Twostepcub's Best Hits of 2018: Part Four - #70 to #61...

It's time for the fourth part of my yearly recap of the biggest hit songs from my weekly personal music chart for 2018. You can catch up with part one, part two, and part three or click for the whole series. And on we go...

#70 - "Hangin' On" by Chris Young
          from the album Losing Sleep (2017)
          Highest rank: #6 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 14 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #63
          Songwriters: Chris Young, Corey Crowder, Josh Hoge

This is what happens when you give Chris Young a Jason Aldean song... But for real, Young wrote this himself (with his producer and another hired hand), but sonically this strays as far from his usual romantic crooning as he's gotten lately. Nothing extremely notable or different in this "love in hard times" saga but he's deft enough to sell it to Nashville radio, which needs more traditionalists like him to sway back to their roots. (He's also in at 75 with the other single from his Losing Sleep album, the title track - he lasted the whole year with just two entries).

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#69 - "All My Friends" by the Revivalists
          from the album Take Good Care (2018) 
          Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 15 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: David Shaw, Dave Bassett

The alternative rock band from New Orleans who broke out with their single "Wish I Knew You", which ended up on my year end list in 2016 (#88) and 2017 (#19), spent 61 weeks on my chart in total, which is huge for an act with little name recognition. They couldn't follow up with anything from their debut album, but they return this year with the lead track from their sophomore effort, which tips a hat to harder acts like Imagine Dragons and Rag N' Bone Man, with this song regaling the bond of friends in their raucous lives. A great going out on the town song.

#68 - "You Make It Easy" by Jason Aldean
          from the album Rearview Town (2018)
          Highest rank: #17 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 21
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28
          Songwriters: Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line), Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line), Morgan Wallen, Jordan Schmidt

Country music A-lister Aldean did not have an "easy" 2017; he was performing at an outside concert in Las Vegas when a mass shooter took the lives of 58 people from a hotel window nearby courtesy of some automatic weapons. It was apparent that Jason took the tragedy to heart, only emerging to appear on Saturday Night Live to mourn the loss with a performance of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down". So it was understandable that he returned with a waltz with no frills co-written by none other than Florida Georgia Line's boys to sidetrack the painful issue. He did allude to the loss in life with the three-part epic music video - a major rarity in the country world, which pulls the simple message of the song into something quite different. (you can check out the other two parts, which you should, by clicking here and here). On last year's countdown, Aldean was at #78 with "They Don't Know".

#67 - "New Light" by John Mayer
          from the single "New Light" (2018)
          Highest rank: #9 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 18
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: Did not chart, "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #105
          Songwriters: John Mayer, No I.D. (Ernest Wilson)

The last time John Mayer made my year-end list was back in 2010 with "Half Of My Heart" with a then-country newcomer Taylor Swift, and he's had quite a tumultuous time since, sometimes with his antics overshadowing his music. But he popped back in this year with a one-off single where he just lets go and relies on his strengths. Yes, the DIY video is hilarious, but apart from that the dreamy sonics of the record made this a worthy comeback that I want to hear more of.

#66 - "Blue Tacoma" by Russell Dickerson
          from the album Yours (2017)
          Highest rank: #8 (four weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 16 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #52
          Songwriters: Russell Dickerson, Casey Brown, Parker Welling

One of this year's country hunk crop, Dickerson followed up his first #1 country airplay hit "Yours" with his track. I normally shy away from such obvious branding especially when it dominates the chorus and is in the title. But the structure of the swirling chorus and vocal arrangement just pulled the right strings with me. I admit, the "Blue Tacoma, California" is a huge earworm, but somehow amidst all the dreck I had to endure this year this was quite welcome...

#65 - "High Hopes" by Panic! At The Disco
          from the album Pray For The Wicked (2018)
          Highest rank (in 2018): #1 (four weeks) (still at #1)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 12 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (still rising)
          Songwriters: Brandon Urie, Jacob Sinclair, Jenny Owen Youngs, Lauren Pritchard (Lolo), Sam Hollander (S*A*M), Will Lobban-Bean (Cook Classics), Jonas Jeberg, Tayla Parx, Ilsey Juber

The current reigning #1 song on my personal chart from last week is the first of two songs on the recap from the return of Brandon Urie's now one-man project Panic At The Disco, and neither of them are even my favorite song from the album (that goes to "Hey Look Ma, I Made It"). It's odd to see this with nine, count 'em nine songwriters (with no samples), but the result doesn't sound like it. And bringing back this sophisticated rock machine after ten years absent on my recap (2008's "Nine In The Afternoon") is quite welcome.

#64 - "Solo" by Clean Bandit featuring Demi Lovato
          from the album What Is Love? (2018)
          Highest rank: #19 (four weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 17
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #58
          Songwriters: Grace Chatto (Clean Bandit), Jack Patterson (Clean Bandit), Demi Lovato, Camille Purcell (Kamille), Fred Gibson

Demi's been through a time this year, almost overdosing right in the middle of her stunning admission that she had fell off the sober wagon (literally, with the song "Sober"), but she seems to be getting the help she needs, so until then, its nice to see her here, singing on a swinging break-up track from classical/dance act Clean Bandit, who last year were on my list at #11 with "Rockabye" and #36 with "Symphony", both from the album that this one preceded, What Is Love?. Demi had an "also-ran" on that recap with "Sorry Not Sorry" at #120.

#63 - "Yours" by Russell Dickerson
          from the album Yours (2017)
          Highest rank: #17 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 16
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49
          Songwriters: Russell Dickerson, Casey Brown, Parker Welling

Now here's the other song from Dickerson, who introduced himself to mainstream radio with this bombastic love song. Nothing fancy on this one, just his charming delivery and country-rock production that doesn't get too much in the way.

#62 - "I Don't Think About You" by Kelly Clarkson
          from the album Meaning Of Life (2017)
          Highest rank: #13 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 17
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: Sean & Andre Davidson (The Monarch), Jessica Ashley Karpov (Harlœ), Michael Pollack

After coming in at #64 last year with "Love So Soft", the original American Idol followed up with this break-up barnburner Mariah would've (or should've) killed for , with just a piano and a restrained yet noticeably beautiful orchestra from the late Paul Buckmaster of Elton John fame to back her up. A simply gorgeous bit of pop music that was criminally overlooked.

#61 - "Severed" by the Decemberists
         from the album I'll Be Your Girl (2018)
         Highest rank: #5 (one week)
         Weeks on the chart: 15
         Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
         Songwriter: Colin Meloy

The indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, who placed at #95 in 2015 with "Make You Better" their first single to top Billboard magazine's Adult Album Alternative radio chart, are back with their second, which combines proto synthpop with a swirling guitar rush that give this song such a textured sound that it stands out from any of the other nine songs on this post. Inspired by the 2016 election, the band's I'll Be Your Girl was a treat, and this gem tops it all.

We're coming up to almost the halfway point of this year's list - I'll be back tomorrow with a helmeted EDM star, country crossover charmers, and yes, my girl makes a bold new path in her golden year.