Shawn Mendes (1) – Week Of June 3, 2017

If I'm being honest, I really didn't expect to see There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back as a #1 song. But frankly, I'm cool with it. It's a good song. And hey, it gives me an excuse to look up images of the very attractive Shawn Mendes, who is still my celebrity crush at the moment. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Clean Bandit/Sean Paul/Anne-Marie – Rockabye (#28)
• Machine Gun Kelly/Hailee Steinfeld – At My Best (#33)
• Twenty One Pilots – Heavydirtysoul (#34)
• Zayn/PartyNextDoor – Still Got Time (#41)
• The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#43)

Last Week's #1 Song: The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This

The Countdown

45. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know (#44) [3 Weeks At #1]

44. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving (#42) [4 Weeks At #1]

43. One Ok Rock – American Girls (#38)

42. Machine Gun Kelly/Camila Cabello – Bad Things (#45)

41. DNCE – Kissing Strangers (#36)

40. Niall Horan – This Town (#40)

39. Aaron Carter – Sooner Or Later (#39)

38. Ocean Park Standoff – Good News (DEBUT)

37. The Vamps/Matoma – All Night (#37)

36. Sam Hunt – Body Like A Back Road (DEBUT)

35. DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper – I'm The One (#26)

34. Hey Violet – Break My Heart (DEBUT)

33. Steve Aoki/Louis Tomlinson – Just Hold On (#32)

32. Hailee Steinfeld – Most Girls (DEBUT)

31. Jason Derulo/Nicki Minaj/Ty Dolla $ign – Swalla (#22)

30. Zayn/Taylor Swift – I Don't Wanna Live Forever (#29)

29. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (#31) [8 Weeks At #1]

28. Selena Gomez – Bad Liar (DEBUT)

27. Liam Payne/Quavo – Strip That Down (#35)

26. Miley Cyrus – Malibu (#30)

25. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#26)

24. Fitz & The Tantrums – HandClap (#23)

23. AJR – Weak (#24)

22. Maroon 5 – Cold (#20)

21. Calvin Harris/Frank Ocean/Migos – Slide (#15)

20. Niall Horan – Slow Hands (#21)

19. Train – Play That Song (#25)

18. Shawn Mendes – Mercy (#17)

17. Halsey – Now Or Never (#16)

16. Bruno Mars – That's What I Like (#11) [1 Week At #1]

15. Harry Styles – Sign Of The Times (#14)

14. Lady Gaga – The Cure (#13)

13. Panic! At The Disco – L.A. Devotee (#18)

12. Charlie Puth – Attention (#10)

11. Linkin Park/Kiiara – Heavy (#9)

10. The Chainsmokers – Paris (#19) [1 Week At #1]

  9. James Arthur – Say You Won't Let Go (#12)

  8. Kygo/Selena Gomez – It Ain't Me (#6)

  7. Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You (#7) [9 Weeks At #1]

  6. Julia Michaels – Issues (#8)

  5. Zedd/Alessia Cara – Stay (#3) [2 Weeks At #1]

  4. Imagine Dragons – Believer (#5)

  3. The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#1) [1 Week At #1]

  2. Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill (#2) [2 Weeks At #1]

  1. Shawn Mendes – There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back (#4) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Tie Between Jason Derulo/Nicki Minaj/Ty Dolla $ign – Swalla and DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper – I'm The One (–9)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: The Chainsmokers – Paris (+9)

New Entrants
~ Selena Gomez has officially proven that she sucks as a solo artist. Other than Come & Get It, Slow Down, and Me & The Rhythm, just about all her solo music sucks. Mostly because she keeps the same format. Bad Liar is pretty much Hands To Myself 2.0. The song is utter nothingness. The production is extremely underwhelming to the point where it's almost not even there. And here we go again with the mumbling/whispery vocals Selena Gomez delivers. I honestly don't know why she keeps doing this. It sounds awful. It is the farthest thing from sexy and the biggest turn off ever. I don't know how a song this hollow is actually worthy of being on the radio. At least Hands To Myself had somewhat of a drop in the chorus. Bad Liar doesn't go anywhere from how it starts. It is easily one of Selena Gomez's worst singles, if not her worst. Hopefully this doesn't stay long.

~ Oh god.........Hey Violet are back. I'll admit, the production in Break My Heart is a little better than it is in Guys My Age for the most part. But the drop in the chorus is so damn annoying to the point where I would probably die if I had to listen to this crap on repeat. The other components of the song aren't as bad. But there really isn't any positive feedback I can give. Everything else is just flat out mediocre at best. I gave this group a second chance and they have yet again failed to show me that they're at least a little talented. If you haven't heard this song, I highly recommend you skip it. I'm just trying to save your ears.

~ We have the return of Sam Hunt with a popular song within the country genre that seems to be getting 90% negative reviews, Body Like A Back Road. Let me just start off by saying I don't like this song. However, I can understand why someone may think it's a catchy song to sing along to. That chorus can get stuck in your head. But that's really the only thing I can give this song. Everything else about it is just dumb. The lyrical content is ridiculously stupid as he's comparing a girl's body to a street saying he knows every curve like the back of his hand. Overall, I think this song is stupid. It's an embarrassment to the country genre and it's a little disappointing that it happens to be one of the bigger hits. It just goes to show the kind of music people listen to.

~ Next we have Hailee Steinfeld replacing herself from At My Best to Most Girls. First off, it's very refreshing to hear something from her that's not Starving. Most Girls kind of falls in between the mediocre Starving and the really good Love Myself and Rock Bottom. This song is good, although it really doesn't have any amazing factor with it. It's green right now but it can easily turn blue. It's a good song, but not one that's going to last very long with me.

