Also, I'm tracking Christmas songs on the Hot 100 in their own category. This will continue until they all disappear, which is usually early January. Now that Thanksgiving has passed, they're all starting to show up in droves and so I'm going to have fun tracking to see how they all do, especially considering how well they did last season.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- For the second straight week, Post Malone captures the No. 1 spot. As I said when it reached No. 1 last week, I'm not so sure how long this one is going to last at the top as it's not the strongest right now. Although this week it had a very healthy boost across the board thanks to Post Malone performing the song in a medley with "Take What You Want" at the AMAs. It rose 45 percent in sales to 20,000 downloads sold and was up 5 percent in streaming to 24.6 million U.S. streams. Radio is about on par with last week with 90.6 million audience impressions. Although with this boost from the AMAs, there's a good chance those sales and streaming numbers come crashing down next week, leading the door wide open for something to take the spot. But are any of the songs in the top five going to step up to the plate?
2- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- I do think we have a few songs surging in the top 10 right now, which could make for an interesting holiday season in the top 10, especially as the Christmas songs continue to catch fire, but no major movement this week among our top contenders, which gives Lewis Capaldi another week at No. 2.
3- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (=) -- Is it Lizzo or Maroon 5 that will grab the next No. 1? Currently it's neither as both got stuck on the charts this week. Billboard didn't report numbers on where each song is at, but I feel like both are positioned well enough to naturally rise up to the top given that the top two songs aren't super strong at the moment. It's just a matter of which song will make the move.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- Regardless of what happens at the top of the charts, I think I'll be pretty content. If Post Malone manages to fend off his challengers, that's alright. If Lizzo or Maroon 5 jump to No. 1, I enjoy both of the songs. If Mariah shoots up to No. 1 with "All I Want for Christmas is You," that would be fantastic. Just as long as our next song is held back...
5- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+7) -- Yeah, who let this cockroach into the top five? The hip-hop universe really confuses me sometimes. They all gravitate to the dumbest of songs. The top of the charts were pretty good the last few months, but now we have to make sure this song gets blocked somehow. With excellent streaming and sales, as well as radio that is starting to gain traction, this unfortunately might stick around and I have no idea what the appeal is. The hip-hop gods simply knighted another untalented thug into superstardom. A year from now, no one will remember this existed.
6- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (-1) -- Can we please get Selena back into the top five? If Mr. Servas has to be here in the top 10, at least relegate him to the bottom half of the top 10, not the top five. Selena is a million times more deserving.
7- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (-1) -- I don't imagine "Señorita" will be here for a whole lot longer, but it's certainly been an excellent song. Last year we had several Christmas songs enter the top 10. If they come back this year, that could kick "Señorita" out if this song hasn't already fallen out before that.
8- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+1) -- Dan, Shay, and Justin all hanging around. Due to the drop of Chris Brown and Drake, this jumps up a spot.
9- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+1) -- I was expecting this to be gone this week, but Lizzo survives another week in the top 10 with "Truth Hurts." I don't know if the AMAs had anything to do with this momentary rise, but it's possible it did.
10- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (-3) -- Thankfully the floor finally fell out from under this song. Now I'm not going to be celebrating just yet as this song has an annoying habit of not going way, but falling three spots to No. 10 is progress.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Dance Monkey" - Tones & I (+8) -- The infamous No. 11 spot. Where a lot of songs go to die. Let's hope that's not the case for "Dance Monkey," though. Nothing from No. 7 to No. 10 is very strong at the moment while "Dance Monkey" continues to build momentum, so let's get it offically int the top 10 next week!
12- "BOP" - DaBaby (+6) -- No! Make this go away!
16- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+4) -- I don't get the appeal here.
34- "Graveyard" - Halsey (+5) -- I would be totally fine with this becoming a hit. It's a nice song from Halsey. However, it doesn't seem like this is getting the same type of momentum as some of Halsey's previous songs, but if it slowly climbs up, I'm happy with that. It's just going to have to survive the incoming stampede of Christmas songs that's only going to get stronger in the next few weeks.
37- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+5) -- Yes, please! This is also going to have to survive the onslaught of Christmas music, but if it manages to at least keep it's head above water for the next month, I could see this being a pop hit in 2020.
42- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel (+33) -- Make this go away.
50- "Take What You Want" - Post Malone featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott (+7) -- I would be curious if this actually became a hit. It's been floating around ever since Post's album bomb, but hasn't really shown signs of actually gaining traction. In regards to this week, as I said at the top of this post, this was performed as a part of a medley with "Circles" at the AMAs which is why it got a boost this week.
59- "Death" - Trippie Redd featuring DaBaby (+38) -- Trippie Redd had a new album impact the charts this week. And I obviously don't care.
78- "We Back" - Jason Aldean (+15) -- I don't care for Jason Aldean.
Christmas Songs:
18- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+13) -- For the last two weeks, it was only Mariah on the charts with Christmas music. But now all of her best friends are here to join her and the party is only going to get bigger as we get deeper into December. But with that, Mariah is gaining all sorts of traction, shooting her into the top 20 at the beginning of December. That's a great sign as there's at least four weeks left of this. She got to No. 3 last Christmas season. How high can she get this season?
29- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (re-entry) -- Joy fills my heart this week as more Christmas songs join the Hot 100. And this is mainly from the week of Thanksgiving, which means all of these songs are going to continue to go higher in the weeks of December. Now a lot of Christmas songs are peaceful and sentimental and I think that's excellent. But it's nice to have a bit of variety as "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" provides a fun, upbeat tune for the holidays. But at the same time, this song doesn't go too strong into the upbeat into the Christmas dance realm, but rather settles for a nice, old-fashioned Jazz feel with an absolutely excellent saxophone solo in the middle for the perfect Christmas groove.
46- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (re-entry) -- There's a lot of classic Christmas songs that are hard to hate. "Last Christmas," on the other hand, is one that is a little more debatable as it's not the happiest of Christmas songs. It has a relaxing, upbeat tune, but is also accompanied with lyrics that are dreary and upsetting. There's a sense of bitterness to this with past love that didn't work out. For me, I don't know if I would call this one of my personal favorites, but it has an excellent George Michael touch to it that makes it work, at least with this original version. Every Christmas song is covered about a million times and while most of them are hard to get wrong, not everyone can pull of "Last Christmas" like George Michael does. As pertaining specifically to this year, I'm wondering of the presence of the movie "Last Christmas" well help boost this song.
47- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (re-entry) -- Very much in the same realm as "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," Bobby Helms brings a lot of excitement and energy into the holiday season with "Jingle Bell Rock. But this original version also doesn't fly overboard. It has a fun energy to it, but Bobby Helms has a lot of restraint here, giving it a nice, old-fashioned touch to it.
48- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (re-entry) -- Sometimes all you need is a bit of simplicity with your holiday music. And of course we all think of the stop-motion Rudolph movie here with Burl Ives, which is a very pleasant little movie.
49- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (re-entry) -- It wouldn't be Christmas without Andy Williams. Again, simplicity is the story with this one as we have a heart-warming song about how wonderful Christmas is. And if there's one song that will put you into the Christmas spirit, this is the one that'll do it. And Andy Williams has such an excellent voice that he makes this pleasant to listen to. It's one of those Christmas songs that I don't think is possible to dislike.
New Arrivals:
32- "Heartless" - The Weeknd -- It feels like it's been a while since The Weeknd has made an impact on the charts, but I guess I'm just used to all of his friends and coworkers in his genre just pumping out song after song just so that they can continue to have sales and streaming totals to their name. But The Weeknd did have two big hits last year and he's had his name on a few songs this year, but none of them have amounted to anything, so this feels like a comeback. And if it is, it's a really weak one. Now I can't say I'm a huge fan of The Weeknd as a whole, but he's good at crossing over into the pop realm while also appealing to the hip-hop folks. But this song just has zero substance as he dives into the raunchy realm while producing a song that feels like a recycled song from The Weeknd that has no energy and passion behind it.
33- "Vete" - Bad Bunny -- Bad Bunny by himself? No thanks. I sometimes tolerate him as a part of other Latino songs on the charts. But with him being all by his lonesome here, I have no reason to listen to this. And if there's other people on this song that just weren't credited, that's his problem. He should've given them credit.
