billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 6, 2021
…okay, it’s a quiet week for once - yay? I guess folks weren’t hunting for the Lil Skies album bomb, so things look pretty reserved on the Hot 100 for once. And while I’m definitely not complaining, it builds off of what I was saying last week about not seeking normalization of any of this, especially when I have no idea what’s going to disrupt or change things.
And that means… this could be the top 10 we’re stuck with for a while, especially as ‘drivers license’ by Olivia Rodrigo is not going anywhere at #1, effectively dominant in sales and streaming and receiving all of that radio traction now. I will say I’m a bit surprised ‘Mood’ by 24kGoldn and iann dior recovered to #2 - given that it’s actively being rotated out on the radio despite having solid streaming - or that ‘The Weeknd’ by Blinding Lights - oh, I’m sorry, ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd went up to #3 despite losing everywhere. But that’s more because ‘34+35’ by Ariana Grande with the remix with Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion is ebbing back naturally as radio is on the rise and streaming is solid… but nobody is really buying the song. Then we have the expected boost for ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby breaking in at #5… which is odd because its radio has slowed down a lot and sales and streaming probably need a boost to push it any higher. But it went up - as did ‘Go Crazy’ by Chris Brown and Young Thug to #6 despite the radio in free fall - because ‘positions’ by Ariana Grande slipped to #7, mostly because all it has is radio as well and it’s getting rotated out. Then there was ‘Holy’ by Justin Bieber ft. Chance The Rapper at #8 - which the radio is also getting rid of, just more slowly - and that hopefully opens the door for ‘Good Days’ by SZA up to #9, which is still dominant on streaming but nobody is putting it on the radio - come on here! Finally there’s ‘Bang!’ by AJR - yes, the sales are still decent, but given its radio collapse, it might not last much longer.
On that note, losers and dropouts, and while there were three considerable ones in the latter category - ‘Love You Like I Used To’ by Russell Dickerson, ‘I Should Probably Go To Bed’ by Dan + Shay, and ‘WAP’ by Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion - the week still felt quiet. Off the debuts last week we saw ‘Bad Boy’ by Juice WRLD and Young Thug implode at 57 and ‘Masterpiece’ by DaBaby just tank at 92 - so much for damage control - and from there it just looks like a lot of would-be hits not sticking. ‘Champagne Night’ by Lady A lost everything to 93, ‘Still Trappin’ by Lil Durk and the late King Von slid to 84, ‘Big Big Plans’ by Chris Lane really underperformed at 82, and ‘Holiday’ by Lil Nas X slid to 71… really hoped that last one would have had more staying power, but when it has that title… what did you expect?
Now we did have a fair number of gains and returns, which’ll help define what 2021 will look like for the next little while… the problem is that a lot of them suck. In the latter category… I’m kind of surprised to see ‘You Got It’ by VEDO at 95 and ‘Kacey Talk’ by YoungBoy Never Broke Again back at 98, but was it worth bringing back ‘Heat Waves’ by Glass Animals to 91 along the way? Then in gains it’s really a mix of country and trap - yeah, ‘Bichota’ by Karol G is back to 75 and ‘Golden’ by Harry Styles is continuing up to 65, but beyond that? Well, let’s handle the new arrivals first: the ‘goosebumps’ remix from Travis Scott and HVME is up to 73 and ‘Beat Box’ by Spottemgottem is at 60 - you can shoot me now. But then we have our continued gains, the songs with traction: ‘Buss It’ by Erica Banks at 67, ‘Throat Baby (Go Baby)’ by BRS Kash likely riding that ridiculous remix and video with DaBaby and City Girls plus the album boost to 24, ‘Streets’ by Doja Cat continuing to catch traction at 25, and then we’ve got a trio of questionable country, with ‘Beers and Sunshine’ by Darius Rucker at 53, ‘Down To One’ by Luke Bryan at 58, and ‘Just The Way’ by Parmalee and Blanco Brown at 56. But the bad country doesn’t stop there because ‘The Good Ones’ by Gabby Barrett is at 64 and ‘Long Live’ by Florida Georgia Line is at 68, and you know, we don’t have to follow a really damn good year for this genre on the charts with a shitty one, Nashville, you know that right?
