Twostepcubchart's Best of 2016: Part Six - #50 to #41...

We've hit the halfway mark on my year-end recap of the biggest hits on my weekly music chart for 2016, and I'm ready to roll ten more out from the top 50. You can check out the other five parts and the 25 that almost made it by clicking here.

#50 - "Closer" - The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
          from the EP Collage (2016)
          Highest rank: #2 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 16 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
          Songwriters: Andrew Taggart (the Chainsmokers), Ashley Frangipane (Halsey), Shaun Frank, Frederic Kennett, Isaac Slade and Joe King (The Fray)

After being a popular DJ/remixing team who had a novelty hit a couple years back with "#SELFIE", the duo of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall became legitimate pop stars in 2016, with three top ten pop hits in America, all of which made my top 100 of the year. First up at #50 was their "biggest" on the Hot 100 in the U.S., spending 12 weeks at #1. Paired up with indie-pop flake Halsey for a bro-style fuckfest of a down-tempo EDM-style track, it made the perfect "song of the fall" for this shitshow of a season. (Also, fitting for the type of year this has been, the Fray were tacked on the credits to avoid a plagiarism lawsuit for the single cribbing from "Over My Head (Cable Car)"...

Killer lyric: Pull the sheets right off the corner
                    Of the mattress that you stole
                    From your roommate back in Boulder...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


#49 - "Make You Miss Me" - Sam Hunt
          from the album Montevallo (2014)
          Highest rank: #15 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 21
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45
          Songwriters: Sam Hunt, Josh Osborne, Matthew Ramsey

Country crossover newcomer Sam Hunt, whom we saw back at #68 with "Break Up In A Small Town", followed that single up with this power-ballad about the desire to get his girl back. I was perplexed the photogenic Hunt didn't film a video for this single though, since it was a #1 country airplay hit; perhaps as the sixth single the record company peeps didn't expect its success. I sure did.

Killer lyrics: The only reason that you're good at goodbye is
                      Every boy you ever met was too easy to forget,
                      Well, I ain't going out like that...

#48 - "Lake By The Ocean" - Maxwell
          from the album blackSUMMERS'night (2016)
          Highest rank: #25 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 27
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: MUSZE (Maxwell), Hod David

The neo-soul pioneer returned after seven years with the second installment in his blacksummers'night trilogy of albums, and this laid-back jam topped the Adult R&B chart for ten weeks.

Killer lyrics: You were only the one that made me fulfilled,
                     Only the thing that made me reveal,
                     My destiny was before us, beach of a forest...

 #47 - "Home Alone Tonight" - Luke Bryan featuring Karen Fairchild
           from the album Kill The Lights (2015)
           Highest rank: #5 (one week)
           Weeks on the chart: 17
           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38
           Songwriters: Jody Stevens, Cole Taylor, Jaida Dreyer, Tommy Cecil

For the third single from Bryan's Kill The Lights album (the fifth, "Move", is down at #79 this year), he paired up with Little Big Town's Fairchild for a fun escapade of revenge fucking that never is wrong.

Killer lyric: Slow country from a cover band,
                    I got you covered if you don't know how to dance
                    But if you want we could grab a cab,
                    Girl we got all night, I've got a bottomless tab...

#46 - "Here" - Alessia Cara
          from the album Know-It-All (2015)
          Highest rank: #5 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 15 (was on for 3 weeks in 2015)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5
          Songwriters: Alessia Caracciolo (Alessia Cara), Andrew Wansel & Warren Felder (Pop & Oak), Coleridge Tillman (Sebastian Kole), Isaac Hayes, Samuel & Robert Gerongco & Terence Lam (Kuya Productions)

Another of this years notable young female singer/songwriters to emerge this year was this Canadian who gifted us the introvert's anthem with "Here", with verses those who feel totally nonplussed at a raucous party could identify with. Refreshing to here this type of voice in pop music these days.

