![]() ![]() But not even the Grammys are foolish enough to place Jack Harlow on par with Kendrick Lamar.ġ6. Harlow at least seemed roused enough to participate in "State Fair," but the arrangement isolated him onstage and forced him to carry the entire burden of the moment - a tactic that works if you're, say, Kendrick Lamar. Way to climb the ladder, J-'low! A medley of "Lil Secret" and "First Class" places Harlow in front of a band, but the songs are dull - has there been a less hook-forward chart-topper than "First Class" in recent years? - and he couldn't help but find himself overshadowed by both the easygoing groove and a doofy white scarf. For Season 48, he returned to the SNL stage to perform double duty as host and musical guest - and soared up the rankings, all the way to 17th (out of 18), due to a writers strike that lopped three episodes off the season. Two years ago, Jack Harlow's drab, listless SNL debut propelled him to a 19th-place performance (out of 20) on this very list. Jack Harlow, "Lil Secret"/"First Class" and "State Fair" (10/29/22) ![]() So by the time he, Jacob Collier and the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers paddled back to the sturdy shores of "Fix You," the damage had already been done.ġ7. "The Astronaut" and "Human Heart," two slabs of Up With People-style inspirecore from 2021's Music of the Spheres, just can't be elevated to the heights he's hell-bent on reaching. But he's often guilty of overreaching in the pursuit of transcendence, and that only works when the songcraft is top-notch. Sam Smith in 2015, but also Coldplay on a stage filled with smiling space aliens and swaying congregants.Ĭhris Martin is a talented and charismatic guy, in spite of it all, and his band's Tiny Desk concert from 2020 - also recorded with a choir! - was legitimately wonderful. In fact, if you were to take Sam Smith in 2023 but extinguish every scintilla of sexuality and mischief, you'd get. It's remarkable how many ingredients this set shares with Sam Smith's SNL performance just two weeks earlier most obviously, they both deployed choirs, with costumery to spare. If you want the most compelling possible case against Coldplay, watch this SNL appearance, which is corny enough to drown the earth's surface in ethanol. If you want to hear the most compelling possible case for Coldplay, listen to Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head. Jacob Collier and the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers)" (2/4/23)Ĭoldplay has inspired more than 20 years of fierce online debate, but the argument isn't all that complex. Coldplay, "The Astronaut" and "Human Heart"/"Fix You (feat. So, for the sixth year in a row, let's get to it!ġ8. (See previous rankings: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.)Īs always, we've linked to every performance that's still (legally) posted on YouTube, but every one of these sets is also available for streaming via Peacock in case you wish to check my work. So it's once again time to cruelly rank them all: the magnificent, the flawed-but-forceful, the forgettable and the truly, epically misbegotten. Naturally, the vagaries of live performance - and of SNL's notoriously unforgiving Studio 8H, not to mention late-night TV's eternal issues with sound mixing - meant that some musical guests were bound to outshine the rest. The results were a typically mixed bag, with occasionally transcendent results. ![]() For the second straight season, SNL leaned away from the safe spaces of guitar-driven rock, opting instead to focus more heavily than ever on R&B and (especially) hip-hop. But at least the musical guests offered some major highlights. ![]() They must determine if fate brought them together, or if it's just a trick of the Bermuda Triangle.It was a rough season for Saturday Night Live, which endured painful cast attrition (Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, et al.), mixed reviews and a writers strike that knocked out Season 48's final three episodes. So when a wish upon a falling star comes true, can she open her heart to a handsome stranger who claims to be an eighteenth century pirate?Ĭhristophe attempts to woo the siren who summoned him through time, but she's convinced he's nothing but a con man playing a part. As an introvert, there's little chance of meeting new people-at least on purpose. The only one of her friends who didn't cancel gets sick on the voyage, forcing Serena to spend her birthday alone. Serena's twenty-eighth birthday cruise isn't going as planned. Instead, Christophe finds himself three hundred years in the future, captivated by a beautiful woman. A whirling maelstrom sucks him beneath the waves… Only he doesn't drown. When he finally has a chance to cut ties and return to his former life, he takes it-or tries to. Pressed into a crew, he moved up in rank to make his eventual escape. Christophe Jones never asked to be a pirate. ![]()
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