The Contenders
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The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Oct. 26, we look at the most competitive race we’ve had on the albums chart in some time, as a pair of big new releases (and a just-retooled slightly older one) compete to claim the top spot.
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Jelly Roll, Beautifully Broken (Republic): If it feels impossible that Jelly Roll is only releasing his first album of 2024 this October, there’s a reason for that. The 2023 country breakout star has been absolutely ubiquitous throughout 2024, showing up everywhere from the Emmys to SNL to Congress (!!) to Twisters: The Album to new sets by Post Malone, Eminem, Falling in Reverse and Jessie Murph – as well as on plenty of his own new releases, including the Billboard Hot 100 Hits “I Am Not Okay” and “Liar.” But indeed, his LP follow-up to last year’s Whitsitt Chapel did not arrive until just last Friday (Oct. 11), in the form of Beautifully Broken.
The new set features those two aforementioned hits, as well as guest appearances by rapper Wiz Khalifa, his “Lonely Road” collaborator mgk and singer-songwriter Isley Jubey. It’s available as a 14-track standard physical album and 22-track deluxe on digital download and streaming services – and if that’s not enough Jelly Roll in your life, Friday also saw the release of a 28-track super-deluxe edition subtitled (Pickin’ Up the Pieces), which features additional guest appearances from country stars ERNEST and Keith Urban, singer-rapper Russ and singer-songwriters Halsey and Skylar Grey.
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The 28-track length should certainly help the set’s numbers on streaming, where Jelly Roll usually performs fairly well for a country artist – but Beautifully Broken is expected to do most of its damage in sales. The album is available on his webstore on cassette, CD and vinyl, including gold and camo vinyl variants and a signed CD, as well as a fan pack featuring the signed CD along with a T-shirt or hoodie. There’s also a clear/gold splatter vinyl version exclusively available at indie stores, and a “silver nugget” variant exclusive to Amazon, while the digital deluxe and Pieces editions of the album are on sale on iTunes for $4.99 and $7.99, respectively. It all could add up to Jelly Roll’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 – though in a competitive week, he’ll still need all the help he can get.
Rod Wave, Last Lap (Alamo): One artist who already has several Billboard 200 No. 1s to his credit is Florida-born rapper Rod Wave. Despite keeping a low mainstream profile and never really scoring a crossover pop hit – with even hip-hop radio support remaining limited – Rod Wave has maintained consistent commercial success that most MCs can only dream of, with three straight No. 1 albums in three straight years this decade: 2021’s SoulFly, 2022’s Beautiful Mind and last year’s Nostalgia.
Will Rod Wave be able to go 4-for-4? The stacked week could make it tough, but the album is off to another hot start on streaming. Like Future’s Mixtape Pluto a couple weeks ago, Last Lap’s presence on Spotify has been minimal – claiming just one spot on the current Daily Top Songs USA chart, with “25” ranking at No. 138 – but it has been absolutely dominant on Apple Music, occupying seven of the top 10 spots on the DSP’s real-time chart, including the entire top three (led by “25”). It will need to keep up that streaming performance to have a shot at the top spot, because as has also traditionally been the case with new Rod Wave releases, the album is not yet available for physical purchase – though it is also available digitally on iTunes for $4.99.
Charli XCX, Brat (Atlantic): Though Brat Summer has come and gone – at least according to the weather outside – Charli XCX’s Brat album has remained a fixture on the Billboard 200, ranking at No. 14 this week in its 18th week on the chart. It should get a huge bump next week from the release of its new complementary remix edition: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a star-studded 34 (or 35, including the recently released add-on “Spring Breakers” with Kesha) track affair which includes new versions of each of Brat’s original 15 cuts (as well as bonus track “Guess,” now with Billie Eilish), with each redo featuring one or multiple new big-name featured artists.
The much-anticipated completely different version of Brat includes Charli’s previously released spins on “360” (with Robyn and Yung Lean), “Girl So Confusing” (with Lorde) “Von Dutch” (with A.G. Cook and Addison Rae) and “Talk Talk” (with Troye Sivan) as well as the aforementioned “Guess.” Some of the most attention-grabbing newly added names to the guest list include The 1975 (along with Jon Hopkins on “I Might Say Something Stupid”), Bon Iver (on “I Think About It All the Time”) and pop superstar Ariana Grande (on “Sympathy Is a Knife”). The completely different version of Brat, as with all other previously released permutations of Brat, will all be combined into one Brat for chart purposes.
The set should rack up a good amount of curiosity streams for its new remixes and the big names on them, and it’s also available for purchase on Charli’s webstore in double-CD, double-cassette and triple-vinyl editions (and for $4.99 on iTunes), all of which also include the original Brat tracklist. But with the entirely new Jelly Roll and Rod Wave albums getting in the way this week, Charli will have her work cut out for her in passing the original No. 3 debut spot of Brat on the Billboard 200 even with the added help.
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GloRilla, Glorious (CMG/Interscope): Though many prematurely wrote off GloRilla when her 2023 did not maintain the momentum of her breakout 2022, her official debut album is now coming at the exact right time – hot off the momentum of 2024 hits “Yeah Glo!,” “Wanna Be” (with Megan Thee Stallion), “TGIF” and “Hollon.” The first two of those aren’t found on Glorious, but the latter two are, along with appearances from the aforementioned Stallion, Muni Long, Latto, Bossman Dlow, Sexyy Red and more big-name guests – with the Sexyy teamup “Whatchu Kno About Me” already looking on its way to breakout hit status. In many other weeks this autumn, Glorious’ strong streaming entrance (and webstore availability on signed CD, and in a digital download with an exclusive bonus track) would likely have it as a contender for the Billboard 200’s top debut – but in this stacked week, it may have to settle for top five.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the Billboard 200 dated Oct. 19, we look at the latest from 21st century rock greats Coldplay, whose unusual approach to physical releases may help them get back atop the albums chart.
