billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 23, 2019 (VIDEO)

Well, this was... a week? Still wish I could get some damn confirmation on whether this is the last week of the Billboard year, but we'll have to see.

Anyway, it's going to be fascinating for next week, but in the mean time I think I'm going to handle something in my back catalog, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 23, 2019

Well, here we go folks: down to the last weeks of tracking the Billboard year (either this week or next week, I've yet to get clear info)... and yet I don't really get a finale vibe out of 2019. That's the frustrating thing when you try to cram a messy chart show into any sort of narrative, especially on a week that seemed relatively predictable, but here we are.

video review: 'war & leisure' by miguel

So yeah, I do wish this was better, but eh, I know this'll definitely have an audience. Probably should have dropped in August, but oh well.

Next up, though... should have gotten to this one sooner, so stay tuned!

album review: 'war & leisure' by miguel

So I have a hard time writing about an artist like Miguel, mostly because as a critic I like categorization, finding a way to place an act in the context of their genre. And while you might have been able to do that early on with records like Kaleidoscope Dream, in that like acts like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd he was digging into new sounds and tones within R&B in order to expand the genre. But their paths diverged very quickly: The Weeknd harnessed his love of 80s pop to attain crossover success, Frank Ocean found a ramshackle yet powerfully organic and spacious sound to win critical acclaim, and Miguel...

Well, in 2015 he released Wildheart, an album that I definitely praised upon its release for its genre-bending and grand, emotive ambition in capturing a specific Prince-inspired, oversexed, hyperstylized mood... but it was also all over the place and it hasn't exactly aged as well as you might think, feeling less and less cohesive in its tangled blur of sounds and without a lot of tighter writing to back it up. I'd definitely argue it's a good album and I really did love how far Miguel was willing to push his material, but in the wake of Frank Ocean's blonde it was an album where the high points might resonate but the weaknesses in contrast glare all the more strongly. And as such I didn't really know where he was going to take his follow-up this year War & Leisure - reportedly it was trending towards psychedelic funk, but he also had names like J. Cole, Travis Scott and Rick Ross as features, and it looked like this was going to be a slightly more grounded affair... which might not be a bad thing, because Miguel is the sort of artist with effortless charisma who could knock that material out in his sleep. So yeah, I definitely wanted to cover, this, so what did I find on War & Leisure?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 23, 2017 (VIDEO)

I really need to find an automated way to mass-post these... eh, anyway, pretty decent short week, got some good stuff coming, stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 23, 2017

So comedown weeks are weird. Sometimes they lead to a massive chart rebalance that drives an entire paradigm shift as the album smash leaves a few scattered recoveries and a whole lot of damage. Other weeks... well, they're like this, where we get a few recoveries, a couple new arrivals peeking through, but overall a quiet week where the fallout seems to be slowly ebbing back rather than outright falling away... and given that said album bombs were from Lil Uzi Vert and XXXTENTACION, I think I might have preferred the former case.

video review: 'the hamilton mixtape' by lin-manuel miranda & various artists

I honestly thought this review would do a little better, given how dedicated the Hamilton fanbase is... eh, it happens, I guess, I'm guessing more people are looking forward to year-end lists or a J. Cole review.

In the mean time, though... Billboard BREAKDOWN up next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'the hamilton mixtape' by lin-manuel miranda & various artists

Let's talk about one of my biggest mistakes last year, or at least one that has weighed on me pretty heavily: I didn't talk about Hamilton. Oh, I considered it, a lot: I like hip-hop, I like musical theater, and I like Lin-Manuel Miranda. I might not have loved his debut In The Heights but it had a lot of charm and potential, so when he took the world by storm in 2015 with his musical chronicling the fascinating and tumultuous life of Alexander Hamilton... I didn't cover it. I don't really remember what my reasoning was for it either - the musical, while having its flaws in pacing and historical context, is indeed pretty awesome, with some of the most immediately catchy songs you'll ever hear. And hell, I even knew Daveed Diggs from clipping., I had an obvious inroad here!

And yet even with that Hamilton became the sort of Broadway crossover into popular culture that you so rarely see. Forget that it cleaned up at the Tony Awards, it was the sort of show where you'd probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting tickets. As such, the vast majority of us made do with the soundtrack, which wound up on a surprising number of year-end lists from professional music critics and as of now has crossed over a billion streams on Spotify, which does say a lot. Would it have landed on mine? Well, it would have had a shot, and that is saying a lot, especially given how strong 2015 was, especially for rap music.

And then we all got word about the mixtape... and if you've seen the list of huge names that have signed on for it, it's more than a little mindblowing! I would have gotten it for Usher covering 'Wait For It', but when you have Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Nate Ruess doing 'My Shot', Kelly Clarkson doing 'It's Quiet Uptown', John Legend doing 'History Has Its Eyes On You', Chance The Rapper working on the reprise of 'Dear Theodosia', Regina Spektor and Ben Folds covering the regular 'Dear Theodosia', Ashanti doing 'Helpless' - which is such an obvious choice it's not even funny - Nas, Dave East, and Aloe Blacc working on 'Wrote My Way Out', Common and Ingrid Michaelson handling 'Who Tells Your Story' with The Roots - and The Roots are all over this project - and then add in a bonus track like 'Congratulations' with Dessa on it... at some point, you might as well give this project a spot on my year end list! I was primed to love this, and that meant I came in with the highest of expectations - were they paid off?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 18, 2015 (VIDEO)

Hmm, that episode turned out bizarrely well. Just going to roll with it, hope it continues, especially after how unbelievably shitty yesterday was.

Next up, my album for my two year anniversary! Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 18, 2015

...ever have those days when everything you expected just goes wrong in spectacular fashion? You'd think that I'd have more of those days, considering that I have this show and attempting to predict the evolving tastes of the American public - or at least what the music industry thinks the American public wants - is an exercise in guesswork at best. But I thought after thirty weeks doing this show, I thought I had a reasonably firm grasp on it - and boy, did this week prove me wrong. And that would have been fine - I generally like surprises - except it went wrong in the worst possible way.

video review: 'wildheart' by miguel

Man, this album was weird, but so much in the right way. Just wish it aimed for a little more heft, that's all.

Next up, Vince Staples, and then the mid-year review - stay tuned!

album review: 'wildheart' by miguel

So one of the biggest journeys I've taken throughout the creation of this blog is through modern R&B. I didn't used to care for the genre all that much a few years ago and have found myself really coming to love more and more of it as the years have passed. And one of the artists that I've always found myself a little fascinated with along the way is Frank Ocean - and by that, I mean Miguel.

Okay, that might not make a lot of sense, but it's bizarre how much Miguel seems to be overlooked in terms of hype and critical success. Maybe it was just bad timing, but for as colourful and genuinely fun as Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream was in 2012, it was overshadowed by Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE and everybody seemed to forget Miguel existed beyond 'Adorn' and a few guest spots. And while I'm not going to say Kaleidoscope Dream was better than channel ORANGE - it's not - I've always felt that Miguel is an underrated R&B star, in the indie scene and especially in the mainstream. I mean, was it just a chance collaboration with Ariana Grande that allowed The Weeknd nearly a half-dozen top 40 spots while Miguel has to struggle to even get there?

But in a way it makes sense, because as a composer, Miguel is kind of weird. Lyrically, he doesn't often stray from typical R&B territory - arguably the biggest facet that held him back from challenging Frank Ocean in 2012 - but his personality and sound are much more eclectic, bleeding across genres in a way that reminds me more of Prince than most modern R&B histrionics. But the element that crept up on me about Miguel is a understated charisma that's genuinely charming - he's often just as explicit, but he makes it sound fun and has some class about it. Now as I said I didn't love Kaleidoscope Dream, mostly because the lyrics occasionally got silly and the production was a little overdone at points, not confident enough to let Miguel coast on a great groove. But as I said on Billboard BREAKDOWN, with the lead-off single 'Coffee' for his newest album Wildheart he got me really excited for this album - how did it turn out?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 4, 2015 (VIDEO)

Believe it or not, this review was absolute hell to get out - beyond just the lacklustre songs too.

Okay, finally time to deal with some old business - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 4, 2015

You ever see one of those charts on which not a lot really seemed to happen, but still gives you a feeling of foreboding regardless? Believe it or not, I got that feeling pretty strongly this week, because despite the fact very few new songs dropped or impacted the charts in any largely significant ways, I can see things are coming up for change across the board as the summer settles in.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015 (VIDEO)

Completely forgot to post this. Oops!

Next up, Surf - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015

You know, after the past few weeks – and somehow falling behind again in my reviews – it’s nice to actually have a new Hot 100 that’s actually fairly lightweight in terms of new songs, most of which I’ve already heard before in some capacity. It’s one of the breather moments you get as summer starts to settle into gear and the album release schedule eases back a bit, at least for the pop charts.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 23, 2015 (VIDEO)

Well, I guess I needed that bit of extra sleep, because I was preparing to do this last night and instead passed out damn near instantly.

Eh, whatever, it happens. Next up, I think I have one last artist in my backlog, and then back to our regularly scheduled programming, so enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 23, 2015

So after last week, I was hoping for a bit of a breather this week – and believe it or not, I got it. After the storm comes a sort of calm, and we might have one of the least active weeks of the year thus far, thanks the album release schedule slowing down to give us all a breather. And considering I used most of this week to catch up on releases I wouldn’t have otherwise covered, it’s kind of nice that Billboard BREAKDOWN also feels a little easier.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 18, 2015 (VIDEO)

Man, it's nice when these videos come together easily for a change. Whew.

Okay, next up I think will be Jlin - or Halestorm, whichever I feel like. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 18, 2015

You know, it's odd, after several weeks with so much going on with the Hot 100, it's nice to get a bit of a breather. The biggest news this week isn't an avalanche of new or returning songs, but rather the longevity of the one at the top, and as such we have one of the smallest number of new tracks that I've ever seen on the twenty weeks I've covered the chart. And honestly, I'm not sure how that'll evolve over the next few weeks - the insanity of the album releases in the first quarter of this year seems to have given way to some relative calm, which means that unless we have more artists throwing curveballs - and I wouldn't discount that - we might have the chance to relax a little here.