Thursday, November 28, 2019

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 30, 2019

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Special note. Last I week I started tracking Christmas songs currently on the Hot 100 in their own separate category and I will continue to do so until the end of the holiday season. Only one has shown up so far, but once Thanksgiving has passed, they should start showing up in droves as last year they were quite dominate on the charts.

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:




1- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- This seemed inevitable. "Someone You Loved" had previously celebrated three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1, but wasn't a particularly strong No. 1 as it had already been on the charts for a long time due to its slow ascent. Post Malone wasn't necessarily that strong either, but his song has been around for a shorter amount of time, so I was guessing it would naturally slide up to No. 1, which is pretty much the best way to describe its performance this week. Across the board, it only rose 3 percent on radio to 91.1 million audience impressions, it rose 2 percent on streaming to to 23.4 million U.S. streams, and it fell 7 percent in sales to 14,000 downloads sold. Billboard didn't report on what the numbers for "Someone You Loved" are this week, so I don't know how close it was, but I'm guessing it just narrowed it out as "Circles" actually falls a spot on the radio charts to No. 3, meaning it didn't pass "Someone You Loved" on radio. It just beat it out due to stronger sales and/or streaming. So I don't know how long this one is going to last at top, but I'm actually fine with it being here. It's Post Malone's fourth No. 1 on the Hot 100 following "rockstar," "Psycho" and "Sunflower." Even though it's not nearly as good as "Sunflower," it's most certainly miles better than those first two song.

2- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-1) -- No shame here that Lewis fell a spot to No. 2. I'm just happy and surprised that his song managed to get to No. 1 in the first place after a really long rise to the top. This also could start to tumble down the charts a bit as the three songs right below it appear to have significantly more momentum.

3- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+1) -- When I saw "Circles" as the No. 1 song this week, I assumed it was because it had rose to No. 1 on the radio. Nope. As I previously mentioned, it fell to No. 3 on radio. The song that actually rose to No. 1 on radio is this one, "Good as Hell." That's a bit of a surprise for me, but a welcome surprise. I think this is an excellent song that deserves to be having this success. Again, Billboard didn't report a whole lot of numbers this week, so I'm going off pure guesswork here, but the obvious statement is that Lizzo just isn't as strong on sales and streaming. How close is that margin? I have no idea. But if I'm going to make a guess, I'd say that sometime in December is when Lizzo when takeover for "Circles," perhaps as early as next week?

4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+1) -- Another competitor for No. 1 is Maroon 5, who I assume is soaring up the radio charts as the radio always loves Maroon 5. I have no idea what the margins here are, but I imagine this song is going to be around for a while. Surprisingly, I have no issues with that. I was internally conflicted here because I've been very negative towards Maroon 5 for the majority of this decade, but I've just accepted that I enjoy this song, so I'm content that it's sticking around.

5- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (+3) -- After debuting at No. 1 a couple of weeks ago, Selena started a bit of a free fall down the top 10, making me nervous that her song just didn't have the necessary momentum to stick around, which is why I grateful to see it reverse course and go back into the top five. Hopefully it's here to stay this time around because this is very deserving of being a smash hit for much longer than a few weeks. Despite Billboard not having reported much this week, they did report that a huge 24 percent surge in airplay, up to 53.7 million audience impressions, is what boosted this song. Traction on radio is an excellent sign for its potential.

6- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (-3) -- Just like "Circles" going No. 1 seemed inevitable this week, "Señorita" finally falling out of the top 10 also seemed inevitable. I wasn't sure when exactly it was going to happen, but when you spend 17 weeks in the top three, as well as 21 weeks in the top five, eventually that has to come to an end. Now it's worth noting that Billboard's calendar year ends in November, meaning this is the last week of tracking for their year end list as well as the last week for their 2010s decade list. That means songs like "Señorita" will get shortchanged on those charts because they didn't finish their run. For me, since my calendar year ends like normal people in December, songs will have another month left for my year end list. And when it comes to the decades list, what I've done in the past is include a song's entire run in the decade where it made the biggest impact. So before I create that final list, I will wait until every 2019 song has finished its run in the top 10 (because I only track the top 10 for my lists instead of the entire Hot 100). For "Señorita," if it lasts into January, I will be fair and include its entire run in the 2010s in my decades chart. It's only fair that way. Same goes for "Someone You Loved" and "Circles." When it comes to "Good as Hell," "Memories" and "Lose You to Love Me," I imagine they will build up more points in 2020 and thus they will be left off my 2010s chart completely and will get a head start on next decade's chart. But we'll see how things shape out.   

7- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown & Drake (=) -- For some reason this song is still at No. 7. And I have no idea why. Can someone please kick it out?

8- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+66) -- This is a genuine shocker for me. When this song debuted last week, I didn't realize it debuted on a partial week and thus I wasn't sure if it would really catch on with the general public as its more of a depressing Emo song from Billie, which is not something that the general public gravitates to. But I guess I was proven wrong. At least initially. And I'm happy about that. The more that Billie becomes a huge thing, the better. Now given that this is the first full week of tracking for this song, that means next week is when its scheduled to experience the drop, so I'm guessing this will fall back out of the top 10 next week, but we'll see what happens. I would love it if this song was able to stick around in the top 10.

9- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+1) -- Nothing is really ready to jump into the top 10 at the moment, which means this song slides up a spot. Of note, with Billie's arrival into the top 10, "Panini" by Lil Nas X has been booted. Good. Hopefully that spells the end of Lil Nas X's moment in the spotlight.

10- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-4) -- Another surprise, apparently the floor just completely fell out from under "Truth Hurts" this week. Although admittedly it's probably Lizzo's own fault since "Good as Hell" is now getting all the attention. That's a fair trade, I think. "Truth Hurts" is fine, but "Good as Hell" is much better.


Rising on the Hot 100:





12- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+15) -- Make this go away.

15- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+11) -- So it wasn't just a one-week rise for "Lover" last week following the new remix with Shawn Mendes. Of note, Billboard's rule is that a remix has to have at least 50 percent of the chart points in order for the new artists on the remix to be given credit on the charts, which is why Mr. Mendes has been left off. But I'm glad to see that he's had a positive effect in helping Taylor's song out. Despite a poor early singles choices for Taylor's latest album, there's a lot of good songs on that album, so if "Lover" performs well, it opens up the door for some of those other to potentially do well if Taylor decides to release them as singles.

16- "Woah" - Lil Baby (+3) --  Make this go away.

18- "BOP" - DaBaby (+49) -- Make this go away.

19- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+4) -- This one got stuck for a bit last week, which wasn't a huge surprise. Usually when a song gets to this point, it becomes increasingly harder to continue soaring up the chart, meaning "Dance Monkey" still has a ways to go before it becomes a massive hit. But I still imagine that it will at least become a top 10 hit before too long. Although sometimes getting through the teens is like walking in quick sand. It's a tough final stretch to get through before a song officially breaks into the top 10. But let's hope "Dance Monkey" does it!

20- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+5) -- Make this go away.

44- "Jerry Sprunger" - Tory Lanez & T-Pain (+39) -- Make this go away.

47- "What If I Never Get Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+7) -- It's not a completely country-less week on the charts this week. We have plenty of new arrivals to get to in a bit. But in terms of rising songs, Lady Antebellum is the only entry, giving us a perfect track record for good country songs rising on the charts as Lady Antebellum hitting top 50 is a welcome site. Let's hope they can get even higher. On a slightly different note, it's a bit strange that we have no significant risers below the top 50 this week. But no lost sleep for me. We'll quickly move onto the next section!


Christmas Songs:





31- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+8) -- Yup, only Mariah again this week, but she jumps up eight more spots in her quest back to the top 10. As a reminder, last holiday season she managed to get all the way to No. 3. Is this the year she gets to No. 1? Also, since Thanksgiving is this week, that means Christmas season will be officially upon us next week, meaning we will hopefully start seeing more of these songs show up. Although with the way the tracking week goes, we may have to wait until the week after to get the full effect. But within two weeks, I anticipate this section to start growing in size as we get deep into the Christmas season.


New Arrivals:





49- "Reply" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.

55- "None of Your Concern" - Jhene Aiko featuring Big Sean -- I considered checking this one out, but neither artist has impressed me as of late, so I'm taking a pass.

60- "Watermelon Sugar" - Harry Styles -- Harry Styles' new album "Fine Line" is due December 13 and I'm excited to check it out. His lead-off single from that album, "Lights Up," is a perfectly enjoyable song, even if it wasn't as good as his singles from his debut album. And now we have "Watermelon Sugar"...? That's a unique title for a song. The title certainly has a 60's/70's feel to it, which I suppose makes it stand out in today's world. The song itself is nothing super unique, though. It has less of a retro groove to it and has more of a modern, typical pop feel to it. Lots of fruit metaphors here and I'm not 100 percent sure what all of it means because the song is doused in fruit without giving many clues as to what it's all referring to, outside Harry saying he wants this girl's belly, which is a strange body part to express desire for. I'm not sure how a girl would react in real life if I told her I wanted her belly. I suppose going along with all the fruitiness of the song, belly sounds close to berry, so there's that. If I don't think too much about what it means, the song has enough of a fun pop groove to be enjoyed, which is probably what the intention of the song is. I don't want to call it bubblegum pop, but I'm going from fruit to sugar here in saying either bubblegum or cotton candy is the type of pop/rock song that this is. It has no substance to it, but can still be enjoyed regardless. I'm just hoping the album itself has a bit more substance to it because "Lights Up" isn't exactly lighting up the radio and I'm not sure if this is going to do the trick, either. Harry deserves to have success, but he needs to release songs with a higher level of quality in order to obtain it. Although I played this for my nephew and got it stuck in his head rather quickly, so that's good for something, right?

66- "The Take" - Tory Lanez featuring Chris Brown -- Nope. Especially not considering that featured artist. Chris Brown needs to stop becoming a new thing again.

75- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel -- Do I know who Trevor Daniel is? I feel like he's shown up on the charts before in some fashion, but after listening to his song right here, I'm not really that interested in looking into that in depth. Trevor is one of our trap/hip-hop boys, which means I respect him for having a normal name instead of a dumb hip-hop name that makes me want to ignore him forever. And this is not really a hip-hop song through and through. This is probably closer to a pop feel with a hip-hop sound and flavor. And it's not particularly bad. But it's also not super unique or memorable.

87- "Beauty in the Benz" - Tory Lanez featuring Snoop Dogg -- Nope. But I'm guessing Tory Lanez released an album? Either Snoop Dogg jumped on to sing about getting high or Tory Lanez interpolated one of his songs, which is what I learned happened with last week with "Jerry Sprunger." T-Pain was there via interpolation.

89- "Up All Night" - Khalid -- Khalid is always a bit hit or miss for me. I'm not sure if he's actually talented when it comes to music. He has a good voice, but I feel like he always needs to be pointed in the right direction or have a bit of luck, because if he's left all alone like this, he comes up with boring songs. My nephew is sitting here listening to some of these songs with me (my nephew is almost 12 years old) and he says it's medium quality. Medium minus, specifically. He really enjoyed "Watermelon Sugar," but he says this is a more sad, breakup song that is less energetic and too slow. As I was playing this song, he kept asking me to play "Watermelon Sugar" instead. And I agree. This song doesn't have much energy to it, nor are those sad, lonely lyrics impactful enough to make me care about Khalid's breakup woes in this instance.

93- "We Back" - Jason Aldean -- It's Thanksgiving and I don't want to spend too much time on these country songs. My nephew calls this medium plus.

95- "Homesick" - Kane Brown -- My nephew calls this one medium quality. Better than "Up All Night," but not as good as "We Back" and not close to "Watermelon Sugar."

97- "Death" - Trippie Redd featuring DaBaby -- Nope.

99- "Hell Right" - Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins -- I'm not going to review this song with my nephew because of the title. We'll get to it next week.

100- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin -- The Black Eyed Peas? What decade are we in? They haven't even charted since 2011, nor have they released an album since 2010, unless you count whatever "Masters of the Sun Vol. 1," which Wikipedia claims was released in 2018 as a seventh studio album, but it made zero impact on the world. I guess "RITMO" is the song that's being promoted for "Bad Boys for Life," a movie that I have zero excitement for since I've not even seen the other "Bad Boys" movies, but that's a discussion for the other blog. But it confuses me that they reached out to The Black Eyed Peas and J Balvin for their big soundtrack song. Because that's a gross combination of nothingness. My nephew initially gave it a high minus, which is slightly higher than a medium plus for him, but as the song went on, he told me that the song was too repetitive, which caused it to get boring. By the end of the song, he downgraded it to a medium plus, then down to a medium. And I agree. I even might call it a medium minus or a low plus. It has a decent enough beat to make it serviceable, but it is just dull and lifeless. If this serves as a comeback for The Black Eyed Peas as well as a promotion for "Bad Boys for Life," this is a bad sign for both. It even took me a while to figure out what "RITMO" was since I assumed that was an acronym. But no, it's the Spanish word for rhythm.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 23, 2019

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Special note. From now until the end of the holiday season, I am adding a fourth section to this category. Christmas songs! There were a lot of Christmas songs that dominated the charts last year and I'm excited to track them all in their own separate section.

