Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (+1) -- Two new No. 1 hits in two different weeks? Even though I would've liked "bad guy" to reign for longer, I find this a bit refreshing. Billie got her chance at No. 1 and now we're sharing by giving Shawn Mendes his first ever No. 1 hit and Camila her second following "Havana." So congratulations to those two. And the margins here were pretty close. "Señorita" rose 6 percent in radio (102.4 million audience impressions), rose 3 percent in streaming (37.5 million U.S. streams), while falling 4 percent in sales (22,000 downloads sold). So it's not like it had a huge surge in numbers that helped it. It just benefited from solid timing as "bad guy" has been around for longer, meaning "Señorita" is more stable.
2- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (-1) -- Billie returns to a rather familiar spot here as "bad guy" now celebrates its 10th non-consecutive week at No. 2. The song is falling, but not by a whole lot as it fell 1 percent in streaming (38.9 million U.S. streams), fell 3 percent in radio (91.1 million audience impressions), and rose 1 percent in sales (20,000 downloads sold). So as I mentioned, the margins here are really close. I wouldn't necessarily expect "bad guy" to back to No. 1 as I think "Señorita" to remain slightly more stable as it's simply been around for less time, but nothing is set in stone at the moment, which could make room for our next song to have its turn.
3- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+1) -- Personally I think its a lot more interesting when there's not a huge behemoth ruling the charts because it means anything can happen. Like "Señorita," "Truth Hurts" benefits from having been around for less time, meaning it could just naturally slide into No. 1. This week it rose 17 percent in sales (26,000 downloads sold), rose 4 percent in radio (99.1 million audience impressions) and rose 6 percent in streaming (28.4 million U.S. streams). So it's really just a bit behind in streaming is all. If it can somehow make up a bit more ground in that area, while keeping up in radio as I imagine that "Señorita" is going to remain a radio powerhouse, it could very well challenge for No. 1. As is, though, I like our trio of songs that are on top right now. One other random note, "Truth Hurts" replaced "Old Town Road" this week as the No. 1 song on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and the Hot Rap Songs chart. But I don't know, the song feels more like a pop song to me than R&B, rap or hip-hop. She's kinda rapping, but not really.
4- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (-1) -- With "Señorita" going No. 1 this week, and "bad guy" going No. 1 last week, "Old Town Road" actually lost one of its records this week. Or, well, lost sole possession of it. During its 19 week run, it had blocked seven songs from going No. 1, forcing them to peak at No. 2. The previous record was five songs, which "Old Town Road" now falls to since "bad guy" and "Señorita" have both successfully made it to No. 1.
5- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+3) -- "Ran$om" annoyingly breaks the top five after soaring up 21 percent in streaming to 52.3 million U.S. streams. My question there is this. What in the world makes this song so unique that it's getting THAT much streaming? My only conclusion is that Lil Tecca and his team are paying off the various streaming services by forcing the song onto everyone's playlists who listen to rap and hip-hop. Because no one would voluntarily listen to this song so much would they?
6- "Talk" - Khalid (-1) -- Khalid falls out of the top five this week, but is still clinging onto the top spot on the radio charts for an 11th week with 121.2 million audience impressions (down 3 percent). I don't imagine that will last too much longer. I think "Señorita" will eventually get that crown, even if it takes a few weeks.
7- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (-1) -- While I'm not exactly ecstatic that "Ran$om" is in the top five, the only consolation prize is that "No Guidance" is again held out as it's struggling to gain traction on the songs ahead of it. That's a good sign.
8- "I Don't Care" - Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber (-1) -- "I Don't Care" also continues its slow slide downward. It's impressive how long the song has lasted.
9- "Goodbyes" - Post Malone featuring Young Thug (=) -- Post Malone clings onto the No. 9 spot, but it doesn't appear he's going to last much longer.
10- "If I Can't Have You" - Shawn Mendes (=) -- For what's most likely going to be a final week, Shawn Mendes again has both of his songs in the top 10. Taylor Swift is going to get at least one song in the top 10 next week, possibly two, thanks to her album release that's getting a huge number of sales. They'll immediately fall back out, but I don't know if this song is really strong enough to make a return in two weeks.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+3) -- It's my favorite spot on the Hot 100. No. 11. The spot where a lot of songs come to die, nearly making it into the top 10, but not quite. So I'm not going to celebrate just yet, especially with Taylor set to jump in next week, but with half of the songs in the top 10 right now not doing very well, you would think this song is a good enough position to slide into the region, right?
