billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 16, 2022

The frustrating thing with a week like this is, technically, it’s not quite reached a place of normalcy for the charts. Granted, in a year full of album bombs you have to wonder what normal even is, but given how long some of them have lasted, the slow fade combined with the complete lack of staying power from Chris Brown means we’ve got a busier week than you might expect, at least in terms of new arrivals.

This does not reflect much on our top 10, however, given that ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles is still perched at #1 by continuing to win that margins game, slowly tapering off on the radio but having just enough of an edge on sales and streaming. But that margin is more compromised than ever, as ‘About Damn Time’ by Lizzo is now up to #2, where she has the edge on sales and the radio, and just needs to pick up a few more spots on streaming to get to the very top… and hell, she can probably do it. This leaves ‘First Class’ by Jack Harlow stranded at #3 - unseated from the top spot on radio, it’s now very much in decline and could fall off pretty quickly… and that opens the door to ‘Running Up That Hill’ by Kate Bush back up to #4, where she dominates sales and streaming and with a legit radio run, it could be in the mix for something more here! This elbows back ‘Wait For U’ by Future, Tems and Drake to #5 - not especially surprising, it took a hit on streaming and its radio traction seems about spent, but it did hold over ‘Jimmy Cooks’ by Drake ft. 21 Savage at #6, where despite strong streaming it has little else. Then we have ‘Me Porto Bonito’ by Bad Bunny and Chencho Corleone at #7 - chalk it up to streaming and little else - and then a pickup for ‘Heat Waves’ by Glass Animals to #8, mostly because streaming and the radio are only slowly declining! Compare this to ‘Break My Soul’ by Beyonce - the radio has now thrown its full weight behind the song, but streaming and sales are dropping off, and it leaves me wondering how much momentum this could really pick up. Finally rejoining the Hot 100 we have ‘Big Energy’ by Latto, Mariah Carey and DJ Khaled at #10 - it’s here because the radio still hasn’t given up on it and the sales are better than you might think, joy.

In that spirit, let’s get to our losers and dropouts, where alongside the majority of new arrivals from last week we also saw ‘Music For A Sushi Restaurant’ by Harry Styles get pushed out, along with ‘MAMIII’ by Becky G and Karol G clinching its year end list spot. And from there… not much in the way of losers. Off the debut ‘Left And Right’ by Charlie Puth and Jungkook fell sharply to 47, and in continued losers ‘Massive’ by Drake hit 56, ‘Bam Bam’ by Camila Cabello and Ed Sheeran hit 63, and ‘U-Digg’ by Lil Baby, 42 Dugg and Veeze hit 97. The rest… well, ‘Te Felicito’ by Shakira and Rauw Alejandro isn’t getting much stateside at 89, ‘Ghost Story’ by Carrie Underwood fell to 86 despite kind of having some radio presence, and ‘Hold My Hand’ by Lady Gaga fell to 65 because the whole Top Gun phenomenon seems to fading away a bit.

Now for returns and gains… look, if the best of the former is ‘Until I Found You’ by Stephen Sanchez at 95, that’s not really a good sign alongside ‘Whiskey On You’ by Nate Smith at 77, ‘La Corriente’ by Bad Bunny and Tony Dize at 93, and ‘Bones’ by Imagine Dragons at 94. But that’s the thing, we don’t have much in the way of gains either, especially with the biggest one being ‘I Ain’t Worried’ by OneRepublic at 44! Outside of that… ‘Last Night Lonely’ by Jon Pardi rose to 62, ‘So Good’ by Halsey got a nice boost to 69, and ‘F.N.F. (Let’s Go)’ by Glorilla and Hitkidd is somehow still around and rising to 75… definitely did not see that one coming!

