Zedd (7) – Week Of April 21, 2018

Hey guys! I have just two more weeks of school, and then the posts should start coming out reasonable times again. I'm sure everyone knows about Avicii's passing by now. I even did a quick post where I counted down my Top 10 favorite songs by him. Be sure to check that out if you somehow haven't seen it yet. His death affected me. I've been a fan of him ever since I first heard Wake Me Up. He was easily one of the best producers I've ever heard. He was insanely talented and it's sad to see him go so soon. But like I said in my last post, his music will live on. Once again, Rest In Peace Tim Bergling. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Kelly Clarkson – Love So Soft (#37)
• Khalid – Young, Dumb, and Broke (#41)
• Symon – Lonely Girl (#44)

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

The Countdown

45. Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still (#45)

44. Selena Gomez/Marshmello – Wolves (#36)

43. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Tight Or Don't (#43)

42. Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future – End Game (#42) [1 Week At #1]

41. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma (#33)

40. NF – Let You Down (#25)

39. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (#39) [1 Week At #1]

38. Charlie Puth – How Long (#40) [2 Weeks At #1]

37. Camila Cabello – Havana (#34) [1 Week At #1]

36. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment (DEBUT)

35. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (DEBUT)

34. Alice Merton – No Roots (#35)

33. Zayn – Let Me (DEBUT)

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

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

30. Drake – God's Plan (#31)

29. Kesha/The Dap-King Horns – Woman (#24)

28. Bazzi – Mine (#29)

27. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#38)

26. Ed Sheeran – Perfect (#18) [2 Weeks At #1]

25. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (#21)

24. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days (#27)

23. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#17)

22. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#6)

21. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#22)

20. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (#9)

19. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#28)

18. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#16)

17. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something (#32)

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

15. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#13)

14. Imagine Dragons – Thunder (#15) [5 Weeks At #1]

13. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#5)

12. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#20)

11. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#19)

10. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#26)

  9. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#14)

  8. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#4)

  7. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#10)

  6. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#2)

  5. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (#12)

  4. Maroon 5 – Wait (#11)

  3. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#7)

  2. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#8)

  1. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#1) [7^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Bruno Mars – That's What I Like (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Walk The Moon – One Foot (–16)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (+16)

New Entrants
~ These first two entrants I really don't have much to say about. NOTD debuts with I Wanna Know featuring Bea Miller. The vocals are good and I like the production for the most part. But the drop is a little annoying. Other than that though, it's a good song. Zayn Malik makes his return with Let Me. The vocals are good, but the production is underwhelming in my opinion. This is not as good as Dusk Till Dawn. But it is still better than Still Got Time. So that's something.

~ Our last entrant comes from Portugal. The Man as they bring their second song, Live In The Moment. Now if you're like me and you're just beyond tired of hearing Feel It Still, you'll probably like this new song. The production has more life to it and the vocals aren't so weird and high pitched. I think the song is very enjoyable and I'd say it's the best debut of the week. I can't picture myself getting sick of this very easily. Hopefully it has a reasonable amount of success.


Best Debut of the Week: Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment


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

• Kendrick Lamar, SZA – All The Stars
• Foster The People – Sit Next To Me
• Hundred Handed – Too Good
• The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me
• Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby
• Echosmith – Over My Head
• Dua Lipa – IDGAF
• Maren Morris – Rich
• Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Friends
• Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho
• HRVY – Personal (DEBUT)
• Halsey – Alone
• In Real Life – Tattoo (How 'Bout You)
• Sam Smith/Logic – Pray
• Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar (DEBUT)
• Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe (DEBUT)
• Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (DEBUT)

~ First up we have Personal by HRVY. This is not new to Hits 1 as it's been trending on the YouTube15 for quite some time now. I'm not sure where or how Jenna Marbles finds these people. But she seems to always pick out the younger artists trying to make it big when they're still learning. I don't find Personal particularly interesting. It reminds me of Mine by Bazzi. This song is better and even though it's in red, it's a very light red. So it could change with time. But I'm not huge on the production here and I don't love his voice. But I do see potential in him.

~ Next we have Familiar. I'd be lying if I said I haven't listened to this several times within the past few days. This was definitely a grower since I didn't love it at first. It's very catchy and I love the Latin vibe. I like J Balvin's contribution. Liam doesn't annoy us with his falsetto. It's probably his best song so far.

