Twostepcublog

    Good morning on the last day of 2022. It's time to check out my choices of the songs reaching the various singles charts in Billboard magazine in the US as well as the Official British Chart in the UK. It's another slow holiday week, which is fine by me.   " Insomnia " - The Moss from the single (2022) Billboard Alternative Rock Airplay debut: #39    The Hawaiian band that calls Utah their home now deliver the jangle-pop gem that seems plucked from the 80s with Tyke James' echoed vocals over Addison Sharps guitar strums. A nice winter's listen. (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    Friday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. Taylor Swift spends a second week at #1, while Beyonce (pictured above) leaps into the top five. Songs from Metallica, Taylor Swift, and Dean Lewis made some of the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ), while former big hits from Lizzo, Silk Sonic, and Morgan Wallen drop off my chart. And under the list, everything is Spotify playlisted for five and a half hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. Here's to hoping 2023 will be better than 2022...   And you can check out my top 100 songs from this chart from 2022 by clicking here . Eighteen songs from this chart are on the list...   This Week             Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift (1) 2. Unholy - Sam Smith & K

    Well, we're here, the last installment of my countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart for 2022 has arrived. You can check out the rest of the series (including the 25 "also rans") by clicking here . And away we go... #10 - " Numb Little Bug " - Em Beihold           from the EP Egg In The Backseat (2022)           Highest rank: #2 (three weeks)           Weeks on the chart: 29           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18           Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #6           Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #9           Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #1 (four weeks)           Official British Singles Chart peak: #25           Songwriters: Em Beihold, Dru DeCaro, Nick Lopez While newcomers Gayle and Lauren Spencer-Smith were busy railing against their exes, singer/songwriter Beihold went a different route, talking about her mental insecurities and the medications used to fight them. It's starkly real for such a mu

    We're almost to the end of my year-end countdown of the biggest hit songs on my weekly music chart for 2022. You can catch up on the rest of the series so far by clicking here .   #20 - " Love's Train " - Silk Sonic           from the album An Evening With Silk Sonic (2021)           Highest rank" #14 (one week)           Weeks on the chart: 30           Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart, "bubbled under" at #111           Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #9           Billboard Adult R&B Airplay peak: #1 (13 weeks)           Songwriters: Michael Cooper, Felton Pilate II    After releasing three successful singles from their Silk Sonic collaborative album (one of them, "Smoking Out The Window", is at #49), Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak slipped in an extra gem for Valentine's Day that got tacked on to the streaming and vinyl version. It's a smooth slow jam from 1982 from the band Con Funk Shun which never hit the ch

    I'm deep in my year-end countdown of the biggest songs on my weekly music chart for 2022, and it's time for part eight. You can check up on the rest of the series (including my 25 also-rans) by clicking here .     #30 - " Don't Come Lookin' " - Jackson Dean           from the album Greenbroke (2022)           Highest rank: #3 (two weeks)           Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 22 (still charting)           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50           Billboard Country Airplay peak: #3            Songwriters: Jackson Dean, Luke Dick    Country rocker Dean's breakthrough single took a long time to catch on at radio, but it's bluesy charm cannot be denied. The sing-along chorus is perfect bar-band material. (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    We've entered the top-40 of my year-end countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart from the past year. You can catch up on the rest of the series so far by clicking here .    #40 -  " Where Are You Now " - Lost Frequencies featuring Calum Scott            from the single (2021)            Highest rank: #22 (three weeks)            Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 29 (was on for four weeks in 2021)            Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #35            Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #4            Official British Singles Chart peak: #3            Songwriters: Felix de Laet (Lost Frequencies), Dag Lundberg, Joacim Bo Persson, Michael Patrick Kelly, Sebastian Arman Belgian DJ/producer Felix De Laet, aka Lost Frequencies, had success in Europe last decade with tropical house music, but for his breakthrough in America he recruited British singer Calum Scott, who was on my year-end for 2016 at #64 with his ballad cover of "Dancing