14- "You Need to Calm Down" - Taylor Swift (+4) -- Taylor Swift's album reportedly has sold over 500,000 equivalent album units in its first three days, making it the biggest album debut of 2019. What that means for the individual songs on the album is a mystery to me. My plan is to simply wait for next week to see what happens instead of making any predictions. But it would make sense that this song would get enough of a push to make a return to the top 10 after having been away from the region since its debut.
18- "Beautiful People" - Ed Sheeran & Khalid (+2) -- With Ed Sheeran and Khalid's respective top 10 hits both slowly falling down, can the combination of the two of them here eventually take their place? We'll see. I wouldn't be completely ecstatic at the proposition, but there's worse things that could happen.
21- "The London" - Young Thug, J. Cole & Travis Scott (+6) -- This song rose six spots only because Young Thug got an album bomb this week. An album bomb that I will rightfully ignore as I don't think there exists a person on this planet who is curious about my opinion on a new Young Thug album.
24- "Baby" - Lil Baby & DaBaby (+10) -- Make it stop, please.
42- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+5) -- I'm glad I was able to sneak this song on this list this week. It managed to still rise despite a whole slew of Young Thug songs debuting ahead of it. Can it survive an onslaught of Taylor Swift songs next week? I hope so!
46- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers (+7) -- The Jonas Brothers are back in the top 50. With "Sucker" gone from the top 10, they're probably hoping this one will rise a bit higher. I personally don't care, though. If they want me to care about them, they're going to have to write or release better singles than this one.
57- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+29) -- I still don't care enough to listen to this.
New Arrivals:
19- "Lover" - Taylor Swift -- I defended Taylor's album "reputation" amidst a slew of hate, but I've not really cared that much for her promotional singles for "Lover," so I'm not really jumping for joy at the prospect of diving into the album, which is why I haven't listened to any of it yet. We'll see how much of it shows up on next week's charts. In the meantime we now have the title track from said album charting this week to talk about. And it might be the best song of the four songs that have charted so far. But I don't know, I'd have to go listen to "The Archer" again to decide. What I like about this song is that it's more in Taylor's lane. I like her best when she's writing her simple love songs. She's good at that. It's when she tries to be crazy and bold that she falls flat. I mean, I appreciate that idea of her trying to do something different, but she's not good at different. She's good at this. That said, this isn't the best love song she's written. I kinda laugh at her idea of "we make the rules" being that "We could leave the Christmas lights up till January" or "We could let our friends crash in the living room," as if those things are two crazy ideas that new lovers do. So there doesn't seem to be a lot of effort put into the lyrics of this song, but musically it's nice enough to be an inoffensive Taylor song. Although seeing the title makes me want to go listen to "Love Story" instead.
26- "Hot" - Young Thug featuring Gunna -- Don't care.
32- "Bad Bad Bad" - Young Thug featuring Lil Baby -- Don't care.
33- "Motivation" - Normani -- Are we actually going to get solo stuff from Normani now? It's about time. The only time she's charted, or even released anything, is with the likes of Khalid or Sam Smith. This is the first thing I'm seeing that's just Normani. Maybe she's just not had the proper... motivation? OK, that was bad. But I'd be fine with Normani having more of a presence on the charts instead of just being a tag-along artist. But I would like her to write better songs than this. She has a great voice and a solid presence that make this song passable. If it were to play on the radio or at some sort of party, I wouldn't be offended. There's just not a lot of substance here. She's not really talking about much outside being this boy's motivation. No real context in the verses. Nothing for me to gravitate towards or latch onto. It just feels like a generic, repetitive pop song that Fifth Harmony would put out.
