twostepcub's Best of 2017: Part Five - #60 to #51...
#60 - "Cold" - Maroon 5 featuring Future
from the album Red Pill Blues (2017)
Highest rank: #13 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16
Songwriters: Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Josh Ryan, Jacob Kasher Hindlin (Jacob Kasher), Justin Tranter, Phil Shaouy
For a while it seemed like Adam Levine's music career was getting to be a side job from his gig as a mentor on The Voice, but after missing out on last year's list, his band Maroon 5 places three songs on the tally. This trippy dance-pop experiment sported a video that convinced me never to do drugs ever. They were on the year-end list in 2015 with "Sugar" at #12...
Killer lyric: Are we taking time, or a time out?
I can't take the in-between
Asking me for space here in my house
You know how to fuck with me...
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#59 - "Malibu" - Miley Cyrus
from the album Younger Now (2017)
Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 17
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10
Songwriters: Miley Cyrus, Oren Yoel
After years of being the wild child of pop, it looks like Miley's settling down, figuratively and literally with Liam Hemsworth. It talks about her sobriety and rekindling an old flame, in the breezes of the California area that's now half on fire.
Killer lyric: We are just like the waves that flow back and forth,
Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning and you're there to save me,
And I wanna thank you with all of my heart,
It's a brand new start...
#58 - "Do I Make You Wanna" - Billy Currington
from the album Summer Forever (2015)
Highest rank: #25 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 25 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47
Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Zach Crowell, Matt Jenkins, Jerry Flowers
With this fourth single from his Summer Forever album, Currington has his first appearance on the year-end recap since he placed at #90 with "We Are Tonight" in 2014. This unassuming love song didn't tread new ground, but didn't seem phony.
Killer lyric: Karaoke in the neon light,
Go to Vegas, stay up all night,
See if we can find a cheap flight,
Little seven, come eleven, baby, roll those dice?
#57 - "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid
from the album Everybody (2017)
Highest rank: #2 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 15 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Songwriters: Sir Robert Hall II (Logic), Arjun Ivatury (6ix), Alessia Caracciola (Alessia Cara), Khalid Robinson (Khalid), Drew Taggart (Chainsmokers)
Arguably the most socially important song on this countdown, and possibly the year, came from this former "underground" bi-racial rapper that named this epic track after the toll-free number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline without needing to name-check it in the lyrics. The rollercoaster of emotion as the protagonist goes from being a dejected teen to a happy husband was a walking advertisement for the "it gets better" movement. But those turns along the way, helped along with Alessia Cara and Khalid, who guide the path at the end. In the nearly seven-minute video, actors Coy Stewart and Modern Family's Nolan Gould give Emmy-grade performances.
Killer lyric: Pain don't hurt the same, I know,
The lane I travel feels alone,
But I'm moving 'til my legs give out,
And I see my tears melt in the snow...
#56 - "Seein' Red" - Dustin Lynch
from the album Current Mood (2017)
Highest rank: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #55
Songwriters: New Voice Entertainment (Tully Kennedy, Kurt Allison), Steve Bogard, Jason Sever
Country hunk Lynch, who also placed at #65 with "Small Town Boy", had the most infectious single of his career with this cosmopolitan-style country song about lust in color form.
Killer lyric: Ride this Chevy like a Cadillac,
With that one stop light no lookin' back,
Wherever we're going gotta get there fast...
#55 - "Heavy" - Linkin Park featuring Kiiara
from the album One More Light (2017)
Highest rank: #10 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45
Songwriters: Linkin Park (Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson), Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels
The world of rock music lost a true artist when Linkin Park's lead singer Chester Bennington took his life this year. The lyrics of this song, the first single from their One More Light album, from the start foreboded that tragedy, with Chester singing with such a pained voice about the struggled those of us who live with depression carry as a weight every day. Indie-pop songstress Kiiara tries to provide some light, but sadly, it was too late.
Killer lyric: I don't like my mind right now,
Stacking up problems that are so unnecessary,
Wish that I could slow things down,
I wanna let go but there's comfort in the panic...
#54 - "Paris" - The Chainsmokers
from the album Memories...Do Not Open (2017)
Highest rank: #15 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6
Songwriters: Andrew Taggart (Chainsmokers), Kristoffer Eriksson, Fredrik Häggstam, Charlee Nyman
The bro-dance duo, who arrived at #80 with "Closer", take a trip to the city of light with singer Emily Warren on this, possibly their most earnest track off their debut full-length album, but it still has them already moving on to the next girl conquest, but at least in musically poetic form.
Killer lyric: Out on the terrace
I don't know if it's fair but I thought,
"How Could I let you fall by yourself,
While I'm wasted with someone else”...
#53 - "Don't Take The Money" - Bleachers
from the album Gone Now (2017)
Highest rank: #9 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 23 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Songwriters: Jack Antonoff (Bleachers), Ella Yelich-O'Connor (Lorde)
Jack Antonoff, the poster-child for geeky hipster-dom, lands his second appearance on a year-end chart (he was at #61 in 2014 with "I Wanna Get Better"). This Spector-esque sonic assualt sports a gender-fuck video that still has me pining for Jack in that outfit. You can hear the influence of Erasure/Depeche Mode guru Vince Clarke on this, as well as co-writer and back-up singer Lorde.
Killer lyric: I slept on my own those nights,
Was still in my parents house,
And I cut off my t-shirt sleeves,
And claim a new continent...
#52 - "The Fighter" - Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood
from the album Ripcord (2016)
Highest rank: #8 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 17
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38
Songwriters: Keith Urban, busbee
Urban and Underwood, both alums of American Idol in different roles, go past crossover country straight to disco on this sugary bit of goodness from Urban's Ripcord album. A fresh remake of the type of country going on actually during the disco era.
Killer lyric: 'Cause you're precious heart is a precious heart,
He didn't know what he had and I thank God,
And it's gonna take just a little time,
But you're gonna see that I was born to love you...
#51 - "A Guy With A Girl" - Blake Shelton
from the album If I'm Honest (2016)
Highest rank: #30 (three weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 24
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42
Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Bryan Simpson
The third mentor from The Voice in this segment and somehow this year's "Most Sexiest Man" from People magazine, Shelton is here with the best of the singles from his If I'm Honest post-divorce album.
Killer lyric: Wishin' you were there alone
Wonderin' how I ever got your little hand in mine,
Lookin' over at ya like "ain't she beautiful?"
I'm invisible but I stand right there and smile...
Well that puts us at the halfway mark on this year's recap of the biggest on my chart. I'll have my current top 100 on Sunday, and on Tuesday I'll stop for a moment to post the 25 also-rans from this year, including some Gaga, some Weezer, and some Streeter.
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