Ed Sheeran (4) – Week Of March 4, 2017

Hey guys! I apologize for the very late post. When you're a senior in high school, you will have to deal with a lot of college-related things including scholarship applications. That was what took up my entire week with all my usual work on top of it. But even then, I still refuse to skip a week. Also, I did look at the comments on the last post and I'm getting pretty damn tired of these comment issues that I have addressed over and over and over again. So I did turn on comment moderation. What this means is that when you post a comment, it has to be moderated first by me. I will get an email and I can choose whether to publish or delete your comment. This is unfortunately what it has come to. But it may be better since I check my email a lot more often than I check the comment section on my posts. I am unsure of how long I will leave it like this. We'll just have to go with it and see what happens. But now onto the countdown. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• OneRepublic – Kids (#43)
• Pitbull/Flo Rida/LunchMoney Lewis – Greenlight (#44)
• Lukas Graham – You're Not There (#45)

Last Week's #1 Song: Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You

The Countdown

45. Daya – Words (#31)

44. X Ambassadors – Unsteady (#28)

43. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You (#29)

42. Charli XCX – After The Afterparty (#40)

41. John Legend – Love Me Now (#39)

40. AJR – Weak (DEBUT)

39. Hey Violet – Guys My Age (#30)

38. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy (#42)

37. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (#41)

36. Zedd/Alessia Cara – Stay (DEBUT)

35. Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill (RE-ENTRY)

34. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (#38)

33. Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor (#24)

32. Niall Horan – This Town (#35)

31. Sia/Kendrick Lamar – The Greatest (#36)

30. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful (#27)

29. James Arthur – Say You Won't Let Go (#19)

28. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better (#32) [2 Weeks At #1]

27. Jon Bellion – All Time Low (#7)

26. Noah Cyrus/Labrinth – Make Me (Cry) (#37)

25. Steve Aoki/Louis Tomlinson – Just Hold On (#16)

24. Twenty One Pilots – Heavydirtysoul (#21)

23. Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj – Side To Side (#10)

22. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know (#26) [3 Weeks At #1]

21. Rihanna – Love On The Brain (#33)

20. Train – Play That Song (#17)

19. Kygo/Selena Gomez – It Ain't Me (#20)

18. Linkin Park/Kiiara – Heavy (#34)

17. Julia Michaels – Issues (#23)

16. Bebe Rexha – I Got You (#25)

15. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (#9) [2 Weeks At #1]

14. The Chainsmokers – Paris (#14)

13. Maroon 5 – Cold (#15)

12. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#18)

11. Lady Gaga – Million Reasons (#11)

10. Bruno Mars – That's What I Like (#22)

  9. Katy Perry/Skip Marley – Chained To The Rhythm (#12)

  8. Machine Gun Kelly/Camila Cabello – Bad Things (#5)

  7. Fitz & The Tantrums – HandClap (#2)

  6. Zayn/Taylor Swift – I Don't Wanna Live Forever (#4)

  5. Adele – Water Under The Bridge (#13)

  4. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving (#8) [4 Weeks At #1]

  3. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (#3) [8 Weeks At #1]

  2. Shawn Mendes – Mercy (#6)

  1. Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You (#1) [4^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: One Direction – Perfect

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Jon Bellion – All Time Low (–20)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Linkin Park/Kiiara – Heavy (+16)

New Entrants
~ We have a re-entry from Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill, coming a little sooner than expected. So that leaves us with two new songs.

~ The return of AJR has never appealed to me. Out of all their songs, they've only had one that I don't consider bad. They're definitely not on my good side. But honestly, they have good ideas and their writing skills are decent. It's mainly the production that kills them and that's exactly what kills Weak. The writing on this track isn't bad. But my goodness is the production quite annoying, especially in the chorus. And honestly, do we really need those obnoxious background vocal effects in the second half of the chorus? I'd like to think no. But I feel like this has been consistent in all of their songs and it's doing them no good. I don't anticipate any future releases from these guys. But if they do release more, I hope they do something a little different.

~ Next we have the return of Zedd after 2015's Beautiful Now featuring countdown artist Jon Bellion. That song landed itself the #12 spot on my Top 45 of 2015, proving itself to be one of Zedd's best songs along with Clarity and Stay The Night. So there's a lot of competition to top. He debuts with Stay featuring Alessia Cara. I definitely think this song starts off strong and continues right through the chorus, which is probably my favorite part of the song. But I personally was expecting a little bit more out of that drop. It doesn't do too much for me. But I do believe that the rest of the song is on point. It's just the drop that I'm not fully on board with. But at the very least, it is not on the mediocre level that Starving currently is on. So that's good.


