Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 Review: February 2018

Welcome back to another Top 40 Review where I look at the 40 most popular songs in the US. Let’s get started.

#40. 1-800-273-8255-Logic ft Alessia Cara & Khalid: D

#39. NBA Youngboy-Outside Today: Here’s NBA Youngboy or Youngboy Never Broke Again, who had a few charting singles, but none of them touched the Top 40 until now. Outside Today is no different from the hundreds of other trap songs you’ve heard; desaturated beat, melodic hook, and some bad lyrics like buying a tiger, doing drive-by shootings, and not going outside. The only upside to this song is that it’s short. Otherwise, skip it. I’m giving it an F.

#38. Sorry Not Sorry-Demi Lovato: F

#37. Marry Me-Thomas Rhett: A

#36. Gucci Gang-Lil Pump: F

#35. Young Dumb And Broke-Khalid: A

#34. Filthy-Justin Timberlake: F

#33. Plain Jane-A$AP Ferg: D

#32. Sky Walker-Miguel ft Travis Scott: B

#31. All The Stars-Kendrick Lamar ft SZA: Anyone who follows me knows that I’m super pumped for Black Panther. Every new piece of information about the movie made me more and more hyped. It’s my most anticipated film of the year, even more so than Infinity War and Incredibles 2. To make a sweet deal even sweeter, it has a soundtrack put together by Kendrick Lamar. I’ll talk about the album next week in a review. For now, let’s talk All The Stars. It’s a mainstream-friendly single with African-inspired production and aspirational lyrics, even if they are a bit vague. SZA dominates this song even with Kendrick doing a good enough job. She just runs away with it. All The Stars is an obvious soundtrack single, but it’s a damn good one. I give it a B.

#30. Lights Down Low-MAX ft gnash: Before this post, I forgot that this song even existed and for good reason. Lights Down Low is a generic acoustic guitar song with a gutless backing beat and MAX taking a cue from other WGWAG artists. gnash, the guy behind i hate u, i love u, is featured on the song and he doesn’t make the song any better. Song is kinda weak and it’s getting a D from me.

#29. Mine-Bazzi: Bazzi is one of those singers who got famous off of Vine and now, he’s legitimate thanks to Mine, which is another one of those songs that goes in one ear and out the other. The production is okay, but everything else is pretty meh. This is one of those songs that I will forget about after hearing it. I give it a D.

#28. Too Good At Goodbyes-Sam Smith: B

#27. Never Be The Same-Camila Cabello: If there’s a songwriting cliche that has existed before the dinosaurs, it’s comparing love to a drug. How many songs have you heard that compared the feeling of love to a drug? Well, Camila Cabello added her two cents to the cliche with Never Be The Same. She’s singing in a higher register, which makes her sound awful. The production feels lazily slapped together and the writing is just as lazy. It’s a real drag and that’s why I’m giving it an F.

#26. Feel It Still-Portugal The Man: A

#25. Wolves-Selena Gomez & Marshmello: B

#24. Gummo-6ix9ine: F

#23. Shape Of You-Ed Sheeran (can this song just go away already?): C

#22. The Middle-Zedd, Maren Morris, & Grey: Straight out of a Target commercial is Zedd’s collaboration with Marren Morris called The Middle. I initially liked the song, but after repeated listens, I can’t call it anything but okay. The more I listened to this song, the more I realize how the production sounds like Stay with the percussion and the vocal effects. You especially don’t need the latter since Maren Morris is a good singer. There was potential for a good song and I don’t have anything against Zedd in particular, but this wounded up being okay in the end. I give it a C.

#21. How Long-Charlie Puth: B

#20. Bartier Cardi-Cardi B ft 21 Savage: F

#19. Bodak Yellow-Cardi B: D

#18. I Fall Apart-Post Malone: F

#17. Say Something-Justin Timberlake ft Chris Stapleton: Well, JT finally released Man Of The Woods. Spoilers: it’s not a good album. And I’m not the only one with that opinion as most critics haven’t been kind to the record. One of the few good songs on the album is Say Something, a collaboration with Chris Stapleton. This is what I was expecting from the promos, a pseudo-country song with acoustic guitar grooves along with some 808s. JT and Chris sound amazing together, but let’s be real; Chris dominates this song. The writing is very vague when it comes to saying something, which only gets this song as high as a B. Still better than the other songs from Man Of The Woods.

#16. No Limit-G-Eazy ft A$AP Rocky & Cardi B: C

#15. Him & I-G-Eazy ft Halsey: F

#14. MotorSport-Migos ft Cardi B & Nicki Minaj: F

#13. LOVE-Kendrick Lamar ft Zacari: A

#12. Let You Down-NF: B

#11. Thunder-Imagine Dragons: F

#10. Bad At Love-Halsey: F

#9. Meant To Be-Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line: F

#8. Stir Fry-Migos: I make it no secret that I’m not a Migos fan. The release of Culture II did not help as it was WAY too long for a trap album. 24 tracks, most of it is the same shit. There are very few times where they try something different and one of those times is with Stir Fry, which is easily their best song so far. Doesn’t mean I like it. The best thing about the song is the beat, which you can thank Pharrell for. It doesn’t sound like the typical trap beats that Migos are fond of. Aside from that, the content is same ol’, same ol’; dealing drugs, money, etc., while throwing in a bunch of food references and hit-or-miss punchlines. I see a lot of people like this song, but I don’t really care for it myself. Could’ve been a lot worse, though. I give it a low C.

#7. Pray For Me-The Weeknd ft Kendrick Lamar: Another song from the Black Panther album and to tell you the truth? I like Pray For Me a lot more than All The Stars. It also has African-inspired production, but it hits a lot harder thanks to the bass-heavy drums and 80s-sounding synths. Both The Weeknd and Kendrick kill it with themes of the pressure of being a superhero. If I had to guess, this would reflect the themes of the Black Panther movie. I hope this song sticks around the Top 10 or at least Top 20 because it’s a certified banger. It’s getting an A from me.

#6. New Rules-Dua Lipa: A

#5. rockstar-Post Malone ft 21 Savage: F

#4. Havana-Camila Cabello ft Young Thug: D

#3. Finesse-Bruno Mars: A

#2. Perfect-Ed Sheeran: C

#1. God’s Plan-Drake: One year. One fucking year, Aubrey. That’s all I ask for. Well, because he can’t go one year without releasing something, Drake released two songs together and called it an EP, Diplomatic Immunity and God’s Plan. The latter debuted at the top of the charts and it’s still there. Aside from brand-name recognition, why this song? It’s basically a throwaway with a cheap beat and Drake phoning it in throughout. Evidence #427 of Aubrey not giving a shit about putting in any effort and how his fanbase will eat up anything he puts out, no matter the quality. I give this an F.

BEST

Pray For Me

HONORABLE MENTION

All The Stars

WORST

God’s Plan

DISHONORABLE MENTION

Outside Today

And those were the Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 as of February 13, 2018. Stay tuned next month when I do another Top 40 Review. This week, Kodak Black and XXX are under the scope for a new Target Practice and next week, I review the Black Panther movie AND album and I’ll release the Worst Songs of 1973 list. I’m gonna be a busy bee next week.

Peace!!