In the #3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 is Justin Bieber with ‘Peaches.’ This is the fifth single from his 2021 album Justice.
After five anticipatory single releases, ‘Peaches’ was dropped the same day as Justice and both the song and album debuted at #1. Bieber became the first male solo artist to debut at #1 on both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts simultaneously.
At the #2 spot on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 is ‘Leave the Door Open,’ a smooth R&B jam by Silk Sonic.
If you’re like me, this is the first you’ve heard of Silk Sonic, which you’ll quickly realize is a super-duo formed by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Paak opened for Mars a few years ago and the two began a collaboration that culminated in the surprise drop of this song and a promise of a future album.
I last posted an installment of my ‘What the Kids Are Listening To’ series more than a year ago, before the coronavirus had even reached U.S. soil. The final song back then was The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights,’ sitting at #15 prior to the release of his album After Hours.
‘Blinding Lights’ is at #11 now, after setting a record by becoming the first song in history to spend a full year in Billboard’s Top 10. It holds the record for the most weeks spent in the Top 5, Top 10, Top 20 and Top 40. If only the rest of the world could have had as rewarding a year as that song.
‘Badge and Gun’ is the penultimate track on John Mayer’s sixth studio album, 2013’s Paradise Valley.
This album was recorded after Mayer underwent multiple surgeries to address a granuloma on his vocal cords. A year earlier, he had resigned himself to performing as a session musician on other artist’s recordings — a role that, with his guitar skills, he could have performed admirably.
I stopped finding Kanye West interesting about ten years ago. Even then, it was his music, not his persona, I found worthy of my time. Now, it’s neither.
But 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a deserved classic. And the quartet of albums that preceded it are all good to great. That includes 2007’s Graduation, on which today’s random weekend selection appears.
Meet Me In Montauk 