Zedd (4) – Week Of March 31, 2018

Hey guys! I hope you guys had a great week. Easter is tomorrow, as well as April Fools Day. I'm not gonna pull a prank on you guys like I did last year. So sorry to disappoint. But I hope you guys have a good Easter. Some interesting things happened on the countdown this week. More on those things down below. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Imagine Dragons – Believer (#36) [3 Weeks At #1]
• Niall Horan – Slow Hands (#43) [3 Weeks At #1]
• Demi Lovato – Sorry Not Sorry (#44) [1 Week At #1]
• Ed Sheeran – Galway Girl (#45) [4 Weeks At #1]

Last Week's #1 Song: Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

The Countdown

45. Dua Lipa – New Rules (#42)

44. Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still (#41)

43. Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future – End Game (#38) [1 Week At #1]

42. Keala Settle/The Greatest Showman Ensemble – This Is Me (#31)

41. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#39)

40. Alan Walker/Noah Cyrus/Digital Farm Animals – All Falls Down (#25)

39. Symon – Lonely Girl (#40)

38. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (DEBUT)

37. Kelly Clarkson – Love So Soft (#37)

36. Khalid – Young, Dumb, and Broke (#17)

35. Charlie Puth – How Long (#26) [2 Weeks At #1]

34. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (DEBUT)

33. Bazzi – Mine (DEBUT)

32. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#32)

31. Camila Cabello – Havana (#27) [1 Week At #1]

30. Noah Kahan/Julia Michaels – Hurt Somebody (#34)

29. Selena Gomez/Marshmello – Wolves (#21)

28. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something (#28)

27. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#29)

26. Bad Wolves – Zombie (DEBUT)

25. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#35)

24. Imagine Dragons – Thunder (#16) [5 Weeks At #1]

23. Halsey – Bad At Love (#19) [2 Weeks At #1]

22. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma (#24)

21. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#30)

20. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (#9) [1 Week At #1]

19. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Tight Or Don't (#12)

18. NF – Let You Down (#7)

17. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#20)

16. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (#23)

15. Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman (#33)

14. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#14)

13. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (#11)

12. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#22)

11. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#15)

10. Ed Sheeran – Perfect (#4) [2 Weeks At #1]

  9. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#18)

  8. Maroon 5 – Wait (#6)

  7. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#13)

  6. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#10)

  5. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#5)

  4. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#8)

  3. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt – Let Me Go (#3) [1 Week At #1]

  2. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#2)

  1. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#1) [4^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You (8)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Khalid – Young Dumb & Broke (–19)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman (+18)

New Entrants
~ Starting off with the least-appealing debut, we have Bazzi with Mine. The song is only a little bit over two minutes long, which I guess doesn't affect the countdown much since another one of our debuts is over four minutes long. But honestly, I don't appeal with this song. The production is slightly annoying and I'm not very interested in this guy's voice. The song sounds kind of childish to me. Hopefully this doesn't stay too long because I'm not sure how long I'll be able to tolerate it. For now, it's not the worst thing ever. But it's not something I'll be eager to hear on the radio.

~ Next we have the return of Panic! At The Disco. We got two new songs last week and thankfully, the better of the two is here with us this week. Say Amen is a jam and I'm glad that it debuted so quickly. It is definitely radio-friendly, but it's so enjoyable. The instrumentation and production is great. Brendon Urie's vocals are fantastic as always. I love the chorus. It's not their best, but it makes me look forward to the new album, Pray For The Wicked, which is set to release in June. Overall, I love this song. I saw the music video and it was definitely something. But hopefully the song does well here. It's a great jam for a Saturday night and I'll be blasting this for a while.

~ Demi Lovato debuts this week replacing Sorry Not Sorry with the superior Tell Me You Love Me. I've enjoyed this song for months now and I still love it. It's one of Demi Lovato's best songs in a while. Sorry Not Sorry was a mess all around with weird production and pitchy vocals. But Tell Me You Love Me is a whole different story. This is much more organized. Her voice sounds amazing. The verses are great and I love the way they build up to the chorus. The horns sound really good and very fitting. Overall, Demi Lovato has redeemed herself and I'm so glad this finally made its debut here. It's such a fantastic song and I really hope it does well. Like I said, this is her best song in a while.

~ Last, but certainly not least, we have Bad Wolves debuting with their cover of Zombie, originally performed by The Cranberries in 1994. I can see this one being a little controversial. But me personally, I love this cover. It's definitely not as good as the original version. But I think Bad Wolves put a nice spin on it. The vocals are really good and the instrumentation is great. Even if it isn't as good as the original, I still think it's a great song. It's like when Disturbed covered The Sound of Silence back in 2015. And this cover was released as tribute to Dolores O'Riordan. She was actually scheduled to record vocals with the band at the time of her death. Honestly I think it's a great tribute and a fantastic cover. People will probably disagree with me. But I believe this is what Dolores wanted. I'm a little surprised it actually debuted here. But I'm very happy about it and hopefully it does well.


Best Debut of the Week: Bad Wolves – Zombie


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

• Drake – God's Plan
• Echosmith – Over My Head (DEBUT)
• Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days
• Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Friends
• Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby (DEBUT)
• Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment
• Alice Merton – No Roots
• The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me (DEBUT)
• Dua Lipa – IDGAF
• Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars (DEBUT)
• Maren Morris – Rich (DEBUT)
• Halsey – Alone
• Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho
• Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

~ The return of Echosmith is definitely a strange one. It's a little different for the band and I can't say I love it. It's really not that interesting. I think they sound best doing something along the lines of Bright, which I loved. Over My Head is not really doing it for me unfortunately.