~ Next we the song Babe by Sugarland. I wasn't huge on it at first. But I grew to enjoy it. I can appreciate a nice country song like this. Some of my friends just flat out hate country music. I'm not like that. I give every genre a chance. And I do like a handful of country songs. This one I think is pretty enjoyable. The vocals are good and the instrumentation is good as well. Taylor Swift's non-presence doesn't do very much for me. But I'm sure she's the reason this song is here. Overall, I like it. It's nothing amazing. But it's definitely something I'd listen to in my free time.

~ For some reason, I held off on listening to No Tears Left To Cry until today. I guess I just wanted to wait until I had a chance to talk about it. The song is okay. I like the beginning. But the rest of the song is just weird to me. Critics seem to love this, but it's not really doing anything for me. Her vocals are good, but I find her speak-rapping to be awkward. I don't know if Ariana is the kind of artist that can pull this off. It might be a grower, but for now it doesn't do anything for me.


Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks
1. Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars
2. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me
3. Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar
4. Sam Smith/Logic – Pray
5. Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe


Blurb In The Moment
~ Making an unexpected jump to #2 this week (here and on the American Top 40), we have Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be. I know I have the unpopular opinion, but I want this to hit #1 if it means we can get rid of The Middle from the top. Every song in the Top 10 (except #5) is a more worthy #1 song than The Middle.

~ Maroon 5 – Wait made a surprise jump into the Top 5, as did Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same. The former I guess is okay, though I would prefer if it weren't there. The latter however is not welcome. This song is annoying and I just don't see the appeal. She is not a good singer and I can guarantee if it hadn't been for Fifth Harmony, she would not be as successful as she is right now.

~ Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen made a big jump into the Top 10. Just goes to show how much Hits 1 loves their Brendon Urie. I'm pleased with this and I'm glad this song has been successful here so far.

~ Hailee Steinfeld/Florida Georgia Line – Let Me Go dropped out of the Top 10 a little unexpectedly. I am still impressed with how well it's done here, especially for a song that wasn't as huge everywhere else. I never expected it to last this long. I figured it would just debut and do poorly. Thankfully I was wrong. And I'm glad because this is arguably Hailee Steinfeld's best song so far.

~ Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something finally made the jump into the Top 20. It's about time. Unfortunately I don't think it'll last long as its airplay has dropped significantly. But still, I'm glad it made the jump and spent at least one week in the Top 20. Bad Wolves – Zombie also made a nice return. Hopefully it sticks around.

~ Also making a small jump, we have AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up to my distaste. I still don't know why Hits 1 likes these guys. They're not very good singers, they're terrible songwriters, and they're awful producers. I think they need other people to step in because these guys going at it on their own clearly has not done them any good.

~ As far as the exits go, Young Dumb & Broke being underrated comes as no surprise. Love So Soft should've left a long time ago. For a song that's not good and never really made it that big, it lasted way too long here. I'll stick Kelly Clarkson's older work. (Happy Belated Birthday by the way Kelly!) And finally we have Lonely Girl. This song has been here for about four months and only peaked at #27 once. It debuted the same week as Good Old Days (I know, crazy). The song didn't do anything for me. I actually forgot what it sounds like because I don't think I've listened to it since it debuted. It was always kind of just there. While I didn't necessarily like it, I do find how long it lasted to be somewhat impressive.


Top 20 Review
0 – Crap:
20. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same

1 – Bad:
19. Imagine Dragons – Thunder
18. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle
17. Lauv – I Like Me Better

2 – Mediocre:
NONE

3 – Decent:
16. Taylor Swift – Delicate
15. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses
14. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends
13. Maroon 5 – Wait

4 – Good:
12. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

5 – Great:
11. Niall Horan – On The Loose
10. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I
9. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back
8. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/F.G.L./watt – Let Me Go
7. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be
6. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse
5. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me
4. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes
3. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night)
2. Bad Wolves – Zombie

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something

Overall Score: 75/100 = 75% (B)


Throwback Pick Of The Week: Prince – Purple Rain (two years since he passed...)

