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.
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