billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 9, 2021

This is one of those weeks that had the potential to be frustrating if I wasn’t going to get creative with things. Because you’d think like the last few years, it absolutely would - all the Christmas music going away, which leads to big spikes and returns, plus the onset of competing mini-album bombs from Lil Durk and Playboi Carti, that’s a lot going on. The latter case… yeah, not much I can really do about that, it’ll make for a long episode anyway, but in the former case I’m going to change things up a bit because I don’t have to defer to Billboard’s woeful inadequacies in handling their recurrent rules, especially when all it serves to do is make my life and editing job more difficult, so stay tuned for how I handle that!

For now, though, our top ten, where to the surprise of nobody ‘Mood’ by 24kGoldn and iann dior has reclaimed the #1 - it still rules the radio, it was the one song that held out against all the holiday music, and thanks to strong sales and streaming still, I’m not hearing the obvious challenger. I mean, ‘positions’ by Ariana Grande vaulted back to #2, but right now she’s lagging in every category to make up ground, and I’m not seeing it happen. What I find funnier is that in one of the biggest returns in chart history, ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd is back on the Hot 100 at #3 - I did predict this would happen, but not to this extent, mostly because I’m not sure I could have predicted the sales and radio revival it got, partially buoyed by year-end countdowns but still! Then we have ‘Holy’ by Justin Bieber ft. Chance The Rapper back at #4, and I will say I was surprised by how much this was forced back around the holidays, but the radio and sales are still good, which is why it’s here. Then we have ‘Dynamite’ by BTS back at #5, and at this point I’m just shocked the stans have enough disposable income to keep giving this more sales boosts to this group’s most anonymous song, and given how much the radio is gone, I don’t hear it lasting. Then we have ‘Go Crazy’ by Chris Brown and Young Thug at #6 - I’ve tried my best to avoid this song, but given how goddamn huge it is on the radio, that’s pretty much the only reason it’s here. Then we have Drake and Lil Durk back with ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ at #7 - I have to think some of this is due to Lil Durk’s traction, as it peaked on the radio this week, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this fall off sharply in the near future, at least until Drake’s album officially drops. Then, bucking against my expectations, we’ve got ‘I Hope’ by Gabby Barrett and Charlie Puth at #8 - it’s here because of the same year-end chart radio surge that’s already gone, I don’t expect much more to come here. But we aren’t done with Christmas music all the way just yet, because ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey is still here at #9 - it probably won’t be next week, but it still has a bit of traction… but the future is right below it at #10, as ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa and DaBaby cracks the top 10. Now this song’s success is not guaranteed - streaming isn’t really there to match great sales and the radio… but as of now I’m happy to see it this high, it’s a really good song even if it’s not ‘Love Again’.

But enough of me complaining, losers and dropouts… and it’s basically just holiday music all the way down. In the dropouts the only one worth mentioning is ‘Gnat’ by Eminem basically being a complete non-starter to the shock of no one, and in the losers… again, all holiday music! ‘Rocking Around The Christmas Tree’ by Brenda Lee at 12, ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ by Bobby Helms at 15, ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ at 17, ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time’ by Andy Williams at 28, ‘Run Rudolph Run’ by Chuck Berry at 29, ‘Feliz Navidad’ by Jose Feliciano at 39, ‘Let It Snow’ by Dean Martin at 41, ‘The Christmas Song’ by Nat King Cole at 44, ‘Underneath The Tree’ by Kelly Clarkson at 50, and ‘Take Me Home For Christmas’ by Dan + Shay at 89 - I’m still a little shocked that last one had enough traction to even stick around this long!

