billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 30, 2021

It feels uncanny to me that I’m a lot less sure of calling things normal. If there’s something that’s changed for me in the past year, it’s been that, it’s been an inability to normalize anything, so when I see the Hot 100 look like this with only modest predictable shifts and not too many new arrivals… I want to call it normal, but I have that suspicion something is going to happen.

Of course, I could point to the top 10 and say, ‘look, ‘drivers license’ by Olivia Rodrigo is still at #1, that’s not normal’… but in a way it is, the sales and streaming are enormous and the radio has surged to catch up. Incidentally, I was thinking about why this song caught on in the same way and I think I get it: if folks have been isolating away from social interaction and drama, especially teenagers who are looking for those life events to symbolize their youth, this is a pretty detailed snapshot of it. On the flipside, the spike of ‘34+35’ to enter the top 10 at #2 thanks to spikes across the board and bigger radio makes all the sense in the world: Ariana Grande got Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion for the remix and all the lonely people are horny too! Hell, thinking of ‘drivers license’ that might have contributed to why ‘Mood’ by 24kGoldn and iann dior lasted so long, even as it slid to #3 as the decline has started in all channels. And then the analysis breaks down because ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd is still at #4 because even as its radio wavers, the sales are rock solid and it actually rebounded on streaming! Kept it above ‘positions’ by Ariana Grande at #5, which has never had good sales and is now openly bleeding radio, which opens things up for ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby at #6, which is up consistently across the board and will probably break the top 5 any week now. This puts it above ‘Go Crazy’ by Chris Brown & Young Thug at #7 - yeah, consistent radio gains won’t save you if that’s all you have - and ‘Holy’ by Justin Bieber ft. Chance The Rapper, which slid to #8 as radio gains look to have stalled out again. Even moreso for ‘Bang!’ by AJR down to #9, where despite okay sales the radio looks to be getting tired of it - good. Finally, holding its spot at #10 thanks to enormous streaming and pretty much nothing else - radio, get on it - we have ‘Good Days’ by SZA; seriously, why are more people not getting on board with this, it’s a really pretty and forward-thinking song!

But on the topic of frustrating disappointments, we have losers and dropouts, which yes, in the latter category includes ‘Midnight Sky’ by Miley Cyrus, along with ‘Hawai’ by Maluma and ‘B.S.’ by Jhene Aiko and H.E.R.. And since it’s a week post-album bomb, a lot of our losers fall in that territory, especially from Morgan Wallen with ‘Wasted On You’ at 24, ‘More Than My Hometown’ at 27, ‘Somebody’s Problem’ at 36, ‘Still Goin Down’ at 66, ‘Cover Me Up’ at 71, ‘Warning’ at 72, ‘865’ at 74, and ‘Dangerous’ at 100 - that’s a lot more than you’d otherwise expect holding into a second week, very interesting. Outside of that… ‘Best Friend’ by Saweetie and Doja Cat lost off the debut to 49, ‘Dynamite’ by BTS continues to collapse to 45, ‘Mr. Right Now’ by 21 Savage, Metro Boomin and Drake hit 75, and ‘Monster’ by Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber is at 67… again, the failures of this album are going to deserve some real scrutiny, because even I’m a little surprised at this point.

But here’s the problem: there’s not a lot that’s good that’s filling in the gaps here, especially when we look at our returns. Yes, ‘Hell Of A View’ by Eric Church is at 99… but then we have ‘One Too Many’ by Keith Urban and P!nk at 98, ‘Drankin N Smokin’ by Future and Lil Uzi Vert at 96, ‘Lady’ by Brett Young at 95, ‘Momma’s House’ by Dustin Lynch at 93, and ‘GIRL LIKE ME’ by the Black Eyed Peas and Shakira at 91! Now what’s kind of interesting is that since we had a country album bomb last week about half of our returns were in trap, the other half were in country, so in the latter category we got ‘Just The Way’ by Parmalee and Blanco Brown at 73, ‘Down To One’ by Luke Bryan at 70, ‘Beers and Sunshine’ by Darius Rucker at 64, ‘What’s Your Country Song’ by Thomas Rhett at 60, and ‘Happy Does’ by Kenny Chesney at 57. And on the trap side, ‘Moonwalking In Calabasas’ by DDG is at 89, ‘Buss It’ by Erica Banks spikes to 83 off the debut, ‘Throat Baby (Go Baby)’ by BRS Kash is at 54 - I’m curious if that recent album release gives this more traction - and another big spike for ‘Back In Blood’ by Pooh Shiesty and Lil Durk at 46! And outside of that… man, a fair amount of R&B got a boost too: ‘Back To The Streets’ from Saweetie and Jhene Aiko to 58, ‘Damage’ by H.E.R. at 53, ‘Streets’ by Doja Cat up considerably off the debut to 39, and ‘You’re Mines Still’ by Yung Bleu at Drake at 32. Oh, and that terrible cover of ‘Put Your Records On’ by Ritt Momney is also up to 61, but I’m thinking if we don’t acknowledge it exists it’ll just die a slow death in a ditch somewhere.