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Coldplay, Moon Music (Parlophone/Atlantic): Few rock bands this century are as familiar with the top spot of the Billboard 200 as Coldplay, which has reached No. 1 four times already – although not since 2014, when they last topped the chart with Ghost Stories. In the decade since, the band’s crossover success in the U.S. has been a little more modest, with their only top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 coming along with then-superpowers The Chainsmokers (“Something Just Like This,” 2017) and BTS (“My Universe,” 2021). And even with “My Universe” on its tracklist, the group’s most recent album (2021’s Music of the Spheres) tapped out at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
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For its new album, Friday’s (Oct. 4) Moon Music, Coldplay is really giving it the old college try. The group has already made a number of promotional appearances, including playing two new songs from the set on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live (while frontman Chris Martin showed up on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon a couple days earlier to perform “We Pray” in the style of various rock legends). The band also played an underplay show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York City on Monday, and earlier that day, released a Full Moon deluxe edition of the 10-song set, expanding it to 20 tracks for DSPs and digital retailers.
The album does not yet have a true breakout hit, and is not expected to stream in extraordinary numbers. However, it should sell well, having been released in a variety of physical variants – with all releases designed with an eye towards environmental consciousness, as sustainability has been a major priority for the band in recent years. Each of the album’s LP releases will contain some nine recycled PET-plastic bottles recovered from post-consumer waste, and the CD version is claimed to be the “world’s first” to be released on EcoCD, which is created from 90% recycled polycarbonate, also sourced from post-consumer waste.
We will see this week just how much environmental sustainability excites Coldplay’s fanbase into buying one of the available versions of the band’s new album – which includes yellow, red, pink (with a signed art card) and “Spotify Fans First” green vinyl variants, and a “Notebook Edition” exclusive to their webstore, which also features a 12” hardback replica of Martin’s studio notebook with 28 pages of notes and personal illustrations, a bonus CD of voicenote recordings, and even a pair of moongoggles. But the Notebook Edition is sold out on the webstore, and Moon Music is off to one of the best starts of the decade for a U.K. act in the lads’ home country, so perhaps that bodes well for their U.S. fortunes.
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet (Island): To be The Man, Moon Music will have to beat The Man – and “The Man” in this case is of course Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, which after briefly ceding the title to Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo is back atop the Billboard 200 for a fourth week this frame. Short n’ Sweet is still pulling six-digit consumption weeks – though just barely, as last week it notched exactly 100,000 units – and was actually up 1% in its performance from the week before, with added interest from the beginning of the accompanying Short n’ Sweet Tour no doubt helping there. That interest may be due to recede slightly this week, but Moon Music’s first-week units will still likely need to land in the 100,000s for the band to comfortably clear the pint-sized superstar with its new release.
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Megan Moroney, Am I Okay? (Sony Music/Columbia): Megan Moroney has proven herself one of the most reliable streaming performers in modern country music with her set Am I Okay?, which debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 a couple months ago and has continued to hang around the top 100 in the weeks since (landing at No. 77 this week). The set should make a big jump next week following the digital release of its (I’ll Be Fine) deluxe edition, which tacks another three cuts onto the 14-track original, including the heartbroken “Break It Right Back,” which is already off to a strong start on streaming.
Finneas, For Cryin’ Out Loud! (OYOY/Interscope): While sister and collaborator Billie Eilish continues to storm the Billboard Hot 100 – her “Birds of a Feather” is up to a new peak of No. 2 – writer/producer and recording artist Finneas also sets his sights on the charts this week with his own solo LP, For Cryin’ Out Loud! The solo artist has also gone the Coldplay route with his new set’s physical release, as the album is available on his webstore on orange, gold and pink biovinyl (a sustainable product made from polyvinyl chloride) as well as on a signed CD and a as part of a fan pack with a CD and logo T-shirt.
Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Warp): How often do we get to talk about 30-year-old ambient albums on The Contenders? It’s a rarity for sure, but Aphex Twin’s 1994 classic double-album Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 – widely considered one of the great electronic releases of the ‘90s — should make a chart impact this week, as the set was re-released as a 4x LP box set, collecting all the tracks available on different previous permutations of the album and even featuring two unreleased tracks being included on the physical version for the first time. Any Billboard 200 entrance this week would instantly mark the set’s peak; it failed to chart upon its original release three decades ago.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the Billboard Hot 100 dated Oct. 12, we look at a few threats to the long-established throne of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” including a new star team-up and an established pop megahit with a new official video.
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Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): It’s crazy to remember that a few months ago, it seemed like Shaboozey would need a little luck on his side to even steal a week at No. 1, considering the crowded pack of songs his “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” had to get past and the double-digit-week climb in consumption it needed to scale first. Now, not only is the song the year’s longest-reigning No. 1, but it’s gone twice as long on top as any other previous Hot 100-topper – and it may not be done for a while yet.
Despite being nearly half a year old at this point – this chart week (dated Oct. 5) marks its 24th week on the Hot 100 — “A Bar Song” remains in the top two in all three component charts, leading Streaming Songs and Radio Songs and ranking at No. 2 on Digital Song Sales. The song is trending towards another week atop Radio Songs next frame – which would already be its 10th week at pole position there – as it remains top five across Country Airplay, Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay.
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Is it time to start thinking about the chances “A Bar Song” has of becoming the longest-reigning Hot 100 No. 1 this decade – or even all time? It still needs another four weeks to tie Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” (16 weeks, 2023) for the former, and then three weeks on top of that to tie Lil Nas X’s Billy Ray Cyrus-featuring “Old Town Road” (19 weeks, 2019). A whole lot can happen between now and then, and the song’s weekly metrics are hardly on a historically unbeatable level this deep into its run – but clearly, unless the bottom really starts to fall out on Shaboozey’s crossover smash, another song is gonna have to really rise up and take the top spot from it, rather than hoping for natural statistical erosion to end its run.
Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather” (Darkroom/Interscope/ICLG): Billie Eilish already has her biggest hit in years with “Birds of a Feather,” but next week the top five hit (which rests at No. 6 this week) should get a bump from its new official music video, which features a gravity-defying Eilish and which she dropped last Friday (Sept. 27). As one of the most celebrated music video artists of this era, the clip naturally has gotten a ton of attention, and remains No. 1 on YouTube’s Trending Music rankings five days after its release.
The video could provide enough of a boost to help the previously No. 5-peaking hit reach a new high on the Hot 100. It’s gonna need to be a particularly big one to help the song unseat Shaboozey, however – the song ranks at No. 5 on both Streaming Songs and Radio Songs this week, and will likely remain at a deficit on the latter chart next week (and perhaps beyond), having already topped Pop Airplay (and still climbing Adult Pop Airplay) but lacking the cross-genre base support that “A Bar Song” has on country radio. (Eilish has previously found success on Rock & Alternative Airplay, but “Birds” is not being promoted to those formats.)
The Weeknd & Playboi Carti, “Timeless” (XO/Republic): Both The Weeknd and Playboi Carti had top 20 debuts on the Hot 100 last week — “Dancing in the Flames” (No. 14) and “All Red” (No. 15), respectively – so how high could they get by teaming up? We’ll see shortly, but they’ll have a hell of a streaming start: five days after its release, their “Timeless” still sits atop both Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart and Apple Music’s realtime chart.
The collab is in play to unseat “A Bar Song” atop Streaming Songs, but it will need to really trounce the song in streaming numbers to have a shot of making up for the gap in radio play between the two. “Timeless” already has amassed three million in airplay audience from R&B/hip-hop and rhythmic radio in its first four days of release, according to Luminate, but that’s still a small fraction of the weekly reach of a cross-format super-smash like “A Bar Song” — and “Timeless” also appears to be well behind “Bar” in song sales, too, as the latter currently ranks at No. 2 on the iTunes real-time chart while the former is outside the top 40.
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Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” (Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG): When Gaga announced a new Joker: Folie a Deux-inspired album of pop standard covers mixed with a couple classic-sounding new songs, it seemed a no-brainer that her retro-leaning (and Joker-y titled) new hit with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile,” would be included on the set. But “Smile” remains a standalone single, so any bump it gets from the Friday release of her new Harlequin LP will have to be in terms of spillover interest. Regardless of any streaming gains, it does continue climbing on radio this week, moving up the top 10 on Adult Contemporary and the top 20 on Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay – and perhaps the song will receive more interest still after the release of the Gaga-starring Joker movie this Friday (Oct. 4).
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the Billboard 200 dated Oct. 4, we look at a pack of new releases, led by Future’s Mixtape Pluto set, which could make him just the second artist this decade to notch three No. 1 albums in a calendar year.
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Future, Mixtape Pluto (Freebandz/Epic): Six months after helping to fire the opening shot that set off the hip-hop World War that was the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud, with the Lamar-featuring “Like That” single off his and producer co-star Metro Boomin’s first of two We Still Don’t Trust You sets, rap superstar Future is back with his third all-new album of 2024. Mixtape Pluto debuted on Friday (Sept. 20), though with no big-name guests throwing down gauntlets for the rest of the rap world to respond to – no guests of any kind, actually, as the set features Future as the lone credited performer on all 17 of the tracks on its streaming release.
Nonetheless, the set has performed predictably well on streaming – particularly on Apple Music, where it blanketed the top of the real-time charts upon its Friday release, and still claims the entire top five as of Wednesday. (It’s been a little less prolific on Spotify, where it currently holds just five spots in the entire Daily Top Songs USA top 200, and none in the top 40.) Unlike some other recent Future releases (and despite its mixtape billing), however, this album has the advantage of a physical release to go with it – which is only 11 tracks long, but is available on both CD and vinyl on his webstore and at some brick-and-mortar stores.
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If Future debuts atop the Billboard 200 with Mixtape Pluto, it would mark his eighth consecutive official solo album to do so, dating back to DS2 – as well as his 11th No. 1 album overall, moving him into a five-way tie with Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Ye and Eminem for the fourth-most such albums in Billboard 200 history. It would also be his third No. 1 of 2024 alone, after We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You, which would make him just the second artist this decade to score three No. 1 albums in the same calendar year – following (of course) Taylor Swift, who pulled off the achievement in 2021 with Evermore, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) — and the first to debut three albums there in one year (Evermore having previously topped the chart in 2020).
Katy Perry, 143 (Capitol): It’s been one of the most buzzed-about promo campaigns of 2024, although not always for the best reasons: Katy Perry’s 143 debuts this week after months of lead-up, kicked off by the release of July lead single “Woman’s World,” which drew negative reviews and lasted just one week on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent advance tracks were less coldly received but made minimal commercial impact, though Perry’s career-spanning performance while receiving the Video Vanguard award at the MTV Video Music Awards two weeks ago (Sept. 11) was well-received.
The set is finally out now, and features guest turns from hitmakers 21 Savage, Kim Petras, JID and Doechii, the latter of whom appeared on stage with Perry at the VMAs to perform their Crystal Waters-lifting “I’m His, He’s Mine.” While the set does not appear to be generating any significant streaming hits, it will have the sales advantage of an array of physical releases – with eight vinyl variants (including some retail exclusives, as well as a signed edition exclusive to her d2c), a couple CD variants (including a signed edition exclusive to her d2c and a deluxe-packaging edition with collectible ephemera) and even a cassette.
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Speaking of the VMAs: One of its other most notable performers and winners is also in the hunt for the No. 1 spot this week. Chappell Roan, who took home best new artist and delivered a memorable medieval performance of standalone single “Good Luck, Babe!” at the ceremonies, recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of her slow-developing blockbuster The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess with a new physical reissue of the set, including multiple new vinyl variants.