But here’s the thing: we only have four new songs this week, which means I’d normally go for a World Hit or Ideal Hit… but the the truth is that I’m not hearing a lot going on right now in music that’s grabbed my attention as an immediate stand-out smash. I did, however, hear something that’s considerably messier that wound up requested on my song review series on Instagram - @SpectrumPulse - so why don’t I kill two birds with one stone, talk about what should be a Non-Hit?
Okay, you’re going to have to follow me on this one. You all should know who Avril Lavigne is - pop punk and pop rock artist of the early 2000s, kind of had her career stumble when she went full pop, it’s a frustrating and sad story - but you might not recognize MOD SUN, whose name is reportedly an acronym for ‘Movement On Dreams, Stand Under None’. If you think that’s disgusting, he also dated Tana Mongeau last year for a few months, but we’re here to talk about his music, in which in the 2010s he had a brief run on an indie label that got him collabs with Riff Raff, The Ready Set, and a slew of TDE rappers who should really know better. He also knew Machine Gun Kelly from back in the day, so now that MGK is seeing the most success he’s ever had, MOD SUN has followed in his wake with a image rebrand and a few collabs and now Avril Lavigne is here! All of this is considerably more interesting than the song we got here, which is about a not-over-it relationship moment and has me wondering why anyone thought this would work beyond name recognition. One thing to note is that Avril Lavigne is in her mid-30s and is firmly settled into an adult-contemporary sound that has her in piano ballad mode… whereas MODSUN wants to make a pop punk rager and show precisely zero chemistry with her - damn near overpowering her on the hook - which means the song has to keep slamming on the breaks for the hook even as the desaturated guitars play off the sharper percussion, and nothing holds to a consistent mood or crescendo, even before the bassy trap flip to end out the song! To keep this short, it’s a mess, and right now I’m grateful this isn’t going anywhere - Avril deserves better. MOD SUN does not.
Alright, to our list proper:
100. ‘Antes’ by Anuel AA & Ozuna - oh look, two of my least favourite artists in reggaeton teamed up for a full-length album last week, and we got a single from it on the charts. And is that stock reggaeton percussion matching desaturated melodic flourishes at least until the synth horns slip in to punch up some kicks on Anuel AA’s verse… where he can’t sell any sense of gravitas or impact because he remains one of the most anonymous figures in the scene? Now Ozuna is not anonymous - more’s the pity - and he doesn’t really compliment the more aggressive vibe of the song… but then you get to the actual narrative which just feels confused; wistful and nostalgic for past times, but then there’s all the gangsta posturing and more dancing at the club and we don’t get a clear indication whether this girl is new or from their past. Either way, like most reggaeton from these two it feels painfully generic - pass.
97. ‘Opp Stoppa’ by YBN Nahmir ft. 21 Savage - I’ll be honest, after Cordae proved he was probably the most interesting from the YBN crew, I stopped caring about them, especially as ‘Rubbin Off The Paint’ didn’t really stick with me either, but now he’s somehow pulled together another hit, this time with 21 Savage who really is the bigger name, and… wow, I suddenly remember why I wasn’t a fan of this guy. It’s mostly his delivery - he’s trying to mimic 21’s dead-eyed, conversational style, but 21 has enough menace to make that work against the right production - which this certainly isn’t because of the overweight bass and jerky piano loop - and YBN Nahmir just sounds stilted and awkward, and all the ab-libs he piles in just obscure any power he could have. It doesn’t help that the content is nothing to write home about - killing people, stealing your girlfriend, doing drugs, and to quote Nahmir’s opening line, he’s got a ‘rocket in his pocket’. Yeah, that’s the level we’re on with this - it feels disposable, like YBN Nahmir calling in a favour - next!