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:




1- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- One of the top comments on this music video was someone thanking Ed Sheeran and Adele for having this wonderful child. The more I thought about that, the more I understood why that comment had 25,000 likes. And then there's the one person in the replies that's like, "Wait, he is?" Doh! That comment went right over that person's head. But seriously, if you combined Ed Sheeran and Adele into one person, both in terms of physical appearance and musical style, you get Lewis Capaldi. Which is why I'm glad he's now celebrating his third week at No. 1 with consistent enough numbers across the board, even though it seems like the song is just on the brink of spiraling downwards. That makes sense considering it's already been on the Hot 100 for quite some time. It seems like it's going to eventually give way to "Circles," but this week is not that week.

2- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- The margins between "Someone You Loved" and "Circles" are quite close. "Someone You Loved" is currently No. 1 on radio with 98.1 million audience impressions (down 3 percent), No. 7 on streaming with 24.6 million U.S. streams and No. 8 on sales with 12,000 downloads sold. So you can see that it's propped up by radio. Meanwhile, "Circles" is gaining on radio, rising 6 percent to 88.4 million audience impressions. The problem is that it's falling in the other two categories as it's No. 6 on streaming with 23 million U.S. streams (down 6 percent) and No. 5 on sales with 15,000 downloads sold. So the continued competition here might be determined by which song can fall slower.

3- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (=) -- Meanwhile, as the rest of the top five shifts around quite a bit, "Señorita" manages to stay put at No. 3, giving it 17 weeks in the top three despite only holding the No. 1 spot for one week. I wasn't expecting this, but it's starting to sneak up on "bad guy" and "Sunflower," which are No. 2 and No. 3 on my personal tracking of the most popular songs of 2019. There's actually only one more week on Billboard's calendar year since they go December through November so that they can put out their year-end list in the beginning of December instead of in January. Because of that, "Señorita" might get shafted when it comes to Billboard's year end list. But since I am a normal person and my year goes from January through December, there's still a whole month for "Señorita" to continue to climb up my list.

4- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+2) -- For another week, Lizzo is right behind Shawn and Camila. However, this time it's "Good as Hell" that is here, as it swapped spots with "Truth Hurts." And as I think about it, with the three songs above it not the strongest, "Good as Hell" is in good position to potentially go No. 1.

5- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+4) -- After a few weeks of getting trapped right below the top 10, "Memories" has now shot up into the top five, become Maroon 5's 10th top five hit. Maroon 5 already held the record for most top five hits for a group, but now they extend their lead. The second best there is The Black Eyed Peas with seven. And do you know what? I've been conflicted with this one because my brain is naturally configured to dislike Maroon 5, but I'm going to own up to this. I think this is a good song. It's certainly helped by its sample of "Cannon in D," but I think that's a sample that works quite well. If you're one of the people that don't like this song, I get it. I'm on that boat 90 percent of the time with Maroon 5. But this time around is the exception. If you don't like it, you're in for a rough ride because now it looks like this one has all sorts of momentum. More positive momentum than "Good as Hell" does at the moment.

6- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-2) -- Solid run for "Truth Hurts," but it's now on its way out. No hard feelings, though. We got Lizzo to switch spots with herself and I am totally fine with that because "Good as Hell" is the better song, anyways.

7- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (=) -- This needs to go. The fact that it stayed put this week despite there being plenty movement around it is upsetting to me.

8- "Lose You to Love You" - Selena Gomez (-3) -- I really hope that Selena can gain traction with this song. I'm glad she got her first ever No. 1 hit, but now I want said hit to stick around because this is a good song.

9- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (-1) -- This also needs to go away.

10- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (=) -- We got no new top 10 entries this week, so this hangs out at No. 10 this week. It doesn't seem to have a whole lot of positive or negative momentum. It's just kinda stuck here, which is fine with me.


Rising on the Hot 100:





11- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke Combs (+22) -- Consider me surprised this week. Thanks to Luke Combs' album dropping, this song nearly shot up to the top 10, which is a rare occasion for a country song that doesn't have a pop act attached to it. Given the album boost, I fully expect this to drop quite a bit next week. I would be shocked if it ever got to the top 10. If it did, I wouldn't be super upset. I mean, better this than "No Guidance" or "Panini." But I would be a bit confused as to how Luke Combs of all people was able to break the trend of country acts unable to hit the top 10. This song isn't bad. But it's also not too terribly special.

12- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (+2) -- This has managed to annoyingly stick around. But as of yet it hasn't climbed back into the top 10. I would like to keep it that way. Now excuse me while I go knock on some wood.

14- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+2) -- Instead of sending Travis Scott or Luke Combs into the top 10, let's send SHAED. I've enjoyed this song ever since first hearing it and I'm glad that a smaller song like this has been able to sneak into our current pop culture and it would be great to see it become an even bigger hit than it is.

20- "One Man Band" - Old Dominion (+8) -- An excellent week for country with a second new entry into the top 20. I'm less surprised here because for some reason Old Dominion is a big thing, but I've not ever really cared. This song is alright, though.

26- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+17) -- If you're wondering why this shot up this week despite being fairly stagnant in recent weeks, it's because she released a new remix of this song that adds Shawn Mendes. He doesn't get featured credit on the charts because the remix with him didn't contribute to at least 50 percent of the song's chart points. But his addition to the song is a welcome inclusion. This is the type of ballad that is good with two singers, so this is now a nice duet. Mr. Mendes may have been included simply to help boost the songs sales as opposed to Taylor feeling like he needed to be on the song to improve it's quality. But whatever the motivation, the final result is positive. And if it gives the song the necessary boost to propel it forwards, I'm down with that. Although I'm curious to see if it actually gains more traction or if this was just a one-week boost due to the release of the remix.

27- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+7) -- Make this go away.

47- "Juicy" - Doja Cat & Tyga (+20) -- Make this go away.

48- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+6) -- Maren enters the top 50. I don't know how much traction this is going to get beyond the usual country trajectory, but this is a good song to be played on country radio.

53- "Remember You Young" - Thomas Rhett (+15) -- Another winner in terms of country quality. Perhaps this song could've been a little better, but I think the pleasant country pop crossover that's typical of Thomas Rhett works rather well for me in this instance.

54- "What If I Never Get Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+23) -- Let's keep this going! Maren, Thomas Rhett and now Lady Antebellum get country boosts this week. Thus this current cycle of country music is a rather nice one.