Most Missed Countdown Songs: Avicii/Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up and Avicii/Dan Tyminski – Hey Brother

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Shinedown – The Human Radio

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Tie Between The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#19) and The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#11)


My Top 5 Picks
1. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something
2. Bad Wolves – Zombie
3. Walk The Moon – One Foot
4. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night)
5. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days

Top 10 Songs: Avicii

As you probably know, record producer and DJ Avicii died today and I believe the cause is still unknown. I knew he had some health-related issues, which is why he retired from touring in 2016 I believe. But this was just unexpected to me and I find it heartbreaking, especially with how young he was. He was only 28 years old. I've heard a lot of music from different DJs and producers and Avicii was definitely among the best. He was extremely talented and a lot of artists in the world of EDM looked up to him. It's a shame that there are people out there that don't know who he is because he was excellent at what he did. He was definitely taken too soon.


So with that, I've decided to do a quick Top 10 post where I will be counting down my Top 10 favorite songs from Avicii. I haven't done a Top 10 post since the passing of Chester Bennington, but I feel like now is an appropriate time to do one for Avicii. Selecting ten songs wasn't that hard since he only had two albums and a couple EPs, so I was able to squeeze in all of my favorites. But despite that, I could tell he had so much potential. It's such a shame to see him go so soon because he really was amazing and very talented. So without further ado, here are my Top 10 favorite songs from Avicii.



10. Without You (feat. Sandro Cavazza) (from "Avīci (01)")



9. For A Better Day (feat. Alex Ebert) (from "Stories")



8. Lonely Together (feat. Rita Ora) (from "Avīci (01)")



7. A Sky Full Of Stars (song by Coldplay; co-produced by Avicii) (from "Ghost Stories")



6. Lay Me Down (feat. Adam Lambert and Nile Rodgers) (from "True")



5. Broken Arrows (feat. Zac Brown Band) (from "Stories")



4. The Nights (feat. Nicholas Furlong) (from "The Days / Nights EP")



3. Hey Brother (feat. Dan Tyminski) (from "True")



2. Levels (non-album single)



1. Wake Me Up (feat. Aloe Blacc) (from "True")


So there you have it. Those are my personal Top 10 favorite songs from Avicii. I'm still heartbroken about his death and I can only imagine what his family is going through right now. But his music will live on and hopefully it will continue to inspire others. Rest in peace, Tim Bergling. You will be missed.


"He said, one day you'll leave this world behind. So live a life you will remember." – from The Nights.

Zedd (6) – Week Of April 14, 2018

Hey guys! Hopefully you all had a good week. My schedule wasn't as packed this week. But things will only get busier from here as I approach the end of the semester. Also, it's still snowing where I am, which I find very odd. It's the middle of April. But anyway, we had some things happen this week on the countdown. Nothing too exciting though. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Keala Settle/The Greatest Showman Ensemble – This Is Me (#44)

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

The Countdown

45. Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still (#45)

44. Symon – Lonely Girl (#41)

43. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Tight Or Don't (#37)

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

41. Khalid – Young, Dumb, and Broke (#39)

40. Charlie Puth – How Long (#42) [2 Weeks At #1]

39. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (#26) [1 Week At #1]

38. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#40)

37. Kelly Clarkson – Love So Soft (#38)

36. Selena Gomez/Marshmello – Wolves (#30)

35. Alice Merton – No Roots (#29)

34. Camila Cabello – Havana (#34) [1 Week At #1]

33. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma (#33)

32. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something (#35)

31. Drake – God's Plan (DEBUT)

30. Noah Kahan/Julia Michaels – Hurt Somebody (#31)

29. Bazzi – Mine (#28)

28. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#14)

27. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days (#36)

26. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#25)

25. NF – Let You Down (#19)

24. Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman (#9)

23. Halsey – Bad At Love (#24) [2 Weeks At #1]

22. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#17)

21. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (#23)

20. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#27)

19. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#13)

18. Ed Sheeran – Perfect (#22) [2 Weeks At #1]

17. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#32)

16. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#18)

15. Imagine Dragons – Thunder (#20) [5 Weeks At #1]

14. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#8)

13. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#10)

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

11. Maroon 5 – Wait (#12)

10. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#16)

  9. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (#21)

  8. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#7)

  7. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#6)

  6. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#2)

  5. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#15)

  4. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#5)

  3. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt – Let Me Go (#3)

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

  1. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#1) [6^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman (–15)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (+15)

New Entrants
~ Our one new entrant this week comes from Drake with the biggest song of the year currently, God's Plan. I can't say I fully understand the appeal to this song. I find it very similar to Hotline Bling, which I also didn't really like. Sure, God's Plan is not the worst thing out there by any means. But I just can't get into it. It's kinda boring if I'm being totally honest. Though I didn't really expect much more from Drake. Overall, I'm not really a fan of this. I'm not sure why it has spent over ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But whatever I guess. I don't hate it, so I'll just let it do its thing.


