billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 26, 2021

…I guess I should be thankful for small blessings? The better album got the bomb, and that would mean that the charts are a little more manageable this week, right? Wrong, because apparently everyone decided to use this past week as a release window and while that managed to stifle a lot of chart movement between album bombs, it does make for one of those cases where there’s no clear answer surrounding what will actually have traction or what is just capitalizing on space - and considering there’s not much that’s truly great here, it winds up considerably more tedious than it should.

And look no further than our top ten, where ‘Butter’ by BTS is somehow stable at #1. Well, ‘somehow’ is the wrong word, it’s because the diehard fanbase is buying every remix copy the band shovels out to prop up the sales numbers, because it sure as hell doesn’t have the streaming or airplay to go further; again, I’m not against the tactics, but you could choose a better song to do it rather than a sloppily balanced and sanitized Bruno Mars riff. At least ‘good 4 u’ by Olivia Rodrigo is holding up at #2 - even if it can’t narrow that sales margin, the streaming is still ridiculous and the radio surge is impressive, the second BTS wavers this will take its spot. And then holding up shockingly well we have ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa and DaBaby at #3, which somehow hasn’t faded on the radio just yet and actually picked up some streaming this week - I have to admit, this has lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Then, finally making a move we have ‘Kiss Me More’ by Doja Cat ft. SZA at #4 - I will say if the gains are well-timed this could make a run for the top given Doja Cat is likely to see some charting success for her album coming up, especially as the radio run is now in full-swing and streaming is actually up. And that finally pushes them over ‘Peaches’ by Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar and Giveon at #5 - which may have happened anyway, it’s down across the board - ‘Leave The Door Open’ by Silk Sonic at #6 - all it really has is radio where it has clearly peaked - and ‘Save Your Tears’ by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande at #7, which may have recovered some flagging streaming but is losing everywhere else. Then holding steady we have ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ by Masked Wolf at #8 - somehow people are still buying it even as the radio is skidding - and then reentering the top ten is ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ by Lil Nas X at #9, which again, has a radio run but it might be too little, too late to get much higher. And that just pushed back ‘deja vu’ by Olivia Rodrigo to #10, which still has a lot of streaming and is on a radio run, but with the label throwing more support behind ‘good 4 u’, this is just riding on momentum and that won’t take it much higher.

And while we’re in this territory, losers and dropouts, with a decent few in the latter category, with ‘Back In Blood’ by Pooh Shiesty clinching its year-end spot, ‘We’re Good’ by Dua Lipa and ‘What’s Next’ by Drake right on the borderline, and ‘Tombstone’ by Rod Wave and ‘Your Power’ by Billie Eilish falling considerably shorter. But our losers are more of just album bombs losing momentum naturally. From Olivia Rodrigo we have ‘happier’ at 40, ‘favorite crime’ at 43, ‘brutal’ at 52, ‘jealousy, jealousy’ at 69, ‘enough for you’ at 73, and ‘1 step forward, 3 steps back’ at 95, from Lil Baby and Lil Durk we saw ‘Hats Off’ with Travis Scott at 49, ‘How It Feels’ at 80, ‘Voice Of The Heroes’ at 82, ‘2040’ at 94 and ‘Still Runnin’ with Meek Mill at 99, and from J. Cole we have ‘pride.is.the.devil’ with Lil Baby at 84. The rest of our losers are either new arrivals - ‘Late At Night’ by Roddy Ricch at 35 and ‘Lost Cause’ by Billie Eilish down hard to 77 - continued dropoffs like ‘Miss The Rage’ by Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti at 98, or ‘Up’ by Cardi B, which comfortably has clinched its year-end list spot and while there’s a part of me that’s still convinced it underperformed, it looks to be heading out gracefully at 42.