So okay, let’s get to a stacked list of new arrivals, starting with…

100. ‘Bad Habit’ by Steve Lacy - I had a friend describe Steve Lacy as starting to get the industry push and career that was originally intended for Dominic Fike, but let’s be real, between Steve Lacy’s work with The Internet or just his run of production credits and guitar features, I think he blows Fike’s godawful music and presence in Euphoria right out of the water. Anyway, this is the second single from his upcoming album… and I kind of wish I liked it a little more than I do? Don’t get me wrong, it’s got some sinuous groove and the sharper guitarline compliments the exasperation of the song, where he wishes he could have made a relationship happen if he had known this girl had wanted him, and that shuffling buzzed out drop after the bridge is certainly interesting. But I think there’s three things that don’t quite work here, the first being the blaring, 80s-inflected synths that just feel a little too loud, especially when the production feels overblown and compressed, with the mix constantly getting clipped around the edges. But the biggest issue might be Lacy himself - I’m not going to call him a bad singer and he certainly has the attitude to carry this song, but he’s flat more than he should be, his falsetto is weak, and I wish there was a bit more technical refinement here. With the rough edges, I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets some TikTok traction, and I don’t think it’s bad - Steve Lacy on the charts is positive - but I’m not quite won over, at least with this.

99. ‘Rich Minion’ by Yeat - look, I’m going to say it now: I don’t get the Minions thing. I think some of it is generational - I’ve never really engaged with the franchise, the memes aren’t funny to me, and overall it just comes across as really basic. Which makes this feel even more bizarre than that stacked Minions soundtrack loaded with indie artists and curated by Jack Antonoff - a one-off tribute to the movie by Yeat which is apparently tied to a trailer video that Cole Bennett made for it. And on some level, you have to rip away the shield of irony and recognize that that this is mediocre at best - the bells and weedy synth leaves these grainy highs at the top of the mix off the trap skitter with no significant low-end, and how Yeat still sounds like a very poor man’s Travis Scott and Future wannabe where the flexing is just slapdash, half tied to the movie and half with flexing that seems marketed to kids but also still stuck in conventional trap. At this point the meme is quite literally a commercial, and considering I’ve never found this funny at any point… yeah, I have no use for this.

98. ‘Unstoppable’ by Sia - so as some of you might know, just over a year ago I made a public commitment in the wake of Sia’s film Music and its woefully underinformed at best portrayal of someone on the autism spectrum that I would no longer cover anything she put out; there are a few lines you do not cross with me, and given how the whole situation fell out, I have not simply ‘moved past this’, especially not in favour for a six year old deep cut from a mediocre album given a viral boost by her label and Tiktok, because there are so many creators on that site well-informed and equipped to speak on mental health. Thankfully, I’ve already said my piece on this one.

96. ‘Best Thing Since Backroads’ by Jake Owen - you know, it’s the middle of the summer, I’m not going to say no to a Jake Owen song, even if he’s got his formula and has been coasting on raw charisma a little longer than he probably should. And unfortunately that’s kind of what this is too - another checklist-driven love song about all the backroads things this girl is better than, with a bright groove from Joey Moi that compresses the guitars into twangy slurry where some of the snares cut through at a really flat unappealing tone. It feels like a throwaway from Jake Owen and nothing that suggests much in the way of ideas for that next album, where even his trademark charisma doesn’t give me much here. It’s not altogether bad, but man it’s forgettable, and that’s not a good sign.

83. ‘Numb’ by Marshmello & Khalid - maybe it’s just me, but it feels like Khalid has just vanished from conversation in R&B the past little while. Maybe he was taking time away after two shocking huge releases - he did have that mixtape last December that didn’t really do much - but apparently this collaboration isn’t even a new single from his third album, it’s a one-off with Marshmello, another artist whose grasp on fame seems a little tenuous these days. And… I’m a bit torn on this one, because with the whistle, sandy percussion, and light guitars it feels like something that would have dropped back in 2016 in the wave of tropical house, especially with Khalid’s dazed, lightly party-ish lyrics. Hell, considering how painfully weak any actual drop is, I’m stuck wondering what the hell Marshmello is even adding here beyond compression that makes the entire mix have an immediacy that doesn’t match Khalid’s delivery at all. But I also can’t deny that this hook is actually pretty good - it’s almost obnoxiously catchy, and I know if Kygo made this song I’d probably wind up enjoying it. So… it’s going to be ubiquitous at festivals and probably become a modest hit, but I’m stuck feeling this should be better than it is.