But now we have to go to our gains and returns, and here’s the problem: when so many songs in the top 50 fall away seasonally, the entire chart has to shift to correct. Ergo, there are twenty returning entries… and 48 gains! That’s nearly half the Hot 100 rising and there’s no added context to be provided as to why everything went up, so it would just be a waste of my time to list off all of the gains, especially when outside of the top 10, there are literally only six songs that didn’t really move or aren’t new arrivals… so I’m going to talk about those instead. Once again Jack Harlow seemed to stall out with ‘Tyler Herro’ and ‘Way Out’ with Big Sean stuck at 68 and 98, ‘Without You’ by Kid LAROI held at 65, ‘Throat Baby (Go Baby)’ by BRS Kash looks like it lost momentum at 66, ‘Bichota’ by Karol G couldn’t make up more traction at 85, and ‘Took Her To The O’ by the late King Von is at 94. If you want a list of our gains, I’ve attached a link to a google spreadsheet in the description that has all of them - again, it’s not an adequate use of my time to just list off every shift when we already have an overloaded episode, I’m still in the middle of working on year-end content on the main channel, and Billboard can’t be asked to write coherent recurrent policy surrounding holiday music… especially given I’m still going to mention all the returns, just so I can give you a rough idea of what came back. And sadly, there’s not much of a story here either, mostly just big returns from songs that went recurrent but still had enough weeks to break back high enough. I’ve already mentioned ‘Blinding Lights’, but that’s also the reason ‘ROCKSTAR’ by DaBaby and Roddy Ricch is at 26, or ‘Before You Go’ by Lewis Capaldi is at 30. Same with ‘Savage Love’ by Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo at 31, ‘More Than My Hometown’ by Morgan Wallen at 33, ‘WHATS POPPIN’ by Jack Harlow and crew at 34, ‘I Should Probably Go To Bed’ by Dan + Shay at 37, and ‘Watermelon Sugar’ by Harry Styles at 47. But then things get a bit strange, as country made a big return with ‘Pretty Heart’ by Parker McCollum at 40, ‘Happy Anywhere’ by Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani at 42, ‘Beers And Sunshine’ by Darius Rucker at 76, ‘What’s Your Country Song’ by Thomas Rhett at 80, ‘Ain’t Always The Cowboy’ by Jon Pardi at 83, and ‘Happy Does’ by Kenny Chesney at 87. The rest of returns are scattered, to say the least: ‘B.S.’ by Jhene Aiko and H.E.R. seems committed to some sort of run at 59, ‘Stay Down’ by Lil Durk, 6LACK, and Young Thug is at 73 thanks to the album boost, ‘Midnight Sky’ by Miley Cyrus is trying to hold on at 80, ‘Take You Dancing’ by Jason Derulo is trying to start its US run at 79, and ‘So Done’ by Kid LAROI is at 96 because apparently we can’t have nice things. What interests me is the return of ‘Save Your Tears’ by The Weeknd at 95 - it looks like it’s been a slow burning single for a while now, I don’t know how much traction it’ll have, but it’s interesting to see regardless.

Anyway, we have comfortably over a dozen new songs, so let’s get things started with…

100. ‘The Good Ones’ by Gabby Barrett - …I’m kind of at a loss with how to approach this song, because on the surface it’s a pretty basic, list-driven Nashville country love song, the sort of thing churned out by Music Row all the damn time. But am I the only one kind of skeeved out by the fact Barrett frames this song about her husband that he’s ‘one of the good ones’? Even beyond some of the controversy they’ve had, it’s a phrase that’s always rubbed me the wrong way, and it feels weird in the context of a love song - but really, I don’t even need to go there, because the larger problem is that the production is hideous! Who told anyone that the flat, squonking synth buzz was what this song needed slathered over the mix, along with gutless percussion and male backing vocals that clash with Barrett’s sharper tone? Again, the production is going to ruin her career before any controversy… but even then, this isn’t good.

99. ‘M3tamorphosis’ by Playboi Carti ft. Kid Cudi - alright, I’ll admit it: this is probably my favourite Playboi Carti song to date. And yes, a significant part of it is linked to Kid Cudi being here humming over the gargled synth and overweight bassline, but it provides enough thickened melodic foundation for Carti to spew his squeaky adlibs and underweight bragging. And on some level, it’s a natural compliment for Cudi to ramp up the offkilter atmosphere going into his verse, which is just as empty in its flex - more common than many of his fans will ever admit - but when he half-croons over the final four bars there is some magnetism there. There are still problems - it runs longer than it should, and I’m not sure the atmosphere is quite strong enough to offset the emptiness and questionable lack of tune - but at least for now, this is good, I’ll take it.

97. ‘Just The Way’ by Parmalee & Blanco Brown - and here I was thinking that Chase Rice would be the last of the third-stringers trying to trend hop… but no, turns out in following off a weirdly downbeat EP from Blanco Brown that went nowhere and Parmalee’s utter inability to stick to a consistent sound this entire decade, we’ve got this collaboration that’s charting over a year late since its release… and it sounds like they’re trying to remake One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ or ‘Little Things’ but with a cloying dollop of religion dropped in to emphasize it’s just how God made you girl, and he also made Parmalee and Blanco Brown for loving you. And yet the bizarre thing is that I’m not sure what sound in mainstream country they’re trying to approach - you’d think with the fake handclap and trap beat and Blanco Brown showing up they’d be going for modern boyfriend country, but then the rest of Parmalee comes in for the hook and they’re making the sort of underweight, overprocessed slurry you got from the most disposable bro-country bands in the mid-2010s… you know, just like Parmalee. Yeah, if you’re looking for every reason in the world this took so long to chart, it’s how much of an incoherent mess this winds up - also, him noting the shape of her face when she takes a shot is so utterly bizarre it has to be mentioned… but wow, this is bad!

