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.

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