May 2, 2018
jmunney
Billboard Charts, Billboard Hot 100, Music
Ariana Grande, Billboard, Billboard Hot 100, No Tears Left to Cry
Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot 100, and then I rearrange the top 20 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all 20, now I just rank the cream of the crop.
Original Version
1. Drake – “Nice for What”
2. Drake – “God’s Plan”
3. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
4. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
5. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Psycho”
6. J. Cole – “ATM”
7. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
8. J. Cole – “Kevin’s Heart”
9. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
10. J. Cole – “KOD”
11. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
12. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
13. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
14. J. Cole – “Photograph”
15. J. Cole – “Motiv8”
16. Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin – “I Like It”
17. Bazzi – “Mine”
18. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
19. The Weeknd – “Call Out My Name”
20. J. Cole – “1985 (Intro to the Fall Off)”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Tears Left to Cry
2. Never Be the Same
3. Call Out My Name
March 4, 2017
jmunney
Best of 2016, Best of Music 2016, Music
A Tribe Called Quest, Alessia Cara, Ariana Grande, BANKS, Beck, Beyoncé, Bishop Briggs, Childish Gambino, Drake, Flume, Glass Animals, Gold, Gucci Mane, Highly Suspect, Kaleo, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Kiiara, KONGOS, Lady GaGa, Leonard Cohen, Phantogram, Rae Sremmurd, Rag'n'Bone Man, Rihanna, Sean Paul, Sia, Tove Lo
All songs on this list were released as singles in 2016, or 2015 but didn’t make an impact until 2016.
1. Kiiara – “Gold” – An ingenious production trick wins the top spot. The best music in the world rewires your brain.
2. Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Freedom” – Beyoncé BUSTS out every emotion of the year.
3. Phantogram – “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” – I can feel myself dissolving in the despair.
4. Lady GaGa – “Perfect Illusion” – GaGa’s crying out in beautiful pain.
5. Kanye West – “Fade” – From another dimension.
6. Rag‘n’Bone Man – “Human” – The blues are alive and kicking.
7. Sia – “The Greatest” – Sia’s career is the soundtrack for perseverance.
8. Alessia Cara – “Scars to Your Beautiful” – What could have been an anodyne message piece instead infuses an influx of attitude.
9. Flume ft. Tove Lo – “Say It” – An airy, effervescent blast from 2016’s top DJ.
10. Childish Gambino – “Me and Your Mama” – Where did this burst of neo-P-Funk come from?!
11. Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane – “Black Beatles” – This sounds like nostalgia and the future.
12. Glass Animals – “Life Itself” – Alternative quirk’s top spot of the year.
13. Bishop Briggs – “River” – I need at least one lady rocker belting it out like this per annum.
14. Beyoncé – “Formation” – The production is so much more adventurous and more mature from Queen Bey than ever before.
15. BANKS – “Gemini Feed” – Icy and boopy, with attitude to spare.
16. Leonard Cohen – “You Want It Darker” – I’m vociferously nodding along to every declaration Mr. Cohen makes.
17. Kaleo – “Way Down We Go” – That title is sort of like musical onomatopoeia.
18. Highly Suspect – “My Name is Human” – These guys from Cape Cod ought to be rocking stadiums to their core.
19. Beck – “Wow” – Beck’s gonna keep uncovering these strange corners in the aural landscape.
20. Kongos – “Take It From Me” – These South African rockers are totally in control.
21. Tove Lo – “Cool Girl” – Tove keeps freaking up the airwaves.
22. A Tribe Called Quest – “We the People” – A necessary anthem.
23. Sia ft. Sean Paul – “Cheap Thrills” – Bounce along when you’re looking for fun.
24. Ariana Grande – “Into You” – Features the year’s most killer opening line
25. Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” – One of those great songs that defy natural analysis.
March 13, 2016
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Ariana Grande, Ariana Grande Impressions, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live 4115, Saturday Night Live Season 41, SNL, SNL Season 41
SNL Promo: Taran Killam, Ariana Grande (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in March 2016.
Musical guests may have limited range compared to most “SNL” hosts, but they are still entertainers. On top of that, Ariana Grande is also a veteran of Nickelodeon, which – while excessively hacky – tends to make professionals out of its kid stars. If Grande is given good material, she will know how to hit her marks. So it should not be considered shocking that her hosting debut is mostly a success. But who would have guessed that in the pantheon of great “SNL” hosts, she would be most similar to Kevin Spacey?
CNN America’s Choice 2016 – Once again, the cold opening is a political catchall, but this one works better than most thanks to a more streamlined focus, with only the best impressions of the season (sans Hillary, though her moment comes later). Darrell Hammond and Jay Pharoah have sufficiently creepy chemistry as Trump and Carson, but the real twist is Larry David’s latest Bern-ing cameo. He rants delightfully on and on about the latest foibles of the primary, reserving special disdain for superdelegates (“I’ve met some of these superdelegates. They’re not that super”). B
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March 13, 2016
jmunney
Television, What Won TV?
Ariana Grande, Baskets, Childrens Hospital, Jane the Virgin, Last Week Tonight, Man Seeking Woman, Saturday Night Live, SNL, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, VICE
In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.
Sunday – Can Last Week Tonight with John Oliver be its own special-purpose district?
Monday – Jane the Virgin
Tuesday – The People vs OJ Simpson
Wednesday – Man Seeking Woman fulfilled its promise in Season 2.
Thursday – Baskets
Friday – TIE: VICE and Childrens Hospital met very different TV needs.
Saturday – Ariana Grande made quite the impression on SNL.
September 29, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Ariana Grande, Chris Pratt, Saturday Night Live Season 40, SNL, SNL Season 40
SNL: Ariana Grande, Chris Pratt (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in September 2014.
To kick off its milestone 40th season, “SNL” entrusted the premiere to first-time guests Chris Pratt and Ariana Grande. Pratt proved to be the perfect utility player host, comfortably slotting into all his roles without overshadowing the cast. His trademark goofy energy could have been put to greater use, but this was an episode of “SNL” that wanted to try out new material and cover some of the most pressing news stories. New cast members Michael Che and Pete Davidson looked perfectly comfortable as they made auspicious debuts. Overall, this was an episode that was not entirely focused but was overall more interesting and more experimental than “SNL” usually allows itself to be. Let’s take a closer look at each of the sketches:
State of the Union with Candy Crowley – This is one of those typical “SNL” cold openings: a news talk show parody that allows multiple stories to be covered with minimal connective tissue. At least in this case, the various stories were all under the same umbrella of “NFL in Crisis.” While Roger Goodell and former Baltimore Ravens Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharpe all had their funny moments, this sketch did not make much of a point beyond “Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson are not the only NFL players who have had legal troubles.” Lewis’s hook of constantly changing the subject to kids going to school made up for the fact that this was yet another non-impression from Kenan Thompson, while Sharpe continued to be one of Jay Pharoah’s best impressions, with a particularly Eddie Murphy-esque laugh. B-
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