The Chainsmokers (1) – Week Of September 10, 2016

Hey guys! Before we begin this post, I want to quickly talk about something. 15 years ago today was an attack that honestly just left us speechless. On September 11, 2001 (when I was like 2 years old), there were a series of plane crashes, a couple of which had hit the World Trade Center in New York City. One of them was even aimed towards Washington D.C., but after the passengers tried to overcome the hijackers, it ended up crashing somewhere in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed and over 6,000 were injured. So I thought we would have a short moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the attack.


No songs leaving the countdown this week. So let's get right into it.



Last Week's #1 Song: Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling
The Countdown
45. Fifth Harmony – All In My Head (Flex) (#29)
44. Lukas Graham – 7 Years (#44)
43. Selena Gomez – Kill Em With Kindness (#45)
42. Drake/WizKid/Kyla – One Dance (#43)
41. Timeflies – Once In A While (#41)
40. DNCE – Toothbrush (#24)
39. Meghan Trainor – No (#37)
38. The Summer Set – Figure Me Out (#32)
37. Fifth Harmony – Work From Home (#38)
36. Taylor Swift – New Romantics (#42) [2 Weeks At #1]
35. Selena Gomez – Hands To Myself (#35)
34. Panic! At The Disco – Victorious (#28) [1 Week At #1]
33. P!nk – Just Like Fire (#30)
32. DNCE – Cake By The Ocean (#39) [4 Weeks At #1]
31. Mike Posner/SeeB – I Took A Pill In Ibiza (#27) [2 Weeks At #1]
30. X Ambassadors – Unsteady (#34)
29. Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman (#33)
28. Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (#26) [5 Weeks At #1]
27. Meghan Trainor – Me Too (#23)
26. Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire (#19)
25. Katy Perry – Rise (#40)
24. All Time Low – Missing You (#22)
23. Flume/Kai – Never Be Like You (#31)
22. The Strumbellas – Spirits (#36)
21. Symon – Say (#20)
20. Jacob Whitesides – Lovesick (#17)
19. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water (#25)
18. Lukas Graham – Mama Said (#21)
17. Demi Lovato – Body Say (#13)
16. AJR – I'm Not Famous (#15)
15. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (#16)
14. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Girls Talk Boys (#10)
13. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty (#18)
12. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (#14)
11. Charlie Puth/Selena Gomez – We Don't Talk Anymore (#11)
10. The 1975 – The Sound (#7)
  9. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better (#6)
  8. Ariana Grande – Into You (#8)
  7. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (#12)
  6. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For (#9)
  5. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling (#1) [10 Weeks At #1]
  4. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills (#2)
  3. Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover) (#3) [1 Week At #1]
  2. Twenty One Pilots – Ride (#5)
  1. The Chainsmokers/Daya – Don't Let Me Down (#4) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Ed Sheeran – Photograph

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Tie Between Fifth Harmony – All In My Head and DNCE – Toothbrush (–16)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Katy Perry – Rise (+15)

Cold Blurbs
~ Once again, I was on the edge of my seat hoping that Ride would not be our #1 song. I'm really tired of this. This song seriously needs to get the hell out of the Top 10, even better out of the countdown. I will happily take Don't Let Me Down, Send My Love, or even freakin' Cheap Thrills at #1 over Ride.

~ Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For is still hitting new peaks. It has reached the peak of Calvin Harris' 2013 smash hit, I Need Your Love. This annoys me so much because this song is nowhere near as good as I Need Your Love. I can't stand the lazy ass drop and the constant repetition of the word "you". It's so annoying! We've had much better dance songs this year.

~ Yuck. Lukas Graham – Mama Said is back in the Top 20. This song is just awful for so many reasons. I swear, if this song becomes as big of a hit as the superior 7 Years, I will not handle it very nicely at all. Lukas Graham will probably forever remain a one-hit wonder group in my book.

~ The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer just calmly sits at #15, while it is #1 on a lot of different charts at the moment. Yet Hits 1 feels like they should have the older Don't Let Me Down at #1. Does anyone even like this song anymore? Closer, on the other hand, is much newer, more fresh, and more worthy of the #1 spot at the moment.

~ Looks like All In My Head was never meant to be an actual hit, which sucks because I personally think it's a better song than Work From Home. Oh well. A for effort.

~ I'm having a hard time believe that Hands To Myself and Kill Em With Kindness are both still here. Honestly, both of these songs suck. I'm still waiting for that week when they both leave on the same week. That would be pretty cool to see.

~ I think the best thing that happened this week was the jump into the Top 10 from Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend. I don't even know what their last Top 10 song was. It must've been a really time ago, if they ever even had a song in the Top 10 on this countdown. But I'm very happy that this song managed to make the Top 10. It's an amazing song. So thank you voters!

