billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 29, 2022

You know, I’d like to say this is the week where things stabilize a little, for whatever that means on the Hot 100 these days… and in a sense, that’s true. The album bombs are fading, it looks like the wild oscillation of losses and gains are slowing down dramatically, and I’m not seeing any major releases on the horizon to shake this up, so maybe we can catch a small breather?

Regardless, the one thing that’s been mostly consistent the past few weeks has been the top 10, especially with ‘Easy On Me’ by Adele comfortably at the top courtesy of radio dominance and solid enough sales and streaming. But there is a possible challenger: ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ by the Encanto Cast at #2, thanks to enormous streaming and sales which is almost enough to make up for the fact that it has no radio to speak of. That was enough to vault past ‘Heat Waves’ by Glass Animals stuck at #3, where it’s got all that radio growth and good streaming… but very little else. It did move past ‘Stay’ by Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber at #4, but that’s more because the lag in its streaming margin holds back better airplay… which is not the case for ‘Super Gremlin’ by Kodak Black up to #5, where the streaming is so good it almost doesn’t matter that the radio lags far behind. It did move past ‘Shivers’ by Ed Sheeran at #6, though, although I put more of that to ‘Shivers’ just running out of steam on the radio. Then we have the sustained success of ‘Pushin P’ by Gunna and Future ft. Young Thug at #7 - this is here thanks to streaming and a dumb meme that I really hope dies off quickly, but as of now it’s holding position despite having no other traction… although it could face competition from ‘abcdefu’ by GAYLE up to #8, where the song is on a radio tear and riding great sales as the streaming picks up - I would expect this to get a fair bit bigger in the next month or so, count on it. Then we have the slight radio recovery of ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’ by Elton John and Dua Lipa at #9 - it looks like radio is about done with it, but great sales will keep it around a bit longer - and then, riding the huge streaming and sales we have a second song from Encanto: ‘Surface Pressure’ by Jessica Darrow at #10. God, I wish I liked any of these, because it doesn’t look like Encanto is going away any time soon.

On a similar topic, our losers and dropouts… and it’s pretty much just album bomb leftovers in both categories, in the latter case maybe just ‘Tequila Little Time’ by Jon Pardi being worth mentioning. But to rattle through our losers: for The Weeknd, ‘Sacrifice’ fell to 23, ‘Take My Breath’ went back to 66, ‘Out Of Time’ held to 75, ‘Is There Someone Else?’ hit 80, ‘Gasoline’ slid to 87, and ‘Less Than Zero’ fell to 91. And for Gunna… ‘Too Easy’ with Future hit 45, ‘Thought I Was Playing’ with 21 Savage hit 62, ‘25k Jacket’ with Lil Baby hit 67, ‘How You Did That’ with Kodak Black hit 72, ‘Poochie Gown’ hit 78, ‘Mop’ with Young Thug hit 86, ‘Alotta Cake’ hit 89, ‘IDK That Bitch’ with G Herbo hit 95, and ‘Livin Wild’ at 99… yeah, there’s still a lot of this. The only other two losers were ‘Circles Around This Town’ by Maren Morris sliding to 81 off the debut, and ‘Fingers Crossed’ by Lauren Spencer Smith losing a lot of gains from last week to 30… interesting, I thought it had a bit more traction.

