billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 28, 2022

We’ve had four weeks straight of album bombs - I feel like that’s necessary to state in context before I go further because when I add that I already reviewed Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers at length for about forty minutes, I hope you’ll be understanding as to why I might not feel the need to go in with as much depth on the entire album that charted this week, alongside a few other songs because we can never get off easy here. If you want to see the review - which I recommend, I poured a lot into it - please go check it out - but it does mean the new album bomb rules are in effect from last week, please go check out that video if you want additional context.

Now to the top ten, where we actually got a hint of stability thanks to ‘First Class’ by Jack Harlow holding onto the #1. And you have radio to really thank for this - ‘First Class’ has surged while holding up enough streaming traction and a sales lead over ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles at #2, which might rule radio but lags elsewhere; keep in mind as soon as Harry Styles gets his own album traction by next week, this’ll likely shift. Now this takes us to the first song from Kendrick Lamar, of which there are four in the top ten all for streaming reasons: ‘N95’ at #3. Again, we’ll talk more about the song later on, but that streaming edge easily overpowered ‘Wait For U’ by Future ft. Drake and Tems at #4, which is going on a radio run but might be a bit too slow to sustain its traction there. But then we have another song from Kendrick with ‘Die Hard’ featuring Blxst and Amanda Reifer at #5… and before we get to the rest of Kendrick, we got a debut that I did not expect this high: ‘You Proof’ by Morgan Wallen at #6. Keep in mind the radio is not behind this, the sales and relatively good streaming are strong enough to push it this high, over the next two songs from Kendrick, ‘Silent Hill’ with Kodak Black at #7 and ‘United In Grief’ at #8. The last two tracks are top 10 holdovers, although I expect ‘About Damn Time’ by Lizzo to pick up considerably as the album bomb above her fades thanks to a radio surge and really good sales, and then there’s ‘Big Energy’ by Latto ft. Mariah Carey and DJ Khaled clinging to #10, mostly because its radio is starting to look very unstable at the moment.

Now this takes us to our losers and dropouts, where I’d argue the latter category is a lot more interesting because this many album bombs in rapid succession - a cluster bomb, I’ll call it - has basically wiped away months of chart hits to be replaced by… well, whatever’s coming. But that means we’ve got our songs that have locked a year-end list spot - ‘abcdefu’ by GAYLE, ‘INDUSTRY BABY’ by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow, ‘Easy On Me’ by Adele, ‘Need To Know’ by Doja Cat, ‘Hrs And Hrs’ by Muni Long, ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ by the Encanto Cast, and ‘Fingers Crossed’ by Lauren Spencer-Smith - and then the rest that might come close. I wouldn’t put money on ‘Nail Tech’ by Jack Harlow, ‘Peru’ by Ed Sheeran and Fireboy DML, or ‘23’ by Sam Hunt clinching anything, but ‘Beers On Me’ by Dierks Bentley, Breland, and HARDY might be borderline here. But now onto the losers, and before I humiliate myself with my awful Spanish again, let’s go through all the non-Bad Bunny songs: ‘Hold My Hand’ by Lady Gaga fell off the debut to 98, ‘If I Was A Cowboy’ by Miranda Lambert fell back to 86, ‘The Heart Part 5’ by Kendrick Lamar slid back as expected to 77, from Jack Harlow we had ‘Churchill Downs’ with Drake at 78 and ‘Dua Lipa’ at 63, ‘Thought You Should Know’ by Morgan Wallen at 50, and from Future, ‘712PM’ at 93, ‘I’m On One’ with Drake at 80, ‘Love You Better’ at 79, and ‘Puffin On Zootiez’ at 31. Now for all the Bad Bunny, a lot of which stuck around more than you’d expect, and apologies in advance for this: ‘Ensename A Bailar’ at 99, ‘Me Ful de Vacaciones’ at 97, ‘El Apagon’ at 89, ‘Un Coco’ at 88, ‘Otro Atardecer’ with The Marias at 87, ‘Aguacero’ at 85, ‘Dos Mil 16’ at 83, and ‘Andrea’ with Buscabulla at 81. Then there’s La Corriente’ with Tony Dize at 72, ‘Neverita’ at 69, ‘Efecto’ at 65, ‘Yo No Soy Celoso’ at 61, and ‘Un Ratito’ at 53. Finally, we have ‘Tarot’ with Jhay Cortez at 52, ‘Ojitos Lindos’ with Bomba Estereo at 49, ‘Party’ with Rauw Alejandro at 27, ‘Despues de la Playa’ at 26, ‘Titi Me Pregunto’ at 18, and ‘Moscow Mule’ at 15.

