twostepcub's Best Hits of 2018: Part Eight - #30 to #21...

I hope those who celebrated had a great Christmas. I'm ready to pick up where I left off, with the eighth installment of my countdown of the best and biggest hits of 2018 on my weekly personal music chart. You can catch up by clicking on part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, my also-ran's and the whole series...

#30 - "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons
          from the album Evolve (2017)
          Highest rank (in 2018): #4 (one week) (peaked at #2 for two weeks in 2017)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 21 (was on for 23 weeks in 2017)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
          Songwriters: Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons),Wayne Sermon (Imagine Dragons), Ben McKee (Imagine Dragons), Daniel Platzman (Imagine Dragons), Alexander Grant (Alex da Kid), Jayson Dezuzio

"Thunder" ended up being such a massive hit on my chart in total, placing at #33 on last years list and spending a total of 44 weeks on my list. But it did come at the critics expense, with their almost-monopoly on the by-far biggest alternative rock act in the mainstream, led a lot of people to hate this track. But while it may not be more than rock poetry, its sonics and composition had charm and shade to make my interested in listening months after its release. The avant-garge video also help, but it came down to a band just cranking out the hits like it was the 80s.

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#29 - "Havana" by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug
          from the album Camila (2018)
          Highest rank: #2 (four weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 19
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
          Songwriters: Camila Cabello, Young Thug, Frank Dukes, Starrah, Ali Tamposi, Brian Lee, Watt, Pharrell Williams, Louis Bell, Kaan Gunesberk

I wouldn't have figured Cabello to be the first to depart the prefab girl group Fifth Harmony, well for one because I can't tell one from the other but also she had the thinnest of the voices of the group if you did tell them apart. And after a couple of duet singles with paired up TMZ boyfriend material like Shawn Mendes and G-Eazy, she also proved it right, with first solo single "Crying In The Club" tanking harder than a submarie made of cheese. However Cabello more than righted herself with the second single she was able to release, "Havana". Setting itself miles part in connecting to her Cuban heritage, which she fully took advantage of, but also with the beat, a sleazy low-key salsa for once setting it apart from the flood of reggaeton trash out at the time. even Young Thug's lazy lines fit in perfectly on the break, as if he was playing the lothario luring her to Atlanta. And the video ranks among the most entertaining of the year, with Cabello playing true and enough camp for five gay bars, in the end "Havana" earned Cabello all the star power she got from it.

#28 - "You Worry Me" by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
          from the album Tearing At The Seams (2018)
          Highest rank: #2 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 24
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
          Songwriters: Nathaniel Rateliff, Luke Mossman

The second (and first-released) of the two songs on my year-end list from the blues-rockers' album Tearing At The Seams, found them polishing their sound to almost Dave Matthews territory, but in no way does "You Worry Me" sound forced, but rather a cool, subdued burn of a record that doesn't carry it's full force until you see the music video, telling the tale of a single mother trying to escape the danger of the father of her child. It's potent and all so true in this age of propped up fake masculinity.

#27 - "How Long" by Charlie Puth
          from the album Voicenotes (2018)
          Highest rank: #5 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 19
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21
          Songwriters: Charlie Puth, Jacob Kasher, DJ Frank E

The third of the entries on this year's recap from Charlie Puth's masterpiece Voicenotes, which can be argued to be the best male pop mainstream album of the year, "How Long" places Puth in the position of defending an unfaithful night, which as much regret as swagger, something Justin Timberlake appeared like he was able to do. I hope Puth can continue this level of expertise in his production and songwriting.

#26 - "Friends" by Marshmello with Anne-Marie
          from the album Speak Your Mind (Anne-Marie, 2018)
          Highest rank: #5 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 27
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11
          Songwriters: Marshmello, Anne-Marie, Eden Anderson, Rick Boardman, Jasmine Thompson, Natalie Dunn, Sarah Blanchard, Pablo Bowman

Of course this song is pretty snarky, with Anne-Marie spending three minutes telling a supposed "friend" that they are never gonna get it, but then again this is pretty real, happening all the freaking time, as well as the stripped down almost-country in the verses to the booming marching-band style in the chorus, the British singer rides both grooves through the record with aplomb.