55- "Into the Unknown" - Idina Menzel & AURORA -- If you read my long review of "Frozen 2," you'll know that I was a huge fan of it. I didn't talk much about the music, though, because I needed time for it to settle. And while I still feel like I need to watch the movie again to really make a determination as to which songs are the best, it's been long enough that I feel like I have my feet under me a bit and "Into the Unknown" is certainly one of the highlights of the movie. It's the song they're obviously pushing as this movie's "Let It Go" and while it doesn't have the power or infectiousness of "Let It Go," Idina Menzel once again kills it here. The song has an excellent contrast as Elsa is debating within herself what she needs to do. The song knows when to pull back and be soft, but Idina delivers enough emotion into those moments that when she finally releases and belts out the chorus, it feels very earned and will certainly stick in your head as a strong moment for the movie. It's not the most emotional song of the film, but you can feel the conflict in Elsa as she goes through these lyrics. And speaking of contrast, in addition to the tones of the song providing good balance for the song, so does the voice of the spirit that Elsa is searching for. The vocals of the spirit are provided by AURORA, a 23-year-old Norwegian singer. She isn't given any lyrics to sing, but her background vocals provide a nice touch and it's her four to six notes that immediately got stuck in my head as I was leaving the theater. In re-listening to the song, AURORA doesn't get a whole lot of time, but the time she does get is timed rather well to provide a nice effect. She also has some solid harmonies with Idina at the end of the song that help lead the song to a solid conclusion.
58- "Who Needs Love" - Trippie Redd -- Nope.
60- "6 Kiss" - Trippie Redd featuring Juice WRLD & YNW Melly -- Nope.
63- "Loyal" - PARTYNEXTDOOR featuring Drake -- Why are we making PARTYNEXTDOOR a thing again in 2019? I thought that was just an unfortunate fling that we overcame.
64- "Suicidal" - YNW Melly -- Nope.
84- "Hate Me" - Trippie Redd featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.
87- "Candy" - Doja Cat -- Nope.
95- "Cuban Links" - Rod Wave & Kevin Gates -- Nope.
98- "Into the Unknown" - Panic! At the Disco -- Just like no one really remembers that Demi Lovato did an end credits version of "Let It Go" in the first "Frozen," I'm not so sure that people are going to remember this version of "Into the Unknown." And it's not that this is bad. Brendon Urie's vocals are excellent and the rock version of the song has a unique flavor that makes a fun version. It's just that Brendon simply doesn't compare to Idina. He also doesn't provide the right level of desperation and conflict to the song. Idina does an excellent job voicing Elsa, both when it comes to dialogue and music. Thus it's not really fair for anyone to try to cover a song that she makes her own. Then to put said cover into the credits just feels off. I'd rather just go listen to the original. Again, this is not bad by any stretch of the imagination. It's just not the version of the song that I'm going to remember.
99- "Show Yourself" - Idina Menzel & Evan Rachel Wood -- I'm a bit disappointed that we only got three songs from "Frozen 2" this week, with only two songs being from the film itself. Once I saw that one of them have charted, I was ready to discuss all of them. But I suppose if I had to pick two songs from the movie to debut, I suppose the two Idina songs are excellent choices. But I'm really sad that we didn't get "Lost in the Woods" or "The Next Right Thing." Anyways, in regards to "Show Yourself," I'm conflicted as to whether I like this one or "Into the Unknown" better. "Into the Unknown" has a lot more bombast to it. It's the one you'll be singing when you leave the theater and is also the one they are pushing the heaviest from the movie. But I think "Show Yourself" has a lot more substance to it lyrically. My overall thoughts of the music as a whole is that it's a lot more mature than the first movie. While I love the music from the first movie, it focused heavily on being fun and catchy. The songs from "Frozen 2" have more heart and depth to them and that's apparent here in "Show Yourself." It's not necessarily a song that gets stuck in my head, but it's more of a completion of Elsa's conflict. She has a lot more to say here as she seems to have found herself. And again, Idina's vocal performance is excellent. She's mellow and smooth for most of the song, but she also has her moments where she gets to unleash. Both instances she does a great job of added the emotion to what Elsa is going through. And I think adding Evan Rachel Wood at the end is a beautiful and touching way to finish off the song.
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