It's been a big month for mask-clad rockers, as Sleep Token scores its first-ever No. 1 album with Even in Arcadia. On the Hot 100 singles chart, Kendrick Lamar's "Luther (feat. SZA)" registers a 13th consecutive week at No. 1, holding off the seemingly inevitable ascent of Alex Warren's "Ordinary." And, as we await the chart domination of Morgan Wallen's new record, it's time to tally all the new songs he's landed in the Hot 100 in the run-up to I'm the Problem's release.
TOP ALBUMS
Two weeks ago, the masked Swedish hard-rock band Ghost crashed the Billboard 200 with its first-ever No. 1 album, Skeletá, before being replaced atop the charts by the resurgence of Bad Bunny's DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. This week, another masked hard-rock band has duplicated Ghost's feat: Sleep Token, a lore-rich, genre-smashing, entirely anonymous English prog-rock band, has landed its first-ever No. 1 album, as Even in Arcadia bows atop the Billboard 200.
Even in Arcadia's smashing first-week success follows a rise that placed Sleep Token's previous album (2023's Take Me Back to Eden) as high as No. 16. And, while Ghost's album has slid quite a bit since its chart-topping debut — Skeletá falls from No. 58 to No. 154 in its third week on the chart — Even in Arcadia looks positioned to stick around in the Billboard 200's upper reaches for a while. The album was this week's top seller and its most-streamed album, and robust streaming numbers (and the algorithms they feed) are what tend to keep albums from fading quickly.
According to Billboard, Even in Arcadia has scored the largest-ever streaming week for a hard-rock album. All 10 of its songs currently reside on the Billboard Hot 100, which is the type of chart penetration reserved for legit streaming blockbusters. It's not going to stay at No. 1 for long (see: Wallen, Morgan), but it's not plunging into oblivion any time soon, either.
Speaking of legit streaming blockbusters, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS — which leapt to No. 7 to No. 1 last week after a huge load of vinyl copies shipped — falls back to No. 10 this time around. Even without its one-week sales surge (copies were available via Bad Bunny's website for a limited time), he's still rarely far from the top of the charts.
Bad Bunny is joined in the top 10 by two other Latin-music juggernauts: Kali Uchis debuts at No. 2 with Sincerely, which ties the singer's all-time chart peak, while the band Fuerza Regida slips from No. 2 to No. 6 with 111XPANTIA.
Oh, and one other blockbuster re-enters the top 10 this week: The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow climbs from No. 27 to No. 9 thanks to new vinyl and CD editions. That didn't help the box-office performance of the album's cinematic counterpart — the Hurry Up Tomorrow film, which stars The Weeknd, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, just debuted with just $3.3 million on more than 2,000 screens — but a return to Billboard's top 10 is a return to Billboard's top 10.
TOP SONGS
It seems inevitable that Alex Warren's "Ordinary" will one day knock Kendrick Lamar's "Luther (feat. SZA)" out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, but that day will have to wait. For the 13th consecutive week, "Luther" tops the chart — and it's one of only 15 songs to post a streak that long in the history of the Hot 100, which dates back to 1958.
Of course, such streaks have grown more common in the streaming era; just last year, Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" rang up a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1. (That song, which holds at No. 4 this week, has spent a record 45 weeks and counting in the top five.)
Most of the action in the top 10 is a variation on the theme of "This song has been on the charts for so many weeks!" — which is to say there's not a whole lot going on. But Teddy Swims' "Lose Control," which holds at No. 7 after peaking at No. 1 all the way back in March 2024, has now tied a major all-time record: With 91 weeks on the Hot 100, it joins Glass Animals' excruciating 2020 single "Heat Waves" in posting the longest chart runs of all time. Spoiler ahead: In one week, "Lose Control" is going to have that record all to itself.
WORTH NOTING
For upwards of a year, it's been understood that Morgan Wallen's I'm the Problem will be one of 2025's biggest albums — and, unless Taylor Swift has something under her hat, most likely the biggest by the time all the year's chart numbers have been tallied. Wallen is in the midst of a string of blockbusters, and the run-up to I'm the Problem's release last Friday has set records.
What kind of records, you ask?
Well, prior to I'm the Problem, the record for most top 10 singles banked prior to an album's release was four — a record held by Taylor Swift (with 2012's Red) and Post Malone (with 2019's Hollywood's Bleeding). But Swift and Post Malone both went four-for-four, with no misses, while Wallen went for norm-busting quantity in the run-up to his new album. In early April, Wallen broke the record outright when "Just in Case" debuted at No. 4. Then, a few weeks later, he broke it again, this time with the Post Malone duet "I Ain't Coming Back," which debuted at No. 8.
Since this is the final chart week prior to I'm the Problem's official debut — another single, the Tate McRae duet "What I Want," was sent to radio stations concurrently with the album's release — it's worth pausing to take a tally of where things stand.
- All three of Wallen's pre-I'm the Problem albums have been staples of the Billboard 200. One Thing at a Time, from 2023, has been on the chart for more than two years, and currently sits at No. 4. Dangerous: The Double Album, from 2021, has been on the chart for more than four years, and slips from No. 9 to No. 11. And his debut, 2018's If I Know Me, climbs from No. 61 to No. 56 in its 345th week on the chart. tl;dr: I'm the Problem is going to sit on the Billboard 200 forever.
- Wallen released eight songs from I'm the Problem prior to its release — don't worry, there are 29 more tracks where that came from — and seven of them are still on the Hot 100. The title track climbs from No. 10 to No. 6, while "Just in Case" (No. 11), "Superman" (new at No. 16), "Love Somebody" (No. 18), "I Ain't Coming Back (feat. Post Malone)" (No. 25), "I'm a Little Crazy" (No. 52) and "Smile" (No. 68) all lie in wait. ("Lies Lies Lies" peaked at No. 7 last July and has since dropped off the chart.)
- Six top 10 songs prior to an album's release is, as noted above, an all-time record. But let's not forget that, with "Superman" hitting No. 16 and "I'm a Little Crazy" hitting No. 17, he's notched eight top 20 singles — all prior to I'm the Problem's release.
- Let's not forget that Wallen's other duet with Post Malone from the latter's F-1 Trillion album, "I Had Some Help" — which, if you'll recall, topped Billboard's 2024 Songs of the Summer chart for last year — is still hanging around at No. 13 this week.
In case you need another data point for the groundbreaking thesis that I'm the Problem is going to be a gigantic hit, consider this: According to Billboard, it's already broken streaming records for a country album. Buckle up.
Copyright 2025 NPR