~ Why Don't We have kind of become some boy band wannabe. I liked Something Different because I thought the band was something different. But with Trust Fund Baby, you can tell they're trying to be your typical boy band and I'm not really buying it.

~ As I've said before, The Chainsmokers have been going downhill lately. I liked Sick Boy to some extent. But Everybody Hates Me is pulling them further down and away from how good and unique they used to be. Maybe we need some more guest features because it doesn't take long to get sick of Drew's voice.

~ I can guarantee you the only reason Rich is here is because of The Middle. If it weren't that song, these people at Hits 1 wouldn't know who Maren Morris is, which is why My Church and 80s Mercedes were never hits here. It's a shame because those two songs in particular were much better than Rich. I really don't find this song that interesting. From this song alone, I feel like she thinks she's all that. But she's not, at least not on this song. 80s Mercedes will probably always be her best song.

~ The only good debut this week comes from Kendrick Lamar and SZA with another track from the Black Panther soundtrack, titled All The Stars. As usual, Kendrick shows how talented he is. I really like his verse. SZA sounds great in the chorus and her verse and I'm glad she has another song here because I do think she has a great voice. It's definitely another great song from this soundtrack and I'm glad it made its way here. Hopefully it debuts on the countdown soon.

~ We lost Legendary (again) and Walk On Water this week. The latter doesn't surprise me. Thirty Seconds To Mars' new album is currently up for pre-order and I'm not entirely sure what's going on with this band right now. The album title is not good and the cover looks terrible. And all the pre-released singles except Walk On Water are not good. I'm personally not looking forward to this and the album currently has 2.5 out of 5 stars on iTunes, with more 1-star ratings than 5-star. So clearly others are not very interested either.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

2. Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars

3. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days

4. Halsey – Alone

5. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment

Zomblurb

~ Walk The Moon – One Foot is still hanging on at #2. I'm hoping this is The Middle's last week at #1 so that One Foot can get a chance. It'll be pure bullshit if it doesn't. One Foot is a much better song than The Middle. I'm going to vote for it as much as I can and hopefully it can get a chance at the top.

~ Meghan Trainor – No Excuses is now in the Top 10. This has been slowly dropping on iTunes lately. I feel like the big Meghan Trainor hype is over at this point. But of course it had to hit the Top 10 here at some point. But I guess sooner is better because then the sooner it'll leave.

~ It looks like the run for Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days is coming to an end. I'm very impressed with how well it did here and I'm so glad it got to spend a week at #1. It had a great run here and hopefully it can stick around for a little while longer.

~ Because of repeated listens this past week, Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something has become my most Wutchuwanted song. I'm still hoping it can make a reasonable jump soon. Sitting at #28 is not really doing it for me. It should be in the Top 20 at the very least.

~ Khalid – Young Dumb & Broke clearly did not last long. I actually thought it had a chance to do well here with that jump last week. Clearly I was wrong. I still don't find this song that interesting, so I'm kinda happy about this drop. But it seemed a little sudden to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it left next week or the week after.

~ Kelly Clarkson – Love So Soft is somehow still here. This song is not relevant anymore. It never even was a big hit. PLEASE leave us soon. It's crazy how this song does well here, yet a beautiful song like Piece By Piece doesn't even get touched by Hits 1. Although part of the problem is America's terrible taste in music. I mean, look at our #1 song.

~ Alan Walker/Noah Cyrus – All Falls Down dropped a little suddenly this week. I'm not too surprised by this since it was never a bit hit. But hopefully it can stick for a little while longer because I do still like the song. It's a little too early for it leave with how long it was on Hit-Bound.

~ Down in the Bottom 5 we have AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up and Keala Settle – This Is Me. The former shouldn't even be on the countdown. Hopefully it leaves soon. And the latter should be higher in my opinion. Though I'm not surprised it's this low. The voters seem to not be interested in songs from musicals. It's a shame because this one was actually really good.

~ As far as the exits go, all of them were former #1 songs. Believer is the only one I still really liked. It's a shame to see that one go. But at least it got to spend a year here. Slow Hands and Galway Girl were slowly losing my interest. I do still like them to some extent, but I was kind of getting sick of them. Finally, Sorry Not Sorry should've left a long time ago. At least it finally got the boot. Hopefully Tell Me You Love Me proves to be a good successor.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

NONE

1 – Bad:

20. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same

19. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

18. Lauv – I Like Me Better

2 – Mediocre:

NONE

3 – Decent:

17. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses

16. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Tight Or Don't

15. Maroon 5 – Wait

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

14. Niall Horan – On The Loose

13. NF – Let You Down

12. Ed Sheeran – Perfect

11. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back

10. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse

9. Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman

8. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be

7. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I

6. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/F.G.L./watt – Let Me Go

5. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

4. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low

3. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me

2. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days

1. Walk The Moon – One Foot

Overall Score: 82/100 = 82% (A)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Shakira – Whenever, Wherever

Most Missed Countdown Song: Carly Rae Jepsen – I Really Like You

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Shinedown – Devil

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#20)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something

2. Bad Wolves – Zombie

3. Walk The Moon – One Foot

4. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days

5. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me