Anyway, for a change of pace we have a reasonable number of new arrivals this week, starting with…

97. ‘Somebody Like That’ by Tenille Arts - okay, how to explain this one… Tenille Arts is a Canadian country singer-songwriter who has broken out the past few years, gaining traction thanks to performing her songs on The Bachelor which helped her snag a deal. She dropped her second album in very early 2020 that I didn’t get a single request to cover, and while I’ve seen her name around a bit, I’ll admit to being really damn surprised this picked up enough radio traction to chart in the States - you haven’t seen Dallas Smith or Brent Kissel crossover yet, so why her, especially as I’m not spotting a TikTok trend or anything? Well, I checked it out and… well, I kind of hear the appeal? The glittery guitars and faster groove balance well against the clattering drums, and while the mix isn’t quite polished enough to blend the more synthetic elements well, especially in the vocal production, the song has a sense of bigness a lot of yearning love songs in this vein don’t have in country, especially from women. And I like that the content is a bit more mature - she’s seen the passionate short term love and she’s shed some real tears over it, but now she wants something more stable and long-term, and the song is framed to pick up that weight. I do think there are a few moments that feel a bit jerky, especially in transitions from the second verse to the hook, but that’s pretty minor… I think this is pretty damn good, I’m happy she’s got some foundation to her traction, promising.

94. ‘Better Days’ by Ant Clemons ft. Justin Timberlake - okay, I’ve seen Ant Clemons as a name behind the scenes for a while now - he’s been on a few Kanye West projects, he’s been building traction as a singer to where he put out his debut project last year and didn’t receive much attention, but now he’s got Justin Timberlake behind him for a single… that wasn’t tied to the album but was performed at the Inauguration last week, so that explains where the traction came from. And it’s not just him - in between the cloud of autotune both Lucky Daye and Justine Skye have uncredited presence here - but really, the larger story seems to circle Justin TImberlake, who has the most distinctive voice here given how much Ant Clemons seems to sound like Ty Dolla $ign with a higher register and less soulful power. But that lack of greater power is what holds this back from being more for me - beyond the vague aspirations to better days on the horizon, if you’re going to go broad you should go all out, not use such a pitifully thin handclap and limited keyboard and percussion… or if you’re going for organic intimacy, don’t smother most of the vocals in Autotune that doesn’t match with any of it! It reminds me a lot of when Justin Timberlake was working with SZA, in that it felt sanitized and an attempt to reclaim his cred in the most cliched and sterile way possible, and as such I feel kind of bad most of the acts behind this limp song probably deserve more. Really just forgettable, but not exactly that good either.

92. ‘De Una Vez’ by Selena Gomez - I had something prepared about how when Latin music picks up mainstream traction in America you always get the pop acts looking to hop on the bandwagon if only for a moment, but the more I researched things the less I felt comfortable saying that about Selena Gomez, who even back with The Scene had cut some music in Spanish for crossover and she’s been teasing the full album ever since. So after a few years of hopping on other reggaeton songs - I still like ‘Taki Taki’ even if nobody else does - she’s now doing it herself with this lead-off single, and… honestly, I like this too! Gomez has said she thinks she sounds better singing in Spanish and I agree - she sounds more expressive and precise and can lean into her sensuality more effectively than she often does in English - and I think a lot of the production is good here too; reserved, airy synths off the sandy Latin trap percussion and firmer bass where it doesn’t feel like a throwback thanks to Tainy’s production. Hell, the guitar swells on the outro are legit pretty, so all that’s left for her to nail is the writing… where she’s singing once again about an ex where she’s moved on and left him behind, the exact same material that was all over Rare. In a bizarre way, that fixation has given her material some foundation uniquely hers - you couldn’t confuse this for a Karol G or ROSALIA song in its content - so even if it’s tired, it kind of fits. And you know, I kind of like this song too.

85. ‘Goosebumps’ by Travis Scott & HVME - …I don’t get it: Travis, you already had a hit called ‘goosebumps’ with Kendrick Lamar that was a highlight of 2017 and I’m still annoyed when I saw you both on the same tour live you didn’t perform it together, so what is this now? Well, turns out this is a Spanish house remix of the original courtesy of HVME, where I have as big of a platform as he does as he pitches the song down, adds a sharper, rubbery house beat, and cuts Kendrick’s verse out altogether in a way that reminds me way too much of the ‘Roses’ remix from last year. But man, this is not nearly as good - the warped guitar is stripped out, the gurgling sizzle of the atmosphere feels stripped away, and there’s no demented Kendrick verse, so what’s even the point? Plus the original ‘goosebumps’ feels like its in that weird spot where it’s too old to chase a remix to boost the charts, but not old enough where it’s an interesting flip. In other words, this should not be a hit and it’s not good - next!