It could be the best chance that the set, which climbed all the way to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after 20 weeks on the chart, has to get that final boost that it needs to reach No. 1 – though with Future’s combined streaming and sales numbers, it might be a tough week for it to finally get over the top. However, the album has been hanging in the top five for months now, with no real signs that its streaming dominance is coming to an end, so count it out at your own peril.
IN THE MIX
Lil Tecca, Plan A (Galactic/Republic): While he hasn’t had a major Hot 100 hit since 2019’s “Ransom,” Lil Tecca has proved himself a fairly reliable performer on streaming in the years since – and scored an impressive slow-burner last year with the “500 Lbs” single. His three official studio albums to date have all bowed around the border of the top 10 (No. 10 for 2020’s Virgo World, No. 10 for 2021’s We Love You Tecca 2 and No. 11 for 2023’s Tec), and this month’s Plan A will likely be shooting for roughly the same range – with strong streaming performance and multiple digital variants available for sale on his webstore, including one digitally signed version and one with two bonus tracks.
Keith Urban, High (Capitol Nashville / Hit Red): Keith Urban’s first album in four years features the top 20 Country Airplay hit “Messed Up as Me,” and is available in four vinyl variants and three CD variants, including a couple retail exclusives with exclusive branded paper merch. Urban has a streak of eight consecutive top 10 studio albums on the Billboard 200 to protect, a run which dates back to Be Here in 2004.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the charts dated Sept. 28, we head back to the Billboard 200, where Sabrina Carpenter’s latest has reigned for its first three weeks – but now faces a familiar challenger, again revitalized.
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Sabrina Carpenter, Short N’ Sweet (Island): For a 12-track album with no expanded deluxe edition available on DSPs, the endurance in consumption for Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet has been damn impressive. After bowing atop the Billboard 200 with 362,000 units earned in its debut week, the set has not only held at No. 1 over the last two weeks (amidst a not-particularly-crowded release schedule), but continued to post unit totals in the six digits – 117,000 in its third week – a combo that only her good buddy Taylor Swift had previously managed to pull off this year, of course with her 15-week No. 1 The Tortured Poets Department.
The set should continue to slide in its fourth week, but only slowly – the album still holds four of the top 10 spots on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart and three on the Apple Music real-time update, with fan favorite “Bed Chem” slowly rising towards the territory of the set’s top-charting trio: “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste.” SnS may also benefit some from Carpenter’s well-received debut performance on the VMAs mainstage last Wednesday (Sept. 11), where she played a medley of those three hits (and made out with an alien), while also picking up the song of the year Moonperson for “Espresso.”
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Travis Scott, Days Before Rodeo (Cactus Jack/Epic): If Carpenter thought she had vanquished Travis Scott for good during their showdown for the top spot three weeks earlier – where Short N’ Sweet edged out Days Before Rodeo for No. 1 by a margin of under 1,000 units, one of the year’s closest races – she may have to think twice next week. While Scott’s album has already fallen from No. 2 to No. 106 on the Billboard 200, and the rapper already pulled out many of the stops with the digital reissue of his beloved 2014 mixtape during its first week of re-release, he had not yet pushed the button on shipping out any vinyl copies of the album.
That changes this week, as the vinyl edition of Days Before Rodeo has begun to ship to fans — both the vinyl LP (in its standard and deluxe version, with different packaging between the two) and its two deluxe vinyl boxed sets (one with a branded hoodie and an album, and one with a branded T-shirt and an album). Though the streaming presence of Days Before Rodeo is fairly minimal compared to the album-wide dominance of Short N’ Sweet, that sales advantage might be massive enough – with Scott’s fanbase long proven to be willing to shell out for his physical releases – to get it back in the hunt on the Billboard 200 this week, and very possibly over the top for the first time.
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Eminem, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope): Speaking of last week’s VMAs – they were led by MTV icon Eminem, who reassembled the Slim Shady Army from his classic 2000 performance of “The Real Slim Shady” for his show-opening performance of current hit “Houdini.” That song’s parent album, his career-bookending The Death of Slim Shady, should see a small bump from that performance next week – but will be helped out even more by a new deluxe edition of the set, which reached digital retailers and streamers on Friday, as well as the release of the album’s CD version, both in a wide general release, and as a d2c-exclusive version with an alternate album cover.
Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas (Vanner/Republic/Big Loud): Always good to get a new LP from country great Miranda Lambert, who has reached the Billboard 200’s top 10 with each of her last seven unaccompanied solo sets – most recently with the No. 4-charting Palomino in 2021. The album is available for sale on CD and vinyl, with signed copies also purchasable of both through her webstore.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the Billboard Hot 100 dated Sept. 14, we look at a race that’s been dominated by one song for about two months now – and what songs, if any, may be closing the gap in the near future.
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Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): Well, he narrowly lost out on Billboard’s official Song of the Summer to Post Malone and Morgan Wallen with “I Had Some Help” — another week or two and that race might’ve gotten really interesting – but Shaboozey can content himself that he’s held on at No. 1 for yet another week on the Hot 100. That’s eight weeks total now for “A Bar Song,” marking the longest run of 2024, and the longest for anyone since (again) Morgan Wallen, whose “Last Night” reigned for twice that long in 2023.
And it doesn’t appear to be fading much yet, either. It remains in the top five on Streaming Songs and atop atop both Digital Song Sales (12 weeks) and Radio Songs (five weeks). Its radio dominance also includes six weeks thus far atop the Country Airplay chart – one week away from passing Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel” for the longest-reigning country career-establishing No. 1 (defined as an artist’s first Country Airplay entry as a lead artist, or their initial song promoted to country radio) in the chart’s history. As long as its cross-platform dominance holds strong — it’s also been No. 1 the past two weeks on Adult Pop Airplay – it will remain a contender for the top spot; another artist is gonna have to really rise up to take the crown from it.
