Braintree Top 40

Sufjan Stevens continues his breakthrough into Braintree’s mainstream as “Mystery of Love” stays at #1 for a 2nd consecutive week.  Its parent film, Call Me By Your Name still has a week to go until it’s released in Boston, which means the track will continue to be on airwaves for at least another week as the impact of the film is felt.  Charli XCX collects another top 5 as “Out of My Head” featuring Tove Lo & ALMA debuts at #2.  This is off her latest mixtape, POP2, expected to be released at midnight.  Next is “Don’t Give It Up,” which jumps ten spots to #3, the highest peak for a New Zealand artist (take that, Lorde).

It’s now the second week in a row that Emm!e has contributed to the chart and boy, has she ever!  She got Vance Joy to chart for the first time at #31 with “Riptide,” his sleeper hit from 2014.  Taylor Swift claims the most chart entries for the second week in a row at 7, and it’s all because of Emm!e.  “End Game,” which features Ed Sheeran & Future, is the highest entry, reaches a new peak of #6.  It’s surprising that both Celina and Emily haven’t caught on to new Swift yet, but it could be because their focus is on spreading holiday cheer for all to hear.

Speaking of holiday cheer, that’s all Daina, Celina, and Emily could listen to this week.  Collectively, they’ve managed to get eight holiday songs onto the chart this week, with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee as the highest entry, skyrocketing up 33 spots to #7.  Fun fact: all three of these women have shown their love for Michael Buble’s Christmas album, yet have not been able to get a single one of his songs onto the Braintree Top 40!  Why is that?  Well, it’s because each of them has a different favorite from said album, making it difficult to make an overlap that will prove mighty enough to make it onto the chart.

In actuality, it was only Celina that refused to allow music that wasn’t Christmas-y touch her ears, as Daina provided “Havana” with yet another surge up the charts at #10 and Emily gave The Weeknd & Daft Punk an early Christmas present with a debut at #30 with “I Feel It Coming.”  She also threw Foster the People a bone and granted them a debut at #28 with their spring hit, “SHC.”

Year-end lists continue to affect the chart as we see the former #1 “Boys,” by Charli XCX return as well as one of 2017’s biggest songs, “Bad Liar” at #26 and #27 respectively.  “United State of Pop 2017 (How We Do It),” a mashup of all the biggest songs from 2017, debuts at #29, becoming the first mashup to chart on the Braintree Top 40.

Next week looks to be another quiet one with Holiday music and year-end lists increasing their grip on the chart.  We do have a few major releases coming with Charli XCX’s mixtape as well as Eminem’s latest album, Revival, although that one seems to be getting poor reviews and little hype from Braintree.