84. ‘Beat Box’ by Spottemgottem - …can I just say that it’s a TikTok song and walk away, or do you need the mention of how the sequel song is also blowing up courtesy of its verse from Pooh Shiesty, because apparently he’s now got that level of clout? Because what else is there to say about this fragment of a song with a barely developed piano line, badly mixed bass, and a single verse about shooting people and trying to get someone’s girl… holy shit, it’s ‘Shotta Flow’ again but with somehow worse rapping! Yeah, his reference pool is thinner and he’s not as immediately memetic beyond the opening line of the hook, but the flow is considerably more jerky and barely on beat. This feels like it’s charting for a fragmented meme and on clout by association, nothing else - also, it sucks. Next!

76. ‘Undivided’ by Tim McGraw & Tyler Hubbard - look, I knew this was coming. I knew that at some point given the past year Nashville would try to push another one of these songs that’s going for the message of ‘coming together, looking past differences’, and just conveniently we’re dealing with the half of Florida Georgia Line who’s reportedly less conservative so now I’m just laughing at this whole thing! I could point out that cries for unity without accountability to the social norms and rules we all chose to abide by is - and let’s use a proper mid-1930s term - appeasement, but my larger issue is that I don’t know who is going to want to seek this out, especially given the audience that predominantly listens to these two! It’s worth noting that Tim McGraw didn’t write this, nor did he do the sensible thing and call in Lori McKenna to add some teeth to the song, so while this has a bit more rollicking tempo than I expected, it’s a pretty limp song all things considered - Hubbard and McGraw’s voices clash awkwardly, they try to keep things so anti-political that they default to basic ‘let’s not bully people’ pleas for empathy, and I’m not sure anyone told them that playing so much to the middle ground and ‘we’re all under god regardless of left and right’ is taking a stand, even if they don’t want to admit it. I will say this could have been a lot worse… but man, this feels pointless, and I really hope it doesn’t last.

55. ‘Masterpiece’ by DaBaby - okay, I should not find this as funny as I do. For those of you who don’t know, the ‘masterpiece’ DaBaby is referring to in this song is not any of his albums but his current girlfriend DaniLeigh, who as of recently has faced a lot of controversy over some colorism allegations in her new leaked song ‘Yellow Bone’. So… I’m not going to touch that, but I will say that DaBaby pushing out a song like this feels like damage control at an inopportune time! But the bizarre thing is that this was primed as a lead-off single anyway, and winds up generally like just another DaBaby song, where he talks about his girl with the same blunt casual disregard in which he talks about anyone! I do have questions, though: I appreciate she laughs at your jokes, but it seems very dangerous to have her give oral to you when she’s mad at you, or that you put your gun in her purse, or that you’re still threatening to beat people up and shoot them but then reference the Wal-Mart incident as if you have much plausible deniability! If anything, what probably annoys me more with this is the production - yes, it’s better mixed and mastered than most DaBaby songs in the past two years, but that synth sounds so flat and annoying that it kills any sense of vibe. I dunno, the controversy alongside the song doesn’t make it better, or more or less interesting, a DaBaby song that has moments but doesn’t fit among his best, and it’s an odd fit for a lead-off single. Just kind of fine, I guess.

22. ‘Bad Boy’ by Juice WRLD & Young Thug - Okay, we’ve got to be close to the point where just getting a fragment of a Juice WRLD credit doesn’t get you a guaranteed hit, the shelf life has to be running out on it eventually, right? The odd thing is that this has been existing in some form since January of last year, and as such I’m a little surprised it’s taken this long to get it… especially I think it’s only okay at best. Part of this is the production - you get Pi’erre throwing a noisy guitar progression behind a scratchy trap progression, and yet the groove is so underwhelming? It leaves the song feeling way more turgid than either Juice WRLD or Thugger’s flows can compliment, especially when the entire song is about how they’re such bad boys who do the same regurgitated flexing and shooting people? Yeah, Young Thug somehow gets more disgusting on his verse - why are you shooting at people’s mothers and being a little too loose between ‘shot’ meaning bullets or ejaculate - but I think my larger issue is that it feels clunky and assembled in post, and despite interesting production, doesn’t do enough with it. It’s fine, I guess, but what this reminds me most of are complaints people had with the more abrasive production on ‘Franchise’. That song was only elevated with the Future remix, and I don’t think that’s coming here.

So this week… kind of a mess? I’m certainly surprised that Tenille Arts is taking the best of the week for ‘Somebody Like That’, and even more surprised that Honourable Mention is going to ‘De Una Vez’ from Selena Gomez! Worst of the week…it’s ‘Beat Box’ by Spottemgottem, but it was close to going to ‘Undivided’ by Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard - a passable groove saving an utterly misguided song. Next week… honestly, we’ll probably have even less activity, there hasn’t been much unless BRS Kash somehow gets an album boost, we’ll have to see.