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Sabrina Carpenter, “Taste,” “Please Please Please” & “Espresso” (Island): Could Sabrina Carpenter be the artist to do that? She certainly has strength in numbers going for her: Carpenter holds the Nos. 2-4 spots on the Hot 100 this week (dated Sept. 7), as her Short n’ Sweet album conquers the Billboard 200 albums chart. Long-running hits “Please Please Please” (No. 1 peak) and “Espresso” (No. 3) shoot back up to Nos. 3 and 4 on the chart, respectively, while just above them, the brand-new “Taste” bows at No. 2, thanks in large part to a spicy new music video with TV and film star Jenna Ortega as its co-lead.
All three should be strong performers for some time. “Taste” remains atop essentially all major streaming charts – including Apple Music’s real-time listing, Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA and YouTube’s Trending Music – over a week after its release, while “Please Please Please” climbs to No. 1 on Pop Airplay and “Espresso” holds at No. 3 on the overall Radio Songs chart. The biggest issue with Carpenter claiming the Hot 100’s No. 1 spot soon might be a kind of vote-splitting effect — particularly on the airwaves, where programmers simply have more songs of hers right now than they know what to do with.
“Taste” has momentum on its side, and is already nearing the 50-position Radio Songs listing. If it can pick up enough airplay before its streaming totals really start to drop, it could close the gap with “A Bar Song” before too long. In the meantime, an extra boost from Carpenter would help – like, say, with a memorable performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, where she’s scheduled to perform next Wednesday (Sept. 11).
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” (Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG): Meanwhile, momentum has hardly sagged at all for the new Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars duet – which falls to No. 6 on the Hot 100 this week thanks to the Sabrina surge, but holds in the top three on both Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs, and is already bounding up Radio Songs, jumping 45-36 this week. And despite falling on Streaming Songs post-Short n’ Sweet, it’s actually up in total streams for the week, and even hits No. 1 on both Billboard Global charts.
Will the song be in position to take over the Hot 100’s top spot when the Gaga-starring Joker: Folie a Deux – which “Smile” does not appear to be officially connected to, but which it does have some spiritual kinship with via its title – hits American theaters in October? Will it even have to wait that long?
Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather” (Darkroom/Interscope/ICLG) & Chappell Roan, “Good Luck Babe” (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Both of these now-long-running (if relatively slower-building) hits seem to have fallen behind in the race a bit, as they’ve been passed by the big-debuting “Taste” and “Smile.” But both are still definitely in the mix, with both holding in the top 10 on Streaming Songs, and “Birds” having reached the top 10 on Radio Songs, with “Babe” likely to join it there next week. The VMAs next week may also hold bump potential for both: Eilish is not performing but is a four-time nominee, while Roan is making her debut on the VMAs stage and is also up for four awards.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Aug. 24, Taylor Swift’s incumbent Tortured Poets Department is mostly free from new challengers – but one that’s been rising for months could finally start to pose a real threat.
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Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Against all odds, Chappellmania just continues to keep spreading, as seemingly every week another festival performance or other big cultural moment keeps Roan a rising tide. Last week, it was a historically massive Lollapalooza performance in luchador gear, this week, it’s a similarly gargantuan Outside Lands gig as a majorette – with a quasi-viral moment during her “Hot to Go” performance where she chastised the VIP section for not singing along.
That hit is one of seven Chappell Roan songs scaling the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Aug. 17) this week – with “My Kink Is Karma” becoming the sixth cut from her breakthrough debut The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess to join the party. Meanwhile, Midwest Princess rises to a new peak of No. 3 on the Billboard 200, climbing from No. 4 the previous week (and No. 5 the week before). With Ye & Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2 (No. 2 on the chart this week) all but sure to drop some in its second week of release, and no major debuts expected to impact the chart’s top five, it seems likely Midwest Princess is about to make it four weeks in a row.
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Could it have the No. 1 spot in its sights? To reach that peak, of course, it will have to depose Taylor Swift’s 14-week No. 1 The Tortured Poets Department. On last week’s Billboard 200, Swift’s blockbuster was still way ahead of Roan’s debut – 142,000 units to 64,000 – but that Poets number was boosted by a wide variety of just-released and reissued digital and physical editions of the album that helped account for a 606% gain in sales. The week before, Poets secured the No. 1 with 71,000 units – which could be much more matchable for Midwest Princess, should it continue to gain steadily and should Swift not release or re-release more exclusive editions of her latest. (Roan’s album has been discounted to $6.99 in the iTunes store, which may also help spur some extra sales.)
In any event, if Roan doesn’t seize the top prize next week, she may find the race more crowded in the charts to come. It’s been a relatively fallow period for major new releases compared to earlier in the year, but this Friday, veteran hitmaker Post Malone releases his long-anticipated (and already multi-hit-spawning) country pivot album F1-Trillion — and a week later, newly minted pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter will look to reclaim the late summer with the release of her new album Short n’ Sweet. But then again, maybe Roan will play it patiently and wait for her moment – which could come around the one-year anniversary of Midwest Princess in September, as both a new anniversary edition and a new Target color variant of the album were recently made available for preorder, with the official release date listed as Sept. 20.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): Roan’s and Swift’s albums have all but pulled even in terms of their streaming performances – so once again, it’s all down to sales for Tortured Poets, which just held off Vultures 2 to claim its 14th week at No. 1. So far this tracking week, Swift does not appear to have released any new variants for the album, so if she wants to grab a 15th week at No. 1 – leaving her just four shy of Morgan Wallen’s decade-best 19-week mark, set with 2023’s One Thing at a Time – she’ll either need to work on some last-minute sales-boosters, or simply hope that Roan’s set isn’t quite ready to catch up to hers yet.
IN THE MIX
Latto, Sugar Honey Iced Tea (Streamcut/RCA): The latest from Billboard July cover star Latto is a 17-track affair – 21 if you count a “bonus disc” featuring multiple versions of previous hit singles “Put It on Da Floor” and “Sunday Service” — with guest features from recognizable names like Megan Thee Stallion, Ciara and Teezo Touchdown. The set’s performance might be hindered by its lack of physical release – and the lack of a current hit as established as those bonus tracks – but it should still stream well and be helped by a deluxe edition (featuring the new bonus cut “Chicken Grease”) released on Tuesday.