82. ‘More’ by j-hope - …I didn’t remember talking about j-hope before, but it turns out this BTS member had a song with Becky G called ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ back in 2019 and it was terrible, so I had no expectations for any solo outing here. But even then, this kind of threw me off-guard: a clanking rap rock song that sounds imported from the mid-90s with its scratching and more old-school percussion and swaggering braggadociousness which has more groove than you’d expect, and that’s before all the vocals are blown out for a noisy guitar to smother the hook that unfortunately doesn’t nearly have the muscle it should. The funny thing is that I have a friend who actually made a nu-metal remix of this song and it’s surprisingly credible, but what leaves me irked is that this should hit harder. Maybe it’s because of the BTS connection that this couldn’t be as heavy as folks wanted - the lyrics certainly don’t have much of an edge once translated in their hustle - but there’s a seed of this that I actually like a decent bit, with meatier production this could have kicked ass. As it is… yeah, good song, I like the throwback style, wouldn’t mind hearing more of this.

76. ‘Country On’ by Luke Bryan - you know, given how a decent number of country acts Luke Bryan’s age have gone on to make more interesting passion projects the past few years, I’m a bit surprised Bryan hasn’t tried that yet - yeah, he’s always been the company man and consummate showman and he’s not always the biggest writing presence on his projects, but eventually there’s got to be a bit more to a guy in his mid-40s! Sadly this isn’t anything close to that - another checklist of vaguely country and patriotic things for people do alongside gauzy synths drizzled over a cyclical groove that’s reasonably better mastered than usual and even features a fiddle but otherwise feels kind of stock, an anthem in search of stronger sentiments. And yeah, Bryan is still a good singer, but this just feels empty to me - not much of a song here that really works for me.

71. ‘Wishful Drinking’ by Ingrid Andress & Sam Hunt - songs like this frustrate me, half because Ingrid Andress is a pretty decent pop country artist and Lady Like was a good album that kind of got lost in 2020, and I want her to succeed… but they had to pull the title from an Alan Jackson song from just last year, and Sam Hunt is here to get that traction on Nashville radio, along with JP Saxe and Lucky Daye as cowriters, which is just bizarre! And the song…. well, putting aside how synthetic the vocal layering is all over this song - it sounds worse with Sam Hunt who sounds checked out until the final hook, but those overdubs from Andress are pretty rough - and how they really don’t have any chemistry, but the entire song is kind of clunky, with fragmented twang and piano alongside the snap beat and it all feeling a bit more plastic than it should. Kind of shame because the sentiment of the song is pretty good: both of them have realized whatever flame they may have had to sustain things is probably not worth it, a slow burn for which they’ve got serious doubts… but hey, if they’re drunk enough, it could be okay, right? I kind of wish the song had leaned into the spare melancholic sentiments or made better use of the writing, but Ingrid Andress has production credits so this is what she wanted to do with it… I dunno, I’m inclined to be generous here, but I can’t shake the feeling this doesn’t quite work.

70. ‘Good Love’ by City Girls & Usher - have to admit, I’ve been distinctly pleased in the aftermath of Usher appearing on Tiny Desk that he has reasserted his presence in R&B; I’ve always liked Usher, he’s an insanely good performer, and if this along with City Girls is a giant counterpoint to Chris Brown, I’m very much in that corner, the song just has to be good. And… well, let’s be real, Usher’s hook is pretty much the reason to listen to this song beyond the flimsy synths, sharper skittering percussion, and City Girls not being all that interesting rappers. Yes, JT has more flair and a tighter flow than Yung Miami, but you’ve heard this dance jam content out of them, and even when Usher has made slightly sleazier R&B, he’s carried himself with more presence than he’s really afforded here. Now he’s still good enough to elevate this into quality on its own… but he’s certainly done better, and if this is the best thing they had to push in the wake of Tiny Desk… yeah, I was expecting more.