62- "Stuck in a Dream" - Lil Mosey & Gunna (+25) -- Make this go away.

63- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Nial Horan (+15) -- Yes! I was hoping this was going to be a hit. It had a solid debut, but then it kinda disappeared and I became worried that it would go away. But this really needs to become a pop hit because Nial really outdid himself.

76- "Ridin' Roads" - Dustin Lynch (+12) -- For our final country riser of the week, I'll also accept this one. For what it sets out to do, becoming a solid country song for a long ride, I think this is perfectly acceptable.


Christmas Songs:





39- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (re-entry) -- Merry Christmas everyone! OK, I apologize. I'm usually of the camp of not celebrating Christmas until Thanksgiving has come and gone, but it's rather encouraging to see Mariah back this early in the season. In fact, this is the earliest in the year that this song has re-entered, further cementing it into the modern day Christmas culture. Last Christmas season, this rose all the way to No. 3. The fact that it's back at its earliest ever time could mean that this is the year that this finally hits No. 1. And with our current top 10 not being too terribly strong, the door is wide open for Mariah to dominate along with several others. In addition to Mariah, "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives also cracked the top 10 last Christmas season. So expect all of them back, and more, in the coming weeks. And as always, I'm awfully curious to see which additional Christmas songs will crossover onto the Hot 100, which is why I will be tracking them all right here until they disappear.


New Arrivals:





19- "Woah" - Lil Baby -- Nope.

56- "Heart on Ice" - Rod Wave -- I don't know where this thing came from as I've not heard of Rod Wave before, but I find it amusing that it came out in the same week that "Frozen 2" gets releasing, even though it obviously has nothing to do with the movie. Just the same icy subject matter. I was predicting this to be another worthless rap hit that came out of nowhere, but I decided to give it a shot because Rod Wave because Rod Wave has somewhat of a normal stage name and "Heart on Ice" seems like it could be a decently well thought out song. And this does have a nice intro with a decent groove that almost convinced me that this is a song worth listening to. But then Rod Wave comes out and sounds like he's trying way too hard. I'm not sure if this is officially categorized as Rap or if it's more R&B. Perhaps a combination of the two. But there are plenty of modern rap tropes snuck into this to make me annoyed. He might not be flexing in this, which is somewhat reliving, but he doesn't put a whole lot of detail into his subject matter of having his heart broken, thus meaning this still feels empty and forgettable. Kudos to it not being an offensive piece of trash like most modern rap these days, but that alone does not merit this being a good song in my books.

72- "Better Together" - Luke Combs -- In case you skimmed past my earlier comments, Luke Combs released an album that impacted the charts this week, resulting in "Even Though I'm Leaving" to rocket up to No. 11 this week. And although we're not yet in the era of country artists getting album bombs, the release of said album did cause one additional Luke Combs song to chart. Whether or not this will stick around longer than this week has yet to be seen, but this is decently tolerable song. I'm still not sure if I'm a fan of Luke Combs' voice. The super twangy style is just not really my thing and he leans heavily into that here. He also talks about plenty of cliche country things that sometime seem like prerequisites to releasing a country song, but outside those two things, this song is fairly nice. It's a stripped back piano ballad from Luke Combs. No guitars. No drums. For once this is a tone matches the lyrics and I can totally see Luke Combs fans being completely swooned by this with his passionate delivery that actually hits the emotions. I just wish it was a different singer singing it who had a more likable voice. I would also like the lyrics to dive deeper into something that felt more raw and genuine rather than it seeming like lyrics crafted in a country factory. But all in all, I'll take this.

74- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish -- Last week Billie's song "all the good girls go to hell" re-entered the charts and had a decent rise this week, even though it didn't quite rise high enough to qualify being on the rising songs list this week. Which is why I was slightly surprised to see a new Billie song this week that was not from her album earlier this year, which makes me curious as to what her plan is going forward with her singles. But of course I'm always down to covering a new Billie song, even though I wasn't expecting that. And as is traditional with Billie, this sees her going unconventional with the pop route, writing a song that she felt like writing and releasing, rather than writing something to a modern pop audience. For that, I once again respect her. This song definitely makes you pay close attention to what she's saying as it's rather dark and depressing. She talks about getting everything she wanted in a dream she had, but said dream would be a nightmare to those who actually care about her as she essentially committed suicide in the dream and noticed that no one really cared. So yeah, it's Billie being emo, but she does it quite well. Her mellow, toned back delivery combined with slow and sad music really packs a punch as it fits her lyrics perfectly. Is a sad, emo song like this going to catch on with the general public and be a huge radio smash? I don't think so. But I don't think Billie really cares and I'm certainly glad I treated to this.

78- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj -- I was going to see this is the American Nicki Minaj and the Latina Nicki Minaj, but that's not being completely fair to Karol G, who is quite talented. She just hasn't been on a song that's charted this year that doesn't have a team of untalented people with her. I don't know what she's singing about here, and I'm not really in a mood to go translate it, but her parts are rather enjoyable. Her voice is excellent and the beat is just right. It doesn't feel like its trying too hard to be an extremely heavy reggaeton song, but it's also not too slow. It finds a good balance, thus making it an enjoyable song. When Nicki comes in, she's actually trying harder to sound more like Karol G rather than it being the other way around. She even memorized a couple of lines in Spanish before flowing straight into her English. Her lyrics are very much like a Nicki Minaj song, but it wasn't distracted. And yeah, she can't hold it in too long. She does slip in a rap verse. But it's not terrible. It quickly happens without me being annoyed and immediately transitions back into Karol G afterwards. And in watching the music video, the two girls both seem to be having fun. So yeah, I'm fine with this. It's nothing to write home about, but it's perfectly acceptable.

81- "Yellow Hearts" - Ant Saunders -- When I first saw this song, I immediately assumed it was the artist who was featured on two Kanye West songs from his album bomb a couple of weeks ago. It would make sense that Kanye helped propel said artist into a successful solo career after getting attention. But with a closer look, that's not what happened here. That artist is Ant Clemons. This is Ant Saunders. Now why are we getting two Ants on the charts in one month? I have no idea. But this guy got popular thanks to TikTok, which totally makes sense because it's a dumb little song that's catchy enough for a younger audience to go crazy over. It's very simplistic musically with a few unique elements to make it stand out enough. The lyrics aren't much of anything, but they're also not offensive. I'm also not quite sure if this guy is trying to appeal to the hip-hop crowd or the pop crowd. It seems like he's going for the hip-hop crowd, but just isn't very good at it, so it feels like it'll crossover into the pop realm. This song reminded me quite a bit of Bazzi, an artist who I try to forget was ever a thing and I'm kinda mad at myself for thinking of it. But like Bazzi, this seems to have all the ingredients to just explode, which is not going to make me very happy.