~ This past Friday was the release of one of the most anticipated comeback singles of the year. Lady Gaga has officially returned with Perfect Illusion. I went into the song so excited because I love Lady Gaga. I listened to it and I have to say, this song sucks ass. I don't like the production on this song at all. It feels a little messy at times. And my goodness.......what happened to Lady Gaga's voice??? Without a doubt, she is a very talented singer, but she does not show it at all in this song. It sounds like she's screaming more than she is singing. And just when I thought this song couldn't get any worse, we reach the last chorus where the sound completely changes and it's just painful to my ears. After the first listen, I thought, "Hey. Maybe this song is one of those songs that'll grow on me with more listens." So I listened to it a few more times, and it actually got worse. Basically overall, this song is shit and one time it gave me a headache when I listened to it. Huge disappointment from Lady Gaga. It is nowhere near as good as some of her biggest hits like Just Dance, Bad Romance, Alejandro, Telephone, Applause, etc. But since it's Lady Gaga, it's probably going to end up being the most overrated song of the year, even though it is not good.

~ The Hit 45 Chart is currently being worked on. I will try to get it out to you guys as soon as possible.

Top 20 Review:
0 – Crap:
20. Lukas Graham – Mama Said
19. AJR – I'm Not Famous

1 – Bad:
18. Twenty One Pilots – Ride
17. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For

2 – Mediocre:
16. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty
15. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills

3 – Decent:
14. The Chainsmokers/Daya – Don't Let Me Down
13. The 1975 – The Sound
12. Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
11. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Girls Talk Boys

4 – Good:
10. Demi Lovato – Body Say

5 – Great:
9. Ariana Grande – Into You
8. Charlie Puth/Selena Gomez – We Don't Talk Anymore
7. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling
6. Jacob Whitesides – Lovesick
5. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens
4. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better
3. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water
2. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer
1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend

Total Score: 67/100


Throwback Pick Of The Week: Lady Gaga/Beyoncé – Telephone

Most Missed Countdown Song: One Direction – Kiss You

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Shawn Mendes – Mercy

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: X Ambassadors – Renegades


My Top 5 Picks
1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend
2. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer
3. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water
4. Mike Posner – I Took A Pill In Ibiza
5. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better


To conclude, reader/commenter/blogger Miles Washcalus challenged us to, for every post we make, select a song that we either love or hate and explain why. I accidentally forgot to do it in my last post, but I'll just start here anyway. Since I kind of just ranted on the new Lady Gaga single, I'll review a song that I love.

Pretty much all of you know that I mainly listen to pop and hit music, which is why I review Hits 1's countdown as opposed to other SiriusXM station's countdowns. But even though I love most of today's pop music, back in previous years I was a fan of quite a few rock bands and their songs. Bands like Linkin Park, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Nickelback, etc. Right now I'm going to review one of my favorite rock songs of all-time from 2003. That is Bring Me To Life by Evanescence.

I feel like back when this song was released in 2003, it really set an example of how an ideal rock song should sound. The song opens up with very mysterious-sounding piano work followed by Amy Lee's amazing, yet haunting voice. It kind of flows with that mysterious vibe and piano for the rest of the first verse, and then into a more rock sound. It quiets down at the end of the verse and then drops this loud, yet awesome chorus which actually features guest vocals from Paul McCoy from 12 Stones. I absolutely love the back and forth switching of vocalists between Lee and McCoy. The guitar work that is heard in the background is amazing and you can hear it very precisely between the first chorus and the second verse. The second verse is pretty much the same as the first except the rock sound is used for the entire verse. Then it once again quiets down and we get that incredible chorus once again. The bridge of the song contains more fantastic vocals from Amy Lee, which soon builds up to an awesome verse handled by Paul McCoy, with Lee dropping in in the middle. Then we get the chorus yet again. We get a couple more lines from Lee and McCoy followed by the song fading out as Lee sings the final "Bring Me To Life".

The song overall is just a phenomenal masterpiece. I see absolutely no flaws to this song whatsoever. Amy Lee is an amazing singer. I loved Paul McCoy's drop ins. The instrumentation ranging from the piano to the guitars is just incredible. I love the mysterious vibe it has to it in specific parts of the song. It's just perfection from start to end. Personally, I picture this as an ideal rock song. It has everything needed to make it fantastic. It makes me want to just get up and rock out to it, and not very many songs can do that for me. This is definitely in the Top 3 for my favorite rock songs of all-time. This song really did set an example of a high-standard rock track.

As far as other songs by Evanescence goes, there aren't that many other songs that stood out of their discography. I mean, they have songs like My Immortal, which is a little slower and really showcases Amy Lee's voice even more than Bring Me To Life does, and Call Me When You're Sober, which is pretty much another amazing banger track. Other than that, they don't really have much else that stands out. But Bring Me To Life was just too awesome of a song to forget about Evanescence. Every now and then I'll hear this song on SiriusXM The Pulse (channel 15) and I can't help but turn the volume up. You can listen to this song on YouTube and it has also been discounted to 69 cents on iTunes if you're considering buying it. Overall, this song will forever be a favorite of mine.