67. ‘Son Of A Sinner’ by Jelly Roll - well, this was a name I never expected to cover here… alright context, Jelly Roll was a rapper who’s been active since about 2011, putting out a frankly distressing number of albums including a bunch with Struggle Jennings, the step-grandson of Waylon Jennings. Most of these have gone nowhere - he actually does have an audience but a few collabs I think he’d prefer to forget - but in recent years he’s rebranded more towards country and rock and got picked up by Jason Aldean’s label BBR. This is a single from his album from last year, cowritten with ERNEST, and…. honestly, I think is pretty decent, leaning more country rock with no rapping but Jelly Roll is an okay singer with a husky tone that’s actually pretty endearing, especially alongside pretty organic production with softer live percussion and guitars with a bit more smolder. And I like the content, with Jelly Roll confronting his demons of alcohol and pill abuse and how he’s always stumbling back to them alongside the righteous path he wants. I dunno, maybe it’s just feeling more organic and a little rougher around the edges, but this feels sincere and actually kind of sticks for me; I didn’t expect to like this, but I think I do. It’s worth a proper shot.

40. ‘Master Of Puppets’ by Metallica - …yeah, there are times when it’s not even fair, and this is one of them. Thank Stranger Things for getting this to catapult onto the charts for the first time - fun fact, until ‘One’ in 1989 Metallica did not cross over onto the Hot 100 properly, after which they’d have an impressive run throughout the 90s - but this is the era of vintage thrash Metallica that I actually like, with this being the title track of their second best album (it’s not beating Ride The Lightning, suck it up). And as such, the lean pulsating grooves, raw howls and chugging riffs from James Hetfield, and Kirk Hammett dropping solos, one slower and prettier, one more raw and nasty, more than enough folks are comfortable calling this one of Metallica’s best ever songs and a classic. For me… well, the lyrics have always felt a bit hamfisted, writing from the perspective of drugs and the addiction controlling someone’s life, which is a very 80s perspective to take on a cut like this, and speaking of the 80s, the remaster I’ve got can’t quite escape how some of the mixing and reverb choices feel very much of their time. Granted, the production would get far worse on their very next album, so I guess I have to appreciate it here… and look, the song is still pretty great, even if thrash is not my favourite genre of metal and I don’t worship this song or album like a lot of other metalheads. But hey, it deserves a lot of acclaim, and if it gets more kids into metal, that’s a win.

13. ‘Hot Shit’ by Cardi B, Kanye West & Lil Durk - okay, everyone in charge of this mysterious rollout plan for Cardi B’s sophomore album should be fired, because for as many singles as she’s released and have been successful the past few years, the fact we’re now getting old records getting dropped is a sign something isn’t working here. And yes, this is an old record - the 2021 references on Durk’s verse including the King Von reference, a bassy trap sound from Tay Keith that might be solid even with its weedy excuse for melody and whirring effects stolen from Drake’s ‘Nonstop’, or the fact that Cardi was teasing this as far back as last August! And yeah, Cardi’s verse is good - the flexing isn’t as quotable as she normally is but she rides this beat well and I think I might like her more on this production than ‘Up’, but Durk’s verse isn’t interesting and Kanye’s verse is just bad; he sounds sloppy on this production, barely able to stay on beat, his flexing is not impressive nor believable, and he ends his verse with a poop joke… okay, that I believe. The problem is not that this is bad - Cardi is good enough to save this - but it’s also an album cut from a project where we have no idea where and when it’s coming; a song like this doesn’t help manage expectations after Invasion of Privacy so much as give me the impression that Atlantic is terrified that they don’t have anything close to match it… or if they did, they already blew their load with ‘WAP’ in 2020. Either way, I don’t see this becoming a smash.

And that leaves our week… and it’s kind of all over the place. Worst of the week is ‘Unstoppable’ by Sia - I didn’t like the song six years ago and I like it considerably less now - with Dishonourable Mention going to ‘Rich Minion’ by Yeat mostly because the production stinks and the meme is stupid. Best of the week… come on, it’s ‘Master of Puppets’ by Metallica, but I’m going for a tie with Honourable Mention: ‘More’ by j-hope, and ‘Son of a Sinner’ by Jelly Roll; believe me, I’m as surprised as anyone it’s those two! Next week we might finally get things cooling off for a bit… although I’ve been saying that all the time these days and it never seems to stick.