Twostepcub's Best Hits of 2018: Part Six - #50 to #41...

Hey folks, we've now passed the halfway mark on my recap of the biggest hits on my weekly music chart for 2018... You can catch up by clicking on Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, or for the whole series. But let's get back to business...

#50 - "Whatever You Want" by Pink
          from the album Beautiful Trauma (2017)
          Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 16
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: Pink, Max Martin, Shellback

The second of Pink's three entries on this year's list, the third single from her Beautiful Trauma album was the most unassuming, but the chorus on this nugget is quite beautifully constructed. A look into her relationship with husband Carey Hart in the rough times, it's a real and flawed love that wins the battle as is proven here.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


#49 - "No Excuses" by Meghan Trainor
          from the album Treat Myself (2019)
          Highest rank: #3 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 17
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #46
          Songwriters: Meghan Trainor, Andrew Wells, Jacob Kasher Hindlin

Probably the most "catchy" of the pop princess tracks on my list, this lead-off to Meghan's third album is a bouncy take on female empowerment and vaguely the #MeToo as a corollary. The percussion hook on this is so damn infectious that I had this as my ringtone for a hot minute.

#48 - "Better Now" by Post Malone
          from the album Beerbongs & Bentleys (2018)
          Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 20 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
          Songwriters: Post Malone, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, Billy Walsh

The glut of "whiteboy" rappers in 2018 reached a peak level, with G-Eazy, Logic, Machine Gun Kelly, and above all Post Malone carving a niche for suburban kids to stick to without any of the racial and economic discourse they would be involved in otherwise - a "gated community of hip-hop", if you will. Malone, who at times eschews the genre and has some wacked out opinions as times, and has more connections to Justin Bieber than Travis Scott, skirts towards appropriation, for someone with a house in northern freaking Utah, but as a work of music I couldn't deny this nugget which by far was the highlight of the overlong and uneven Beerbongs & Bentleys album. The delivery of the chorus where he deftly skirts around whether he's cool with his breakup or not played out in the fall when he split from longtime girlfriend Ashlen Diaz. With him currently glutting the market with product it's hard to know how long this can last, thought his choice of contributing to the new Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse animated movie with "Sunflower" was a smart choice so far.

#47 - "Marry Me" by Thomas Rhett
          from the album Life Changes (2017)
          Highest rank: #9 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 18
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30
          Songwriters: Thomas Rhett, Shane McAnally, Ashley Gorley, Jesse Frasure

The solo country artist currently enjoying the most pop crossover success lately, Rhett delivered what I think is his best ballad performance with this tale of friend-zoned love. Resolved in the condition he's in but in despair over it, it's a plotline I've lived over and over again. The music video may have muted the effect at the end, but the song stands better on its own anyway as something he should really be proud of, in country music and even beyond the genre.

#46 - "Delicate" by Taylor Swift
          from the album Reputation (2017)
          Highest rank: #19 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 23 (still charting)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12
          Songwriters: Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback

It was no shock last year that I absolutely abhorred the roll-out of the "new" Taylor Swift on Reputation. Between the fangirl-baiting gay cultural appropriation of "Look What You Made Me Do" to the horrid attempt to be edgy with the unlistenable "Ready For It?", I felt that she had turned the last corner to basing her existence on being relevant. But twelve months can change minds a little bit, and 2018 had been a bit kinder to her. She finally stood for something when she decided to endorse the candidacy of former Governor Bredesen for Tennessee senator against hateful holy roller Marsha Blackburn, and risked her reputation of staying neutral in these fights. Her guy lost (very sadly), but the goodwill in her encouraging younger people to vote in the midterms was a very big step for someone like her. And in that vein, the song of hers that defined her sound in 2018 with "Delicate", easily the best thing about Reputation. An understatedly performed track about frailty, it displayed quite a bit of restraint, letting the song unravel itself instead of hamfisting an attitude, and the music video where she "disappears" from her fame is quite touching, and you can actually believe that she's feeling the weight of her own name over her. If she can carry this through for a whole album she would be golden. We'll see.