93. ‘Death Ain’t Easy’ by Lil Durk - okay, there are four Lil Durk songs that broke through this week courtesy of his late December album drop, and I’ll admit I had some expectations - I really wanted to hear that moment where he took the next step and elevated his sound. Unfortunately, I can’t say he did it here: the hook feels weirdly washed out, as much as I like the melody the trap percussion can still feel weirdly cheap, and while for the first half of the verse it paints a harsh picture of Lil Durk trying to cope with his brothers going to jail or dying in the streets - accentuated by the intro from King Von - by the second half it slides into a brag and an complaint where he talks about women trying to steal babies out of his testicles. And then he references an enemy who got shot and suffered some brain damage and Durk refers to him as a vegetable… yeah, congrats dude, you killed a fair amount of my goodwill towards your struggle pretty fast - let’s keep moving.

92. ‘New N3on’ by Playboi Carti - whereas for Playboi Carti I have no expectations, and this is actually a deeper album cut, with some splashy, sparkling synths warping off the stuttering trap beat… and I’ll say this, even if it proves remarkably easy to tune out everything Carti is saying because it’s the same sort of forgettable flexing that you always get from him, I do think the production has promise at least? I’ll also say it’s probably one of Carti’s more conventional songs when it comes to his vocal delivery, so that’s probably why it worked… but otherwise there’s just not enough here that grabs me.

91. ‘Down To One’ by Luke Bryan - so I remember being a little kinder to Luke Bryan’s last album, mostly because it was just kind of forgettable overall and didn’t give me a lot to work with. And this wasn’t one of the songs that really attracted much attention when I reviewed the album, mostly because it’s emblematic of lot of his issues - it’s overproduced with really filmy percussion that for some reason leaves most of the limp groove and guitar tone to simmer in the backdrop, it sounds like something Dierks Bentley would have done in 2016, which highlights exactly how far behind the times Luke Bryan is. And yeah, Luke Bryan might be credible in trying to sell a love song as a good singer, but there’s little intimacy in the arrangement, and that just gets distracting, especially with the lyrics trying to convey that lovestruck finale vibe. In the end… like the album, it’s forgettable.

90. ‘Vamp Anthem’ by Playboi Carti - you know, I’d say this for Playboi Carti, his fans seem devoted enough to go digging for the songs they like, which in contrast to most album bombs are normally just the first tracks on the record… until you realize most of these are just right after ‘Meh’, which most people seemed to miss is not ‘@Meh’. I bring this all up because ‘Vamp Anthem’ is not nearly interesting enough to justify more attention: chopping up the gothic organ line - which is actually a replay of a Bach piece - with the trap groove only dampens any attempt at atmosphere and it feels even more chintzy, and then he calls the opps ‘fairies’ - not the first time Carti’s thrown out the casual homophobia, charming. And when the rest of the content is by-the-numbers flexing, there’s nothing here worth caring about.

88. ‘Monsters’ by All Time Low ft. blackbear & Demi Lovato - alright, time for context - I didn’t mention that All TIme Low collaborated with blackbear when I reviewed their album Wake Up, Sunshine last year… mostly because there were better songs on the album like ‘Melancholy Kaleidoscope’ that deserved way more attention and even despite the blackbear verse, you can tell he was dropped on the song for a cheap crossover on a clunky bad relationship song that’s by the numbers in pop punk. I certainly did not expect for a remix with Demi Lovato - making a welcome and overdue return to pop rock - to drive this to All Time Low’s second charting single in the band’s career! Now I will say that Demi Lovato makes this marginally better - she adds some balance to the toxic relationship, even if her vocals feel weirdly flat and even as she belts over the final hook she’s not recapturing the magic of when she took over ‘Irresistible’ from Fall Out Boy. But I’m not even sure that’s the template - if anything it feels like trying to get what ‘forget me too’ brought to Machine Gun Kelly and Halsey, but with a far weaker groove and less chemistry. So yeah, still not really on board, even if I might want to be.

86. ‘Refugee’ by Lil Durk - okay, not a good impression on the first song, let’s try again… and again, I feel myself struggling to like this more. Yeah, Durk isn’t really staying on topic as he rambles through street life to seeing success to near-constant drug abuse and how he evades consequences, but I do get that’s part of the point on a song with a single verse and no hook. But that highlights the larger issue, in that there’s just very little here - the bassy trap groove doesn’t compliment increasingly filmy synths, and I don’t even think the vocal mixing around Durk’s voice is great, as he sounds even rougher than usual as he strings together bars. If anything, the song feels half-finished and given how early it was placed on the album, that’s not really a good sign?

