billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 3, 2022

So I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised we’re getting a breather this late into the year - again, certainly not complaining as the releases slow down and I can get more album reviews polished off before the year-end - but I am a bit shocked that the Hot 100 has slowed down this much to just let the holiday music take over en masse. We’re still in late November, and while there are albums supposedly coming next month, this feels like a weird surrender, and an early one at that.

And to illustrate this, our top ten, where yes, ‘Anti-Hero’ by Taylor Swift is holding at #1, but I don’t think she’s going to face credible competition until the holiday music overtakes her - she’s too strong across the board. Yes, ‘Rich Flex’ by Drake and 21 Savage has more streaming to keep it at #2, but the radio growth has been slow, there’s a considerable margin there. And yet the margin is robust enough to hold over ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith and Kim Petras at #3, which rules the radio and has good enough sales and streaming to keep winning on the margins, at least over ‘Bad Habit’ by Steve Lacy at #4, which is now seeing its radio slip into freefall with only streaming to prop it up. But this opens the door to holiday music, as coming off the return ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey leaps to #5 and ‘Rocking Around The Christmas Tree’ by Brenda Lee is back at #6; the streaming is already there, this is just a matter of time. It overtook ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha at #7, which spent the week with real radio momentum, and ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles down to #8 as it looks to be finally fading for the year, but we’re rounding out the top ten with two more Christmas songs: ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ by Bobby Helms at #9, and ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ by Burl Ives returning to the Hot 100 to #10 - again, it feels earlier than ever this year!

Now that means songs did get forced off, so in our losers and dropouts, there are a few notable ones in the latter category: ‘Unstoppable’ by Sia is finally gone, as is ‘Wishful Drinking’ by Ingrid Andress and Sam Hunt, ‘Music For A Sushi Restaurant’ by Harry Styles, and unfortunately ‘Last Last’ by Burna Boy which never quite got the massive surge for which I was hoping. But for our losers… it’s pretty much just either Drake & 21 Savvage or Taylor Swift album bombs fading, so let’s start with the former: ‘Major Distribution’ at 30, ‘Spin Bout U’ at 31, ‘Circo Loco’ at 37, ‘On BS’ at 39, ‘Pussy & Millions’ with Travis Scott at 47, ‘Privileged Rappers’ at 62, ‘BackOutsideBoyz’ at 66, ‘Broke Boys’ at 68, ‘Hours In Silence’ at 70, ‘Jumbotron Shit Poppin’ at 77, ‘Treacherous Twins’ at 85, ‘Middle Of The Ocean’ at 99, and ‘More M’s’ at 100. Now for Taylor’s losses: ‘Bejeweled’ at 50 - man, as a second single it’s not moving - ‘Midnight Rain’ at 52, ‘Maroon’ at 58, ‘Karma’ at 65, ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’ at 67, ‘Snow On The Beach’ with Lana Del Rey at 69, ‘Vigilante Shit’ at 73, ‘Question..?’ at 78, ‘Mastermind’ at 84, ‘Labyrinth’ at 89, and ‘Sweet Nothing’ at 92. Finally, ‘Die For You’ by Joji is continuing to lose at 96 and ‘All Mine’ by Brent Faiyaz took a hit to 93… can’t really say I’m complaining about either of them, to be honest.

Now for returns and gains, I’m probably most interested about the songs that are still managing to pick up traction even despite the influx of holiday music, like ‘Just Wanna Rock’ by Lil Uzi Vert surging up to 21 thanks to a big music video, or ‘Made You Look’ by Meghan Trainor maintaining consistent traction to 24. But then there’s ‘Until I Found You’ by Stephen Sanchez which saw a spike to 45, because apparently the radio has really gotten behind it and I guess that makes sense along for the holidays - also ‘Break My Heart’ by Rod Wave saw a nice boost off the debut to 76, but that’s to be expected given his album release. But the bigger story is in our returns, because outside of ‘Down Home’ by Jimmie Allen returning to 97 for some reason, it’s all holiday music. So let’s run through it - ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time’ by Andy Williams at 19, ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! at 23, ‘The Christmas Song’ by Nat King Cole at 34, ‘Sleigh Ride’ by The Ronettes at 40, ‘Let It Snow’ by Dean Martin at 41, ‘Feliz Navidad’ by Jose Feliciano at 42, ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’ by Perry Como at 43, and ‘Underneath The Tree’ by Kelly Clarkson at 48.

And all of this means we only have two new songs this week. That’s right, two… gonna make picking best and worst pretty damn easy, so might as well finish this quick with…

95. ‘Got It Right’ by Rod Wave - so I’ll say this, Rod Wave and his producers are steadily trying to add more elements to his sound - the bass is a little overweight here, but the sharper metallic whirs around the piano, guitars, and vocal samples does add a slightly different texture to what we get here, especially given the haze of violence that surrounds Rod Wave’s come-up. The song doesn’t really go beyond that territory - a lot of quiet warnings and threads, but ultimately gratitude for his fanbase and newfound success and plans for the future - and I still think at some point more structure would help a song like this stand out, but at the end of the day, Rod Wave’s formula still works for me, and this is a good song, I’ll take it.

88. ‘Down In Atlanta’ by Pharrell & Travis Scott - I was hearing weird things about the buzz around this, and not a lot of good either. Apparently this is a track coming from Travis Scott’s next album - no word on the plans there or when it’s dropping, I’m guessing maybe next year - and it was premiered first in September, and… this might shock some people, but I actually think this is pretty decent? Yeah, the content is disposable - Travis Scott’s drug and brand name flexing is just not interesting or witty at this stage - but I actually like the production here. The sharper, sandy trap skitter at a lockstep pace with the bassy synth gurgle that quietly builds some deeper swell, the atmosphere is minimalist but effectively ominous, even if the bridge tempo shift feels kind of awkward. Honestly, this instrumental could have just used a better rapper on it, but as it is… yeah, it’s fine, I’ll take this too.

Now it is the worst of the week, but that’s because it’s the only option opposite ‘Got It Right’ by Rod Wave, which gets the best - although I’d argue the gap between them is a lot smaller than some will make out. Next week… more holiday music, unless there’s something in the wings that surprises me, we’ll have to see…