     Hey everyone, I hope you had a great weekend, and it's time to start back in with my countdown of the biggest "hit" songs of 2022 on my weekly music chart . You can check out the rest of the series (including my "bubbling under" 25) by clicking here .   Just a little background - each week I take the songs making certain levels on the Hot 100 and various airplay charts in pop, rock, country, R&B, and dance music, along with the biggest hits in the UK, and come up with a top 100 chart on Friday. I took every song that made the list from December 21, 2021 to December 13, 2022 (506 in total for this year) and gave points for each week they were on the list in inverted order (1 point for #100, 99 points for #2) with extra points for multiple weeks at #1. After that, I simply ranked the scores, breaking ties with peak position, weeks at that peak, and weeks on the chart. Hence some surprises, with both long chart runs and long stays at #1 getting an edge. So

    Happy Sunday, everybody, it's time for this week's new album round-up, where I sample my picks of the best of the albums making their debut on Billboard magazine's sales charts as well as the same across the pond in the United Kingdom. You can check out yesterday's new singles recap by clicking here . It's another very light week due to the Christmas/Hanuakkah holidays, but of course one big album comes in to steal the show.  SOS - SZA Billboard 200 debut: #1 Billboard Current Albums Sales debut: #11  British Albums Sales debut: #2 Choice cut: "Special"   "Bedroom soul" singer Solána Imani Rowe, aka SZA, finally returns with her second album after tussles with her record company, and it's a sprawling feast of experiments in rock, alt-country, and hyper-pop, but mostly centered around romantic troubles and self-image. Personally, I would've liked this pared down to 12 cuts, but there's nothing unlistenable here for sure. (

    It's time for this week's new music round-up, where I run down my picks of the latest singles on the various charts in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom. It's the week of Hanukkah and Christmas, so of course everything is really slow, but a new album from soul singer SZA at least threw some interest in the mix. All 20 new songs from the record made the Hot 100, and I'll single them out.   " Nobody Gets Me " - SZA from the album SOS (2022) Billboard Hot 100 debut: #10     Although it was "Kill Bill" than won the chart this week, entering the Hot 100 at #3, I much preferred the more exposed indie rock of this song, which still made the top ten.  (Click below to see the rest of the post)

    We've come to the halfway mark of my countdown of the songs which made the biggest impact on my weekly chart this past year. I calculated the points for each week a song was on my list, and let the disc fall as they lay. It's time to take a breather, though, and do a quick spotlight on the songs that almost scored enough points to make the top 100 for 2022. Mind you, there were 506 songs that reached my chart in the timeframe, so these 25 should get some love, especially since some are here only because of timing; my "year" went from December 24th of last year to December 17th of 2022, so songs that had been big in between years got left, including the final #1 of the period, which is here. You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here .... #125 - "Tippa My Tongue" - Red Hot Chili Peppers             from the album Return Of The Dream Canteen (2022)             Highest rank: #25 (one week)             Weeks on the chart (in 2022): 15 (stil

    Friday's here, and it's time to run down my top 100 "hit" tunes from the previous week. We have a new winner at #1 with Taylor Swift, while newcomers Beach Weather (pictured above) leap into the top five. A former big hit from Lizzo drops off my chart, while songs from Avril Lavigne/YUNGBLUD, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Michigander make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ). And under the list everything is Spotify playlisted for 5 1/2 hours of the biggest in pop, rock, R&B, country, and dance music. Happy holidays everyone, to whatever you celebrate.   And by the way, my year-end countdown of the biggest songs of 2022 from this weekly chart is going on, you can catch up with the series by clicking here .   This Week             Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift (2) 2. Unholy - S

    We're coming up on the halfway mark on my countdown of the biggest "hit" songs on my weekly music chart for 2022. You can catch up with the series so far by clicking here .   #60 - " Hrs & Hrs " - Muni Long           from the album Public Displays Of Affection (2022)           Highest rank: #14 (two weeks)           Weeks on the chart: 22           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16           Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #1 (eight weeks)           Billboard Adult R&B Airplay peak: #2           Billboard Rhythmic Airplay peak: #3           Official British Singles Chart peak: #41           Songwriter: Muni Long (Priscilla Renea) After recording two albums that didn't really go anywhere, but writing big hits for Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, and Miranda Lambert, Priscilla Renea Hamilton, who had been recording under her first and middle names, reinvented herself as Muni Long, and the gambit paid off, with her breakthrough R&B hit that topp