But then we go to our gains… and here’s the thing, I don’t know how much I can value any of these, especially as the majority of them are Nashville country songs leaping up to fill in gaps from the last album bombs debuting higher: ‘Famous Friends’ by Chris Young and Kane Brown at 28, ‘Lil Bit’ by Nelly and Florida Georgia Line at 37, ‘Single Saturday Night’ by Cole Swindell at 60, ‘Drinkin’ Beer, Talkin God Amen’ by Chase Rice and Florida Georgia Line at 78, and ‘Things A Man Oughta Know’ by Lainey Wilson thankfully adding some quality at 81. But outside of the expected boosts to ‘Straightenin’ by Migos at 23 and the predicted rebound for ‘Gang Gang’ by Polo G and Lil Wayne at 48, am I expected to be happy that ‘Arcade’ by Duncan Laurence got a boost to 74, or that ‘Way Less Sad’ by AJR is up to 68 - I warned y’all this could become a hit, especially with radio slipping in behind it. The one bit of solace I’ve got is ‘Leave Before You Love Me’ by Marshmello and the Jonas Brothers rising a bit to 58 - it also has radio and some momentum, I guess there’s some upside here? In any case, the larger story is that of our two album bombs, Polo G delivered convincingly, not just with ‘Epidemic’ being the only return at 88, but also in going to our lengthy list of new arrivals, for the songs that did not make the top 40 and are neither the best nor worst, ‘Bloody Canvas’ at 97, ‘Boom’ at 89, ‘Go Part 1’ with G Herbo at 86, ‘Heart of a Giant’ with Rod Wave at 83 - man, this should be better - ‘Clueless’ with Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign at 79, ‘Toxic’ at 63, ‘Painting Pictures’ at 59, and ‘Black Hearted’ at 53.

And yet we still have a sizable list of new arrivals, starting with…

100. ‘You’ by Regard, Troye Sivan & Tate McRae - I feel bad for Troye Sivan - I’ve never thought he was a great pop presence but he’s had better grooves than most and I would honest prefer to see more of his solo material get traction than a cut with a house DJ rapidly eclipsed by everyone doing his sound better and one of the more anonymous Billie Eilish copycats I’ve heard in recent memory. But this was a song that’s had some international presence for a while so I knew it was only a matter of time before it crossed over, and… I’m not exactly wowed. Part of my issue with Regard is that for this brand of house you’d want a slightly quicker tempo for that pulsating groove, and his bleeping drop is not impressive, but what might be more egregious are all the watery layers drizzled over Tate McRae’s voice that make her sound more like Bebe Rexha and that’s not a compliment. And it’s not like she has much chemistry with Troye Sivan, who outside of being gay and not a fit opposite her, he just has a better command of this sort of atmosphere than she does… at least until the bridge where Sivan is drowned in his own blend of warping effects. Honestly it feels like the sort of fusion that a label thought was a good idea rather than one that flatters their individual strengths - just more forgettable than bad.

93. ‘Fiel’ by Los Legendarios, Wisin & Jhay Cortez - and speaking of jamming three acts regardless of chemistry onto a track that’s gotten some international traction, here’s the reggaeton production duo Los Legendarious teaming up with Wisn and Jhay Cortez to maybe ride some residual popularity from ‘Dakiti’… and wow, this is not impressing me. Partially because Los Legendarios give them production with faded gurgling textures and a padded kick that has no punch, but also because our collaborators have shockingly little interplay or chemistry as well, with both having their own squawking verses that don’t exactly compliment each other. But that’s the weird thing: the song is all about trying to woo some girl who isn’t with either of them, and it’s not really fun or smooth enough to like either of them, the atmosphere and brand name references just don’t give us enough. But in reality, I’ve heard so much bargain barrel reggaeton the past several years, this’ll wind up forgotten in record time.

87. ‘transparentsoul’ by Willow ft. Travis Barker - okay, seriously, while there’s a part of me that can respect the hustle of Travis Barker trying to get with all the kids to help usher in the next wave of pop punk, his style is starting to wear pretty thin and you just know it’s with his name - and the fact that this is Willow Smith - that this is charting at all. Now thankfully he’s not producing this song, so the bass is actually audible and provides some groove to this slice of pop punk… shame the guitar lead doesn’t get much spark or that the drums rise above everything else in the mix by the hook, although for a song that’s clearly trying to be more downbeat I guess that makes sense? But it’s not a song that feels raw or truly cutting, partially because dropping the rougher layers around Willow’s voice don’t disguise how her delivery doesn’t have much bite - she’s a more refined singer and I’m not sure that works to her benefit here - but the content is also all about confronting fake people and while I won’t deny she’s probably had to deal with her fair share of it being a child of the Smiths, I’ve never been fond of call-out songs in this lane, really in any genre. Some of that has to do with being songs about industry bullshit, which can get very tired very fast, but Willow Smith saying she can see right through these people’s souls is a level of poetic license that her genre and delivery just can’t back up. I dunno, this is one of those songs that should hit harder than the nascent pettiness that runs through it, and when it’s not particularly tuneful or fun… yeah, not really a fan.