Killer lyrics: Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this
                     An anti-social pessimist, but usually I don't mess with this                    
                     And I know you mean only the best '
                     And your intentions aren't to bother me
                     But honestly I'd rather be
                     Somewhere with my people...

#45 - "Roses" - The Chainsmokers featuring ROZES
          from the EP Bouquet (2015)
          Highest rank: #5 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 19 (was on for two weeks in 2015)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6
          Songwriters: Andrew Taggart, Elizabeth Mencel (ROZES)

The second of this year's trio of songs from the remixing/production duo was their first to reach the top ten on Billboard's pop chart. Hooking up with Philadelphia native ROZES for this wavy track that established their slowed-down EDM sound with mainstream radio.

Killer lyric: I'll be your daydream I'll wear your favorite things,
                   We could be beautiful,
                   Get drunk on the good life I'll take you to paradise,
                   Say you'll never let me go...

#44 - "H.O.L.Y." - Florida Georgia Line
          from the album Dig Your Roots (2016)
          Highest rank: #2 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 18
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14
          Songwriters: busbee, William Wiik Larsen, Nate Cyphert

After a series of bro-country singles that left me flat, the crossover duo came back on their third album Dig Your Roots led by a record that floored me with just its epic-harmony chorus. It did make the pop radio chart, though not as large as I had hoped. And they couldn't have picked a more beautiful site for the music video, the Twelve Apostles rock formation in southeastern Australia.

Killer lyric: You made the brightest days from the darkest nights,
                    You're the river bank where I was baptized,
                    Cleanse all the demons that were killing my freedom...

#43 - "Walking On A Dream" - Empire Of The Sun
         from the album Walking On A Dream (2008)
         Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
         Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 19 (had charted in 2009)
         Billboard Hot 100 peak: #65
         Songwriters: Luke Steele & Nick Littlemore (Empire of the Sun), Jonathan Sloan

Seven years after this single was released, when it was a moderate club hit in the States and slipped onto my chart for a few weeks in 2009, the eccentric-looking and lush-sounding synthpop group re-emerged thanks to a Honda advert that featured the song. Love second chances, especially in cases like this when it's deserved.

Killer lyrics: We are always running for the thrill of it thrill of it,
                      Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it,
                      On and on and on we are calling out and out again,
                     Never looking down I'm just in awe of what's in front of me...

#42 - "Mess Around" - Cage The Elephant
          from the album Tell Me I'm Pretty (2015)
          Highest rank: #3 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 16 (was on for 4 weeks in 2015)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: Matt Schultz, Brad Schultz, Jared Champion, & Daniel Tichenor (Cage The Elephant)

 
The Kentucky alternative rock band, who were on last year's recap countdown at #56 with "Cigarette Daydreams", recruited Black Keys' Dan Auerbach to produce their fourth album Tell Me I'm Pretty, and his sonic stamp is defintely heard on this opening salvo. Raucous messy rock to shake small Brooklyn clubs with.

Killer lyrics: The heat is rising and only getting hotter ready to blow,
                      I think I'll pour myself a glass of water let it flow,
                      She'll show you what she's made of,
                      Yeah she's comin' for ya...

#41 - "Stand By You" - Rachel Platten
          from the album Wildfire (2016)
          Highest rank: #3 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2016): 16 (was on for 10 weeks in 2015)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37
          Songwriters: Rachel Platten, Jack Antonoff (from fun./Bleachers), Joy Williams (from Civil Wars), Matt Morris, Jon Levine

 
Pop singer/songwriter Platten, who claimed the #7 song of 2015 on my chart, had a lot of help on this inspirational anthem, but it's worth it, with at least the beginning of this year marked by the power of positive female influence. Damn, how times have changed.

Killer lyric: Oh truth I guess truth is what you believe in,
                    And faith I think faith is having a reason,
                    And I know now, love, if your wings are broken,
                    Borrow mine 'til yours can open too...

That's all for today...I'll return tomorrow with a rosey trip through the looking glass, some country clothing, and Mediterranean pharmaceuticals.