album reviews: 'sweetener' by ariana grande / 'lost & found' by jorja smith / 'mimi' by bad rabbits (VACATION)

Hmm, this is probably one of the better vacation reviews - definitely check it out!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 1, 2018 (VIDEO)

Man, this was a pain in the ass to get online, but I think it turned out alright in the end - enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 28, 2018 (VIDEO)

So bit of an overstuffed week, but it happens - I'm frankly amazed I just managed to get it out on time.

But next up... again, as I said, underground. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 28, 2018

And here I was thinking this week was going to be easy. Well, okay, all of that has to be put in perspective - we were going to see the continued fallout of Drake songs, but what threw me a bit was how neither Future or Meek Mill could sustain much coming out of last week, which led to a healthy crop of new arrivals that probably makes this chart as interesting as it's been in some time... for better or worse.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 7, 2018 (VIDEO)

And that's the first here - overall a pretty messy week but there was some quality...

But now onto something a lot better...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 7, 2018

Not gonna lie, I needed an easy cooldown week. There's a couple big releases on the docket that I'm working towards and I'm coming up on my fifth anniversary on YouTube so there are other things I'd rather focus on, so just a moment to catch my breath before the avalanche of Drake... yeah, that's very welcome.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 30, 2018 (VIDEO)

So I don't think people were expecting how harsh I was in this video.

Oh well, I'm not going to mince words, and I've already made my lengthy pieces surrounding XXXTENTACION. It's your choice to not reckon with the consequences of your listening choices, not mine.

Anyway, might as well talk Death Grips next, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 30, 2018

...you know, it's funny, people were reaching out to me for my reaction when XXXTENTACION posthumously went to #1 this week and all I tweeted was '...'. That was it, and people assumed or projected so many emotions upon that tweet... when reality I just did not care. And I still don't - I've said my piece on XXXTENTACION a number of times, my review of ? was over fifteen minutes long, and to see this response... well, it's very telling to say the least, that in the dumpster fire of the Hot 100 in 2018, instead of any of his other songs American audiences chose to send the one where he's guilt-tripping a significant other by threatening suicide to the #1. 

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 5, 2018 (VIDEO)

Man, this week was rough, and from the looks of things is going to get even worse next week.

But on that topic...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 5, 2018

I'm going to pose a question that's been on my mind ever since we started getting stream-trolling album bombs on the Hot 100 and one that became glaring with KOD by J. Cole: is anybody thinking about the long-term impacts of any of this? Sure, it's an indictment on streaming platforms who take label payola to dump entire records on their playlists, and an even more scathing indictment on the public who won't bother to build their own damn playlist or find new things, but really, who does this benefit long-term? Do you even remember anything from Logic's middling album bomb a few months back, or do you remember a single that's been properly promoted and managed, where precision growth can lead to even greater success. We'll get to more of this in our top ten, but if you want the most prescient example of how the album bomb might hurt an album's public lifespan long-term, look at Drake and More Life last year, and compare it to his current singles rollout in 2018.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 4, 2017 (VIDEO)

Well, this week was all over the place - and seemingly like every meme-associated review I do will probably wind up with a ton of hits, go figure.

Next up, though... actually, I have no idea how many hits this next review will accrue, we'll see. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 4, 2017

Okay, so as you can all probably see, this episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN is a day late. This is because of President's Day in the United States, another holiday that extends the chart week... and considering the Grammys happened, it also seems to have the peculiar impact of blunting their overall impact on the Hot 100, at least in the way I expected. Now that didn't mean it didn't cascade through - we'll get to that - but it also meant that we got another overloaded week full of changes...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 25, 2017 (VIDEO)

This was certainly a less excruciating week than last time - more diversity here, for one - and I'm fascinated to see how the Grammys impact things going forward. Until then, back to my schedule and... hmm, P.O.S.. Well, this could be fun, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 25, 2017

So folks, did you have enough of me talking about Big Sean when the review dropped last night? Well, it's not over - because to replace Migos and as a lead-in to the expected chaos that'll come with the Grammys, Big Sean brought in six new songs to the Hot 100 to an already busy week. Yeah, believe it or not, I'm not sure he's the biggest story here, from some major shifts in our top ten to a swathe of new arrivals peppering the rest of the Hot 100.

the top ten best hit songs of 2016 (VIDEO)

Well, this was certainly fun to make - genuinely curious if it ends up blowing up as much as it did last year, given how wonky this year was, so we'll see!