~ Finally we have the best debut of the week, Ocean Park Standoff – Good News. We're at a point in time right now where the news isn't exactly filled with good things (and I'll blame our Commander in Chief for that). So it's nice to have this song around saying that we need some good news because the world has gone crazy. I think the production and instrumentation. The vocals are good too. All in all, it's a good song from an underground band and I hope this does well.


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

• Camila Cabello – Crying In The Club
• Paramore – Hard Times (DEBUT)
• Mansionz/G-Eazy – Wicked
• Noah Cyrus – Stay Together
• Katy Perry/Nicki Minaj – Swish Swish
• Imagine Dragons – Thunder (DEBUT)
• Fall Out Boy – Young and Menace
• Jon Bellion – Overwhelming
• Carly Rae Jepsen – Cut To The Feeling (DEBUT)
• All Time Low – Good Times (DEBUT)
• Bruno Mars – Versace On The Floor
• Erin Bowman – Good Time, Good Life
• Shawn Hook/Vanessa Hudgens – Reminding Me (DEBUT)

~ Thunder is only a little bit of a step up from Believer. Believer was just straight up bad, and this one is just a little boring. I still miss their Night Visions days. Even some of the singles that never got big like Monster, Battle Cry, and Warriors, which all made it on to the deluxe edition of Smoke & Mirrors, were really good. Good Times is a good, but nowhere near All Time Low's best. I would've preferred if Dirty Laundry became a hit. But oh well. This'll do for now.

~ I have been waiting very impatiently for the debut of Hard Times, the Paramore comeback single. This song is really fun from beginning to end. I love the chorus. Hayley Williams has great vocals. Take notes Fall Out Boy. This is how you do a comeback single. Reminding Me is a very interesting song and I like it because it's not something you hear everyday. Hopefully it can debut at some point.

~ I can guarantee some people still dismiss Carly Rae Jepsen as the annoying Call Me Maybe girl. But if you listened to her last album, E-MO-TION, you'd know that this girl is actually really talented. Cut To The Feeling is a fantastic song and it really shows that she has an amazing voice. I love the vibe and I love the production. Everything about this song is just spot on. Hopefully this can do better than Run Away With Me, which was another one of her fantastic songs that unfortunately flopped and never made the countdown.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Carly Rae Jepsen – Cut To The Feeling

2. Paramore – Hard Times

3. Katy Perry/Nicki Minaj – Swish Swish

4. Jon Bellion – Overwhelming

5. Shawn Hook/Vanessa Hudgens – Reminding Me

Body Like A Back Blurb

~ As far as the exits go, we did lose a lot of good songs. Rockabye didn't deserve to go so early. At My Best lasted only two weeks, which kind of sucks. But oh well, it was flopping anyway. With the departure of Heavydirtysoul, this is the first week in seemingly forever where we do not have a Twenty One Pilots song on the countdown. What a run for these guys. And I Feel It Coming deserved more in my opinion. That song was quite underrated and it will surely be missed. Frankly the only song I'm happy to see go is Still Got Time, which also lasted only two weeks (thankfully).

~ Even though I'm cool with There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back at #1, I do hope Something Just Like This can get a few more weeks in at the top. I think that song is very deserving of it.

~ And Julia Michaels – Issues continues to creep up the countdown to #6 this week. My friends all love this song and have been playing all the time, which frankly has just made me more annoyed with it. So don't surprised if at some point this slips into orange territory. But as long as we have songs like Weak, Bad Liar, and Break My Heart, it probably won't happen anytime soon.

~ There isn't really much else going on in the Top 20. Some songs are moving in and out of the Top 10. Cold and Slide have fell out of the Top 20 and have been replaced by Play That Song and Slow Hands. Other than that, just small moves.

~ Jason Derulo/Nicki Minaj/Ty Dolla $ign – Swalla seems to have dropped out of the Top 30. I still don't see this song lasting very long. But it is a very good song and I hope it can last at least a few more weeks. But Nicki Minaj's songs don't tend to stay very long with the exception of her three David Guetta collabs and Starships.

~ And as expected, DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper – I'm The One took a tumble out of the Top 30 as well. Not very surprising considering this is one of the biggest songs right now, so of course it would flop here. But with this edited version being like two minutes long (probably not even that), they're probably tired of trying to figure out what to do with that extra minute and a half of airtime.

~ Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving and Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know have both fallen to #44 and #45, respectively. I believe these two should be the next two songs out of the countdown. They've stayed much longer than they should have and it's time for them to go.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Julia Michaels – Issues

19. Bruno Mars – That's What I Like

1 – Bad:

18. Imagine Dragons – Believer

17. Halsey – Now Or Never

2 – Mediocre:

NONE

3 – Decent:

NONE

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

16. Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You

15. Shawn Mendes – Mercy

14. James Arthur – Say You Won't Let Go

13. Niall Horan – Slow Hands

12. Train – Play That Song

11. Zedd/Alessia Cara – Stay

10. Linkin Park/Kiiara – Heavy

9. Panic! At The Disco – L.A. Devotee

8. Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill

7. Harry Styles – Sign Of The Times

6. Charlie Puth – Attention

5. Kygo/Selena Gomez – It Ain't Me

4. The Chainsmokers – Paris

3. Shawn Mendes – There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back

2. Lady Gaga – The Cure

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This

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

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Shinedown – Second Chance

Most Missed Countdown Song: The Vamps/Demi Lovato – Somebody To You

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee/Justin Bieber – Despacito

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: P!nk – Just Like Fire

My Top 5 Picks

1. The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This

2. Lady Gaga – The Cure

3. Miley Cyrus – Malibu

4. Aaron Carter – Sooner Or Later

5. Calvin Harris/Frank Ocean/Migos – Slide