Author: ProducerLunchbox

I used to do radio, now I dabble in writing. Here, I write about life, wrestling and waffles. Not necessarily in that order.

Top Hit Singles of August 2020

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Another month that was surprisingly middling. I don’t feel like anything that reached the top 40 this month will blow your mind, but there were plenty of solid tracks. Here’s everything that made its debut in the top 40 during the last month.

19. Ily (i love you baby) – Surf Mesa ft. Emilee

It’s the chorus of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” with an airy boring electronic beat. The vocals sound like Surf Mesa had Emilee record the six lines of the original song they used, then ran her vocals through the soma filter. This supposedly falls into the “chillwave” genre, but to me it proves we should be putting Soundcloud on ice.

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Podcast the Tenth: The Best 3 Song Runs Ever. Of All Time.

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Find the best three consecutive songs on an album. That was our task this week as we dive into our top five (and next ten) best three song runs.

Jeremy’s Best 3 Song Runs

1. Huey Lewis and the News – Sports (1983)
– Heart of Rock n Roll
– Heart & Soul
– Bad is Bad		2. Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (1997)
– A Certain Shade of Green
– My Favorite Things
– Summer Romance		3.Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters (1995)
– This is a Call
– I’ll Stick Around
– Big Me
4. Aerosmith – Toys In the Attic (1975)
-Walk This Way
– Big Ten Inch Record
– Sweet Emotion		5. Michael Jackson – Thriller (1983)
– Thriller
– Beat It
– Human Nature		HM. ZZ Top – Eliminator (1983)
– Gimme All Your Lovin’
– Got Me Under Pressure
– Sharp Dressed Man
HM. Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992)
– Dam That River
– Rain When I Die
– Down In A Hole		HM. Stone Temple Pilots – Purple (1994)
– Vaseline
– Lounge Fly
– Interstate Love Song		HM. Our Lady Peace – Naveed (1994)
– Naveed
– Dirty Walls
– Denied
HM. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine (1995)
– Bombtrack
– Killing in the Name
– Take The Power Back		HM. Blackalicious – The Craft (2005)
– World of Vibrations
– Supreme People
– Rhythm Sticks		HM. Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
– Walk
– Fucking Hostile
– This Love
HM. Throttlerod – Hell & High Water (2003)
– Tomorrow & A Loaded Gun
– No Damn Fool
– Been Wrong
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Top Hit Songs of July 2020

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12. Luke Bryan – One Margarita

The Brofather is back to sing the praises of a new drink. Beer alone is no good, we need tequila. Actually, we need a rewrite of Tracy Byrd’s “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo” with a little Kenny Chesney spin on it and… oh, he name checks Chesney in a verse. Well, at least he knows. It’s a song that is technically fine. His band is more than capable. A few extra points for trying to make a party song in the middle of a summer where we could all use a pick me up. But there’s still quite a hole to dig out of here. 

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The Podcast: July 2020 in Review

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This week, we take a look at another pretty good month in music. Jeremy and Zack give us their favorite albums of the month, Dan looks at the best and worst top 40 hits and the guys play their first round of the Looks Like game.

Jeremy’s Top 3 Albums of July:
3. Mannequin Online – I Feel It
2. Gaerea – Limbo
1. Ellie Goulding – Brightest Blue

Zack’s Top 3 Albums of July:
3. Gucci Mane – Gucci Mane Presents: So Icy Summer
2. Taylor Swift – folklore
1. Juice WRLD – Legends Never Die

Dan’s Top 2 Top 40 Tracks of July:
2. Megan Thee Stallion – Girls in the Hood
1. Lil’ Baby – The Bigger Picture

The Best Hit Songs of 1984

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Yesterday, I brought out the bottom of the barrel for the year of my birth, so it’s only right to spotlight the best songs that 1984 had to offer. As a quick refresher for this series, I’m listening to the year-end Billboard Hot 100, giving every song a score, tallying those up and writing about the best and the worst. No one set the office on fire over the worst, so I’m back to do the best.

Honorable Mention: Michael Jackson – Thriller – Year-End: #78, Peak: #4
When I’ve got a tie around the #10 spot, I’ll add in an honorable mention or two so here’s this year’s. I don’t know if this song gets the respect it deserves because of the album it came from and the other chartbusting hits that preceded it. Plus, I think more people think of the music video for the track than the actual track itself. I don’t think that’s fair as the song itself is a great piece of sound theater, telling a story through lyrics and sound effects. And c’mon, Vincent friggin’ Price.

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The Worst Hit Songs of 1984

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Since I’ve been tasked to be the site’s judge of new pop music, I thought it would be interesting to look to the past in-between weeks when I’m looking at the present. With that in mind, I foolishly gave myself the project of covering the years that we’ve collectively been alive (1982-2019) and today we start with the landmark year 1984. The world gathered in Sarajevo for the Winter Olympics, Ghostbusters hit theaters, Reagan was gonna start the bombing in five minutes and I was born. Big year.

