billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 31, 2020

So I have to put things in perspective here - we’re caught between album bombs, and at the very end of the year, a big disruption from Ariana Grande means nothing is guaranteed to scrape by with enough points and steal a year-end list spot. But I am saying that if acts are using ‘between weeks’ as an excuse to dump bad music, I wouldn’t be surprised, because we sure as hell don’t have much in the way of ‘quality’ here!

Well, okay, the top ten is at least stable with some quality here - by some miracle ‘Mood’ by 24kGoldn and iann dior scraped out a second week at #1, which is a still weak hold on the position but shows the power of consistency in all channels, especially radio. Then we have ‘WAP’ by Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion at #2, which actually saw a stabilization on the radio to make up for a rough sales week, given that its streaming is still rock solid, especially on YouTube. Then we had ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ by Drake ft. Lil Durk at #3 - better radio, worse but still solid streaming, absolutely no sales to speak of. Then we have ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd, which has still not been dethroned at the top of radio, but along the way is still holding okay streaming and sales too - when it finally does crash, it’s going to be a slow departure. Then we saw a boost for ‘Savage Love’ by Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo at #5 - outside of a not great sales week, I’d chalk this up to basically being stable in all channels, especially the radio, which is even more the case for ‘I Hope’ by Gabby Barrett and Charlie Puth up to #6 on consistent if slowing traction. But really, it’s more of a factor of ‘Dynamite’ by BTS falling back to #7 - what did I tell you, as the sales margin drops back and the radio and streaming hasn’t done enough to compensate, it’ll stall out. Still kept it above ‘ROCKSTAR’ by DaBaby ft. Roddy Ricch at #8, but again, that’s on its way out slowly in all categories, this is no surprise. Then we have a re-entry into the top ten - ‘Holy’ by Justin Bieber ft. Chance The Rapper - and we can’t chalk all of this up to synergy with his new single this week, I predicted this was going to be back because it has consistent strength across the board - even if it sucks, it’s going to get higher and the most we can hope for is that it gets caught between years, that’s all I’m saying. And rounding out our top ten we have ‘Lemonade’ by Internet Money, Gunna, Don Toliver and NAV, which is an on-demand streaming monster that has no sales and is only now making a slight run on the radio - songs that are solely streaming are vulnerable to album bombs, so we’ll have to see how this’ll go in the next few weeks…

On that note, losers and dropouts - and at least in the latter category, we got wins with both ‘If The World Was Ending’ by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels finally leaving along with ‘Cool Again’ by Kane Brown - both songs were pretty bad, I’m fine to see them go. Unfortunately our losers are a bit more of a mixed bag, most predictably on their way out naturally: from 21 Savage and Metro Boomin we saw ‘Mr. Right Now’ with Drake at 42, ‘Runnin’ at 50, and ‘Glock In My Lap’ at 82, from Travis Scott we saw ‘Franchise’ with Young Thug and M.I.A. lose more traction at 39, we saw the continued downward slide of ‘Don’t Stop’ by Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug to 43 and ‘I Called Mama’ by Tim McGraw to 91 - just getting rotated out naturally, that last one. And the rest… well, ‘Ice Cream’ by BLACKPINK and Selena Gomez is still tanking at 84, but the last two are gains cut short: ‘Un Dia’ by J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and Tainy down to 83, and ‘OK Not To Be OK’ by Marshmello and Demi Lovato losing all of its recovery from last week to 80 - neither surprise me that much.

Now following on from last week, our returns and gains seem to be a continued reset towards some kind of equilibrium or continuing traction, with the exception of the one big comeback from ‘Whole Lotta Choppas’ by Sada Baby to 35, courtesy of a big name remix with Nicki Minaj. But the rest are either continuing from a return or just working off gains from last week - shame the latter category is ‘Said Sum’ by Moneybagg Yo to 23 and ‘Love You Like I Used to’ by Russell Dickerson at 41, though. And our returning gains don’t look good either: ‘Put Your Records On’ by Ritt Momney at 79, ‘Good Time’ by Niko Moon at 74, ‘Big Big Plans’ by Chris Lane at 68… okay, that’s just forgettable, and I’d probably throw ‘U 2 Luv’ by Ne-Yo and Jeremih in there, but still. The one promising gain I can note is ‘Better Together’ by Luke Combs up big to 57 - it’s got real traction and some well-timed seasonality, so I can see this being a decent hit, especially if the radio carries it into the winter slowdown well, we’ll have to see.