85. ‘Party Lyfe’ by Polo G ft. DaBaby - outside of ‘RAPSTAR’, this might be the best song on Hall Of Fame, and I’ll admit I was surprised to discover that! The guitar lick balances against the trap groove pretty effectively, and I kind of dig how it feels like a palpable struggle for Polo G to sell the party vibe, where he’s almost trying to convince himself that he’s enjoying it, especially as midway through the first verse he can’t help but place himself back on the streets. But where Polo G is listless or borderline regretful, DaBaby is just outright aggressive, where not only is his faster flow sharp as hell, he seems very willing to fight for his right to party - and honestly, on handling that balance of intensity, that grabs me a lot. Overall, it’s short but brutally effective, and a definite favourite - check it out!

71. ‘Type Shit’ by Migos & Cardi B - so Migos actually didn’t get enough songs for a proper album bomb this week, and that means I’m covering all of them - most of the ones that charted had features, and with Cardi B I did have some expectations, even if Tay Keith gave them an impressively bog standard beat with your standard bassy trap percussion and warbling keyboard. And when the content is a balance between shooting people and brand names, I’m stuck going to the performance and any decent lines and… well, Takeoff is trying to ramp up the intensity and Offset’s flow is pretty quick on the closing verse, but Cardi B is the clear attraction… where she has the line, ‘my accountant think I’m gay, all I do is buy shit’. Sadly it might be the most memorable line on the song, but her verse is more flexing on her haters and when there’s nothing else that gives this much colour, I feel like I’ve been down this road many times before. It’s not bad, per se… but it sure as hell isn’t memorable.

65. ‘Malibu’ by Migos ft. Polo G - …wow, this isn’t good at all - and to some extent, it should be better. I keep saying that Polo G is a good rapper but the pocket he gets into on this production is slower and clunkier than Migos, so even if he’s trying to be more thoughtful in touching on his gang come-up, he sounds completely out of place! Granted, the watery percussion behind the cheap-sound trap knock and those really ugly horns don’t flatter anything, but it’s not like the Migos brought their best to it either: highlights include Offset saying ‘He stankin’ somebody shitted’ in between his brand name porn and threats, Quavo telling a girl, ‘Suckin’ dick and flying spirit / bitch you need to free yourself’ as if I haven’t forgotten his bullshit with Saweetie and how often guys like him rely on girls flying out, and Takeoff… actually is fine, I’m okay with his verse. It might be the saving grace, because otherwise… yeah, not good.

64. ‘Solar Power’ by Lorde - okay, I was really excited about this one… but I was also cautious. I remember the last time Lorde crashed onto the Hot 100 to start her album cycle in 2017, and I didn’t love ‘Green Light’ right away, so after seeing some rather mixed reviews for this single, I had pretty low expectations, even with Jack Antonoff on production. And… well, I could point out how much there’s an obvious melodic pull from ‘Loaded’ by Primal Scream, but really it’s more drilling into that late 90s breezy summer vibe where there are almost too many parallels to note, starting from the brittle acoustics, the faux-psychedelic warping touches around the mix that build into a blockier groove where of course there are horns on the outro, down to the distinctive backing vocal touches from Clairo and Phoebe Bridgers. Honestly, it’s just uncanny listening to how bright and summery a song like this is coming from Lorde, especially as she’s a singer whose greatest strength comes from her raw intensity. Ergo when she made a beach party song, it’s hard to escape an odd feeling especially with the biblical references and throwing away one’s phone - a few older songwriters I follow pointed out just how quickly sounds like this were commodified or framed as cultish in the years that followed, and I’m not sure the video helps that impression. I dunno, a song this playful and languid is a really awkward fit for Lorde - maybe it’ll wind up growing on me, but as of now… it’s decent, but I don’t quite think it works.

61. ‘Modern Day’ by Migos - …I mean, what is there even to say with this - Murda Beatz gives them a standard watery beat, all of their vocals sound recorded in different studios, Takeoff uncharacteristically sounds tuned out for half of his verse after dropping the line ‘Arabian bitch in the passenger seat / like she got an illegal bomb’, and the sex, guns, and brand name references just wash over me - it’s not like there’s much to add beyond that! Yeah, they’ve got worse songs, but I do agree with Quavo that they’re definitely not The Fugees - for a brief moment, that band actually tried - next!