This is briefly the nuts and bolts of how this series will go. I’ll take the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart, listen to each song, give them arbitrary scores and then write about the top and bottom ten on my list. There’s almost certain to be a song in the worst list that’s one of your favorites. I can guarantee you’ll question my sanity with one of the entries on the best list and that’s the point of all of this. I’m certain Jeremy and Zack will throw verbal rocks at me on the next podcast.

One of the hardest parts of looking back at songs this old is the nostalgia factor, which is probably where most disagreements will start. Looking up and down this year’s list I see a ton of songs I heard all the time growing up. We were a pop household and I’m pretty sure early Chicago was the “most rock and roll” my parents record collection got at the time. It was tough to look at many of these songs with a critical eye, but here’s the best go that I could give. Without further ado, I give you the ten worst hit songs of 1984.

10. Lionel Richie – “All Night Long (All Night)” – Year-End: #12, Peak: #1
The first single from Can’t Slow Down, this “party” track was released in October 1983, but peaked on the charts later that winter and hung around until the spring of ’84. Centered around a light yet infection rhythm and a breakdown full of nonsense lyrics that were intended to be another language (Richie admitted he didn’t have time to hire a translator like he wanted), it’s been hailed as a fun party song. I was confused that this mid-tempo meh track passed for a party anthem in the early 80’s, but then I remembered cocaine and it all made sense. There just doesn’t seem to be enough of all of the traits that this song is hailed for to justify it’s position in the 80’s music pantheon.

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The Podcast: June 2020 in Review

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The last 30 days in music were very meh, if you couldn’t tell from our album reviews.

Zack’s Top 5 Albums of the Month:
5. CeeLo Green – CeeLo Green is Thomas Callaway
4. Gone West – Canyons
3. Protest the Hero – Palimpsest
2. Run The Jewels – RTJ4
1. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Worst – Baauer – Planet’s Mad

Jeremy’s Top 5 Albums of the Month:
5. CeeLo Green – CeeLo Green is Thomas Callaway
4. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Out of Interest
3. Unfit – The Unfit
2. Lamb of God – Lamb of God
1. Used Cassettes – Used Cassettes
Worst – Jason Mraz – Look For The Good

Dan’s Top 5 New Top 40 Entries:
5. Jonas Brothers ft. KAROL G. – X
4. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande – Rain On Me
3. Jackson Wang – 100 Ways
2. Bazzi – Young and Alive
1. THE SCOTTS – THE SCOTTS
Worst – JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels – If The World Was Ending

Top Hit Songs of June 2020

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We have another crop of tracks making their debuts in the top 40 over the last month and you’ll be able to pick up a bit of a theme this month: meh.

12. JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels – If The World Was Ending
Is JP Saxe the second Pokemon evolution of Gnash? The first time I heard this song, I thought it was the follow up to “i hate u, i love u”, but it turns out these are two different guys. It took me a bit to form an opinion of this one because I fell asleep twice midway through the track. It’s just a piano and some synth strings way in the back. If there’s ever a drum or drum sample, it’s mixed too quietly to be picked up and pace the track. There’s a place in pop for the quiet, downbeat, highly emotional tracks. “Say Something” by A Great Big World was the first track that came to mind to compare it too, but unlike that song there is nothing here that makes you feel anything. The lyrics are supposed to convey hope that an old relationship can be rekindled in the face of earth-shattering events around them. But there’s no emotion in either of their voices. It comes off as the final “meh” in a life of “whatever I guess”, like they know they shouldn’t be together except under this one circumstance and even then, they’re probably the last choice on each other’s lists. “All my boyfriends from college are married? Well fine, I’ll hook up with toxic dude I met at the bad last December one more time before the meteor hits because, well, why not get it in my once more?” An empty emotional hit for an empty song.

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The Podcast: Track 1, Side 1, Album 1

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This time out, yes we stole a bit from High Fidelity…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJvmoOc21gQ

It’s not a full rip-off, or so we’re going to tell ourselves. We added the caveat that our songs also had to be off the artist’s first studio album. Once again, we came up with three interesting lists with surprisingly little overlap.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IcpwpAFc8dF5emvEl0nAV?si=2HhXV1K_QmeJIWA0VI0oKw

Zack’s List:

5. Linkin Park, “Papercut”, Hybrid Theory
4. Ed Sheeran, The A-Team”, +
3. Beastie Boys, “Rhymin’ & Stealin'”, License to Ill
2. Weezer, “My Name Is Jonas”, Weezer
1. Metallica, “Hit the Lights”, Kill ’em All

Jeremy’s List:

5. Paul Simon, “I Am A Rock”, The Paul Simon Songbook
4. Living Colour, “Cult of Personality”, Vivid
3. Salt-N-Pepa, “Push It”, Hot, Cool & Vicious
2. Kiss, “Strutter”, Kiss
1. Guns ‘n Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”, Appetite for Destruction

Dan’s List:

5. Metallica, “Hit the Lights”, Kill ’em All
4. Tom Waits, “Ol’ 55”, Closing Time
3. Foo Fighters, “This is a Call”, Foo Fighters
2. Wu-Tang Clan, “Bring da Ruckus”, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
1. The Beatles, “I Saw Her Standing There”, Please Please Me