Twostepcub's Best of 2017: Part One - #100 to #91...
2017: "Hold my beer."
Well, it seems like the aftermath of the calamitous (and most probably rigged) 2016 election gave the United States a heaping morsel of "how many shitty things can happen AT THE SAME time" along with "how can the government be stacked with the absolute worst people on earth". Between the Creamsicle's filling of the White House administration with the swampwater he promised to drain, along with the daily gun death massacre totals, along with the planet saying "fuck this" and trying to kill us in a various amount of ways, it's been a total shitshow of a year. As the sane among us wait for any bit of encouraging news from the investigation to this con artist, and taking measly scraps of comfort from elections in Virginia and Alabama, it looks like human potato head Ajit Pai is trying his best to destroy the internet forever. Meanwhile, in the artistic world, mainstream pop radio has mostly been a pile of steaming horseshit, with droning mind-numbing piffle from the likes of ho-lacious Cardi B or the drugged out violence of Post Malone's "Rockstar" video, it seems this year really is trying to have you not remember it. The only ray of sunshine is that a Spanish-language single became the hit of the summer, raising a huge middle finger to the people behind the horrid "build that wall" chants. And while the biggest pop hits of the year were mostly forgettable trap noise ("Bad And Boujee", "Mask Off", whatever the fuck "XO Tour LLIF3" is supposed to be), there were hidden glimpses of joy released in the year, and even some of it was popular. Hell, with all the ginger hate, you gotta respect that Ed Sheeran at least came up with coherent, entertaining, and emotionally tugging songs, and his Divide album was really robbed of a Grammy Album of the Year nomination. So was Pink in the Song/Record of the year category, as well as Rag N' Bone Man in the Rock category.
But enough of that - it's time to run down my top tunes of 2017. Every week I post my top 100 chart, and I've tallied the results of each week for each songs that has hit. The biggest of the year are here, as I count down the list of those that climbed the highest and/or hung around the longest, ten a day (with a day break for Christmas, as well as a half-time post with the 25 also-rans). Whose gonna take the top spot, let's start the list, and on New Year's Eve, we'll have the answer...
#100 - "Every Little Thing" - Carly Pearce
from the album Every Little Thing (2017)
Highest rank: #16 (one week)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 15 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
Songwriters: Carly Pearce, busbee, Emily Shackelton
2017 continued to be an awful time for women on mainstream country radio, but newcomer Carly Pearce managed to score a #1 hit on the format with her debut single "Every Little Thing". The slow, brooding memory of lost love wasn't the bright and shiny lifestyle commercial the genre has proven to be, but it's damn right refreshing to be able to feel something from a song these days.
Killer lyric: Guess you forgot what you told me
Because you left my heart on the floor
Baby, your ghost still haunts me
But I don't want to sleep with him no more...
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
#99 - "Flatliner" - Cole Swindell featuring Dierks Bentley
from the album You Should Be Here (2016)
Highest rank: #18 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 16
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #56
Songwriters: Cole Swindell, Jaron Boyer, Matt Bronleewe
Swindell, who placed two songs from his You Should Be Here on last year's chart with the title track (#57) and "Middle Of A Memory" (#98), appears here with a much more fast-paced bit of wordplay with co-hort Dierks Bentley that's about falling so hard his heart just stops.
Killer lyric: Sippin' on this seven-seven
Never been this close to heaven
Got the pretty turned up to eleven
Droppin' them dead on the dance floor...
#98 - "Black" - Dierks Bentley
from the album Black (2016)
Highest rank: #16 (one week)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #56
Songwriters: Dierks Bentley, Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley
Swindell's collab partner Dierks, who was at #93 last year with his duet with Elle King, "Different For Girls", gets more reflective about losing conscious romantically with the title track to his eighth album.
Killer lyric: Like your dress on the floor, yeah the one you don't need anymore,
Black like a sky with no stars, just find me and fall into my arms...