Hit-Bound
~ Here is the Hit-Bound list:

• Flo Rida/99 Percent – Cake
• Little Mix – Touch
• James Hersey – Miss You
• Panic! At The Disco – L.A. Devotee
• Calvin Harris/Frank Ocean/Migos – Slide (DEBUT)
• Imagine Dragons – Believer
• Ariana Grande/Future – Everyday
• The Vamps/Matoma – All Night
• Coin – Talk Too Much (DEBUT)
• Snakehips/MØ – Don't Leave
• MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low
• Clean Bandit/Sean Paul/Anne-Marie – Rockabye
• One Ok Rock – American Girls (DEBUT)
• The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This

~ Slide is unlike anything I've ever heard from Calvin Harris, and I mean that in a good way. Production-wise, it's a HUGE step up from the mediocre This Is What You Came For. I'm not completely on board with the vocals, but they're certainly not bad. It's actually better than the extremely repetitive "you-ooo-ooo-oo-oooo" from This Is What You Came For. But as far as the production goes, I genuinely believe that the production on this track is dope. For whatever reason, that just seems like the perfect word to describe it.

~ Talk Too Much doesn't grab my interest very much. American Girls is actually pretty catchy. I can't really see it becoming a massive hit, but I enjoy it for what it is.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This

2. Clean Bandit/Sean Paul/Anne-Marie – Rockabye

3. The Vamps/Matoma – All Night

4. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low

5. Panic! At The Disco – L.A. Devotee

Blurbs On The Hill

~ Starving is back in the Top 5. How amazing.

~ We have two new entrants into the Top 10 this week. That's What I Like is the one I'm not too thrilled about. I still find the song quite annoying. However, Chained To The Rhythm is much more pleasing to see. I can already see this one being a massive hit and I can't wait to see how it does.

~ For the highest debut last week, Kygo/Selena Gomez – It Ain't Me only jumped one spot this week. I get that it's kind of hard to make a big jump when you debut in the Top 20. But one spot? Seriously?

~ We are now at a point where slow and strange Rihanna ballads that don't sound good at all are actually doing decent. C'mon Hits 1. You underrate a lot of her good songs and now that I actually want one underrated, it starts to do well.

~ Not gonna lie, that drop from Jon Bellion – All Time Low came quite unexpectedly. I can't say I'm very pleased by that.

~ X Ambassadors – Unsteady took quite the stumble down into the Bottom 5 this week. We are getting close to the one-year anniversary of this song being around. Strange pick if I'm being honest. But this could very well be one of the very rare occasions in which a song that never reached the Top 5 lasts a full year.

~ As far as the exits go, Greenlight I didn't care for. Kids had a very nice and successful run and I'm glad it did well. You're Not There was for sure underrated and I'm not too pleased by that. It is similar to 7 Years in a way. But apparently it did not chart similarly. In fact, their songs have only been getting more underrated with time. It seems as though 7 Years will the band's only hit.

~ The Hit 45 Chart for the week of March 4 is being worked on and will hopefully be out sometime today.

Top 20 Review
0 – Crap:
20. Bruno Mars – That's What I Like

1 – Bad:
19. Julia Michaels – Issues

2 – Mediocre:
18. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving

3 – Decent:
17. Zayn/Taylor Swift – I Don't Wanna Live Forever
16. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens
15. Machine Gun Kelly/Camila Cabello – Bad Things

4 – Good:
NONE

5 – Great:
14. Train – Play That Song
13. Maroon 5 – Cold
12. The Chainsmokers – Paris
11. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer
10. Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You
9. Shawn Mendes – Mercy
8. Linkin Park/Kiiara – Heavy
7. Fitz & The Tantrums – HandClap
6. Adele – Water Under The Bridge
5. Bebe Rexha – I Got You
4. Kygo/Selena Gomez – It Ain't Me
3. Lady Gaga – Million Reasons
2. Katy Perry/Skip Marley – Chained To The Rhythm

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming

Total Score: 83/100 = 83% (B)


Throwback Pick Of The Week: Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

Most Missed Countdown Song: Rihanna – Diamonds

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Lindsey Stirling/ZZ Ward – Hold My Heart

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Ellie Goulding – Something In The Way You Move


My Top 5 Picks
1. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming
2. Katy Perry/Skip Marley – Chained To The Rhythm
3. Jon Bellion – All Time Low
4. Lady Gaga – Million Reasons
5. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend