This week shocked me in one way, he impact of Jack Harlow's album "Call Home The Kids Miss You" is severely blunted this week, now sure he did have two songs from the album that debuted this week but there was nowhere near the impact I was expecting.
This is also obvious when we look to our top ten where much to my surprise, "As It Was" by Harry Styles maintained the number one spot now there's an open question of whether Kendrick Lamar can get anything from "Mr Morale & The Big Steppers" to number one next week but "As It Was" held steady thanks to strong streaming and sales along with decent Youtube.
This meant that despite the album impact, "First Class" by Jack Harlow couldn't retake number one although I will say it was pretty close because the streaming for this song is just as strong however I will say that it may have some stronger competition behind it with that strong competition coming from "About Damn Time" by Lizzo which stormed up nine places to number three thanks to enormous sales and streaming growth and is among the sales leaders, ccould be a playr for number one down the track.
Beyond that though..the rest of the top ten isn't that interesting with "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals continuing to overstay it's welcome by remaining at four while "Thousand Miles" by The Kid Laroi slipped to number five (just me or is this Kid Laroi's most anonymous song to date?) and "Big Energy" by Latto feat. Mariah Carey and DJ Khaled hangs around at number six.
Then there's "Stay" by The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber which slipped two places to number sevem. Up one place to number eight is "Cold Heart (PMAU Remix)" by Elton John and Dua Lipa..unfortunately.
Sliding one place to number nine is "Where Are You Now" by Lost Frequencies and Callum Scott (the sooner this song is gone the better) and finally the biggest loser inside the top ten this week..."Bad Habits" by Ed Sheeran down three to number ten as people are finally sick of this god...thank god.
Gains
So the obvious big story in terms of gains is the one I already mentioned for Lizzo's "About Damn Time" hitting number three but what gained big this week?
Well okay. "Wait for U" by Future feat. Drake and tems up three to number twelve but the gain that raised my eyebrows was the sixteen place gain for "10 Things I Hate About You" by Leah Kate to 22...I mean I get the song has got traction and I do think the song is okay but it's kind of a surprise a song so obviously catty and toxic has this sort of traction.
Re Entries
So 1998 hit "Iris" by The Goo Dolls returned to the top 50 this week at number 45...bit weirded out by this one...I am guessing it's probably viral on Tik Tok at this point.
Fortunately the other return makes more sense because it's "Nail Tech" by Jack Harlow which came back off the back of the album release.
Losers
Mostly pleased with the losers this week because some long term hits are finally starting to move out with "The Motto" by Tiesto and Ava Max down 13 to 50.
"Lost" by Frank Ocean lost seven places to 49 while "Tom's Diner" by AnnenMayKantereit and Giant Rooks slipped seven places to 47.
That said newer songs like the complete crap "Honest" by Justin Bieber feat. Don Toliver slumped sixteen places to 46.
Doja Cat;s "Woman" plunged eight places to 42 while her other big hit "Kiss Me More" with SZA also slipped eight to 41 while "Down Under" by Luude feat. Colin Hay collapsed nine places to 40.
A bunch of songs lost seven places this week with "Mr Brightside" by The Killers to 39, "Watermlon Sugar" by Harry Styles to 37, "Flowers" by Lauren Spencer-Smith to 33. "That's What I Want" by Lil Nas X to 27 and "Starlight" by Dave to 25
Drop Outs
Seven songs dropped out this week and look the only one I really unhappy about leaving is "When You're Gone" by Shawn Mendes.
The others gone are "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, "Light Switch" by Charlie Puth, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" by The Cast of Encanto (locked on the year end list), "In My head" by Lil Tjay, "That That" by Psy feat. Suga of BTS and finally "Drivers License" by Olivia Rodrigo.
New Entries
Five new entries this week, beginning with...
36. "Hold My Hand" by Lady Gaga
We're starting this week's reviews with a song that was recorded by Lady Gaga for the soundtrack of the new Top Gun sequel (the fact we're only now getting a sequel for this is a sign that the film industry have run out of ideas for movies but I digress) and well given Lady Gaga's track record with film songs, I was hoping for something amazing so what did we get?
We got a ballad that Lady Gaga sounds good on but the production is a mess here for one thing the crescendos on the verses really don't build to much so leaves the chorus kind of really feeling flat which is odd given it's clearly going for the 80s power ballad sound so yeah while I get what the song is trying to do and I don't think it's completely bad...I likely won't be coming back to this song.
31. "The Heart Part 5" by Kendrick Lamar
We got a whole lot more Kendrick Lamar to be discussing next week when the album inevitably bombs the singles chart but this song got released on Monday as part of Kendrick's "The Heart" series where he has released this before every album and well...I am not going to mince words here because this is one of the best songs to be released this year, I can't say if it's better than anything from "Mr Morale & The Big Steppers".
Flipping a Marvin Gaye sample that gives the song a shocking amount of groove and punch, Kendrick gives an update on where he is at in his life and as usual for Kendrick, the lyrics and themes are incredibly dense and quite meta as he raps about life on the streets, sociery's habit of using drugs to quell pain but what tips the song over the edge is the empathy for the late Nipsey Hussle in third verse that made me oddly emotional so yeah if this song made me cry than it's something pretty special. Check it out.
23. "This Love (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift
The second single from "1989 (Taylor's Version)" following "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" and I do like the production here, it's cleaner and feels warm with the guitars but for a song that's about a complicated relationship, the lyrics feel suspiciously abortive and simple like Taylor doesn't really seem too keen on fleshing out how and why this relationship has gotten so complicated. Ehh, I don't hate it but I certainly don't love it either.
17. "Churchill Downs" by Jack Harlow feat. Drake
So I am going to say something that some of you will not like..."Call Home The Kids Miss you" is a perfectly serviceable hip hop album that is actually better than the nonsense both Drake and Kanye West released last year and I guess it's mostly because he doesn't engage in the concern trolling that Drake does (and when Drake does do that, it leaves a really sour taste in my mouth) however this is probably one of the best songs on the album, the song is named after the famous racecourse in Kentucky which is Harlow's home state and sees both Harlow and Drake casting some introspection about their lives and their rise to the top of the game over a decent beat if slightly overmixed...I'll take this.
13. "Dua Lipa" by Jack Harlow
Yeah perhaps naming one of your most dank trap songs after one of the most colourful popstars we've currently got is a pretty bad idea, I'm actually surprised Dua Lipa herself gave this the okay considering it doesn't reflect the brand of pop music she makes. It just sounds odd for a trap song where Harlow goes on and on about wanting to hook up with Dua Lipa and yet the song has no groove or energy to it? Come on Jack, you did better on the album but this is not it.
It's also the worst of the week. The best falls out easily as well because that's going to "The Heart Part 5" by Kendrick Lamar.
Speaking of Kendrick Lamar, expect the mother of all album bombs when the chart updates on Friday at 5pm
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