62. ‘Lo Vas A Olvidar’ by Billie Eilish & ROSALIA - this… was kind of unexpected, until you give it a few minutes thought and it makes all the sense in the world. Seems like a critic’s dream to pair Billie with ROSALIA, especially for a slinky slow-burn, where the song is mostly in Spanish - which did give me pause, I wasn’t sure how good Billie would sound in that language - but considering Finneas was producing, I had expectations for this, even if it was just tied to Euphoria’s soundtrack. And… this is interesting, because I’d argue it’s half what I expected, but also feels so spare that you wonder what the other half could even be. Yes, Billie and ROSALIA have solid chemistry, even with the obvious touches of autotune around them, and Billie sounds very good singing in Spanish, and I like the tension in the content that feels almost biblical in the negative space, playing exes where one would love to downplay the significance for her own sanity’s sake, and the other now craves the memory. It’s a potent moment… but it doesn’t feel like much of a song beyond that, mostly because the production is so spare and minimal there’s not much of a tune to anchor anything. It’s a great exercise in atmosphere and chemistry, but maybe a bit more would have put this over the top. As it is, still very good… but I really wanted to love this one, and it’s not there yet.
48. ‘Skin’ by Sabrina Carpenter - and now, we’re here. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve reviewed multiple Sabrina Carpenter projects so I’m well familiar with her generally derivative and underwhelming pop music - and apparently that’s been sacreligious to point out her bewilderingly large number of fans, who don’t want to acknowledge just how much she’s been ripping off Ariana Grande and Camila Cabello for years now for what feels like vanity projects that don’t have the depth or originality to support the swagger. Now to her credit, she finally got off Hollywood Records and away from their mediocre stable of producers… only to wind up as the ‘other girl’ in Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’. Two thoughts here: one, this is really starting to feel like a coordinated campaign to get both of the careers kickstarted, given that they are both Universal acts under different subsidiaries; and two, there was never a need for a response song, because the appeal of ‘drivers license’ is internal above all else. Sabrina Carpenter is incidental detail in that song… but you want to know the best way to convince someone that it’s really not you with her ex, make a response song, that’s the ticket! Now I’m not against the back-and-forth in principle, and I’m even willing to give Sabrina Carpenter another chance given my history here… but man, she needed a different song than ‘Skin’ to sell it. First off, it’s not as developed or detailed or has anything close to the complexity ‘drivers license’ has, but it doesn’t need to - it just has to be a response that humanizes her… instead, she went for ‘I’m telling my side of the story, he’s underneath me now, I’ve always been in the spotlight, and the only way any of this gets under my skin is if I let it’. First off, bullshit - you wrote the song, you were clearly bothered - and secondly, you can’t play magnanimous if half the song is gloating, which feels undercooked just like her last two albums! There’s a hint of a decent point in that she wasn’t asking for Olivia Rodrigo’s fans to go harass her, when that’s what overdedicated stans will do, but this only eggs it on, and it’s not like your side of the story here is more than a self-congratulatory ego trip. And more frustratingly, how is the production still mediocre? That’s the one element that makes me think this isn’t coordinated, because her vocals either sound flat or overcompressed, the mix is spare synth and piano warps, and try to evoke bombast with so little melody that there’s no real core, and she’s still a very breathy singer that this production cribbed from Camila Cabello doesn’t flatter. In other words, even if I have history with Sabrina Carpenter that I’m not sure any other pop critic has, this isn’t anything close to good.
And yeah, the worst of the week, comfortably. Best of the week is going to Billie Eilish and ROSALIA for ‘Lo Vas A Olvidar’ - see what happens when you have production and stylism that flatters breathy presentation? And next week… given I don’t have expectations for a Weezer crossover single, it might wind up quiet again, we’ll have to see.