But that takes us to our new arrivals - thankfully less chaotic here than the last few weeks, even if we have more new songs and most of them aren’t good, starting with…

100. ‘Champagne Night’ by Lady A - wait a minute, this isn’t a new a song by the blues/soul singer Anita White who performed under this name for decades… see what I did there? Yeah, like with The Chicks I had no issue with the act formerly known as Lady Antebellum changing their name, but it got sleazy in a hurry when they picked a name from a known Black performer and then tried to sue her for copyright over it - way to make yourselves look so much worse! And that’s before you get this song, which is the definition of a tired and not good retread for this trio - maybe it’s not fair to compare everything they’ve ever done to ‘Need You Now’, but when you’re a group that’s built a reputation that’s closer to adult alternative and playing for a classier crowd, why are you now going for ‘outback country drinking beer on a champagne night’? It’s not a look any of them can sell, especially with how much once again Charles Kelley’s voice is pushed back in the mix, and when you pair it with an increasingly leaden groove and twangy tone, how does this even square with their previous party records that at least implied more sophistication? So no, this is the definition of a non-starter single and one that reflects a trio perilously low on ideas - not a good sign.

97. ‘Pardon’ by T.I. ft. Lil Baby - this is going to sound bad, but I’m surprised that a new T.I. song charted off that new album - even with a Lil Baby feature! Nothing against T.I., but it’s been a while since he’s been a hitmaker on the Hot 100, and thus I was curious where he’d be going with this… and it turns out we’re up for another retread, because T.I. is now nakedly sampling himself with a hook that has a cadence that’s way closer to his guest star than the tones he used to use, especially against the blocky bass and shuffling percussion skitter. Now by the time we get to the verses, T.I.’s unique southern swagger slides back to the forefront, his flow gets more relaxed, and it serves as him driving a hard reintroduction for everyone who doesn’t remember everything he did - which given the way he’s been talking recently is more than you’d expect. But as someone who knows T.I. and his discography, this feels like it’s a reminder for a different audience that’s not me, with the Lil Baby feature to guarantee attention, and thus it doesn’t hit as strongly as my favourites from him. Not a bad song by any means - in fact I’d argue it’s pretty decent - but it’s hard not to hear trend-chasing when T.I. used to set the lane, just saying.

93. ‘Throat Baby (Go Baby)’ by BRS Kash - it seems like it’s been a while since we’ve had the generic trap single debuting every other week, but this feels very much like a return to that approach across the board, just with the reference points updated. From Rod Wave we get the piano backdrop and vocal melodies and highly questionable mixing - this time of the percussion that just dominates the mix - and then our MC who wants to showcase his rampant horniness by talking about the girls who give him head in explicit detail. I brought this up before, how too many guys would take the wrong lesson from ‘WAP’ and think it’s an excuse for them to get horny as hell in songs, but the lessons they aren’t learning is creativity and delivery, which is why BRS Kash defaults to ending his second verse moaning and it’s nowhere near as compelling or funny. I’ll admit this guy doesn’t sound like as much of a dick - he actually sounds like he likes the women blowing him - but otherwise… eh, there’s not enough here that impresses me; let’s go elsewhere.

85. ‘Happy Does’ by Kenny Chesney - I’m actually quite surprised it took this long for a new Kenny Chesney song to chart, especially when it comes to relaxing beach country that’s an obvious fit for the summer… so why it only hits the Hot 100 in late October kind of boggles my mind. Anyway, this is very much a Kenny Chesney song in 2020 for better or worse - the percussion feels a bit heavy and overstated, especially on the hook, and I’m not wild about all the vocal mixing, but for making pretty lightweight cuts about just being happy in a moment despite everything going wrong around you with more unique detail than the average Nashville guy, it’s fine enough. Ends a bit abruptly and it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, and I’m still not sure I’ve forgiven him for never pushing a single from Songs For The Saints, which was his 2018 album that was way better than it had any right to be, but this is inoffensive and fine - he’s done worse, I’m not going to complain, especially compared to…

81. ‘Canceled’ by Larray - …okay, let me make this abundantly clear: I’ve said before that social media drama rarely ever sounds good set to music - mostly because it’s often small-minded pettiness or demands a level of nuance most set to talk about it won’t bring - so by extension the messy and complicated issue of ‘canceling’ anyone probably translates even worse, and that’s before I tell you that this song is from a TikTok star from the goddamn Hype House. And it gets worse from there: the song is basically an extended riff on major YouTube drama from the past year or so with the mugging jackass delivery of someone who’s likely a half step from winding up in shit himself before asserting his own vague pretensions towards success after he flips the beat into Tay-K’s ‘The Race’; somehow he got Internet Money to produce this, and the beat still sounds cheap and clunky. So while it’s entirely embarrassing that I recognized way too much of this stale drama, I have to wonder what this adds beyond reheating bad tea with no unique details or jokes, too much gloating, and burning a bunch of bridges with rapping that is frankly amateurish as hell. I called this fuckboi rap years ago, and while that label didn’t catch on, when it comes to this junk, it probably should. But while we’re on that topic…