Now to our gains and returns, and we actually got a little of both. In the latter category, ‘Fall In Love’ by Bailey Zimmerman recovered to 92 and ‘No Love’ by Summer Walker, SZA and Cardi B hit 95 - though that one is likely out soon given the number of weeks it’s had on the charts - and for our gains… yes, ‘Take My Name’ by Parmalee is somehow sticking around at 56, but ‘Get Into It (Yuh)’ by Doja Cat is finally rising to 67 on a legit radio run, awesome! But now onto our album bomb from Kendrick, and given we got eighteen songs from him, well over twelve which is the new boundary, we’re going to be tackling either the best or worst and the songs that land in the top 20. So outside of that… ‘Mother I Sober’ at 59 - this one was really damn close to making it, just a powerful heartbreaker - ‘Mirror’ at 55, ‘Savior (Interlude)’ at 51, which is really just Baby Keem uncredited, ‘Auntie Diaries’ at 47, ‘Crown’ at 41, ‘Mr. Morale’ at 40, ‘Rich (Interlude’ at 33, which is basically just Kodak Black uncredited, ‘Savior’ with Baby Keem and Sam Dew at 23, and ‘Purple Hearts’ with Summer Walker and Ghostface Killah at 22 - this one was really damn closer to being covered on Ghostface’s verse alone, swap out Summer Walker for Jhene Aiko or SZA and it had the potential to be one of the album’s best.

And that still gives us a solid nine songs from Kendrick Lamar in the top 20, not counting the other new arrivals, so let’s get started with…

29. ‘Cooped Up’ by Post Malone ft. Roddy Ricch - anyone else get the impression that Post Malone might be in trouble with this album rollout? Now according to some back channel information, he’s apparently driving a hard bargain with Republic to get a better contract and more money, and the label is playing hardball by basically telling him to sink-or-swim on the singles he’s released… which in comparison with the chart topping hits of the past two albums has been shaky, especially as he never had a formula built for sustained success. But now with this… man, I dunno here. Not only does the percussion feel very leaden and clunky off the spare piano and the reverb Louis Bell swallowed this in, but the lead vocal melody feels very unsupported by any melody; it relies on Post Malone to carry it, and when you realize this is in full-on swaggering flex mode after being cooped up inside, with brand name porn where he winds up throwing up in a girl’s purse, it’s not all that fun. And if there was commentary on it, that could be something, but then we get Roddy Ricch in the exact same flexing mold, where the tempo is not fast enough for him to bounce it in an interesting way, and the song just feels turgid. Coupled with some iffy bass mixing… yeah, not much to say about this one, not especially good.

20. ‘Count Me Out’ by Kendrick Lamar - alright, there’s about nine songs from Kendrick to get through, so let’s try to keep it brief… and thankfully this is one where that’s pretty easy, a decent song but not exceptional. The lead-off to the second disc where Kendrick is forcing himself to get more vulnerable, realizing that he’s in his head too much, that too many are caught up in the gloss of fame that’s never satisfied him, and for as much as he loves when folks count him out, he’s caustically aware that they only reaffirm his own pessimism. I think where this song doesn’t work for me comes more in production: the guitar sizzle pre-chorus seems to imply a greater drop than we get, and as much as I like the vocal samples around him, the percussion feels drippy and frail, not as potent as it could be, especially with Kendrick sounding so lethargic. Not bad by any means, but not one I’d revisit much.