47- "Slide Away" - Miley Cyrus -- Meanwhile, I'm not even sure what to do with Miley Cyrus. She kinda just does what she wants and so I'll take things as they come. This one is easy to figure out, though. Not that I closely follow Miley's relationship updates, but the internet recently told me that her and Liam broke up... again. My thought is that if we give it 10 seconds, they'll be back to together. But in the meantime we get a breakup song from her saying "Baby we were found but now we're lost; So it's time to let it go." And I dig this. Miley's always had a great voice even if she hasn't always used it to her advantage. But this time she takes a step back to use her vocals to write an emotional anthem about her breakup with Liam. It almost feels like the exact opposite of "Malibu," which was an upbeat, cheerful song about everything working out with a lover. And now this is a sad, mellow, depressing song about things being over and it being time to move on. It's simple, but effective. I'll certainly take it over anything from whatever the heck that "She Is Coming" EP was earlier this summer. Apparently she also has two more EPs on the way, "She Is Here" and "She Is Everything," before her seventh studio album "She Is Miley Cyrus" gets released. Again, I have no idea what to expect with all of this. I'll take it as it comes. But I hope it's more along the lines of "Slide Away."
55- "What's the Move" - Young Thug featuring Lil Uzi Vert -- Don't care.
60- "Just How It Is" - Young Thug -- Don't care.
61- "Surf" - Young Thug featuring Gunna -- Don't care.
70- "Sup Mate" - Young Thug featuring Future -- Don't care.
75- "Won't Be Late" - Swae Lee featuring Drake -- I was unsure about this one. I almost skipped it, but then I remembered that sometimes Swae Lee can conjure up something interesting. But he has to be steered in the right direction in order to do so and Drake isn't the one to give proper motivation. But I decided to check it out anyways and... yeah. It's exactly what you expect. There actually could've been something here, but both Swae Lee and Drake just sound bored and half asleep. If there was someone else in the studio there to wake them up and point them in the right direction, there's pieces here that make me believe this could've been another "Sunflower," but there's just no effort and certainly no content to work with.
78- "Heartless" - Diplo presents Thomas Wesley featuring Morgan Wallen -- "Diplo presents Thomas Wesley" was a confusing thing to me, too. So let me make it easy. Diplo's name is Thomas Wesley Pentz. And he's decided to do a country project, because he does a lot of random side projects, where he uses the name Thomas Wesley to promote. Because Diplo sounds like an EDM name while Thomas Wesley sounds like a country name. So there's a bit of a branding game going on there. Country people won't accept Diplo and Morgan Wallen. But they will accept Thomas Wesley and Morgan Wallen. But since he doesn't want to confuse people too much, or completely abandon his normal fan base, he still uses his Diplo name. So "Diplo presents Thomas Wesley." And that was way more explanation than you probably needed, but talking it out made it make more sense to me. But the song? Yeah, this doesn't sound like your typical Diplo song, which may be what he was going for, but for me makes it less interesting. It just sounds like a clunky Morgan Wallen song with distant whispers of Diplo in the background. And Morgan is just whining and complaining about how heartless this girl is, yet the obvious issue when I look over the lyrics is that Morgan is just completely ignorant to how much of an idiot he's being. So when the song is trying to make me feel bad for the dude singing, but instead makes me feel for girl being sung about, I don't think the song really did its job. Thus I'll pass on Diplo's country album.
82- "Light It Up" - Young Thug -- Don't care.
83- "Juicy" - Doja Cat & Tyga -- Don't care.
84- "Lil Baby" - Young Thug -- Don't care.
92- "Ecstasy" - Young Thug featuring Machine Gun Kelly -- Don' care.
99- "Every Little Thing" - Russell Dickerson -- One more country song before I sign off for the week. And this is where country confuses me a bit because this is yet another single from Russell's 2017 album "Yours." Instead of releasing new albums and new singles, country singers just cling onto old albums for a really long time, often having months or years between singles. On said album, I liked the title song "Yours," specifically the wedding edition at the end. "Everything Little Thing" is the track that opens it up. For country standards, it's fine. It's upbeat and catchy enough to be acceptable, but it feels too heavy for me to really care about. A lot of country just feels bloated with strong drums and heavy guitars that don't make it sound like country, then gets attached some generic lyrics about liking a girl or whatever. That's what this is. The tone doesn't match the lyrics, nor does Russell sound genuine in his delivery. So maybe his song "Yours" being good was more of a freak accident rather than him being a good country artist.
100- "Did It Again" - Lil Tecca -- Don't care.
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