#45 - "Singles You Up" by Jordan Davis
          from the album Home State (2018)
          Highest rank: #10 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 22
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
          Songwriters: Jordan Davis, Steven Dale Jones, Justin Ebach

The guy with the best beard on the list, Davis won me over with this more whimsical counterpart to Rhett's "Marry Me", even if its quite clumsily trying to make the phrase "singles you up" a thing. Still, scarily catchy vocal delivery and crunchy guitars put it in my wheelhouse.

#44 - "Get You" by Daniel Caesar featuring Kali Uchis
         from the album Freudian (2017)
         Highest rank: #12 (two weeks)
         Weeks on the chart: 21
         Billboard Hot 100 peak: #93
         Songwriters: Daniel Caesar, Kali Uchis

Two of the most exciting new artists in R&B music come together in this trippy, dreamy, reflection of a love that's still amazes its participants. Although Uchis comes through only in the end as a coda, her voice verifying that she's just as smitten as he ties the track to a welcome conclusion.

#43 - "Meant To Be" by Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line
          from the album Expectations (2018)
          Highest rank: #40 (four weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 32
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2
          Songwriters: Bebe Rexha, Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line), David Garcia, Josh Miller

The final three on today's post are what I call "The Balkan Babes", with first up pop singer Bebe Rexha, whose parents are ethnic Albanians from what's now the Republic of Macedonia. Now this is probably the most polarizing track on this top 100 list by far. Let me get this straight - this is not by any means or any stretch of the word, a country record. But somehow, with vocoded country crossover bros Florida Georgia Line, Billboard from the start slotted this in the country lane, possibly for the reason of whitewashing the dismal record of the radio format with female artists in the past two years. With the pop success of the track counted towards its placement on their "Country Songs" chart, where it broke already overinflated records for time at #1 with an insane fifty weeks from the moment of its debut. Is that supposed to signify a cornerstone in the genre, or just a news item to tweet out? Nevertheless, since the track itself wasn't a complete disaster (looking at you, Taylor), it lingered on my chart for months as it rode the wave that wouldn't stop, ending up this high more for longevity than fervor. But that's how the cookie crumbles, and I couldn't deny that enough Americans wanted this, though looking at Washington there's a lot of things some people wanted that would be much better set aside.

#42 - "Anywhere" by Rita Ora
         from the album Phoenix (2018)
         Highest rank: #30 (three weeks)
         Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 23
         Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
         Songwriters: Rita Ora, Sir Nolan, Alexandra Tamposi, Nicholas Gale (Digital Farm Animals), Watt, Brian Lee

The second "Balkan Babe", Rita Ora, is a Londoner whose parents, also ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, left for Britain during the fractious 1990s. She's been trying to make it big internationally after easily succeeding in the UK, with this her first year-end placing. "Anywhere" is a percussive treat that has an organic underlying production that set it apart from the robotic dance-pop that dominated the fare offered this year. But six writers? Hmm.

#41 - "IDGAF" by Dua Lipa
          from the album Dua Lipa (2017)
          Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 20
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49
          Songwriters: Dua Lipa, MNEK, Larzz Principato, Skyler Stonestreet, Whiskey Waters

The final Balkan Babe, Lipa is like Ora in having parents who fled Kosovo to England, from the same town of Pristina even. After landing her American breakthrough with "New Rules" (which we'll hear later), she followed with this percussive kiss-off track, which borrowed from the guitar intro to Nico & Vinz' "Am I Wrong" as much as that single cribbed from the Police's "Message In A Bottle". Nevertheless, "IDGAF" won over with its assertive nature, and the double-twin goodness video, a West Side Story of identity crises.

The top forty for the year is coming up, but before that, tomorrow I'll be taking a break from the countdown to present the "also rans" this year, including Canadian country hunks, Australian gay pop sensation, a bad comic's oh so good daughter, and more.