#97 - "What Lovers Do" - Maroon 5 featuring SZA
from the album Red Pill Blues (2017)
Highest peak: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 13 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9
Songwriters: Adam Levine, Solana Imani Rowe (SZA), Benjamin Diehl, Brittany Hazzard (Starrah), Jason Evigan, Elina Stridh, Victor Rådström (NEIKED), Oladayo Olatunji (Dyo)
After a year off my list last year, Adam Levine and gang turn themselves into trop-house dance club swingers, reaping three spots on my chart this year. This one, still in the top-20, has them pairing with R&B it-girl SZA, as the fantasy video trades his whistle in to falsetto coos, cribbing from NEIKED's international hit "Sexual".
Killer lyric: Aren't we too grown for games?
Aren't we too grown to play around?
Young enough to chase
But old enough to know better
Are we too grown for changin'?
#96 - "Think A Little Less" - Michael Ray
from the album Michael Ray (2015)
Highest rank: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 18
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #54
Songwriters: Thomas Rhett, Barry Dean, Jon Nite, Jimmy Robbins
Killer lyric: Midnight's creepin' in, we know better
Than leaving here together...
#95 - "Show Me Love" - Brian Justin Crum
from the single (2017)
Highest rank: #14 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 13
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Songwriters: Robyn, Max Martin
The singer who placed fourth on America's Got Talent found his place in the gay clubs of America in 2017 with his massive dance hit cover of Robyn's "Show Me Love". With a banging remix by Toy Armada and DJ Grind, it celebrates gay pride with couples in his promo video...
Killer lyric: Always been told that I've got too much pride
Too independent to have you by my side
Then my heart said all of you will see
Just won't live for someone until he lives for me
#94 - "She's Out Of Her Mind" - Blink-182
from the album California (2016)
Highest rank: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 12
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Songwriters: blink-182 (Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker, Matt Skiba), John Feldmann
The pop-punk veterans, who came back with new co-lead singer Skiba on the single "Bored To Death", which placed at #25 last year, followed that up with this song, which sported a video which genderfucked their own video for 1999's "What's My Age Again". Give me Adam DeVine in a nurse's outfit any day.
Killer lyric: She got a black shirt, black skirt and Bauhaus stuck in her head...
#93 - "Everything Now" - Arcade Fire
from the album Everything Now (2017)
Highest rank: #15 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart: 14
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Songwriters: Arcade Fire (Will Butler, Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Richard Parry
The Canadian modern rock darlings re-emerged after four years to stand up to the election of Trump on their non-album cut "I Give You Power", benefitting the ACLU. The first single from their new album, "Everything Now", was an epic flow of emotions to obscure the cutting wit about materialism. It's a shame the hype over concert dress codes took away from that message...
Killer lyric: Every inch of road's got a sign
And every boy uses the same line
I pledge allegiance to everything now...
#92 - "Up All Night" - Beck
from the album Colors (2017)
Highest peak (so far in 2017): #8 (one week) (still climbing)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 11 (still charting)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart yet
Songwriters: Beck, Greg Kurstin
Beck took a long time setting up the release for his Colors album, with lead single "Dreams" coming out back in 2015, and ending up at #42 on that year's recap. Last year brought "Wow", and now "Up All Night", which has that mix of funk and alternative studio tricks that made his early work such a success. And the video is total female power.
Killer lyric: Now I'm feeling so far away,
I see the colors and all the kids going home,
Night is crawling into the day,
I hear my voice ringing,
The summertime's singing...
#91 - "This Town" - Niall Horan
from the album Flicker (2017)
Highest rank: #32 (two weeks)
Weeks on the chart (in 2017): 20
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20
Songwriters: Niall Horan, Jamie Scott, Mike Needle, Daniel Bryer
After the supposed temporary break of boy band superstars One Direction, three member of the group find themselves on my list this year (surprisingly, not common lead singer Harry Styles, who came late and ended up at #183 with "Sign Of The Times"). Irish blondie Niall actually scores two entries here; first with his acoustic gem, "This Town", which set him miles apart from his 1D work. It follows him searching for a lost old love from the past...
Killer lyric: As if the whole world was watching I'd still dance with you,
Drive highways and byways to be there with you,
Over and over the only truth,
Everything comes back to you...
Well, that does it for the first installment of this year's recap. Tomorrow I'll have some alt-rock R.E.Ms, a meaty soul diva, a murderous country rocker, and more.
Comments