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

• Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho
• Echosmith – Over My Head
• NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (DEBUT)
• Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Friends
• Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment
• Halsey – Alone
• Maren Morris – Rich
• The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me
• In Real Life – Tattoo (How 'Bout You) (DEBUT)
• Hundred Handed – Too Good
• Sam Smith/Logic – Pray
• Dua Lipa – IDGAF
• Foster The People – Sit Next To Me
• Zayn – Let Me (DEBUT)
• Kendrick Lamar, SZA – All The Stars
• Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby

~ I Wanna Know is pretty enjoyable for the most part. I like Bea Miller's vocals. The production is good. It's nothing amazing or totally different from what we've heard before. But I enjoy it. More on this if it debuts.

~ Tattoo is okay. These guys just seem like another boyband trying to make it big. I'll give it to them that this song is more tolerable than Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby. But it lacks a few things to make it a good song. I think if more time was spent on this track, it may have turned out better.

~ Let Me is nowhere near as good as Dusk Till Dawn. But this track does seem like a grower. So while it's in blue now, it could be promoted to green sometime soon.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

2. Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars

3. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment

4. Sam Smith/Logic – Pray

5. Halsey – Alone

God's Blurb

~ No no no. This is just not right. It's gotten to the point where The Middle now becomes slightly more annoying with each listen. Seriously, this song is overrated as hell. I'm willing to bet that this will end up being Hits 1's #1 song of the year, which honestly just makes me cringe thinking about it. Zedd is capable of so much more and I know this because I just recently listened to this track he released on YouTube and I think it's mesmerizing. He's capable of producing great stuff, but chooses not to and that's the problem I have with him right now.

~ Of course Walk The Moon – One Foot had to drop out of the Top 5 and lose its chance of being a #1 song. It's not like I thought it would go #1 when it first debuted. But seeing how well it has done here, it would've been nice to see it spend even just one week at the top. Meanwhile, Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes is our new #2 song, which I think has more of a chance to hit #1. Hopefully this happens soon because The Middle has been there too long.

~ Why are we making Lauv – I Like Me Better a bigger hit than it actually is? This song is just bad and I'm not sure why Hits 1 and the voters love it so much. The only thing I can stand about this song is the vocals. Everything else is just bad. Please get this out of the Top 10. This is not okay.

~ Aside from Lauv, we have two entrants to the Top 10. Delicate is already in the Top 10 and I still find it to be boring and uninteresting for the most part. I doubt my opinion will change at this point. But the jump from Finesse was very much appreciated. I still really enjoy this song and I believe it's very worthy of being in the Top 10.

~ Woman clearly was not meant to last very long in the Top 10. I get that it's not huge everywhere else. But the drop was a little uncalled for. Hopefully it can stick around longer. The drop from Zombie was also uncalled for and unnecessary. Hopefully this can make at least somewhat of a comeback with how new it still is. It's still one of the best songs here.

~ As far as our one exit goes, we must say farewell to the very underrated Keala Settle – This Is Me. Anyone who thinks this woman is not a good singer is probably deaf. She has one of the best voices I've heard in a while and when she hit those high notes, it just sent the chills down my spine. This Is Me was an inspirational song in my opinion and Keala Settle is very talented. Of course those two things together means the song must be underrated. But at least it was here and it is eligible for my Top 45 songs of 2018. Goodbye This Is Me. You will certainly be missed.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

NONE

1 – Bad:

20. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same

19. Imagine Dragons – Thunder

18. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

17. Lauv – I Like Me Better

2 – Mediocre:

NONE

3 – Decent:

16. Taylor Swift – Delicate

15. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses

14. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

13. Maroon 5 – Wait

4 – Good:

12. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

5 – Great:

11. Niall Horan – On The Loose

10. Ed Sheeran – Perfect

9. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I

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

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

6. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back

5. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse

4. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me

3. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

2. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Walk The Moon – One Foot

Overall Score: 76/100 = 76% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Green Day – 21 Guns