Now this is where I was tempted to just shirk my duties when it came to listing out the gains and returns here - given that it’s over a full third of the Hot 100 - but this is a level set as to where everything will be going forward, so starting with the latter group, ‘Baddest’ by Yung Bleu, Chris Brown and 2 Chainz is back again at 100, ‘AA’ by Walker Hayes hit 98, ‘No Love’ by Summer Walker and SZA at 97, ‘Same Boat’ by the Zac Brown Band at 96, and ‘Never Wanted To Be That Girl’ by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde coming back at 93. As for the gains… okay, the only one picking up from last week was ‘Dos Oruguitas’ by Sebastian Yatra at 44, which highlights a bunch of Encanto gains with ‘What Else Can I Do?’ by Diane Guerrero and Stephanie Beatriz at 31, ‘The Family Madrigal’ by the cast at 43, and ‘Waiting On A Miracle’ by Stephanie Beatriz solo at 65. But I think the big story here are the country gains, because they fill up the board in a big way: ‘Buy Dirt’ by Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan 25, ‘You Should Probably Leave’ by Chris Stapleton at 33, ‘One Mississippi’ by Kane Brown at 40, ‘Sand In My Boots’ by Morgan Wallen at 42, ‘To Be Loved By You’ by Parker McCollum at 53, ‘Freedom Was A Highway’ by Jimmie Allen and Brad Paisley at 54, ‘Til You Can’t’ by Cody Johnson at 55, ‘half of my hometown’ by Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney at 56, ‘Heart On Fire’ by Eric Church at 64, ‘Beers On Me’ by Dierks Bentley, HARDY and Breland at 68, ‘Doin’ This’ by Luke Combs at 83, and ‘23’ by Sam Hunt at 85. Now for the rest from the bottom up… ‘Pressure’ by Ari Lennox at 84, ‘Do It To It’ by Acraze ft. Cherish at 76, ‘Message In A Bottle’ by Taylor Swift at 73, ‘Scorpio’ by Moneybagg Yo at 70, ‘For Tonight’ by Giveon at 69, ‘By Your Side’ by Rod Wave at 63, ‘Chosen’ by Blxst, Tyga and Ty Dolla $ign at 60, ‘Who Want Smoke??’ by Nardo Wick ft. G Herbo, Lil Durk & 21 Savage at 59, ‘Girls Want Girls’ by Drake ft. Lil Baby at 57, ‘Woman’ by Doja Cat at 52, ‘Enemy’ by Imagine Dragons and JID at 48 - seriously, we’re making this a thing - ‘Meet Me At Our Spot’ by The Anxiety at 39, ‘Big Energy’ by Latto at 38, and ‘Love Nwantiti’ by Ckay at 27.

And we still have a pretty stacked list of new arrivals too… and it doesn’t look like we’re dong with Encanto yet so we’re starting with…

94. ‘All Of You’ by Encanto Cast - and now it looks like we’ve moved on to the closing song of the movie as the newest debut, and like most final songs it’s built as a reprise of a bunch of other songs that came before. And I think what surprised me was how this was generally alright - the acoustics playing off the bouncy percussion and subtle arranged elements that let the mix swell effectively while still ending on a more intimate note which is appropriate for this sort of family drama and reconciliation, and while there’s still a lot of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s jittery, overwritten style creeping in, it’s not as obvious here, mostly because the parts that are integrated feel more plot-reliant and not just extraneous language to fill up space. I don’t think this works without the context of the film - which is kind of my biggest indictment of the majority of songs I’ve covered from this, which in my opinion keeps it back from the best of Disney musicals in my book, but this is harmless and overall, pretty good for what it is, I’ll take it.

90. ‘Surround Sound’ by JID ft. 21 Savage & Baby Tate - ah, it looks like Dreamville is finally kicking the tires to give JID a proper push; a few years too late for my liking, but I guess with ‘Enemy’ being a success this is a welcome after-effect. And… like with Ari Lennox’s ‘Pressure’, I’m a little shocked they’re pushing this as the single, even if the sample backdrop against the crisp trap percussion is a natural fit for 21 Savage at his best - it’s an expensive set of samples blurring Aretha Franklin and Mos Def for a textured backdrop I’m way more used to hearing in the underground than as a mainstream single. Now I’m definitely not complaining - the soulful melody supports the hook in a great way, Baby Tate’s four bars on the bridge is perfectly placed before a change-up that I actually think works, and honestly, I’d be comfortable with 21 staying on this sound for the foreseeable future, because even if his content is a mix of sex and violence, he kills his verse! But now there’s JID… and look, I’m not still not quite able to shake the feeling that he sounds like his peers, most notably Kendrick with a side of 21 Savage on this song, but when the hook is good and he’s able to deliver a more conventional verse and then flip into a more creative, spiraling flex, he does a lot to reassure me about longer-term viability. So yeah, this is just incredibly solid all the way down - great song, definitely hope this gets a proper push!

88. ‘Trouble With A Heartbreak’ by Jason Aldean - this is not going to sound good… but man, if there’s someone who I don’t really want to hear sing about heartbreak these days, it’s Jason Aldean. He’s had moments where he’s convincing at selling it - hell, there was a deep cut back in 2014 from him that actually was among my favourites of that year - but in recent years his machismo has led to a persistent ugliness in his music that doesn’t even have the decency to be interesting given that he doesn’t write any of it, so I went in with rock-bottom expectations. And… to his credit, this is just dull: the drum machines on the verses sound blown out against the steel guitar and synth touches, the cymbal texture weirdly saturates the chorus, I don’t know what the bassline is trying to do here beyond flood the low-end, and even if the acoustic guitar sounds good, it’s more accent than anything. I think what really doesn’t work here is that it’s supposed to be frustrated, that heartbreak can only go away with time and you can’t control that, but there’s no subtlety to selling it - it’s overblown and clunky, and it kills any chance of emotional investment. So yeah, this wasn’t terrible, but it’s not good either.

