And here we are... messy and mostly not good week, but it'll be entertaining at least? Ehh, I have no idea these days... Anyway, next up is ScHoolboy Q, and then I want to get this episode of Resonators done... oh wait, what's that? You want an AJR review? Well, that will be done when it's done, so stay tuned!
So this week was... weird. I had the suspicion it'd be more transitional because the big album drop that made my life a lot more hectic occurred last Friday - seriously, eight albums that I'd otherwise want to cover, a situation not helped by me getting sick and what's depressing is that most of them aren't close to good - and for the most part, it is. But I get the impression this is a week that buries its biggest lead, and the sharper changes will take effect next week based off of what happens here.
Okay, so this was... actually pretty all over the place, but I'm happy I got the episode up regardless, it was a tough weekend to recover from. Next up... well, it's coming fast, stay tuned!
So I've often said that the most interesting weeks on Billboard BREAKDOWN aren't the album bombs themselves, but the weeks right after them, where you see what survives, what continues on the downwards spiral, and what rushes in to fill the gaps when so much falls away. Now up until a few weeks ago I was certain that Justin Timberlake would be the one to fill much of what Migos spewed in with Culture II, but with an underwhelming Super Bowl performance and Man Of The Woods being panned as hard as it has been, that didn't really happen. As such, we're stuck with a pretty wild assortment... at least until the Black Panther soundtrack has a mini album bomb of its own in a week or two. But hey, if that means a mildly short week for me on the Hot 100, considering how much catchup I have to do after being laid up with food poisoning, I'll take what I can get!
Look, I don't need to say anything with this one beyond HOLY SHIT FALSE ALARM IS AWESOME and you all need to be listening it - okay, I'll stop. On a different note, we've got Epica, Opeth, OneRepublic, and Daya on the way, so stay tuned!
So here's the other thing about the last weeks of a Billboard year - more than ever, it becomes a game of timing if you're looking to land a song on the year end list. Release the song early enough and it's no issue, but unless you've got a guaranteed smash hit heading for an inevitable #1, it might actually serve you better to release your songs a little later - keep in mind that most tracks will only ever stick around for twenty weeks on the charts, and the last thing you want is to release a track where midway through its lifespan the year shifts and you're only left with a portion of that time to rack up the accumulated sales, streaming, and airplay to get on the next year's list.
Well, this was a fun week. Always nice to find a world hit I like, too, I've been struggling for that the past while. In any case, hope to have that Randy Rogers Band video up some time later today, and then Brothers Osborne, Savages, and Ty Segall - stay tuned!
So yeah, Billboard BREAKDOWN is late again, and while it might have been late regardless thanks to a blown lightbulb that I couldn't replace last night at the right wattage and luminescence, in this case the charts were delayed because of Martin Luther King Day, which is a holiday in the United States. And that's fine, the holiday is very relevant, but the fact that this happened and will continue to happen throughout the upcoming months - the delays of charts because Billboard shifted their timelines last year - is just another example of how Billboard doesn't think before they make changes. Remember when they added YouTube streams in the middle of the Harlem Shake, or the absolute disaster that were the charts in the late 90s? In comparison with that this is a minor inconvenience, mostly for folks like myself, but it's still exasperating.
Yeah, I wish I could have gotten out more albums today too, but I'm exhausted right now, that Ought review is on its way. But first, Billboard BREAKDOWN! Stay tuned!
So one of the trends I probably haven't given the same time of day to in mainstream country is the slow trickling in of more R&B influences. It's not all that surprising, given the huge growth of R&B on pop radio, and as soon as Jason Aldean's 'Burn It Down' was a huge hit, it didn't surprise me others would gun for a similar sound. And like with bro-country, I'm more conflicted than outright negative towards this slicker, more metropolitan brand of country music. On the one hand, the increased usage of drum machines tends to irk me because it can lead to choppy, groove-lacking records like Sam Hunt's Montevallo or Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights, and given the modern association with hip-hop I can see why country fans might recoil from R&B, but on the other hand if handled well that spacier sound can lead to solidly melodic, more groove-driven albums. I may not have loved Billy Currington's last album Summer Forever or Dustin Lynch's Where It's At, but aside from being one of the few people who remembered those records exist I also remember there being cuts I liked. Hell, even though the Zac Brown Band's Jekyll + Hyde was a genre-bending mess, there were experiments that worked off of that album. What I'm ultimately saying is that while I get the antipathy from country purists, especially with this material clogging up mainstream country radio riding the trends, this isn't that far removed conceptually from the vintage pop that Lindi Ortega or Whitney Rose pull from, nor the psychedelic rock for Sturgill Simpson or the more progressive rock tendencies for that last Jason Isbell record. As such, I wasn't certain what to expect with the sophomore record from Brett Eldredge called Illinois. Early buzz was suggesting he was going more towards that 'metropolitan' sound, mostly thanks to the backing of producer Ross Copperman, who did a lot of excellent production work on Dierks Bentley's last album. And I'll say it, the presence of Thomas Rhett as a guest star, the poster child for calling his brand of vintage pop/R&B garbage 'country music' did not raise my spirits. But on the other hand, Brett Eldredge is a good songwriter with a distinctive voice, and I really did love the warped melodies against the acoustic grooves of 'Lose My Mind' and I hoped at least this could at least be salvaged. So what did we get?
You know, for a week that was pretty lightweight all things considered, this review was absolute hell to make. Between so many reshoots and that damned video glitch... ugh, I'm just happy it's over. Next up, I think I'm about ready to talk about FFS or Kamelot before Kacey Musgraves comes through - stay tuned!
So here's the mixed blessing of a week like this one. You look at the charts, see that very little actually happened across the board with perhaps one of the smallest numbers of songs new or returning to the Hot 100, and it allows you to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, something that's pretty light across the board. But then it's the creeping question of whether I'll be able to keep all of this interesting on a week where - gasp - there's little to actually complain about!
