ARIA Singles Top 50 Top Ten/Chart Review. 22nd November. All Too Well Bad Man Already Do It To a Taylor's Version of Red

 Well, this week the ARIA singles chart exploded with activity thanks to Taylor Swift releasing her re recording of "Red" and other assorted songs showing up here this week which all up makes for a pretty messy week on the chart overall and with Adele swinging in with an album bomb of her own next week...things are looking pretty interesting especially as there are still songs looking to sure up a place on the year end list that might have had their runs cut short

But anyway let's get to the top ten because we have a brand new number one and the eighth of this artist's career, "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift which rode to number one on the back of streaming. Now it's not clear which version ARIA are crediting as being the number one as there is the original version that was on "Red" and the ten minute version on the re recorded edition of "Red" so we'll wait and see with regard to the crediting (ARIA may have combined both versions regardless) but I'm also not sure that this will keep the number one come next week...

Which brings us to "Easy On Me" by Adele steady at number two. Now I would expect that with the album dropping on Friday that this will return to number and we'll have a meaty chunk of the album on the singles chart next week. Hell, the first quarter of  "30" is already on the Spotify daily top 200 songs for Australia.

All of this pushed "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)" by Elton John and Dua Lipa down two places to number three as it's streaming and sales could not much those above it. The same pretty much goes for "Stay" by The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber down to number four.

Also getting knocked back one is "Shivers" by Ed Sheeran to number five, "Bad Habits" also by Ed Sheeran to number six and "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals down to number seven as it spends a forty second week in the top ten. 

The biggest gainer of the week belongs to Silk Sonic's "Smokin' Out The Window" as it jumped a massive twenty six places to number eight to become Silk Sonic's highest charting single in Australia surpassing "Leave the Door Open' which debuted and peaked at number ten (deserved better...we be knew to quote the stans)

This pushed "Indistry Baby" by Lil Nss X feat. Jack Harlow back two to number nine and "One Right Now" by Post Malone and The Weeknd back to number ten.

Gains

I already mentioned "Smokin' Out the Window" by Silk Sonic rising twenty six places to hit the top ten at number eight. The only other gain this week was a one place gain to eleven for "Ghost" by Justin Bieber but that's about it

Re Entries

The album's release saw "Leave the Door Open" by Silk Sonic back at number 41. Nice to see! Just a shame we didn't get more songs from that Silk Sonic album on the chart.

Losses

So what remained of the chart lost this week thanks to Taylor Swift's album bomb so to keep my sanity in check, I am going to go through only the double digit losses. We begin with the 21 place loss to 50 for "A OK" by Tai Verdes while "Knife Talk" by Drake feat. 21 Savage and Project Pat dropped 16 to 49.

"Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac slipped twelve places to 47, "Acapulco" by Jason Derulo plunged 16 to 46 and "Dreams" by Jolyon Petch slumped 16 to 44.

"Love Tonight" by Shouse had it's lights turned off down ten to 42 while "Need to Know" by Doja Cat slithered down ten to 37, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" by Lil Nas X skidded down ten to 36 and "Missing Piece" by Vance Joy plummeted ten to 35.

Drop Outs.

So we have a whole quarter of the chart that fell out this week, I expect some of it to return in the weeks ahead.

Locked on the year end list: "The Business" by Tiesto, "Peaches" by Justin Bieber feat. Daniel Caesar and Giveon, "Little Bit of Love" by Tom Grennan, "2055" by Sleepy Hallow, "Leave Before You Love Me" by Marshmello and Jonas Brothers and "Without You" by The Kid Laroi 

Question mark over making year end: "Out Out" by Jax Jones, Joel Corry, Charli XCX feat Saweetie, "Guess I'm In Love" by Clinton Kane, "Take My Breath" by The Weeknd and "Fair Trade" by Drake feat. Travis Scott.

Probably won't make year end and I hope it doesn't: "Fancy Like" by Walker Hayes (THANK YOU TAYLOR!), "Life Goes On" by Oliver Tree and "Way 2 Sexy by Drake feat. Future and Young Thug.

Old song filling up chart space: "Mr Brightside" by The Killers

Definitely won't make year end: "Mafia" and "Escape Plan" by Travis Scott.