83- "Jerry Sprunger" - Tory Lanez & T-Pain -- They spelled Jerry Springer wrong. And they probably did it on purpose to look cool and hip, which is why I'll boycott this even though Tory Lanez and T-Pain aren't the worst people in the hip-hop realm.

90- "Show Me Love" - Alicia Keys featuring Miguel -- Here's the surprise entry of the week. Alicia Keys on the charts? I mean, she's released plenty of music in the past years, but none of it has charted. Looking at her discography, apparently she was a part of a remix of "Calma" by Pedro Capo and Farruko, but I don't think she ever got charting credit for that. Outside that, she's hasn't charted on the Hot 100 as a lead artist since "Girl on Fire" in 2012 and as a featured act on 50 Cent's "New Day," also in 2012. So yeah, this was a surprise. Admittedly I'm not an Alicia Keys aficionado, but I've generally enjoyed the music she's put out. If this is a comeback single, it's a perfectly enjoyable little tune. I don't think it quite measures up to other Alicia Keys songs in looking through her discography, but her and Miguel mesh quite well with each other on a fairly romantic R&B song. I think there could've been a bit more to this as it's fairly simple and basic, meaning it's a bit curious that this song is the one song to get Alicia Keys back on the charts after a seven-year absence, but if we want to make Alicia Keys a thing again at the end of 2019, leading into the new decade, I'm totally fine with that. 

92- "Valentino" - 24kGoldn -- Nope. I've checked out a few new names this week from artists who I didn't recognize, but 24kGoldn? I'll pass on that.  

Thursday, November 14, 2019

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 16, 2019

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:




1- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+1) -- It's not too surprising that Lewis Capaldi went back to No. 1 this week. I'm super happy that Selena Gomez got her first ever No. 1 hit last week, but it did get there due to it having a huge surge in its first full week of tracking. It's normal for songs to fall after a week like that. That opened the door for Lewis Capaldi to walk back to No. 1 with "Someone You Loved" and I'm happy this got a second week at the top. It's a song that deserves the spotlight. It's not a particularly strong No. 1, but it's managed to be consistent enough across the board to fend off Post Malone for the time being, which rises up to No. 2 this week. Post Malone has the slight edge on both sales and streaming, but Lewis Capaldi has a significant lead on the radio. As long as he can hold that margin, he has a shot at remaining at No. 1, but I don't imagine it will be too long before Post Malone gets there.

2- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- As surprising as it may be, "Circles" isn't super dominate on sales and streaming at the moment, but the good thing for this song is that it has the right amount of positive momentum to sneak ahead of "Someone You Loved." And I'm aright with that. This isn't the worst thing Post Malone has done.

3- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (+1) -- It's been a solid run for Shawn and Camila here. Even though they only celebrated one week at the top, they've been in the top three with this song for 16 weeks. That's rather impressive.

4- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+1) -- After coming stumbling down from that top spot recently, "Truth Hurts" stopped the bleeding a bit this week by rising a spot in the top five. Although this week's rise is more due to Selena falling a bit.

5- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (-4) -- I'm not surprised at this. Songs that have big debuts often suffer a second weekend drop. But now that Selena has her first ever No. 1 hit in her back pocket, it's time for this to gain traction and stay around for a while. As "Señorita" has shown this year, a song doesn't need to be No. 1 for a long time to be considered a success. "Señorita" only had one week at No. 1, but has become one of the top songs of the year anyways. That's what I hope for "Lose You to Love Me." I hope it sticks around for a long time because it's a good song and Selena deserves to have continued success with this song. Her other song that debuted last week collapsed even bigger this week, but that's OK. "Lose You to Love Me" is the one that they're pushing as a radio single, so it's the one that needs to be successful.

6- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (=) -- I'm expecting Lizzo to eventually flip-flop with herself as "Truth Hurts" declines and "Good as Hell" sticks around. But this is not that week.

7- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (+1) -- Unfortunately I'm also not surprised at this. All of Kanye's songs thankfully dropped like a rock. And since "No Guidance" for some strange reasons has gained a lot of traction, it naturally jumps up a spot with Kanye's exit.

8- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (+1) -- Same thing goes for "Panini." It rose a spot because Kanye dropped out. Hopefully both "No Guidance" and "Panini" will disappear soon.

9- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+2) -- I was wondering when this song was going to show up in the top 10. It got all the way to No. 11 and then got stuck. For some reason, No. 11 is the hardest spot to move up from. There's a lot of songs that will peak there and disappear. It's cursed. But "Memories" broke out of that and cracked the top 10. Now I have a feeling that it's here to stay because the radio loves Maroon 5 and this is certain to be one that gets stuck on the radio rotation. And I'm actually fine with that. This is a fairly inoffensive song. I prefer it over a whole lot of previous Maroon 5 stuff.

10- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+2) -- Also making yet another return to the top 10 is "10,000." This song has enough traction that it just might float around in this general area. I don't know if it has enough momentum to get a whole lot higher, but I can see it sticking around between Nos. 7 and 15 for at least a few months. It might climb higher next week. It might drop out again, then show up again in three weeks.


Rising on the Hot 100:





11- "Hot" - Young Thug featuring Gunna (+24) -- I'm not sure why this got a huge surge this week, but let's not make this a thing.

19- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers (+3) -- Jonas Brothers slowly climbing the charts. I'm not sure how high they are going to get, but most of the songs between Nos. 11 and 20 are going in the wrong direction, so this might float to the surface.

22- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+7) -- Not a fan of this, but I might prefer it ever so slightly more than that Young Thug thing that's at No. 11 right now.

23- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+18) -- Another huge week for "Dance Monkey." I keep wondering if this is going to get stuck at some point because it gets harder and harder to continue to rise the higher up you get. But with the whole top 20 not being super strong at this point, the door might be wide open for this to become an absolute smash hit like it already has been in many countries across the world.

26- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+5) -- This needs to go away.

29- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+5) -- I don't care about this one.

31- "Baby" - Lil Baby & DaBaby (+7) -- Lots of songs rising due to Kanye's disappearing act this week. This is one of the more frustrating songs to get a boost.

33- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke Combs (+7) -- The top country riser of the week.

35- "223's" - YNW Melly & 9lokknine (+26) -- Why is the subject of murder and violence such a popular one in the hip-hop world these days? Make it stop!

36- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith and Normani (+6) -- It's fun to see this rising up. But it had it's time in the sun. It just rose this week due to Kanye's drop.

39- "Heat" - Chris Brown featuring Gunna (+7) -- Make this go away.

40- "One Thing Right" - Marshmello & Kane Brown (+7) -- I initially typed Marshmello and Gunna with this song. That's a scary thought.

41- "Time" - NF (+8) -- Nope.

42- "Graveyard" - Halsey (+8) -- Halsey can rise higher. I can accept that. In fact, I'm kinda surprised that this isn't higher, but maybe people just haven't gravitated towards this specific single? If that's the case, Halsey will be back. She's proven to be fairly consistent in the pop realm.

43- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+5) -- This is not becoming a hit. Taylor used to be good at selling singles AND albums. Now it appears that she can only sell albums. You've gotta think that one of her singles is going to eventually catch on, right?

45- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+12) -- Make it stop.

46- "You Need to Calm Down" - Taylor Swift (+6) -- Another failed Taylor Swift single. Like "Lover," it's only here this week due to the Kanye drop.

47- "My Type" - Saweetie (+6) -- Make this go away.

48- "Camelot" - NLE Choppa (+7) -- Don't care.

49- "Prayed for You" - Matt Stell (+7) -- Eh. It's fine. But wasn't this higher at one point or am I making that up?

53- "What Happens in a Small Town" - Brantley Gilbert & Lindsay Ell (+13) -- ...stays in a small town. Right? So can we make this go away?

54- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+15) -- Oooh! I'll accept Maren Morris. Even though "The Bones" isn't necessarily the best thing she's done.

56- "Hate Me" - Ellie Goulding & Juice WRLD (+12) -- This song confuses me. Is it going to become a hit or not? I want Ellie back in the spotlight. But at the same time, I wish she could chart a song without having a rapper attached to help her out. She released songs called "Flux" and "Sixteen" this year. Both are great songs. But neither even charted here in the U.S. So she released this back in June and it's spent the last five months deciding whether or not to be a hit. It's not even close to as good as the other two, but I suppose I'm fine with it being a hit so we can have more of Ellie's other stuff.

59- "Makes No Sense" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+11) -- What makes no sense to me is why people love YoungBoy so much.

63- "Enemies" - Post Malone featuring DaBaby (+11) -- I never listened to this one. It came out during Post's album bomb week back in September. Now is it going to become his next big single? I'm not sure if I like that idea... mostly because I still haven't listened to it. If it continues to rise, I'll give it a listen. There's just so much going on this week with the disappearance of Kanye that I'll wait.

64- "Leave Em Alone" - Layton Greene, Lil Baby, City Girls & PnB Rock (+14) -- Go away.

66- "Hot Shower" - Chance the Rapper featuring MadeinTYO & DaBaby (+17) -- Go away.

68- "Remember You Young" - Thomas Rhett (+13) -- This one can stay, I suppose. But I wish it was slightly better. For Thomas Rhett standards, though, this is acceptable.

69- "Slow Dancing in the Dark" - Joji (+19) -- It's funny that this song returns and starts rising around the same time that "Jojo Rabbit" is doing well in theaters. I'm a bit surprised seeing this song again, but I'm certainly not opposed.

72- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+15) -- Did I talk about this song? Because I forgot to write it down on my list. Either way, it's Sam Hunt and the only good Sam Hunt is the one that's my former roommate, not the country singer. The country singer can go away.

75- "Heartache Medication" - Jon Pardi (+10) -- Nope.

77- "What If I Never Get Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+17) -- Yes! Lady Antebellum can stay! Although they first charted this song back in June, so I'm a bit surprised to see it back and finally doing well. Let's hope it continues to gain traction.

89- "all the good girls go to hell" - Billie Eilish (re-entry) -- A notable re-entry that I decided to include. Mostly because I like Billie Eilish and I hope this re-entry means this song is going to start gaining traction and become Billie's next big single with "bad guy" now out of the top 10 after a phenomenal run. The music video for this song was released in early September and I thought this was going to show up back then, but it didn't. And now it has, so let's get the ball rolling!


New Arrivals:





30- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa -- We start off on a good note this week with Dua Lipa debuting at No. 30. That's encouraging. I'm glad people still like Dua Lipa enough to keep her relevant. "Don't Start Now" is typical Dua Lipa throwing shade at this dude who previously broke her heart. He wants back, but she now wants none of it. So this is nothing super original, but Dua's delivery gives this a solid punch to it. She has an excellent and likable personality with her "in your face" sort of pop music and she's good at sounding genuine and aggressive. I like. The song also has a fun groove to it. In the verses it does a great job of building up to what you think is going to be an excellent dance beat, but then it does a bait-and-switch by completely reversing direction on the chorus. Initially that caught me off guard, but I ended up liking it by the time I got to the end of the song. It gives it a bit of a unique flavor that is ultimately satisfying. And I don't know why, but it reminded me of an early 80's disco song. And now I can see Dua doing very well in that era if she was in her prime back then.

34- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas -- My mind went in a lot of funny directions with this song. A song called "Roxanne" feels like it belongs in the 70's or 80's. And it does because there's a song by The Police called "Roxanne" that I listened to before I listening to this one. Then I thought of Roxette and had to listen to "The Look." Eventually I got around to figuring out who the frack Arizona Zervas is and how he/she/them debuted a song at No. 34 despite never having notched an entry in the Hot 100 before. Turns out the correct pronoun here is "he." A 24-year-old he with a viral hit. And a rather annoying viral hit that's coated in all of the rap/hip-hop tropes of today's world. Too many annoying noises. Singing about money and partying with a shallow girl who only follows him when he throws a bunch of money at her. I don't know why this is so big, but I now want it to go away. However, I will thank Arizona Zervas for causing me to have fun listening to The Police and Roxette. But I won't thank him for his useless song that deserves to rot in the gutter.

55- "Immortal" - 21 Savage -- Nope.

70- "It All Comes Out in the Wash" - Miranda Lambert -- I don't normally do the country thing, as I'm sure you know, but I'm always down for some more Miranda Lambert. Perhaps this song isn't as emotional as something like "Tin Man," but this is the type of country song that makes you want to kick back, relax and enjoy. There's not a whole lot of substance here. In fact, when I examine the lyrics more closely, it almost makes me want to step back and second guess myself here. But then ultimately my initial reaction kicks in. This is a carefree song where Miranda says to go out and do whatever you feel like because it'll all come out in the wash. Metaphorically speaking. With a carefree song like this, Miranda has enough personality to make this a fun country jam. When I asked my Google Assistant how old Miranda Lambert is, I got my answer as well as a statement from Google stating, "By the way, she's coming to Salt Lake City on January 31." That would be a fun concert to go to for a late birthday present!