#25 - "No Tears Left To Cry" by Ariana Grande
          from the album Sweetener (2018)
          Highest rank: #5 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 25
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
          Songwriters: Ariana Grande, Max Martin, ILYA, Savan Kotecha

In dealing with the events in her life and the world over the past year, between the tragic mass shooting at her concert in Manchester to the massacre at the Pulse gay night club, Grande could have re-emerged with a dirge-like ballad with complete understanding. But she took a completely different route, demanding she and her fans not be denied the right to love and life and celebrating getting over the pain she's been handling (just for perspective, when she was releasing this, she was still dating the late rapper Mac Miller). Her Sweetener album was everything it needed to be for her fans, and this in particular was a much-needed light for these dark times.

#24 - "Feel It Still" by Portugal, The Man
          from the album Woodstock (2017)
          Highest rank (in 2018): #11 (two weeks) (peaked at #2 for four weeks in 2017)
          Weeks on the chart (in 2018): 24 (was on for 35 weeks in 2017)
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
          Songwriters: John Gourley (Portugal, The Man), Zachary Carothers (Portugal, The Man), Kyle O'Quin (Portugal, The Man), Eric Howk (Portugal, The Man), Jason Sechrist (Portugal, The Man), John Hill, Asa Taccone, Robert Bateman, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland (the last three for the sample of "Please Mr. Postman")

This song was all the way up at #6 on last years recap, and still comes in at respectable position in the top quarter after another six months on the chart this year, as it rode through and conquered different radio formats and countries charts like Genghis Khan, this funky but quirky track from the Alaskan alt-rock band brought in retro tones from the 1960s yet sounded totally current.

#23 - "Finesse" by Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B
          from the album 24K Magic (2016)
          Highest rank: #2 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 24
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
          Songwriters: Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Philip Lawrence, Christopher Brown, James Fauntleroy, Johnathan Yip, Ray Romulus, Jeremy Reeves, Ray McCullough II, Klenord Rafael

The original version of "Finesse" on the 24K Magic album was a bit unremarkable, but the single remix, which amplified the new jack swing vibe and inserted some quality verses from Cardi B, resurrected the album after the surprising misstep of "Versace On The Floor". Between the alternative mix people bought and the Living Color homage video people streamed, this had a life of its own honoring my late-life singles released in that era.

#22 - "Wait" by Maroon 5
          from the album Red Pill Blues (2017)
          Highest rank: #7 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 26
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24
          Songwriters: Adam Levine (Maroon 5), John Ryan, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Ammar Malik

Five huge singles from Maroon 5's Red Pill Blues have hit the year-end either last year ("Don't Wanna Know" and "Cold"), this year's ("Wait", "Girls Like You") or both ("What Lovers Do"), but it seems like this is just Adam Levine carrying his bandmates along for the ride. Personally, this was my favorite sonically of the bunch, with its dream-like production and plaintive lyrics hitting a little truer, but I do have to admit this gets graded more on a curve because of the dearth of any other pop bands with even close to this success.

#21 - "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Backstreet Boys
          from the album DNA (TBA, 2019)
          Highest rank: #1 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 24
          Billboard Hot 100 peak: #63
          Songwriters: Wrabel, Stuart Crichton, Jamie Hartman (Ben's Brother)

Now this is a comeback. After being missing from my year-end lists since "Shape Of My Heart" back in 2000, the biggest boyband in history (fight them, NSYNC) return with a mature love plea co-written by "out" singer/songwriter Wrabel. It rightfully topped my chart for a week, helped by an infectious chorus and the seamless wordplay between the fivesome.

We're getting much nearer to the top, and tomorrow's ten will include a gypsy anthem, a country singer getting a wrong number, a British soul singer with thoughts on romance, and more.