Most Missed Countdown Song: Mike Posner/SeeB – I Took A Pill In Ibiza

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Shinedown – The Human Radio

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Tie Between The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#10) and The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#31)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Walk The Moon – One Foot

2. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something

3. Bad Wolves – Zombie

4. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me

5. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days

Zedd (5) – Week Of April 7, 2018

Hey guys. I realize that this post is out later than usual. But as you guys may or may not know, I am a college student. So I have to prioritize and school is more important than this, since blogging is really just a hobby that I do on the side. Don't get me wrong, I love doing it. But it's not something I'm dedicating my life to. I have other things going on that are more important. Most of you are very understanding of that and are very patient. So I thank you for that. But there are a few people including anonymous users that like to rush me in the comment section, which I find to be annoying and rude. Please understand that I have a life outside of here and if a post ends up not coming out at all, it's not because I don't want to do it. It's simply because I can't. Sometimes I see a comment that goes something like, "Someone please call Adrian's parents and have them tell Adrian to update the countdown." I genuinely hate this comment. It sounds stupid to me because none of my family members know that I do this. This is literally my own thing that I kind of just keep to myself. I post when I can. So please stop commenting this bullshit. I've turned off anonymous commenting, so hopefully that will help since there have been other issues before with anonymous users in the comment section. My apologies to the anonymous users that comment responsibly. You can comment again if you create a Google account, which is not that hard. But yeah, I just wanted to talk about that. It's been an issue that needed to be addressed. Thank you to those that are patient with me. You guys are the reason I still do this. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Alan Walker/Noah Cyrus/Digital Farm Animals – All Falls Down (#40)
• Dua Lipa – New Rules (#45)

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

The Countdown

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

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

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

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

41. Symon – Lonely Girl (#39)

40. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#41)

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

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

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

36. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days (DEBUT)

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

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

33. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma (#22)

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

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

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

29. Alice Merton – No Roots (DEBUT)

28. Bazzi – Mine (#33)

27. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#32)

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

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

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

23. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (#34)

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

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

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

19. NF – Let You Down (#18)

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

17. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#17)

16. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#27)

15. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#7)

14. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#26)

13. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#9)

12. Maroon 5 – Wait (#8)

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

10. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#12)

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

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

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

  6. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#5)

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

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

  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) [5^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You (9)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Tight Or Don't (–18)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (+13)

New Entrants
~ This week we have the return of Rudimental, whose music I have enjoyed in the past. Feel The Love, as repetitive as it was, I still really liked. Their collaboration with Ed Sheeran, titled Lay It All On Me, was really good as well. They're more popular in the U.K. with a couple of songs crossing over into the U.S. such as the ones I mentioned and this new one, titled These Days. The track features Jess Glynne, who we all remember from Clean Bandit's Rather Be. I really like her contribution here. I think she has a great voice. We also have Dan Caplen and Macklemore, and I think they both did a nice job on the song as well. This doesn't exactly top their previous work in terms of the production. I do like the piano, but the rest doesn't stand out all too much. That's not to say that it's bad. It's good, but not something that I'll really remember in the long run. Maybe that'll change with time and more listens. Overall, I think the song is good and hopefully it does decent here.

~ Next we have Alice Merton with her debut single, No Roots. I never really liked this song. I thought it was kind of odd at first and it never really grew on me unfortunately. I can definitely see why people like this and it's not a bad song by any means. It's just not my cup of tea. I don't like her voice. I get that it's unique, but it's kind of annoying in my opinion. That being said, I don't like the way the song opens up with just her voice and the bass. The production is underwhelming for the most part, especially in the chorus. I can tell she tried to do something "epic" at the three minute mark. But it just sounds weird and out of place. The song is extremely repetitive. There's virtually nothing interesting about it in my opinion. Like I said, I can see why people like this. But this is one of those songs that I just dislike for personal reasons, not because it's necessarily a bad song. So please do not argue with me about this. One interesting fact I want to mention is that the song is over a year old. It was released towards the end of 2016 and it's just now getting popular, which I find odd. But whatever. The EP didn't come out in the U.S. until just recently.


