billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 6, 2016

And just like that, the summer lull gets burst wide open, and there's a part of me that couldn't be happier. Yeah, I could definitely raise questions about why - to say nothing of the viability of both the new songs and the new #1 that did it - but I have to admit, the past few weeks have been so stagnant that there's a part of me that's thrilled there's change at all!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 23, 2016 (VIDEO)

Man, this took WAY too long to finish. Long episode too, so I hope you all enjoy!

Next up... hmm, time to take care of some unfinished business, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 23, 2016

And to think this week was going to be busy enough. The chart instability is only getting more pronounced, we've got a healthy list of new arrivals - including what looks to be bad signs coming from Drake's lead-off to Views From The 6 - I thought things would be mostly stable. So of course here comes Kanye West with eight new songs from The Life Of Pablo, an album I covered nearly two months ago with one of the most confused release strategies I've ever seen play out. Of course, such is the transcendent power of Kanye's fame and fanbase that the album went to #1 on streaming alone, regardless of middling quality or the fact that it's been out for two months already.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 7, 2015 (VIDEO)

Yeah, I know it's late, but I fell asleep before I could post it, it happens. Overall, a decent week - though I expect next week to be absolutely bonkers busy, so stay tuned for that.

Next up, I've got a few busy days ahead, but I think I'm feeling ready to cover some Neon Indian, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 7, 2015

Before I start, if you're not already aware, my first full-length fantasy novel called To Kill A Dragon just dropped on Amazon - so if you're interested, I'd really appreciate if you took a look, the link's in the description below, maybe pick up a copy to drop a review. After all, if I dish it out, I need to be able to take it too.

...You see, Drake? What I did there just now is called 'marketing', and while it's on a far smaller scale and will probably lead to a far smaller return, I'd argue I didn't screw it up nearly as badly as you screwed up this week.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 16, 2015 (VIDEO)

Overall, it was a better week than expected. Shame most of hip-hop is in the shitter in the mainstream right now, but you can hope for the future.

Next up, probably Chris Stapleton and finally - finally - Sufjan Stevens. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 16, 2015

So remember when I was lamenting last week that the expected chaos after the collapse after a long-running #1 didn't happen? Turns out I should have just waited one week, because we might have one of the busiest weeks on the Hot 100 I've seen in a long time. Massive gains, sizeable losses and dropouts, a slew of new and returning tracks, and even new entries to the Hot 100 that show that even if the #1 slot might be safe, everything beneath it sure as hell isn't. And in some cases, that instability might end up being a good thing.

video review: 'old boots, new dirt' by jason aldean

Well, I needed to get this out of the way... and it was actually better than I expected! Go figure.

Okay, next up is Weezer, so stay tuned!

album review: 'old boots, new dirt' by jason aldean

I haven't been looking forward to doing this review.

Now some of you are probably scratching your heads and wondering, 'Wait, this is Jason Aldean, one of the biggest country stars in the industry. And not only that, he did it by not grafting himself to a major label, instead sticking with the indie label Broken Bow Records, and he's a major success for nearly a decade with massive sales!'

And all of that is completely true... and yet, Jason Aldean has never really been a country star that has interested or impressed me, even at his best. Even though he's on an independent label, he uses the same Nashville songwriting machine that many of his major label counterparts do, and with his thinner voice halfway between Eric Church and Brantley Gilbert, I wasn't really immediately gripped by him as a performer, even if I did occasionally like the rougher edges of his production. It didn't help matters that he tended to have really poor choices for singles: his biggest off of his debut was 'Why' which paired a decent melody with a self-aggrandizing message of why he treats his girlfriend like garbage. He hit a stronger side with the southern-rock tinged 'Johnny Cash', but it's on that song where my other issue with a lot of Jason Aldean's work surface - his production always seemed a little flat and colourless to me. Not his melodic compositions, those were often pretty solid, but his guitar tones and compositions always felt a little dreary, especially with Aldean's lack of a real sense of humor. It definitely did not help matters that as the 2000s ended, Aldean fell into a lot of the southern pandering with songs like 'Flyover States' that always set my teeth on edge.

And then came 2010's My Kinda Party, and the song that would redefine Aldean's career for the worse: 'Dirt Road Anthem', a slow-paced slog of a country rap song that featured Ludacris near the tail end of his commercial success and Jason Aldean rapping with no energy or passion whatsoever, and also managed to land on my list of the Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2011. Yeah, his duet with Kelly Clarkson 'Don't You Wanna Stay' was good enough, but as Jason Aldean got bigger, his songs and public persona got less likable. 2012's Night Train brought in more aggressive and macho country-rap inspired tracks like the Luke Bryan and Eric Church collaboration 'The Only Way I Know' and the absolute atrocity '1994', and while songs like 'Night Train' felt sincere and catered well to Aldean's female fanbase, they didn't really stand out for me. And combined with a recent Billboard magazine cover story that only seemed to highlight his aggressive frustration for being one of the acts responsible for triggering all the elements of bro-country that piss me off: the macho posturing, the bad rapping, the inert 'rock-inspired' production, basically a country-flavoured brand of hair metal minus the cheesiness or shredding riffs... well, Jason Aldean did not put forward a good picture. 

And yet with 'Burnin' It Down', the opening single from Jason Aldean's newest album Old Boots, New Dirt, I didn't know what to expect for this new record, so while I didn't expect to like it, I figured that at least he was trying something different, right?