82. ‘Fish Scale’ by YoungBoy Never Broke Again - …didn’t we just get new YoungBoy songs, from that collab mixtape with Birdman? He’s dropping another mixtape now? This is one of two songs he put out this week and oof, it sounds pretty rough. The offkey sample, the grainy but cheap-sounding trap percussion, the bass swamping the low end, and YoungBoy yowling over his usual bars about guns and drugs. Odd that he’s now apparently beefing with NLE Choppa, given how much this song sounds like an intersection between his sound and Lil Wayne at his most nasal, but I’m more distracted by the line where he describes his glizzy as ‘fornicating’. Outside of that, though… I used to be concerned about YoungBoy flooding the market, but his fans seem to drive anything he drops to success, regardless of whether it shows any innovation. Doesn’t seem like that’s coming - whatever, this is forgettable, next!

79. ‘Never Say Never’ by Cole Swindell & Lainey Wilson - I’ll admit this was a collaboration that kind of threw me at first glimpse - Cole Swindell has been more inconsistent than bad in recent years, but he’s always had surprisingly good traction and Lainey Wilson is an upstart who could use the attention, so did it work? Honestly, there’s a lot to like about this, but the more I think about it the more I’m convinced this is a half step away from being truly great. The minor key guitar melodies build to a pretty solid hook ramping up the melodrama, the guitar solo is over-the-top but makes sense for a song like this, but I think the biggest win is just how good the chemistry is between Wilson and Swindell; the writing has them bounce off each other in the verses for this bad relationship that keeps drawing them back together, and it’s just ridiculous enough to be a lot of fun! Shame that it’s just a half-step away from really nailing it - I think the issue is the percussion being a little too loud and obviously synthetic to blend, and there’s not really much of a groove to speak of… but you know, there’s enough good ideas here to excuse the missteps, I’m onboard - good stuff.

71. ‘Iffy’ by Chris Brown - hey look, isn’t it nice when the song title accurately describes your opinion of the artist in question? Bad and likely to be overused joke aside, Chris Brown has a new album coming this year with this as a single and… sure is a Chris Brown song alright? The weird thing with this track - or really a lot of what Chris Brown has dropped in the past several years - is just how underwhelming and interchangeable it feels as he never seems to play to any strengths he might have as a singer; outside of the bridge, he’s in his midrange for this flex the entire time and doesn’t really modulate for yet another song about how he can’t trust the hoes he’s fucking, this time with a bunch of basketball references. Nothing about this feels like an obvious single or features a hook that really jumps off the page - and sure, Brown doesn’t need that because the radio still plays him - and while I do like the jittery trap vibe against the fluttery textures and some really sharp percussion where the production might be the star of the show, right now I’m seeing the video with the Transformer and I’m left thinking that Brown may have forgotten the lesson from ‘I Can Transform Ya’ thirteen years ago. Whatever, I don’t hate this, but I’m also going to forget it in record time.

61. ‘Bring The Hook’ by YoungBoy Never Broke Again - okay, more YoungBoy, and this one is an explicit diss overloaded with cackling violent energy…. mostly targeting the late King Von, where if what I found is to be believed, was killed by an affiliate crew of YoungBoy. Now I could highlight how if YoungBoy is currently under house arrest in Utah it might not be the wisest to drop disses against other violent crews, but I also think this is just tasteless as hell, especially by the second verse where he start referencing the autopsy and I’m left wondering what this remotely adds. And I get playing the crazy villain type, but King Von was killed over a year ago, and if you have so little left to contribute beyond the same bargain barrel gunplay off that piano line and leaden percussion that you have to resort to this, I think I’m out of patience. This is just tacky, tasteless, and gross, next!

