Week 14 of Fall ’16 brings new albums from Metallica, Bruno Mars, and Miranda Lambert.
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated December 10, 2016
See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100
| Billboard Artist Top 10 | Name | Billboard 200 Album Rank | Billboard Hot 100 Singles | Highest Charting Single |
| 1 | Bruno Mars | 2 | 3 | 4: 24K Magic |
| 2 | Metallica | 1 | – | |
| 3 | Pentatonix | 4 | 1 | 65: Hallelujah |
| 4 | Drake | 10 | 5 | 11: Fake Love |
| 5 | Weeknd | 41 | 3 | 3: Starboy |
| 6 | Miranda Lambert | 3 | 1 | 88: Vice |
| 7 | Twenty One Pilots | 18 | 2 | 7: Heathens |
| 8 | Rae Sremmurd | 8 | 2 | 1: Black Beatles |
| 9 | Ariana Grande | 13 | 1 | 6: Side To Side |
| 10 | Chainsmokers | 11 | 3 | 2: Closer |
Bruno Mars takes the #1 Artist spot on this week’s Scoreboard, which is his first week at #1 since the chart was started by Billboard in 2014. Had it existed before, this would not have been the first time on top for @brunomars. Back in 2013, he was named Billboard’s Artist of the Year. On the Billboard 200 Metallica are on top with Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the band’s sixth number one album. Coming in behind Metallica and Bruno Mars on the Billboard 200 is country star Miranda Lambert with The Weight Of These Wings, her first album since a public divorce from Blake Shelton.
The Black Beatles, #1 on again on the Hot 100, are taking their talents to South Beach this weekend
Bruno Mars Rolls Out 24K Magic, The Album
Bruno Mars’s highly-anticipated return started seven weeks ago with “24K Magic,” a continuation of the “Uptown Funk” sound that earned him and Mark Ronson the biggest hit of 2015. 24K Magic, the album, is out this week, coming in at #2 on the Billboard 200 and continuing to mine the happy pop-funk sounds of 1980’s and 1990’s that have defined @brunomars. What separates this album from Mars’s previous releases is a pivot to R&B through songs such as “That’s What I Like” and “Versace On The Floor.” @brunomars has been an entertainer first so far in his career, getting down at two Super Bowls. However, his entry into Usher‘s love zone is risky. The R&B sound yearns for the 90’s and although Keith Sweat was not half bad, today’s R&B has long left the 90’s for electronic and hip-hop influences. Will Bruno’s gambit pay off? Perhaps we’ll know at Super Bowl LI halftime show – Lagy Gaga what do you think of Bruno’s new sound?
Bruno Mars was wearing all his favorite brand to the VS Holiday Show
Metallica Thrashes For The First Time In 8 Years
Metallica follows a long list of established rock acts returning with new albums in 2016 and the eight year gap since their last album allowed James Hetfield and crew to keep their streak of #1 albums alive – every studio album the band has released since 1991 made it to the top of the Billboard 200. The eight year break also allows the hard rock to go on for 26 songs and 157 minutes on the new album. With 10 live tracks to close the album, self-destruction takes its time. Album starter “Hardwired” serves as a perfect three minute thesis to the larger work. “Once upon a planet burning / once upon a flame / once upon a fear returning / all in vain” Hetfield sings over pummeling thrash metal. Yes, the planet has been burning since before “Eve Of Destruction,” but this is coming from the first band to ever play all seven continents in a year (@metallica performed in Antarctica to clinch the feat in 2013). Second single “Moth Into Flame” offers a line “destruction going viral,” updating the metal music of doom to the technology dystopia of 2016. Perhaps the eve of destruction requires a two and a half hour playlist.
The Platinum plaques for Metallica’s massive new album have already come out in Canada
The Weight Of Miranda Lambert’s Wings
In May 2011 country singers Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton married in Texas. According to People back then Shelton’s work on NBC’s The Voice made Lambert “feel neglected” and they spent the month after the wedding together without family and friends. Five years later the country power couple’s marriage ended in divorce and by November 2015, Shelton was dating Gwen Stefani and Lambert moved on to singer-songwriter Anderson East. Back in May Shelton released his post-divorce album If I’m Honest and now it’s Lambert’s turn with The Weight Of These Wings, which delivers 24 songs in 94 minutes. For a country album that is the equivalent of Metallica’s 157 minute opus. Lead single “Vice” certainly carries the weight on @mirandalambert’s wings. In the song she sings about drinking and waking up where she should not be waking up. The first half of the album is known as The Nerve, which is the home of Lambert’s despair (and the source of “Vice”). The second half, known as The Heart, turns to redemption and has Lambert move forward as the “Keeper Of The Flame” who finishes the album singing about “rolling on” on closer “I’ve Got Wheels.” Lambert’s raw and confessional lyrics make it easy to cheer for her in this new chapter of an already eventful country music career.
@mirandalambert has the nerve and the strength to carry the weight of wings