New Entries

Fifiteen new entries this week and being it's an album bomb week for Taylor Swift's "Red (Taylor's version)" so here's the nine songs from that project I won't be covering in full (I am

21. I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor's Version) (They made this song worse with the re recording. Didn't like the original to begin with)
25. State of Grace (Taylor's Version)

27. 22 (Taylor's Version)
31. Nothing New (Taylor's Version) feat. Phoebe Bridgers  (This is a really good song, please check it out)

33. Message in a Bottle (Taylor's Version)
34. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor's Version) (See "I Knew You were trouble")
38. Treacherous (Taylor's Version)

43. I Bet You Think about Me (Taylor's Version) feat. Chris Stapleton (Could have given Chris more to do than to just serve backing vocals, Taylor)

45. I Almost Do (Taylor's Version)

So that still leaves us with six new entries and this is already a LONG post so I am going to endeavour to keep this short but let's begin with...

48. "Bad Man (Smooth Criminal)" by Polo G

We're not starting off with Taylor Swift this week, we're starting with a new song from Polo G and I am going to be honest, I kind of like this, Polo G samples Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" (which he did get clearance to do) and then launches into a flow that I've not heard from him before, he sounds harsher and rougher in verses referencing his gang and weapon activity before a hook referencing the hook of the song he is sampling. My only criticism of the song is that it's way too short so winds up feeling more like a fragment rather than a finished song but still for a fragment of a song...it's fine. 

39. "Do It To It" by Acraze feat. Cherish

I should have guessed songs used in Squid Game were going to wind up on the charts at some point. Acraze is a 25 year old EDM producer Charlie Duncker with an edit he made to a 2006 song by r'n'b girl group Cherish called '"Do It To It' feat. Sean Paul (who I guarantee none of you have thought about in years) and I mean really it's really your standard EDM/Houst dance song that makes a song that hasn't aged well at all. Again this for me has the feeling of something that's more than a little unnecessary and that's not discounting the fact the bass on this thing made me worry for the speakers on my computer. Next.

29. "Already Dead" by Juice WRLD 

So at what point are the music industry going to let Juice WRLD just...you know...rest in peace but regardless we've got a new single from him from an upcoming album called "Fighting Demons" and well this was a song that Juice WRLD teased in 2018 on social media so of course we get this song in 2021 and is it just me but is Juice WRLD either mixed too loud over that piano and clunky sounding trap groove? It just sounds like what 2018 would sound like and has aged rather badly even if I get the lyrics about substance abuse and heartbreak and how the two are mixed but this doesn't sound good sadly. Time to let Juice rest in peace and move on. 

19, "Run (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift feat. Ed Sheeran

So tiime to begin our exploration of three highest charting songs from the re recording of "Red" and this one is from the vault on the album and is the second on the album that Ed Sheeran is featured on (the other being "Everything Has Changed") and I am surprised that this one charted so high especially as Ed Sheeran has rapidly slipped into the backlash zone even despite "=" being pretty good however both Taylor and Ed do harmonise nicely here for a song about Taylor wanting to run away with her partner over a rather nice guitar. Shame it missed the final cut on the original album because this is pretty nice...check it out. 

14. "Red (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift

The title track which is a country song ("Red" originally was a deeply compromised album with Taylor trying to transition toward a pop sound she'd later go full on in 2014 with "1989" and I got to be honest I'm not feeling this one for some reason even with the catchy chorus...I don't know why either, could be the vocal mixing and odd Taylor sounds here. It's not precisely baaad but it's not a track that I really want to come back to either. 

1. "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift.

I'll be honest, I've never cared for which ex Taylor was writing about in her songs, mainly because delving into another human being's love life back in 2012 has never ever felt interesting so with all that in mind, this song is a favourite with Taylor's fanbase and yeah I can see why, this is Taylor's best vocal performance with some really nice production with Taylor telling the story of this relationship with a guy and how the relationship fell apart. It's not quite Taylor's best song in her discography as I've heard some critics say (cuts on "Folklore" are a little better in my opinion) but you know I don't mind this being number one for now, it's good.

That wraps up the week, a long one at that. Worst of the week goes to "Already Dead" by Juice WRLD...because wow...the production on that sucked. As for the best, well it's going to Taylor Swift (I was tempted to give it to Polo G but given how unfinished "Bad Man (Smooth Criminal) feels...) for "Run (Taylor's Version)" feat. Ed Sheeran just nudging out "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)"

Next week: Adele's album bomb swings in, we'll find out where tracks from "30" land on the chart when ARIA updates it on Friday at 5pm.