38. ‘Need to Know’ by Doja Cat - it’s extremely depressing that Dr. Luke’s hands are all over Doja Cat’s career - she’s got a lot of personality that’s grown on me and a fair amount of versatility in the production and sound she wants to approach… just backed by a scumbag who was so bad at running Kemosabe that Sony kicked him out in 2017 and who seems to hop from star to star to sustain relevance. I bring this up because primarily because he is the sole producer for this song and if this is his attempt at cloud rap production with the gauzy textures and shuffling percussion, he can be shoved back into irrelevance any time, because not only does it feel ponderous and overweight in its suffocating bass presence, it does nothing to flatter Doja Cat who is trying to go off with horny triplet flows and she’s just got so little to work with! Honestly, she’s more interesting in this style than any of the Migos songs I’m covering this week, in changing up her flow and down to the Pokemon reference on the second verse, and I just wish the atmosphere didn’t feel so goddamn clunky! In other words… yeah, Doja Cat is fine here - wish the rest of the song was good.

27. ‘Avalanche’ by Migos - so the first song from Culture III features a pretty expensive sample from the Temptations with lots of horns and a light funk rollick where it’d be nice if the bass beat actually had any momentum, but to the credit of Migos, this is probably the best they sound in terms of varying their flows, even if there’s no interplay between them and no real hook on the song either! And that’s baffling - you sample ‘Papa Is a Rolling Stone’ and you can’t make more out of this beyond three extended verses where the brand names, sex references, and guns feel as basic as ever? Again, probably the best of what I’ve heard thus far from them, but mostly on production - if that.

26. ‘No Return’ by Polo G ft. Kid LAROI & Lil Durk - alright, credit where it’s due: this might be one of the better hooks I’ve heard from Kid LAROI, possibly ever, especially opposite the mournful violins and trap groove that can feel mostly effective in its haunted bleakness. I think a part of it is that Kid LAROI isn’t trying to sound like Juice WRLD when he’s singing, but I also think a larger part of it is just how Polo G and Lil Durk set the gangland scenes that they tried to leave behind, but still cast long shadows over their lives today, especially as Durk references the death of King Von to killers who don’t understand the violent ethics of the streets. Now it’s not unfamiliar territory for either of our rappers here and I do think a bit more distinctive detail would help this stick out more, but beyond that… yeah, this is good, no issues.

16. ‘Thot Shit’ by Megan Thee Stallion - so before Megan Thee Stallion really caught fire on the charts, she had an era/alternate ego called Tina Snow, which was the title of her 2018 EP that eventually led to ‘Big Ole Freak’ charting on the Hot 100. It was also an era where her lyrical dexterity got more praise, and thus if this is the lead-off single to Tina Snow II, we could have a lot of fun with this, because this song is pretty damn great! For one, this might be Megan’s sharpest set of flows and punchlines to date, especially on her third verse - still around the topic of her being hot as hell and working her way through guys, but you can tell she’s more in line to give the middle finger to the conservative audience that lost their shit about ‘WAP’, especially as she’s now got the accolades and industry support to back her up. And when you pair it with those haunted vocal fragments off the jagged synth, sharper skitters, and bounce scratches, she can hit the balance between making an enticing strip club anthem and legit intimidating really effectively - again, it has me wondering if and when she might hop on production from clipping, that’d be cool as hell! But in the meantime, this absolutely slaps, and more impressively it reflects Megan showing the refinement of which I knew she was capable - great song, I’d really like to see this become a hit, if only because it pisses off all the right people.

15. ‘Having Our Way’ by Migos ft. Drake - …I mean, it’s not as clunky as ‘Walk Em Talk Up’, but is that a benefit when we still wind up with the same desaturated melody - this time with a chipmunked cackle as punctuation - lurking behind an undercooked trap progression that has no real punch? And I include the content in that - for a hook that’s all about loading guns, there’s very little in the way of menace or punch when the Migos ramble through their flexes and brand names with the same stale triplet flows and leave Drake to take the lead on the song… where he sounds perpetually disinterested as he lets bars hang without good punchlines where it almost sounds like an obligation to churn through the verse. Yeah, some of the pool references were really well-connected, but when the verse basically feels unfinished, you can’t really appreciate good construction! As such… yeah, you can say it’s standard Migos, but Drake hopping on triplet flows is not enough of a novelty to make this good.

And thus for our week, it should be no surprise that Migos are getting both of the worst, with ‘Malibu’ with Polo G as the worst and I think ‘Modern Day’ as the Dishonourable Mention - at least that set of pool ball punchlines from Drake was somewhat clever. Now Best of the week… Honourable Mention to ‘Party Lyfe’ from Polo G, but I’m giving best of the week to Megan Thee Stallion with ‘Thot Shit’ - it goes harder than everything else here in production and content, it’s really not much of a contest! Next week, from what I can tell we’re going to catch a breather until the next wave of projects at the end of June, so stay tuned!