79- "Love Me More" - Trippie Redd -- Nope.

85- "In My Room" - Frank Ocean -- I don't know why I keep giving Frank Ocean a chance. It just seems like he should be a good artist, but I'm never interested in what he puts out. So I'm learning from past mistakes and not covering him this week.

88- "Ridin' Roads" - Dustin Lynch -- We continue our country groove with Dustin Lynch's first Hot 100 entry of 2019. Sometimes I wonder why country artists wait so long in between releasing singles. And apparently this is single from back in March of this year, as claimed by my Apple Music? That's interesting. Anywho, this is relaxing enough to work perfectly as a song to play on a long road trip. Or even maybe if you're in the mood to go waste some gas and drive around aimlessly on the empty roads for a while. I don't do that a whole lot because gas is expensive, but I admit it can be relaxing every once in a blue moon. And it's fitting that said event is what I first think of when I listen to this song because it's called "Ridin' Roads." So good on Dustin Lynch for writing a country song wherein the music actually fits the lyrics because a lot of country singers are really bad at that concept. This song isn't one I'll particularly remember that much, but I give it kudos for serving its purpose instead of feeling generic.

90- "For My Daughter" - Kane Brown -- I normally don't like Kane Brown. In fact, he's a country singer that almost makes me blow right past him whenever he releases a new song. But with one called "For My Daughter," I was hoping that this may be the one time where he gets it right by writing a country song that means something? And to a certain extent this almost works. Speaking of country singers not getting the right tone, Kane is usually someone who will have music that doesn't match the lyrics at all. But he managed to be restrained in this song, which is good for it being an ode to his daughter. He says he didn't grow up with a dad, so he's going to do his best to be a good dad to his daughter. I don't care enough about Kane to keep up with his personal life, but I assume this is genuine story. And it does feel like he cares. However, I do wish the song was a bit more acoustic with just Kane and his guitar. That would fit better. All his drums are quieter than normal, but they're still there. And he does get super twangy, so the delivery isn't exactly what it should be. But still, this feels genuine and emotional. It's probably the best that Kane Brown is capable of doing, so I have to give him props.

91- "Easy" - DaniLeigh featuring Chris Brown -- I don't know who DaniLeigh is, but her song has Chris Brown attached to it, so it's a no from me this week.

100- "Big Boy Diamonds" - Gucci Mane featuring Kodak Black & London On Da Track -- Do I even need to say anything? This speaks for itself.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 9, 2019

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10: 




1- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (+14) -- I realized last week that Selena Gomez debuted at No. 15 with only a couple of days of tracking, so I was expecting this to get a good boost this week after its first full week of tracking, but I absolutely wasn't expecting it to jump all the way to No. 1. Thus I was shocked to see this at No. 1 this week, but I am super ecstatic at the same time. I think Selena has really matured as an artist as of late. She spent a while trying to convince the world that she was a grown up adult, but she's now grown out of that and is focused on the focused on the music. I love this song because it really highlights her talents, both in terms of the quality of her voice as well as her ability to be appropriately restrained. Because of that, she delivers some solid, heartfelt emotion in what otherwise could've been a generic pop song as the subject matter isn't the most unique in the world. And that has now caused her to get her first ever No. 1 on the Hot 100 after first debuting in January 2009 with the song "Tell Me Something I Don't Know." The song gets here partially due to excellent timing as the current top songs weren't super strong, but also with a solid streaming push is it got 38.8 million U.S. streams to go along with 39,000 downloads sold, good enough for No. 1 on both of the sales and streaming charts. Now given the nature of huge debuts, this could very well fall down a few spots next week, but I hope this is able to maintain traction and stick around in the top 10 for a long while because I really like this.

2- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-1) -- It was a brief reign at No. 1 for Lewis Capaldi as he could only manage one week at the top after being pushed down by Selena, but it's very possible that Lewis could take back the top spot after Selena slips a bit. "Someone You Loved" did take over at No. 1 on the radio charts, meaning it should be able to stick around for a while longer, even though it did take a large 47 percent drop in sales after what I think was a sales discount last week. At also fell 4 percent in radio and 2 percent in streaming, so it's not like this is super strong. But that makes sense given that it took forever for this song to even get to the top 10, so it's already had quite the life on the Hot 100. And it's been pleasing seeing the song do well after having already become a worldwide phenomenon long before it caught fire here.

3- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- I don't know the numbers for Post Malone this week because Billboard did report them in their article and the individual charts are hidden behind a paywall, but I'm going to blindly guess that this song is the one in a much better position to jump up to No. 1 if Selena falls next week. "Someone You Loved" has been around for a long time and is starting to lose quite a bit of momentum, while "Circles" seems to be gaining the necessary traction to become the next Post Malone mega hit. If it doesn't get to No. 1 next week, I'm sure it will get there eventually. It's just going to be a bit of a margins game next week as I imagine our three top contenders will fairly close. And I'm not exactly sure how it will all pan out. 

4- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (-1) -- It took this song a while, but "Señorita" was finally able to pass "Truth Hurts" on the Hot 100. The problem is so did three other songs. So it's too little too late for "Señorita" to spend more time at the time. But all is well. These two got their week in the spotlight and the song has held well enough to be one of the top songs of the year. "Truth Hurts" may have had more time at No. 1, but "Señorita" will get the last laugh as the higher ranking song.

5- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-3) -- After an excellent run where Lizzo almost broke the record for longest time at No. 1 for a female rap song (she tied the record with Iggy Azalea), she now is being bullied out of the spotlight as the song looks like it might start a free fall here soon. But to be fair, Lizzo is participating in the bullying of her self as her next song is now right behind this one.

6- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+8) -- And the glorious week continues as "Good as Hell" rises into the top 10. It got an extra boost this week thanks to a remix with Ariana Grande. Despite Ariana helping Lizzo get to the region, Ariana does not get a co-bill on the song because the remix didn't get a high enough percentage of the song's overall chart points. Ariana does fit well enough on the song. Her and Lizzo have a similar enough musical style as well as a similar attitude and personality to mesh pretty well together. Ariana doesn't necessarily add anything to the song that the song didn't already have, but it's overall inoffensive enough for me to not be bothered. But again, I'm just glad this song is here. Of the two Lizzo songs in the top 10 right now, this is the better of the two, so I would be ecstatic if this song continued its momentum and hit No. 1.