71. ‘Hate The Way’ by G-Eazy ft. blackbear - okay, help me out: why is G-Eazy still a thing? I want to say that MGK of all people finished off his career, but there was a steep dropoff between real hits off The Beautiful & Damned - and ‘No Limit’ was at least good - and how badly his album tanked in June of this year. Anyway, this pairs him up with blackbear because if you want to make fuckboi rap why not go to the source, and congrats, if you wanted a bitter song airing lingering feelings between Halsey and G-Eazy, this is it. I do find it amusing that both sides have accused the other of cocaine abuse where it probably was just the both of them all the time, but even though Halsey made a worse song on ‘Without Me’, the existence of this slog gives her more credence… to the point where I’m actually on her side here. Let’s not mince words, this song would not have charted without blackbear’s hook and the washed out dreary guitars behidn the trap skitter, because G-Eazy’s consistent problems are back at the forefront: he’s miserable and brooding but completely boring about it. You referenced Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain in some of the clunkiest phrasing possible on the first verse, and you can’t sell any similar drama beyond moaning about how she’s clearly eclipsed you in every way - hell, outside of scattered moments I don’t even think Halsey had that good of a year, and she blows G-Eazy out of the water, especially as blackbear remains a non-presence on the hook. I guess the best thing I can say about this is that it’s more utterly tedious than ‘in your face’ bad, but if this the comeback G-Eazy has planned, it’s a failure to launch - next!

52. ‘You’re Mines Still’ by Yung Bleu ft. Drake - okay, can we sample a different Sting song besides ‘Shape Of My Heart’, especially when the last major sample of it in ‘Lucid Dreams’ is still charting globally? Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Drake is teaming up with Yung Bleu, an Alabama trap crooner that I previously did not recognize but has built a pretty impressive following outside of chart success, with this being the breakthrough. Now the interesting thing is that Drake actually sings his verse and again, I don’t think he sounds out of place here, and even if I think the hi-hat rhythm in the percussion doesn’t really compliment the groove, I actually really like Yung Bleu’s delivery as a little more soulful even within the autotune. Shame the content of this is more concern trolling, where even though this girl has moved on with a new guy, they’re so thoroughly self-assured they can with this girl back over, and it just feels incredibly manipulative, especially in Drake trying to recontextualize a hug that this girl gave him. And there’s so real self-awareness either that this is skeevy, which just sucks away any promise. The one thing I’ll give this is that Yung Bleu seems promising going forward and the Drake cosign does work… but man, this should be better.

14. ‘Lonely’ by Justin Bieber ft. benny blanco - I would really love to know why people are still infatuated with the non-presence that is Justin Bieber, so much so that after his last album was a boring slog, we’re getting more singles as he tries to push another one, this time with benny blanco and the more notable name behind the scenes being Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother and a producer who could probably make Bieber sound at least tolerable. And for the most part, he does an okay job for a pretty minimalist song - very spare keyboard melody, it’s clearly designed to place Bieber’s angst at the center as he muses on being famous and loved by everyone, but also having been hated by everyone as just a kid, for all of his missteps and bad decisions. And I’ll give him this: being a child star is rough on anyone, especially in teen pop in an exploitative industry, I do have some sympathy for Bieber here… but not much, and I have two big reasons why. The first is that the loneliness Bieber is trying to emphasize doesn’t feel accurate to reality - he had mentor figures and his family around him, and a famous girlfriend in Selena Gomez for years that he treated badly, and I’m not so quick to exonerate him for all the crap he’s pulled especially when by the end, he came out ‘on top’, and relatively unapologetic too - this isn’t ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ or ‘Everytime’, Bieber, even when you’re lonely you have big name collaborators working with and around you. And the other factor is that… well, he hasn’t grown or changed much, and while his vocals are produced better here, they still reflect the same vacant lack of personality that’s been the issue for a decade now. So yeah, it might work on the fans, but some of us know better.

And man, this week sucked. Best… honestly, it’s a tossup between Kenny Chesney and T.I., and while they’re both recycling, I think I like the hook and groove of ‘Happy Does’ a bit more overall, so he’ll get the best with Honourable Mention to ‘Pardon’ with Lil Baby. Worst of the Week is easy: ‘Cancelled’ by Larray for being pretty damn unlistenable, with Dishonourable Mention to ‘Hate The Way’ from G-Eazy and blackbear - impressive to be that boringly unlikable, have to say. Anyway, next week… we still have a bit before Ariana Grande completely takes over, but ‘Positions’ will probably break through in a huge way, so stay tuned for that…