billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 12, 2019 (VIDEO)

Well, that was a bit quicker to get online than I otherwise expected. Short week, y'all.

Anyway, next up is Danny Brown, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 12, 2019

So last week I said that I expected an album bomb from DaBaby - I did not expect one of this size, I'll admit that! Yeah, while the majority of it fell below the top 40, all of DaBaby's KIRK hit the Hot 100 this week, and given that's comfortably over eight new songs, the album bomb rules are in effect. Shame it's about the only thing interesting to happen to the Hot 100 this week, but since I wasn't really planning to review the album at length, this'll give me a good opportunity to get caught up, I guess.

video review: 'heartache medication' by jon pardi

Huh, I honestly thought this would attract more interest... eh, makes my plans for 2020 all the more valid, I guess.

Anyway, I feel like some jaunty pop rock, so Tegan and Sara are next; stay tuned!

album review: 'heartache medication' by jon pardi

Okay, I'll just say it: in my reviews of Jon Pardi up to this point, the majority of the problem is me.

And this is one of those utterly exasperating issues as a music critic where yes, to the mainstream Nashville listener Pardi represents a sound that is entirely up my alley and should be getting all the praise in the world in the current subset of neotraditional revivalists we're seeing, especially in his choice of production. And I can see on the surface how Jon Pardi basically answers all of my major complaints about the corporate, pop-pandering side of Nashville by delivering a rich, vintage timbre that could have been imported straight from the early 90s... and yet I've been lukewarm on him at best, right from when I covered his debut in 2014. Don't get me wrong, I like that his success is nudging Nashville in that organic, neotraditional direction, but between never quite liking his vocal timbre and songwriting that just feels a bit underwhelming - plus the wealth of indie country acts that just do this sort of sound better - I know how it makes me come across like a country music hipster not getting onboard, even though I'd argue that just because you have a neotraditional sound doesn't mean the delivery or songs hold up. And while the country music hipster part is probably true, I actually did have some hope that with his mainstream niche firmly established he'd be able to double down and not have to rely on consistently his most generic songs as singles, so I really did want to like what he was going to deliver with Heartache Medication - it really did seem like Jon Pardi was going in the right direction, so did his album deliver?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 9, 2019 (VIDEO)

So this was a pretty reasonable episode, generally liked this fine enough...

Anyway, next up... hmm, I've got some time ahead, let's see where this goes - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 9, 2019

There's a part of me that wants to invest this cooldown week with a bit more significance than it probably deserves. Sure, none of the debuts seem all that big and the song rising to the top ten isn't all that interesting and more of the story seems to come in the returns than the new arrivals or dropouts, but I get the impression that the current relative stasis is more unstable than it appears, especially with the number of 2018 songs that are lingering a bit longer than expected.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 22, 2017 (VIDEO)

My lord, this was a rough week to get through. Not exactly terrible, but mediocrity is almost worse on some level.

Eh, whatever, time for something more recent, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 22, 2017

Okay, maybe I'm just not as in-tune with what will cross onto the Hot 100 as I thought as I was, especially when it comes to album tracks. I knew that Jay-Z's 4:44 would take the wide release to land on the Hot 100, but I did think that there'd be at least a few album tracks from Calvin Harris' last release that'd have a chance, or maybe a bit of traction for Kesha's big comeback single 'Praying'... but while of course it landed on the Canadian charts, thanks to not getting a full tracking week it just missed the Hot 100, and what we got instead... well, it's interesting, I'll say that.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 24, 2016 (VIDEO)

So yeah, not really a great week, per se, but still one I can respect to some extent with a welcome surprise. Not bad, overall.

