in Japan" - Shawn Mendes & Zedd (+17) -- This song was released back in April, but didn't have a very long chart life, which is strangely unfortunate because the moment Shawn Mendes puts out songs that are actually tolerable is the moment where he can't get a whole lot of traction. But this song is now back because there's this remix with Zedd. Now an upbeat groove from Zedd still doesn't make the lyrics any better, but since they were decently tolerable to begin with, an updated Zedd groove does make the song as a whole better. So if this song becomes a hit, I will be totally happy.
New Arrivals:
15- "Lil Baby & Gunna featuring Drake -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
18- "Without Me" - Halsey -- Halsey has always been very hit and miss for me. She has a decent voice and given the right material she's a decent pop singer. But she has a habit of not tapping into that potential by giving a poor vocal performance or putting forth a lazy writing effort. But there's always hope with her. I just never know what Halsey is going to show up when I see a new Halsey song arriving on the charts. The answer is that this is Halsey responding to her very public breakup with G-Eazy, a relationship that seemed destined to fail. I think it's funny that they released that very boring love song "Him & I," but didn't last much longer after that. "Without Me" is certainly better than "Him & I," but that's because there's no G-Eazy in it and Halsey seems like she actually cares. Her vocals are alright in the song and the chorus is decent. But I think there could've been a lot more emotion in the song. She doesn't sound angry or sad. She's just kinda calmly singing about the breakup as if it wasn't that big of a deal, but she felt obligated to write a song about it. If she really was super brokenhearted or upset, she should've done a better job of showing it on the song.
25- "STOOPID" - 6ix9ine featuring Bobby Shmurda -- 6ix9ine probably thinks he's all cool and hip by spelling stupid with two O's instead of a U. But no. It's just... stupid. I don't know why we're still giving this criminal a career instead of ignoring him. But at least his follow-up to "FeFe," titled "BEBE," completely tanked after its debut. Hopefully this does the same because this is classic 6ix9ine trash. He's screaming at us about drugs, sex and killing people. It has a bizarre intro from some artists that sounded super drunk and high. And it features Bobby Shmurda, an artist who is currently in prison. And it sounds like his 10 seconds of song was briefly recorded from prison as it sounds like a muted, recorded phone call inserted in instead of a real verse. Brainless 6ix9ine fans will probably be drooling all over themselves as they desire nothing more than being yelled at about murder from this criminal. But anyone with a brain will rightfully label this is pure garbage.
28- "Close Friends" - Lil Baby -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
36- "I'll Never Love Again" - Lady Gaga -- Excuse me while I go bawl my face off. I don't know if anyone ever doubted Lady Gaga's ability to sing, but if they did, I'm sure this song can convince them otherwise because Lady Gaga absolutely belts this song, delivering a powerful ballad that hits you to the core. However, unlike my deep analysis of "Shallow" that I gave up above, I'm not going to elaborate on the context of this one because it's the final number in the movie and doing so would require spoilers. Since there might be people here that have not seen "A Star is Born," I'm going to forgo and tell you to message me if you've seen the movie and want to know why I think this song is so great. Chances are, though, that if you have seen the movie, you probably won't need me to elaborate because, unless you have a heart of stone, this song probably made you bawl your face off, too, and thus will know exactly what I think of this song.
41- "Always Remember Us This Way" - Lady Gaga -- This one I'm able to analyze more because it's another song that falls towards the beginning of the movie rather than the end. And this is the song I call Lady Gaga's "The Man That Got Away" moment. If you've seen the 1954 version of "A Star is Born," you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, go look this up. The song is Judy Garland's moment towards the beginning of the movie where Norman Maine discovers her and she's singing a beautiful moment that does a lot of foreshadowing for the rest of the movie. Now "Always Remember Us This Way" is nowhere near as powerful and strong as "The Man That Got Away." But that's alright. It's an absolutely solid song in its own right that does a great job of capturing the moment like a photograph. Regardless of what happens in the future, Lady Gaga is singing to Bradley Cooper that she's always going to remember them this way. Before the drama that comes with any relationship when they were madly in love and didn't have a care in the world. It's like capturing the Honeymoon phase of a relationship. Given that I'd seen the previous three versions of the movie, when Lady Gaga was singing this, the emotions got to me because I knew how this was going to end. This movie is super deep with a lot of layers and themes to discuss, which is why a song about remembering the simplicity of everything before the storm hits is so powerful.