7- "Follow God" - Kanye West (new) -- I knew Kanye was coming. He was making a huge impact on streaming following the release of his latest album. But I'm just glad to see that he only managed to debut at No. 7. I was worried he was debut at No. 1 with "Follow God," while getting a few other songs to crack the top 10. But that didn't happen. And I count that as a win. Instead, this is going to be gone next week, so I can tolerate it being here at No. 7 for a week. Overall, Kanye had a great week with 11 songs debuting on the charts, but you know me. I'm not going to cover a Kanye album. I will have some thoughts down below on the idea of Kanye releasing a Christian album that I was going to leave here, but I'll save those for down below.

8- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (-3) -- The influx of new songs in the top 10 this week caused "No Guidance" to topple down to No. 8. That's great news! I was getting increasingly annoyed seeing it in the top five, so I happy it got bullied out. Next step is to get this out of the top 10 altogether, although I'm predicting that might take another few weeks because for some reason this song has maintain solid traction.

9- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (-3) -- This song needs to go. I'm glad it's back down at No. 9. But it was at this spot before and managed to sneak back up. I'm going to be rather upset if it does that again. So let's push this out for good and pretend it didn't happen.

10- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (-1) -- Considering the fact that "10,000 Hours" by Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber, "Ran$om" by Lil Tecca, and "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" by Travis Scott all fell out of the top 10, while "bad guy" remains for another week, only falling one spot despite three songs shooting ahead of it, I'd say this is a pretty good week for Billie Eilish. Although I don't imagine her luck will continue for a whole lot longer. But if Kanye falls out of the top 10 next week, this could manage one more week in the region.


Rising on the Hot 100:





16- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+3) -- Due to Kanye's album bomb, there's not a lot of songs that did well enough to be eligible for this section this week. But I'm really happy that "Trampoline" managed to survive the onslaught to sneak up a few spots in the top 20. We'll play this by ear each week as I don't know how much momentum this song has left, but I of course would be happy to see this hit top 10.

41- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+10) -- Despite Kanye getting 11 new songs in the Hot 100, with a good number of them debuting in the top 50, it's rather impressive that "Dance Monkey" managed to jump up 10 spots. The higher it goes, the harder it will be to continue it's surge, but the momentum of this song continues to be very strong.

44- "Thriller" - Michael Jackson (re-entry) -- Making its annual Halloween entry is Michael Jackson's "Thriller." It's always good to have Michael around. Even though this song literally gets played at every Halloween party in existence, it's a song I never get sick of. I always need my good dose of "Thriller" every October.


New Arrivals:





7- "Follow God" - Kanye West -- Kanye West is the most toxic, self-absorbed scum bag in the rap industry. And even though back in the day he wrote a few good songs (I still really like "Stronger"), for the majority of the past decade he's delivered nothing but smelly, awful trash while acting like an immature drama queen. All he cares about is the attention and the spotlight. So I apologize for not buying into the idea of him being sincere with this Christian album. I do try to be a good Christian myself and thus I am a sucker for Christian music. But Christian music only works if the singer is genuine and passionate about what they're singing. Maybe I shouldn't be judgmental. I don't know Kanye personally and I don't know his heart. What I do know is that a year ago he did an interview wherein he was asked if having a daughter changed his perspective on women. He said it didn't and that he still watches Pornhub. Pornhub appreciated the shout out and rewarded Kanye for his comments. Not much later, Kanye became a integral part of the first annual Pornhub awards. So how in the living frack do you go from that to writing and releasing a Christian album in just a year? It doesn't sit well with me. It's not a situation like Avril Lavigne's wherein she was struck with an awful illness and was on her death bed for months, causing her to turn to God and write the song "Head Above Water." That's a genuine turn that brings a lot of power. Kanye just seems to be doing this solely for attention, using Jesus and God to help boost his ego, get him attention, and earn him money. Granted, I can see someone having no idea who Kanye is and, without context, stumbling on this album and enjoying it. But me having dealt with Kanye's nonsense for years, I just can't get behind this and thus I'm not covering this album. Granted, I skip most album bombs these days, but even if I did have all the time in the world, this is not one I would touch.

17- "Closed on Sunday" - Kanye West -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

19- "Selah" - Kanye West -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

23- "On God" - Kanye West -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

27- "Look at Her Now" - Selena Gomez -- Yup, there's two new Selena songs on the charts at the moment. Even though "Look at Her Now" was only released a day after "Lose You to Love Me," the timing of both releases caused the latter to sneak onto last week's charts while this one debuted this week. I don't know how long this second Selena song will be around given that "Lose You to Love Me" is the one getting the push on the radio, but it's fun having two Selena songs here as they both preview an upcoming album, Selena's first since "Revival" in 2015. What I like about comparing both of these songs is that it shows a fair share of contrast. While the message of both of similar (overcoming a previous relationship), "Look at Her Now" is the more playful song of the two. Instead of being caught up in the sorrow with an emotional ballad, it's fun and upbeat. The song is more of a celebration of how far she's come. On a personal level, I'm a sucker for a well developed ballad, which is why I prefer "Lose You to Love Me" over "Look at Her Now," but this is very much a song I could get behind, even if it's not as beautifully polished. Neither song hits the heights of "It Ain't Me" or "Wolves," but I wasn't necessarily expecting that. Those two songs are special. Yet I am completely satisfied with what I've got so far and I look forward to an upcoming album.

33- "Everything We Need" - Kanye West featuring Ty Dolla $ign & Ant Clemons -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

36- "God Is" - Kanye West -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

37- "Use This Gospel" - Kanye West featuring Clipse & Kenny G -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

45- "Every Hour" - Kanye West featuring Sunday Service Choir -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

51- "Water" - Kanye West featuring Ant Clemons --I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

60- "Hands On" - Kanye West featuring Fred Hammond -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

63- "Jesus is Lord" - Kanye West -- I'm not covering Kanye's album bomb.

75- "Start wit Me" - Roddy Ricch & Gunna -- This is not a part of Kanye's album, but Roddy Ricch and Gunna? Count me out.

93- "What She Wants Tonight" - Luke Bryan -- Another non-Kanye sung snuck onto the charts this week. This one I will cover. Although I admittedly don't have a whole lot to say. The country people will probably love this one. Luke Bryan has a decent personality and this song has enough of a country groove to hit all the right notes for the country crowd. But for me, it also hits all the country cliches. He's going after the girl. He's drinking beer with her. He's singing in his strong country twang. The song has an overpowered southern rock vibe that doesn't really fit the lyrics perfectly. And overall there's no substance. Just Luke Bryan churning out another factory-produced country song for country radio to salivate over. This might be huge, but I don't care for it.