19. ‘Worldwide Steppers’ by Kendrick Lamar - whereas I was entirely onboard for the production on this one: the muted oscillation that bounces off Kendrick’s offbeat flows and darker piano embellishments, it has this simmering menace that really sets a potent vibe… and then there’s a click and we get a more soulful sample for something of a beat switch, and while it’s well-executed, I’m not sure it’s the best way to pay off this tension. Now the content is more charged, as he references his writer’s block and focusing on his family, trying to find his center amidst lingering discomfort, specifically surrounding how and why he slept with white women in the past, which is a charged moment. And then he lashes out, some of the points drawing some blood with targeting the lack of ethics working under capitalism and the levels of those exploiting the system, especially as when Kendrick did a food drive in Compton he wasn’t providing healthy food there… before we get lines complaining how everyone is too sensitive and has killed the creators. Yes, hypocrisy is part off the point, but I feel like that third verse doesn’t build off the earlier sentiments effectively - so not a bad track, but it could have worked more. But speaking of hypocrisy…

16. ‘We Cry Together’ by Kendrick Lamar ft. Taylour Paige - I’ve gone back and forth on this one, and I think it’s the best song on the album. Opening with a gorgeous Florence + The Machine sample, the production from Alchemist gets grimy and nasty as Kendrick and Taylour Paige play a couple going at each other with uncomfortable viciousness. Now I’ve drawn a lot of comparisons to this song with cuts like ‘Both Sides Of A Smile’ by Dave, which I think is more apt than Eminem’s ‘Kim’ because despite the venom in the argument, there’s a theatricality that builds in some distance for the audience. Not just in the tap dancing at the end of the song where you can tell that they aren’t getting to the real conversation, but where you realize these characters are more archetypes than factual, both immensely flawed as they gaslight each other in sequence, call the other out for losing control of their emotions, pretty flagrant cheating, and then the societal factors in play, where the ex-POS-in-chief, Harvey Weinstein, and R. Kelly are all mentioned and hypocrisy is exposed in every corner. It’s the sort of song where many call the argument uncomfortable because it goes past good taste and nobody is explicitly right… but that’s why it feels real and lived in, where by the end they’re having sex and sticking together to untangle their own issues, which might be the most real part of it all. Couple that with fantastic performances and rhyming structures all the way through, and it’s my favourite cut on the project, followed by…

13. ‘Rich Spirit’ by Kendrick Lamar - I was a little surprised how much this one has stuck with me, given how I don’t think the hooks are very strong as a whole across the album, but this low-key song got in and it’s really stuck. The eerie melody off the bass, echoing ad-libs, chimes and brittle percussion, it’s so West Coast in its groove that it almost feels like something Vince Staples could ride. And while Kendrick’s flow is very reserved, he gets in the pocket perfectly as he explores vanity and ego, where for as much as his celebrity has brought him success, it’s not integrity, where moving quietly offline and keeping to a more ascetic lifestyle serves him better. And while he might be riding in the streets and have to compromise some of that spirit to stay alive - and a song like this necessary rides on ego - Kendrick just prays that those who showcase so much actually do put the words behind their actions. Great groove, probably my favourite hook here, terrific song.

11. ‘Father Time’ by Kendrick Lamar ft. Sampha - …I mean, it’s fantastic to see Sampha here as the strings crumble into tapdancing and inverted samples supporting some wicked boom bap crunch, but how is it that we don’t have another Sampha album since 2017 - I wasn’t even the biggest fan of that project but I’m still curious to hear where the hell he went! But anyway, this is Kendrick drilling into daddy issues - nice to call back to a sound that many Black fathers would find familiar - where he tries to be stoic and suppress emotions, clamp down on humanity to survive, where Kendrick smartly doesn’t say toxic masculinity even as everything here untangles those roots. And yet while I love the second verse where it highlights how he shunned his own relief, or how when his grandmother died his father went back to work in service of capitalism rather than actually grieving, I do think the line about Kanye and Drake making up to be a misstep; it assumes good faith on behalf of both of these men when that’s a charitable interpretation of their backstabbing going back over a decade, and it kind of undercuts the more personal focus of the song. Still great… not quite my favourite, though.

8. ‘United In Grief’ by Kendrick Lamar - I feel like this is an opener I should like more than I do - it introduces a lot of the instrumental motifs with the pianos, strings, offkilter percussion that feels ever so slightly blown out, warping effects and song structure breakdowns, and Kendrick rants about how unsatisfying pursuit of wealth and material power has been for him, especially with his unfulfilling sex addiction on the second verse and in contrast with the loss of life around him. I don’t care for the hook that he ‘grieves different’, even if by the final outro you can tell he’s taking the piss out of it, but it sets up a lot of the messy contradictions that fill up the album, for better and worse. So while Kendrick raps his ass off across the track, I’m not exactly wowed by it. Good, not great.