Polo G, Hood Poet (Columbia): It wasn’t long ago that Polo G was a regular chart-topper, besting both the Billboard 200 (with third album Hall of Fame) and the Hot 100 (with runaway hit “Rapstar”) in 2021. The hits have dried up some for the Chicago rapper in the years since, but Hall of Fame follow-up Hood Poet dropped last Friday, and should also stream well – with a star-studded tracklist that includes cameos from hitmakers Lil Durk, GloRilla, The Kid LAROI and many more.
Beabadoobee, This Is How Tomorrow Moves (Dirty Hit): The alt-rock singer-songwriter born Beatrice Laus has long seemed on the verge of a major commercial breakthrough, with a devoted cult fanbase and viral streaming hits like “The Perfect Pair” and “Glue Song.” Beabadoobee seems sure to at least get her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 with third LP This Is How Tomorrow Moves – having previously reached No. 189 with 2020’s Fake It Flowers — with the new set being made available on cassette, standard and signed CD, and six different vinyl variants.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming charts dated Aug. 10, we look at two artists who have largely defined the summer in pop music so far, and who are experiencing new gains after Kamala Harris’ announced presidential candidacy.
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Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Since climbing to a peak of No. 5 on the Billboard 200 dated July 13, Chappell Roan‘s Midwest Princess has hung around the top 10 of the chart, landing at No. 8 this week. Improbably, the album continues to grow in streams — most recently thanks in large part to a surge in interest and consumption after “Femininomenon,” the album’s anthemic lead track, was used in a promotional TikTok from the official Kamala Harris account just days after Harris became the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Femininomenon” debuts at No. 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, the lowest of an incredible five songs from Midwest Princess which have bowed on the chart in the past two months and are still working their way up its rankings. Each of the other four reaches a new peak position this week: “Hot to Go!” is the highest at No. 26, while “Red Wine Supernova” reaches No. 47, “Pink Pony Club” No. 50 and “Casual” No. 79. None of the songs has yet found a major foothold at radio, which would likely be the final step in them threatening for the chart’s top tier, but “Hot to Go!’ and “Red Wine Supernova” have both started to gather steam on the top 40 airwaves.
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In the meantime, with steady streaming and sales numbers, Midwest Princess could move back up on the Billboard 200 this upcoming week. There aren’t major new Friday releases currently threatening for a top debut, and with the sales-driven bows of Stray Kids’ ATE and Jimin’s MUSE likely to take a hit in their second week, there should be an opening for the album to return to the top five – and if it can continue to build on its recent momentum, it may even challenge for a new peak of No. 4. It will still have its work cut out to pass the 30-plus-track streaming behemoths from Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen that have been lodged near the top of the Billboard 200 since their respective releases, but it should be in the mix for some time to come, and with another extra song boost or two – or perhaps a physical reissue – it wouldn’t be inconceivable that it could get to No. 1 before year’s end.
Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!” (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Arguably the most impressive thing about the run that Midwest Princess has had on the Billboard 200 is that it’s making it without even getting any help from the song that’s actually Roan’s biggest of all of 2024. “Good Luck, Babe!” was released in April as a standalone single, unattached thus far to Midwest Princess or any other album of hers, and it has taken her further on the Hot 100 than any of that album’s breakout hits. This week, “Babe” returns to its peak of No. 10, which it originally reached on the chart dated July 13, while gaining on both the Streaming Songs (9-7) and Digital Song Sales (22-17) charts.
More important to its chart potential is that it has finally clicked the last piece of the puzzle into place: major radio support. Unlike the Midwest Princess hits, “Babe” has been fully (if somewhat belatedly) embraced by top 40 radio: It climbs 12-9 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart this week, and 25-21 on the all-format Radio Songs listing. As “Babe” continues to expand on the airwaves, and with no major new song releases expected to provide additional traffic in front of it on the Hot 100, it has a good chance of getting even higher on the chart next week. And with plenty of room for it still to grow – and streaming and sales support also strong – a run to the top five could certainly be in play for the song in the weeks to come.
Could it get to No. 1? It’s still well behind such four-quadrant smashes as Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” at the top of the chart, so it would take some considerable growth across all metrics for “Babe” to really mount a challenge there. But it’s worth noting that as far as “Babe” has already come, it’s done so without some of the more traditional promotional tactics used to boost songs in its position – no official remixes, no major national performances of it beyond a Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon appearance, not even a non-lyric music video. So if it gets close, there’s plenty of cards for Roan still to play to get it that final push over the top.
Charli XCX, Brat (Atlantic/AG): The season familiarly known as Brat Summer has mostly come with impressive, but not quite overwhelming chart returns. Brat did debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, which marked a career-best showing for Charli XCX, but three weeks later it was out of the top 10, and it’s been hanging around the chart’s teens ever since. Meanwhile, before this week, she’d only launched two tracks from it onto the Hot 100, and neither in the top half – lead cut “360” debuted at No. 73 the same week as the album’s bow and had hung around the chart’s bottom quadrant since, while “Girl, So Confusing” entered at a slightly higher No. 63 two weeks later following the release of its Lorde-featuring remix, and was off the chart altogether a couple weeks after that.
But three words might have turned around the entire chart momentum of Brat Summer. The Sunday (July 21) that President Joe Biden officially dropped his re-election campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement, Charli tweeted “Kamala IS Brat” — unofficially making her exciting new album the soundtrack to the global moment. Harris’ campaign seized said moment by adapting Brat’s already-iconic cover design for the header on their HQ’s official Twitter page, and within days, CNN was airing discussions about Brat Summer and what kind of impact the coolest pop star in the world could have on this year’s presidential election.