82. ‘Go2DaMoon’ by Playboi Carti ft. Kanye West - granted, this was also placed second on the album - maybe it was a warning sign that I wasn’t going to like what I heard, because Kanye trying to infuse his flexing with pretensions towards his religion makes my skin crawl. Yes, he sounds a bit more focused against the bassy groove from Wheezy once he actually gets on it and the strings sample slips in behind him, and he’s once again trying to highlight the emptiness of flexing - so is he just on a Playboi Carti album to take the piss - but then again we also have the corniness coming through on the line ‘you always askin’ for Buddha, you’re a Budapest’. And then we get Carti… who once again adds increasingly stale adlibs and nothing else. Moving on.

72. ‘Slay3r’ by Playboi Carti - let me start by saying that if Playboi Carti wanted to reference the thrash metal band Slayer, I’m not against it on principle… but actually do something with it! You can try and appropriate all the menace and over-the-top subject matter of one of the Big Four, but if all you’re going to do is make a few paltry references to a demon car and all sorts of decadent hedonism… well, okay, the latter puts you in the right territory, but this is the definition of someone who wants to appropriate the image of vintage metal without actually committing - I’m normally the last person to call ‘fake metalhead’, but nobody is buying this. I hated it when Post Malone tried it with ‘rockstar’, and Playboi Carti has even less runway, especially for as many times as he tries to say he’s punk or metal or evil, he can’t sell it - the chirpy vocals, the desaturated guitar that’s more in major keys, it doesn’t even feel like it’s trying for any convincing atmosphere! If it’s sincere, it’s incompetent at best, if it’s a pisstake on Slayer - and that’s giving Carti way more credit than he deserves - I’m laughing this out of the room. Otherwise once again it’s not worth caring about.

71. ‘Redman’ by Lil Durk - okay, third time’s the charm here, right? And here’s the thing: it’s barely a minute and a half, and it’s probably the best thing I’ve heard from him yet. The hook is short but effective, the pianos build into the trap/drill percussion effectively to make the groove a bit more unstable, and the short verse lets Lil Durk get straight into his deeply pessimistic view of his life in upcoming years, with too many of his friends in jail or dead and he knows he’s on the exact same path. There’s no time or chance to pull away, it’s just bleak all the way through… and yeah, as such, it works.

53. ‘Still Trappin’ by Lil Durk & King Von - okay, this is another one where I had expectations - Hitmaka on production, the late King Von handling a verse and the hook, this could be pretty killer… and yeah, for the most part it is! The thicker knock of the bass off the trap percussion that’s a nasty groove, the minimalist piano, the production might be some of the most ominous Lil Durk has had in a while, and King Von proves just how much promise was lost with his sneering and imposing delivery - yeah, a lot of the song is gang posturing, but there’s real contrast between King Von who was still in the trenches versus Lil Durk who was on his way out but still could see how many ways he’d get pulled back. I do think the flows can feel slapdash as a whole, but a song like this is all about mood and intimidation… and it nails both. Really damn solid.

38. ‘Good Days’ by SZA - I don’t know what’s going on for the album rollout for SZA - this is her next single, apparently cowritten by Jacob Collier which is a name I did not expect to show up alongside hers, and it was first teased back in mid-2020 to be released on Christmas this year… and yet to my pleasant surprise, Collier’s presence is more felt in the more complex acoustic arrangement and crooning synthetic backing vocals than production, which remains as thick and organic as ever. Now that does make the contrast with the synths a little jarring - it’s not as clean of a blend as you’d hope - but that might actually work pretty effectively with how well SZA handles a slightly faster cadence with optimism towards days ahead. What I find interesting is that for as much as SZA wants to be on her ‘empty mind shit’, implying a more meditative vibe, this song is more jittery and anxious, more conscious of what needs to be done to settle old grievances, leave matters of the past behind, and cherish moments of youth that can slip away so fast. As of now, I do like this a decent bit, but I’m not sure it’s grabbed me immediately - this is the definition of R&B that needs a little time to sit and grow with me, but I’d argue this is better than ‘Hit Different’ and helps me feel excited for that next SZA album… whenever it’s going to happen.

And that’s our week… and I don’t know how to feel about it. Yes, it ran long, but there are interesting notes of promise for 2021 that are encouraging, which is why while I’m giving the best of the week to Lil Durk’s ‘Redman’, I actually have a tie for Honourable Mention with ‘Good Days’ by SZA and ‘Still Trappin’ by Lil Durk and the late King Von. Worst of the week… I’m tempted to give at least one slot to Playboi Carti, but the worst of Whole Lotta Red didn’t chart, and ergo the worst of the week is going to ‘Just The Way’ by Parmalee and Blanco Brown, with a tie for Dishonourable Mention as well with ‘The Good Ones’ by Gabby Barrett alongside ‘Vamp Anthem’ from Playboi Carti because casual homophobia with such a failure in atmosphere doesn’t get a pass. Next week… see, I have no idea, with the exodus of Christmas songs and no huge new entries this could go anywhere, stay tuned…