Next up, an artist that I should have tackled a while ago, then J. Cole (he was just one vote short of taking the top spot on this list, tsk tsk). Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 24, 2016

If I was going to describe this week of the Hot 100 for posterity - and I have no idea why anyone would bother with any week, let alone this one, it'd be 'muted chaos'. Oh, make no mistake, a fair amount actually happened, especially with the expected dropoff for The Weeknd, but none of it was at the volume where it would cause significant change or a bout of huge new arrivals. And of course a big part of that is Christmas music making its expected return, whether you wanted it or not. Of course, the big thing that I noticed is that despite a huge debut on the Billboard 200 and despite me making a bold prediction otherwise, not a single song from The Hamilton Mixtape crossed over to the Hot 100, which means that our new arrivals... well, we'll get to them.

video review: 'california sunrise' by jon pardi

Eh, you need guys like Jon Pardi making music, even if I wasn't really wild about this. Someone give this guy a sharper pen or a drive to experiment a little more, he's got the right textures, all he needs are the melodies.

Anyway, next is probably Swans, but that might take more time to fully process. Stay tuned!

album review: 'california sunrise' by jon pardi

You ever have one of those artists that on paper seems to check off every single box, seems to be the sort of artist you'd automatically support, who may have even come out in a time where he was a breath of fresh air and a welcome surprise to everything and everyone else around him... and you're just not a fan?

Well, for me and modern, 'mainstream' country, California artist Jon Pardi was that person - mostly because on the surface he was decidedly not mainstream! His debut album Write You A Song, released in early 2014 in the wave of interchangeable bro-country was actually very much a neotraditional country record in its composition and presentation. And yet, given that I wasn't all that won over by his voice or his songwriting, which had an odd presumptuous air to it that kind of made the romantic tracks feel a little hollow and shallow, I would only ever say the record was decent, far from the savior of the mainstream for which a few critics lauded him.

But I'll admit artists can evolve and grow over the course of a few records, and considering how much critical appraisal Pardi has received, I figured I might as well give him another chance. After all, with the increasing rise of sterile pop country, maybe getting a slice of rougher, more rustic tones would click more strongly. Who knows, I just saw a major improvement from YG from his debut two years ago that I found underwhelming, so maybe two times the charm?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 19, 2016 (VIDEO)

Ugh, this week really blew. God, I hope that next week gets better with Kendrick, 'cause this was rough.

But speaking of Kendrick... well, stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 19, 2016

So remember last year when there was a major push behind songs that were linked to the Academy Awards and John Legend and Common rode 'Glory' to some reasonable chart success? Yeah, this year served as the rebuttal to that on the charts, because while the Academy Awards had some impact on the Hot 100, they didn't nearly have as much impact as last year, mostly because 'Writing On The Wall' has been generally panned by everyone except the Academy. But much like everyone else, I'm choosing to ignore Sam Smith and that song... but unfortunately the option is instead to focus on this week, and yikes, it's been a while since I've seen things this bad. Strap in, folks, this gets ugly.

video review: 'write you a song' by jon pardi

I really need to stop forgetting to post these videos earlier. Gah.

In any case, next up will probably be the new album from Young The Giant. Stay tuned!

album review: 'write you a song' by jon pardi

Way back in my Special Comment on the state of modern country music, I made an observation that I feel will prove frighteningly relevant this year: that when the bro-country bubble implodes, there are going to be a lot of new country acts who hopped on the bandwagon who are going to suffer from it. Sure, the a-list acts like Luke Bryan are going nowhere, but what about the b-listers, the guys who might only be able to count on one or two hits charting at all? What will happen to their careers when the bro-country well runs dry?

And make no mistake, it's coming. Between the increasingly large number of country acts speaking out against the trend and both songwriters and radio programmers questioning the lack of diversity in country radio, the winds are changing. Even guys like Florida Georgia Line are opting for less obviously pandering bro-country with their new singles like 'Stay', to prove they are more than just 'Cruise'. As such, I'm suspecting 2014 will be a transitional year for country music, and from a look at upcoming albums, it could be a very interesting one.

That said, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of unease when I picked up the debut album of Jon Pardi. His 'hit' was 'Up All Night', which was a song that did fit into the realm of interchangeable bro-country, albeit with a little less of the leering sensibilities that irk me in that genre. And combined with a criminally underwritten Wikipedia page and every picture of the guy reinforcing the bro-country image, I got the feeling Jon Pardi might be headed for rough times in the early months of 2014 as a very late arrival to the bro-country scene. But then again, there has been bro-country songs and material I've liked, so I gave the album a few listens - how did it turn out?