    On we go with my countdown of the "biggest" songs to make my weekly music chart . You can catch up with the rest of the series so far by clicking here ...   #70 - " So Good " - Halsey           from the single (2022)           Highest rank: #9 (two weeks)           Weeks on the chart: 18           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #51           Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #10           Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay peak: #19           Billboard Adult Top-40 Airplay peak: #9           Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #27           Official British Singles Chart peak: #67           Songwriters: Halsey (Ashley Frangipane), Sarah Aarons, Sammy Witte     This year saw many music artists and band openly fighting their own record companies, including this week's current champion SZA. Halsey had trouble with the release of this very song, accusing (rightfully) that Capitol was holding back its release until a level of "virality" on the TikTok app was achiev

    It's time for the third installment in this year's countdown of the biggest hits on my weekly music chart. You can check out part one or part two or the whole series (so far) by clicking here .   #80 - " I Hate U " - SZA           from the album SOS (2022)           Highest rank: #10 (two weeks)           Weeks on the chart: 23           Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7           Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #33           Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay peak: #1 (four weeks)           Billboard Adult R&B Airplay peak: #4           Billboard Rhythmic Airplay peak: #1 (one week)           Official British Singles Chart peak: #38           Songwriters: SZA (Solana Rowe), Rob Bisel, Cody Fayne, Carter Lang, Dylan Patrice It's fitting we start out with the woman who is currently ruling the charts; Jersey-born SZA's second album, SOS , made its debut this week, with twenty of its previously unreleased tracks making the Hot 100, two of them in the top ten (a

    It's time for round two of my year-end countdown of the biggest hits on my weekly music chart for 2022. You can check out part one by clicking here ...  #90 - " Afraid To Feel " - LF System           from the single (2022)           Highest rank: #9 (four weeks)           Weeks on the chart: 15           Billboard Dance Airplay peak: #33           Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs peak: #34           Official British Singles Chart peak: #1 (eight weeks)           Songwriters: Joseph B. Jefferson, Richard William Roebuck, Charles Simmons  One of the biggest surprises on the British charts this year was the success of former working-class men turned DJ duo from Scotland that took a forgotten nugget from the 70's disco band Silk, "I Can't Stop (Turning You On)", chopped and screwed with it over their own production and new vocals from Louise Clare Marshall, and ended up ruling the list for two full months. I'm disappointed this didn't have the

    How can a year feel like it was eternal yet too short by half at the same time? Well, between our neverending affair as a country of playing Russian Roulette with our lives, while Russia itself decides to bomb the hell out of neighboring country that never attacked them, along with the "football-style" politics that has turned network news into a reality show no one asked for, 2022 was better and worse than 2021 in so many ways. The music business got somewhat back on track, with acts going on tour again spotting by the occasional "we had to cancel because X members of the band got COVID", while Spotify seems to have perservered after all the calls to drop the service because of taintstain "guy at the party no one likes" Joe Rogan (if only Apple wasn't so monopolistic and Amazon weren't determined on being the Zune of streaming with their better-sounding but wonky app). And for music artists , there were just two major forces on the scene, Harr

    Happy Sunday, everybody, it's time for this week's new album round-up, where I sample my picks of the best of the albums making their debut on Billboard magazine's sales charts as well as the same across the pond in the United Kingdom. You can check out yesterday's new singles recap by clicking here . It's another "slow week", where the big story is producer Metro Boomin's new album, but although there are a few good tracks in there, it involved too much of Travis Scott and Young Thug for me to put it in my own choices, the three big K-pop releases from RM, Itzy, and Enhyphen left me cold, and Sam Smith's live EP is an Apple exclusive. So what's I'm left with is two huge re-releases from veterans from the 1960s.   The 7" Singles Box - Paul McCartney Billboard 200 debut: #126 Billboard Current Albums Sales debut: #66 Choice cut: "Listen To What The Man Said" and about 30 others    Well, this compilation of eighty v