7. ‘Silent Hill’ by Kendrick Lamar ft. Kodak Black - I could say that titling a song this sets up expectations that it would be creepier or darker than it is, but if only that was the main problem here. I said this in the review that Kodak’s presence on the album is a bigger frustration, but in isolation his verse even where on two passing lines he’s trying to emphasize his struggle to be a better father, it’s still bracketed by a lot of the interchangeable flexing and violence that makes Kodak’s verses so tedious. What’s more annoying is that Kendrick basically phones in the rest - his one verse and hook are all about pushing away toxic people and flexing that show Baby Keem’s influence all over his inflections, and while it might be somewhat catchy on the hook, it doesn’t excuse the leaden and poorly blended beat, the cheap-sounding trap percussion, and the fluttery fragment of melody that barely supports any of it. Worst song on the album, and while it’d be passable in any other context, it’s still not especially good.

6. ‘You Proof’ by Morgan Wallen - This would have been in the top five if it wasn’t for Kendrick Lamar - process that for a second, folks, even if you don’t want Morgan Wallen back, his fans sure as hell do. And thus they propelled this dated trap-country clunker here where the drum machines sound cheap and clumsily mixed against Wallen’s braying presence as the pedal steel tries to add some atmosphere off the chopped-up guitar passages. Hell, on production alone I wouldn’t care for this, especially given how melodically it’s otherwise trying to be weirdly jovial, the sort of barroom commiseration that relies on you wanting to be sympathetic to Morgan Wallen’s plight… and I have to be honest, in this form I sure as hell am not there yet. Not remotely good, let’s hope this falls off fast.

5. ‘Die Hard’ by Kendrick Lamar ft. Blxst & Amanda Reifer - this is the obvious pop crossover song all the way down, and while it’s generally, it’s hard for me to get that invested in it. The production feels weirdly tinny in its upper range off the spare bell and bass - hell, the entire mix feels weirdly overexposed - Blxst’s hook could really deserve more melody to support him, and while Amanda Reifer’s singing is nice on the post-chorus, for me it only seems to highlight how much Kendrick sounds like he’s going through the motions on this song. The crooning on the first verse, the staccato flow on the second verse, the lack of lyrical flair as he describes loving and losing hard, all the while showing that despite aspirational goals he continues to fail and undercut himself, it’s the sort of song that fits on this album in context but doesn’t add or expand on anything - it feels like it’s here to be the pop radio single, and it just feels a little undercooked as a result. Generally fine, and I’m not going to complain if this gets pushed, but I’m not going to seek it out.

3. ‘N95’ by Kendrick Lamar - god, this song was so close to being great it’s exasperating. The synth buildup and piano crescendo, even with the cheaper trap percussion it sounds like Kendrick can ramp up the song effectively as he challenges everyone to take off their masks, be they brand name flexing, the fakery of the music industry, the capitalist aspirational narrative or the fake deep progressivism not backed up by action. It’s a call out to the audience to expose themselves without those layers, find the human, the shades of grey… and it’s ugly and rife with hypocrisy, and Kendrick does not set himself above any of it. It is a song all about targeting the mediocre, the liars, everyone who can’t back up what they say - so naturally this is the song where Kendrick references dismissal of critics and cancel culture, which even if he’s leaning into his heel turn, this feels undercooked. But what killed this song for me was the inflections he was forcing all across the second and third verse - I get that Baby Keem has rubbed off on you, and there’s always been weird voices on Kendrick albums, but even if it’s part of the point in highlighting unconventional ugliness, it feels forced. Probably the closest this album gets to a ‘banger’… I just wish I liked it more.

And that’s our week… and wow, it falls out fast. Worst goes to ‘You Proof’ by Morgan Wallen - this brand of trap country wasn’t good a few years ago and Morgan Wallen isn’t making it better - with Dishonourable Mention… I’m giving it to ‘Cooped Up’ by Post Malone and Roddy Ricch because that song should be a lot bouncier, but ‘Silent Hill’ was right on the edge with this. Best of the week, though, that goes to ‘We Cry Together’ by Kendrick Lamar with Taylour Paige and Honourable Mention to ‘Rich Spirit’ - next week will be the fallout, where I’m a little torn whether Harry Styles will wind up with an album bomb himself, we’ll have to see…