Despite seeing respectable gains in both sales and streams following last week’s spike in interest, Brat actually slides 13-14 on the latest Billboard 200 – thanks to a glut of high-performing new albums released at the start of the tracking week, four of which debut ahead of it on the chart. But with the album continuing to grow in both sales and streams so far this week, next week it could be ticketed for a trip back to the top 10, its first time back in the region since the chart dated July 6, which was its third frame on the listing.
In the meantime, two songs from Brat are surging on the Hot 100. “360” hits a new peak of No. 55 this week, while the TikTok-approved “Apple” debuts at No. 81. A top 40 hit could be in Brat’s future, as both songs still have room to grow – the latter has major virality on its side, with everyone from Twisters star Glen Powell to Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl doing the dance challenge that helped it light up social media, while “360” is starting to make inroads at radio, up 56% in plays for the week, according to Luminate, and bubbling under the Pop Airplay chart. And the album might not be done spawning hits yet: “365,” the album’s meme-spawning closing complement to “360,” has been rising in streams and sales the past couple weeks, and re-enters Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart today.
The album is still pretty far from being a major contender for the top spot on the Billboard 200. But who knows? With the twists and turns that Charli’s season has already taken, we’d be foolish to bet against her finding new ways to challenge for supremacy on the chart, and officially cement Brat Summer in the 2024 record books. (Perhaps a new remix to one of the album’s deluxe edition bonus tracks — widely believed to be co-starring alt-pop superstar Billie Eilish — will be one of them.)
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, we take stock of the current Song of the Summer race, which is tighter this year than the past few, thanks to sparring smashes between Post Malone & Morgan Wallen, Shaboozey, Kendrick Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter.
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Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (Mercury/Big Loud/Republic): A couple months ago, it seemed like a pretty safe bet that Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” would reign all season on Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart. The song blasted to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 immediately upon its May release – zooming past an unusually stacked array of major hits in the top 10 at the time — with staggeringly big numbers across the board. As radio airplay picked up for it at a blinding pace and its sales and streaming numbers stayed strong, it looked like it might follow the path of Wallen’s 2023 smash, “Last Night,” which both started and ended the season atop the Songs of the Summer chart, while reigning for four total months on the Hot 100.
And in truth, it still very well might. “I Had Some Help” has ruled the Songs of the Summer chart for all eight weeks of the list’s 2024 existence thus far, and has topped the Hot 100 for six frames, as well. Its numbers remain strong in all areas: On this week’s charts (dated July 27), it remains in the top five on Radio Songs (No. 1, its fourth week atop the chart) Streaming Songs (No. 3) and Digital Song Sales (No. 4). It’s still gaining on the airwaves, and should get an extra late-summer boost when Posty releases his long-anticipated full country album, F-1 Trillion (due Aug. 16).
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But “I Had Some Help” has had some competition. After towering over the rest of the Hot 100 for its first five weeks of release, “Help” briefly ceded the crown to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please.” Then after recapturing it the next week, “Help” again let the title slip the following frame — and in the two weeks since, it’s yet to reclaim it, as Shaboozey and Kendrick Lamar have taken turns trading off the top spot.
Which is hardly to say that “Help” has fallen off dramatically or unexpectedly: It’s naturally experiencing a slow decrease in streams and sales, but it’s also still No. 2 on this week’s Hot 100, and very much still a threat to jump back up to No. 1 any time the competition sags for a week or two. However, its chances of matching or even nearing the 16 weeks (!!) “Last Night” spent atop the Hot 100 last year are growing slim — and while it remains the clear Song of the Summer frontrunner, it also remains vulnerable in the race if any of the songs beneath it experience another power surge.
Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): Though it initially seemed like it would be scrapping with Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” on the undercard for this summer’s title fight, Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has elbowed its way into the main event. With consistently impressive streaming numbers and downright stunning sales since its April release, radio was the final piece of the puzzle for “A Bar Song” — and it has delivered on that front, attracting airplay from a historic array of radio formats, and climbing all the way to No. 2 on Radio Songs so far, behind “Help.” Like that song, “Bar Song” ranks in the top five on each of the Hot 100’s three component charts this week — and actually tops “Help” with its No. 2 placement on both Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales.
More crucially, “Bar Song” also tops “Help” on the Hot 100 this week — its second frame atop the chart. That’s still four behind Post and Morgan, of course, so “Bar Song” has plenty of catching up to do if it wants to really challenge “Help.” But it helps that “Bar Song” has also been in the fight since the very beginning of this SotS season — debuting at No. 4 on Songs of the Summer and working its way up to No. 2 by the end of June — so if it continues growing on radio as it has so far and “Help” starts to recede a little, or if it gets a momentum-boosting remix or new video, there’s certainly a chance that “Bar Song” could steal this race yet.
Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): Pre-”I Had Some Help,” it looked like “Not Like Us” was going to be the song to beat this summer. It debuted atop the (already very crowded) Hot 100 with an incomplete first week of tracking, thanks to otherworldly levels of excitement around it as the knockout punch in the increasingly fevered back-and-forth between Kendrick Lamar and rival-to-the-north Drake. “I Had Some Help” quite impressively managed to lap it the very next week, and as interest in the beef died down (and radio understandably was slower to pick up the virulent missive than the cartoonishly crossover-friendly “Help”), it seemed like “Not Like Us” would bow out of the Song of the Summer race before it even really began.
But as the hip-hop and pop worlds should’ve learned from his bout with Drake in the first place, you can never count out Kung Fu Kenny. Lamar’s new signature smash was doubly adrenalized by his much-publicized, nationally-streamed Juneteenth concert spectacular The Pop Out, and then by the song’s official music video, which dropped on July 4. Following the boost from the latter, “Not Like Us” even reclaimed the Hot 100’s top spot for the first time in two months. It’s back down to No. 3 on this week’s listing, and may have finally run out of extra lives, but we’re twice bitten, three times shy there — especially since it’s up 6% in airplay this week, according to Luminate, and at No. 9 on Radio Songs, and we still haven’t gotten any kind of official remix for the song.
Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” & “Please Please Please” (Island/Republic): If you could somehow merge the popularity and momentum from Sabrina Carpenter’s two summer singles so far, you’d undoubtedly have yourself the song of the season: “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” both reached the Hot 100’s top five (the latter marking her first leader), and have been fixtures of the Songs of the Summer’s top 10, with Carpenter the only artist with multiple entries in the 20-position seasonal chart’s top half this week. With Carpenter’s new album due the week after Post Malone’s in August, her two four-quadrant smashes will undoubtedly receive a sizeable bump. But if she wants to challenge for the SotS No. 1 spot with either song, she won’t be able to wait around for that — neither is higher than No. 5 on the chart this week, and Billboard’s summer season officially ends following the chart dated Sept. 7.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated July 27), Taylor Swift’s Billboard 200 reign faces its greatest challenger yet in the form of Eminem’s alter-ego-killing latest.
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Eminem, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope): If you’re a regular reader of The Contenders and are rolling your eyes at yet another “Could [Non-Taylor Swift Artist] Finally Knock Taylor Swift From Atop the Billboard 200?” type headline, it’d be hard to blame you. In the past three months, we’ve seen such charges mounted by the likes of Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams and (most recently) Zach Bryan, and all have ultimately fallen short: Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has now reigned uninterrupted on the chart for a full 12 weeks, becoming the longest-running No. 1 of her career, and tying Morgan Wallen for the longest consecutive rule of the decade.
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But this week, Swift faces a challenger unlike any she’s faced in Poets’ lifetime – from one of just a handful of artists this century who can legitimately claim to be in the same galaxy of commercial success. Eminem, one of the best-selling solo recording artists of all-time – with two RIAA diamond-certified albums to his name, and a stunning 10 consecutive No. 1 sets on the Billboard 200, a streak dating back to 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP – returns this week with his first new album in four years. What’s more, the set aims to be something of a career bookend for the veteran rapper, as it trumpets The Death of Slim Shady – Em supposedly killing off the alter-ego persona that helped vault him to superstardom a quarter-century ago.
The album is already off to a strong start at streaming, with every one of its 19 tracks – except for the 24-second “All You Got” skit – debuting in the top 100 of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart after its Friday (July 12) release, and most of them remaining in the region at mid-week. What’s more, the set already has one pre-certified smash in lead single “Houdini” — which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June and is still lingering around the top 20 – and another more modest hit in the Big Sean and BabyTron collab “Tobey,” which vaults 95-27 on the chart in its first full week of release.
Streaming will have to make up the bulk of The Death of Slim Shady’s consumption, as the album has not yet been released in physical form. (The CD version of it is currently scheduled for a Sept. 13 release, with cassette and vinyl due on Oct. 25). However, there were two D2C digital editions of the album for purchase, both available for a limited time before the set’s release, and both with their own exclusive bonus track – one with “Kyrie & Luka” (featuring 2 Chainz) and one with “Like My Shit” (featuring FIFTEENAFTER) — and a third one was released today, with both bonus tracks and a new “Steve Berman” skit.
Eminem’s prior album, 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, moved 279,000 in its first week, without the benefit of an advance single or a career-spanning narrative hook. If the rapper’s latest again debuts with a number in the 200,000s, it would mark a bigger week than Swift has had for Poets since its fifth week on top, for the chart week dated June 1. And if Em is able to secure the No. 1 with Death of Slim Shady, his 11th consecutive all-new album to hit No. 1 would again tie Ye (formerly Kanye West) — who extended his own run earlier this year with the Ty Dolla $ign teamup Vultures 1 — for the longest such streak in Billboard 200 history.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): Are there any cards left for Taylor Swift to play to maintain her already-historic Poets run atop the Billboard 200? With Swift’s restocked exclusive CD variants of the album shipping last week – helping Poets to fend off Zach Bryan’s six-digit first full week for The Great American Bar Scene, and securing Swift her first 12-week run at No. 1 – and a truly formidable opponent arriving this week with Eminem’s latest, it certainly feels like the greatest chance yet that the blockbuster finally cedes the top spot.
Still, there is more history for Swift to make with one more frame at the chart’s apex: a 13th consecutive week at No. 1 would make it just the second album to reign consecutively for that long on the 200 following its debut, tying the mark set nearly a half-century ago by Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. Never count out Taylor Swift until every last sale and stream is counted.
IN THE MIX
ENHYPEN, Romance: Untold (Belift/Genie/Stone): In a less loaded week, we might have been talking about whether South Korean pop group ENHYPEN was headed for its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. The boy band’s second Korean-language full-length album follows last year’s Orange Blood EP, which brought ENHYPEN to the chart’s top five, and is available for purchase in a stunning 17 different CD variants — including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the group’s webstore; all with collectible paper ephemera like photocards, stickers, and a poster – as well as a pair of vinyl editions.
Megan Moroney, Am I Okay? (Sony/Columbia): While Megan Moroney has yet to score another radio hit on the scale of her 2022 breakthrough “Tennessee Orange,” the country singer-songwriter has developed an impressive fan following, which looks ready to pay off with second full-length Am I Okay? The set is off to a strong start in both sales and streams, with the addictive title track leading the way on DSPs, and the album being sold in three deluxe CD boxed sets and three different vinyl editions, including a signed version exclusive to her webstore.
Clairo, Charm (Clairo Records): After reaching the top 20 on Polydor/Republic in 2021 with sophomore album Sling, Clairo went independent – self-releasing her third album Charm on Friday. The singer-songwriter born Claire Cottrill does not seem to be suffering commercially for her move: The warmer-sounding album already has a streaming hit in lead single “Sexy to Someone,” and appears set for impressive first-week sales – helped by eight different-colored vinyl variants and four CD boxed sets, three with a T-shirt and one with a handkerchief – as well as perhaps her best showing yet on the Billboard 200.