58. ‘Cold December’ by Rod Wave - I’m at a quandary with this song, because Rod Wave recently came out saying that he didn’t want to release it - apparently there’s some conflict with his label and he feels like he’s selling his soul with these concessions, his words not mine. That had me a little worried going in, especially as you can argue that Rod Wave’s artistic development has been haphazard since he signed and I’d argue his label seems to only have one idea in what his sound should be… but this is an odd case. For one, it’s rooted around a pitched-up sample of Hank Williams Jr’s ‘OD’d In Denver’, an old country song from the late 70s which definitely comes through in the guitars backing off those bright pianos… but the song isn’t about drugs so much as Rod Wave talking about the women he’s been trying to fall in love with for the past couple of years, and how he hoping for no more cold, lonely Decembers. Now I don’t mind Rod Wave making a sincere love song, but it doesn’t fit with this sample, which is anchored in the line that he ‘od’d in Denver and can’t remember this girl’s name’… but Rod Wave knows their names by heart on this song going back to high school! And when you factor in how the song still feels weirdly incomplete with one verse and one hook, I get why Rod Wave might have been dissatisfied with this, because it doesn’t come together the way it should. It’s not bad because Rod Wave is a good singer and a fusion of his soulful trap with country textures is something I’d be really excited to hear… but this isn’t quite it, just saying.

49. ‘Eazy’ by The Game & Kanye West - you know, I’ve been sick of Kanye’s nonsense for years now - you’ve probably seen my reviews of his past few albums to understand why - but in the throes of his divorce we’re seeing a side of him that doesn’t remotely surprise me, but man, it’s about the last thing I want to hear. It was the subtext lurking behind DONDA last year, especially with his verses and antics trying to win Kim Kardashian back, and now the ugliness is on display… and for some reason, he’s working with The Game to do it, giving him his highest charting position in years! And you know, there are parts of this that work: I’m not wild about the spare sample and scratches comprising the percussion, but it does create an ominous but melancholic atmosphere and The Game’s verse is good, setting the gangland violence in its historical context. And then there’s Kanye’s verse - and man, he does not come off well here, from the ‘I don’t negotiate with therapists’ line to how he seems to be leaning right back into his asshole side and claiming he’s having the ‘best divorce ever’, clearly backed up by how he wants to kick Pete Davidson’s ass later on in the verse, to say nothing of the potshots he takes at Kim highlighting how cameras watch more of the kids than she does, and how he creepily bought the house next door, and how he highlights how he won’t spoil his kids and flips it all to make it god’s will. Now the hypocrisy does not surprise me whatsoever - that’s been true of Kanye’s career coming up on fifteen years - but there was a place and time Kanye could make it have greater meaning or expose something profound, whereas this is small, petty, ugly, in awful taste paired with The Game’s verse, and even if it’s intentional which you might argue thanks to the single cover and that’s territory I’m not touching, it’s winds up making everyone less interesting and likable in response. I remember when the Rap Critic talked about Kanye and Kim getting together damn near ten years ago, expecting it might fail and we’d get 808s & Heartbreak Part II… the sad reality is that when it comes to divorce in your mid-40s, where this might as well serve as discovery for the hearings, it’s a lot more like this. I never want to hear this again.

24. ‘P Power’ by Gunna ft. Drake - you couldn’t have just tacked it on the album from last week, you had to delay it and make it an event, didn’t you? Now from what I can tell, that’s not the entire story here - originally the song had a Donna Summer sample that they couldn’t clear - can’t imagine why on a song called ‘P Power’ where the ‘P’ here stands for pussy, especially given where Donna Summer is now - but fine, it’s now here… and it looks like they flipped an underwhelming slice of disco library music with that bassline and Metro Boomin dropping some sharper percussion on top of it, as well as a bunch of moans I could swear I’ve heard sampled in cheap porn games, if not really close to the sample that Megan Thee Stallion used on ‘Body’. And that’s way more interesting that what both Gunna and Drake do with this, which is basically brand name porn, doing coke, and fucking, of which Gunna says ‘she make that lil pussy pop like a pimple’ - because that’s what you want to think about during sex! I think I’m more annoyed that the song is just boring - it sounds like a soundtrack for porn, and not good porn either, complete with the bargain barrel assets and no effort on display. Not good.

And that was a pretty rough week here, where the good songs were solid, but the bad ones were just tasteless and gross in a way where I don’t want to even think about them. So let’s get them out of the way fast, with ‘Eazy’ by The Game and Kanye getting the Dishonourable Mention - The Game’s verse saves it - and ‘Bring The Hook’ by YoungBoy Never Broke Again gets the worst of the week. Now for the best… I’m going with ‘Surround Sound’ by JID ft. 21 Savage and Baby Tate, with Honourable Mention to ‘Never Say Never’ by Cole Swindell and Lainey Wilson, which was a nice surprise. Next week… I mean, back to normal? Maybe?