54- "Off White VLONE" - Lil Baby & Gunna featuring Lil Durk & Nav -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
61- "Business is Business" - Lil Baby & Gunna -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
63- "Is That Alright?" - Lady Gaga -- I feel kind of embarrassed, but I don't remember this song in the movie. There's three songs that made a super memorable impression on me, "Shallow," "I'll Never Love Again" and "Always Remember Us This Way." The rest of the soundtrack did a great job of propelling the movie forward, but not all of them were the type of song that immediately sticks in your head afterward. That and I hear that there are songs on the soundtrack that didn't make it into the movie, but are still on the soundtrack. I'm not sure which category this belongs to in that, but nevertheless it is a really gorgeous love ballad that Lady Gaga is singing as a tribute to her husband in the movie. It's simple, yet effective. The impressive thing about Lady Gaga's performance in the movie is that when she rose to stardom, she didn't transform into Lady Gaga like I kinda thought she would. She became Ally. And Ally has a different set of music and personality than Lady Gaga does, so it was impressive that Lady Gaga was able to show off her versatility as a musician instead of just slipping into her own comfort zone. We don't often hear love ballads from Lady Gaga on her own albums, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to her doing more of them.
80- "Belly" - Lil Baby & Gunna -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
81- "My Blood" - twenty one pilots -- twenty one pilots released their new album "Trench" and I've been dying to listen to it, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I loved both "Jumpsuit" and "Nico and the Niners," which are the other two charting songs from the album thus far. "My Blood" isn't quite as upbeat and catchy as the two previously mentioned songs, but it does have a subtle groove to it that keeps me interested throughout. The voice of the song is a person speaking to someone, telling them that they don't need to run. Apparently there's a lot of theories out there about who Tyler is talking to or if it's even Tyler talking. A common Instagram theory is that the voice is Tyler's brother speaking to Tyler, which makes a lot of sense. But the song is mysterious and vague enough that it leaves it open for interpretation. It also feels like a smaller fragment to a greater whole. Thus I don't know how well this song really works on its own, but if it's a key part to the story of the album, then I'm totally cool with that. I just need to listen to the album itself to see how this all plays out and how this song fits it. So I suppose I'll get back to you on that if any of these twenty pilot songs gain traction, which I really hope they do. Although I'm not super confident.
93- "Maybe It's Time" - Bradley Cooper -- I really like Bradley Cooper's songs in this movie. As I said in my main review on my other blog, one of the many impressive things about Bradley Cooper in this movie, in front and behind the camera, is that his main profession is not a musician, but an actor and filmmaker. Now I don't know how much prior experience he has in the music world, but I was impressed by the final result. If I played his rock songs to you blindly, without telling you who is singing and where they're from, there's a good chance that you'd be impressed and would ask me which band this is because they sound profession. This song is one that Bradley Cooper plays in the movie when the girls at the club ask him to sing something, in which Lady Gaga walks in mid-song and is very impressed. It's not a rock song, but rather has more of a country vibe. Maybe country pop. But it's a simple stripped back song with just Bradley Cooper and his guitar where he gets to show off his vocals. While watching the movie, the lyrics here didn't jump off the page at me, but looking at them afterwards, this is a pretty good song, talking about how nobody knows what waits for the dead, how nobody speaks to God anymore and a suggestion that maybe it's time to let the old ways die. If we're classifying this officially as country, this is certainly way better than most actual country singers that chart here, so props to Bradley Cooper for that.
97- "Deep End" - Lil Baby -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
98- "I Am" - Lil Baby & Gunna -- I lied. I don't feel like covering this Lil Baby & Gunna album bomb. If any of these songs gain traction, I'll cover them later. Or if there's any songs that you want me to cover, I'll listen to them and get back to you.
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