Next up, working on that big top 50 list, so stay tuned!

the top ten best hit songs of 2016

So for those of you who saw my last list, you might have caught my general assertion that 2016 was not good for the Hot 100. And here's the deeper truth: the bad songs, while there were more of them, they weren't the sort of atrocious that keeps you up at night, at least not as a whole. Despite how angry I got, I can think back to a few other years that had far more contemptible songs that would inspire a lot more rage - I think society as a whole has pretty much forgotten that in 2013 Rick Ross teamed up with Rocko and Future to release a song with a verse endorsing date rape - yeah, that was a thing.

No, the bigger problem with the year-end Hot 100 in 2016 is that there was a lot less good songs - we always get a lot of mediocrity but this was a year where the pickings were very slim. On the one hand, it makes this list pretty easy - very little to cut - but at the same time in stronger years, like 2012 or even 2015, I'm not sure how much of this list would have measured up. Many people made that same observation back in 2014 - I didn't, mostly because I genuinely found a lot to like about my list that year - but I'm not denying it for 2016, especially because the majority of songs that will make this list were originally released in 2015 and only became hits this year. If that's not the most glaring indictment on pop in 2016, I don't know what is, and what gets all the more infuriating is that the mediocrity clogging the arteries of this year kept otherwise great songs from catching on, especially in country music which despite big improvements even on the Hot 100 practically disappeared for the year end. 

But again, it had to land on that list, and it's a thin list indeed... but still, it wouldn't have made this list if I couldn't defend it being here, so let's start with our Honourable Mentions!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 17, 2016 (VIDEO)

Man, computer problems couldn't have come at a worse time... goddamn, this has been tough to get out, especially considering I flubbed part of the audio editing the first time round.

But whatever, next up... well, you all asked for it, let's talk about Carly Rae Jepsen. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 17, 2016

So let me give you all a quick recap of my past few days. I get home from vacation, put up my big recap video, get ready to set up the Travis Scott review and then Billboard BREAKDOWN today... and then my editing computer loses multiple cores and experiences systemic hard drive failure. Now I've been having computer troubles for the past few weeks so I knew this was coming - hell, I've got a new machine in transit right now - but given the insane album release schedule of the next few weeks, I was hoping to save the transition for a slower period and not have to work with a machine that's on its last legs. No such luck - hell, I'm just thankful Billboard BREAKDOWN seems a little slower this week, giving me a little more time to prepare for the shift.

video review: 'dangerous woman' by ariana grande

Ah, glad to get this out of the way. Took me way too long to deconstruct it, but still worth it.

Next up, White Lung, ANOHNI, and hopefully Vektor - stay tuned!

album review: 'dangerous woman' by ariana grande

It has been fascinating watching the evolution of Ariana Grande - and given that I've already covered two of her albums, I've had a front row seat to all of it.

Granted, evolution might not be the correct word for the carefully considered marketing and micromanagement of Ariana Grande's musical career, but there has been a progression, and I'm a little on the fence of how well it has worked. On the one hand, the instrumentation and production moving from Yours Truly to My Everything has only been a net positive, giving her breathy, soaring vocals the room they desperately need. And while the songwriting has been micromanaged, there have been real moments of maturity that have started to come through in her writing that has led to strong tracks, including the fantastic 'Love Me Harder' with The Weeknd.

But throughout the lead-up to her newest album Dangerous Woman, that progression has seemed shakier than ever. You can tell that her producers and handlers are pushing for a more explicitly sexy image and 'sound', and it's an open question whether or not Ariana or her writing team can pull it off. Part of this is her voice - when she sticks to more sultry, low-key R&B cooing it's believable, but she doesn't have that element of rawness in her delivery yet to believably pull off pop diva powerhouse, and her occasional sloppy enunciation doesn't help. But more than that, being 'sexy' is music is incredibly difficult to pull off well - sensual a little easier because you can modulate your range, but sexy requires a type of intimacy and poise that Ariana can't always pull off, which can make certain songs come across as hard to believe. And while this was an issue on My Everything, it looked to be a much bigger issue here, especially opposite artists like Lil Wayne and Future, who play in a very different type of sexuality than Ariana. That said, Dangerous Woman looked to have promise if only because Ariana had taken a much firmer hand in the writing process, with nearly double the credits from her last album, and with a smaller writing staff I had the hopes that this might actually work - so does she pull it off?