Best Debut of the Week: Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days


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

• Sam Smith/Logic – Pray (DEBUT)
• Dua Lipa – IDGAF
• Hundred Handed – Too Good (DEBUT)
• Kendrick Lamar, SZA – All The Stars
• Foster The People – Sit Next To Me
• Halsey – Alone
• Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Friends
• Maren Morris – Rich
• Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho
• The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me
• Echosmith – Over My Head
• Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby
• Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment

~ I like Sam Smith and I think he has a great voice that can convey emotion. He definitely shows that on Pray. I think the song is very nice and enjoyable. Though it's nothing too far off from what he's done before. But I do like the addition of Logic to give it a little something extra.

~ Too Good is pretty catchy. I like the groove and the throwback vibe. I've only listened to it once. So I may have more to say after I give it a few more listens.

~ Last week I had Sit Next To Me as the best song on Hit-Bound because there really weren't that many good songs. I didn't love any of them. So I kinda just picked it at random. This past week I really grew to love All The Stars, so I thought for sure that it would be the new best song on Hit-Bound. But at the same time, I was listening to Sit Next To Me a lot and really grew to love that one too, even more than Pumped Up Kicks. So I just decided to have both songs as the best because I can't really pick one. Hopefully they each make their debuts soon, especially Sit Next To Me because Foster The People deserve another hit.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

2. Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars

3. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment

4. Sam Smith/Logic – Pray

5. Halsey – Alone

These Blurbs

~ For the sake of time, blurbs will be a little shorter. Though it's not like much even happened anyway. Want You Back is in the Top 5, which is about as surprising as the fact that fire is hot. Kesha is in the Top 10, which is always good news. We also have Niall and The Weeknd, both of which have good songs. So it's nice to see them in the Top 10.

~ Bad Wolves – Zombie made a nice jump into the Top 15 this week. I'm glad Hits 1 is treating this song well. Hopefully it keeps it up. We have two more new songs in the Top 20. Friends I've had a love/hate relationship with. It's catchy and I like the production to some extent. But Anne-Marie's voice is kind of annoying and I hate the whole friend-zoning theme. I get it if you don't want to be in a relationship with a close friend. But there's no need to be rude to someone who took a chance for love. It's hard to believe this is the same singer from Rockabye. And Delicate is just boring. It's closer to red than it is to green.

~ We've officially hit the one-year anniversary of Lights Down Low being on the countdown. It's funny because when it debuted, I said I hoped that it would last on the countdown as long as it did on Hit-Bound. It definitely went above and beyond. It's very interesting to see this song last a year without ever reaching the Top 5. I'm curious to see how much longer it lasts seeing that it's pretty much locked on to appear in Hits 1's Top 45 of 2018.

~ Perfect is out of the Top 10 for the first time in seemingly forever. Done For Me dropped out of the Top 30 for some reason. Hold Me Tight Or Don't took an unexpected drop. And Lonely Girl is somehow still here despite not doing very much.

~ As far as the exits go, New Rules dropped out despite still being popular because this is Hits 1 and they do shit like this more often than they should. All Falls Down leaving is kind of disappointing since I really liked that one. But it wasn't actually popular unfortunately. At least it spent a little while on here.

~ In other music news, Cardi B released her new album, Invasion of Privacy. I've only listened to a few track previews. But it doesn't seem that impressive. This comes as no surprised after the bland as hell Bodak Yellow and the shitty Bartier Cardi. Thirty Seconds To Mars also released AMERICA, which is also not good. On top of the terrible album cover, there are very few songs that actually grabbed my attention, those being Walk On Water and Remedy. Everything else is either okay at best or just bad. Feel free to watch this album review, which pretty much sums up my own thoughts.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

NONE

1 – Bad:

20. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same

19. Imagine Dragons – Thunder

18. Lauv – I Like Me Better

17. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

2 – Mediocre:

NONE

3 – Decent:

16. Taylor Swift – Delicate

15. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses

14. Maroon 5 – Wait

13. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

12. NF – Let You Down

11. Niall Horan – On The Loose

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

9. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I

8. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back

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

6. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me

5. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low

4. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

3. Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. TIE: Walk The Moon – One Foot

1. TIE: Bad Wolves – Zombie

Overall Score: 78/100 = 78% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Santana/Rob Thomas – Smooth

Most Missed Countdown Song: Jason Derulo – Cheyenne

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Daughtry – Backbone

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: The Weeknd/Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming (#16)

My Top 5 Picks

1. TIE: Bad Wolves – Zombie

1. TIE: Walk The Moon – One Foot

3. Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton – Say Something

4. Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days

5. Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns – Woman