Zedd (8) – Week Of May 19, 2018

Hey guys! This week on the countdown was okay I guess. We had some good debuts. But we lost good songs and a lot of bad moves happened this week. The Billboard Music Awards are on tomorrow night and I plan on watching. I may also do a review depending on how the night goes. So we'll see what happens. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• P!nk – Beautiful Trauma (#39)
• Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future – End Game (#41) [1 Week At #1]
• Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (#42) [1 Week At #1]

Last Week's #1 Song: 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back

The Countdown

45. Selena Gomez/Marshmello – Wolves (#43)

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

43. Camila Cabello – Havana (#38) [1 Week At #1]

42. Charlie Puth – How Long (#45) [2 Weeks At #1]

41. Halsey – Bad At Love (#36) [2 Weeks At #1]

40. Drake – God's Plan (#40)

39. Alice Merton – No Roots (#37)

38. Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (#34)

37. Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Ass Friends (DEBUT)

36. Ed Sheeran – Perfect (#29) [2 Weeks At #1]

35. Kendrick Lamar, SZA – All The Stars (DEBUT)

34. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#25)

33. Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho (#32)

32. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt – Let Me Go (#24) [1 Week At #1]

31. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#28)

30. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me (#35)

29. Selena Gomez – Back To You (DEBUT)

28. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#27)

27. Zayn – Let Me (#21)

26. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#20)

25. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (#26)

24. Imagine Dragons – Thunder (#18) [5 Weeks At #1]

23. Bazzi – Mine (#23)

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

21. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#6)

20. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#19)

19. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#32)

18. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#22)

17. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#33)

16. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#16)

15. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#7) [1 Week At #1]

14. Halsey – Alone (#17)

13. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#14)

12. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days (#15)

11. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#9)

10. Maroon 5 – Wait (#5)

  9. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (#4) [1 Week At #1]

  8. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#8)

  7. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#13)

  6. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#12)

  5. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (#11)

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

  3. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#1) [1 Week At #1]

  2. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#3)

  1. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#2) [8^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill (2)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (–15)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Dua Lipa – IDGAF (+16)

New Entrants
~ First up we have Dustin Atlas and Erin Bowman with Fake Friends. I've kind of grown out of this one a little bit with how long it was on Hit-Bound. But I'd still consider it to be a good song, I guess. The problem with it is that it's just slightly underwhelming. But other than that, it's enjoyable to a certain extent. I think they did a nice job on the vocals and I like the lyrical content. So yeah. Not much else to say about this one. For now, I can enjoy it for what it is.

~ Next we have returning artists Kendrick Lamar and SZA with the lead single from the Black Panther soundtrack, All The Stars. I've been enjoying this one for quite a while now and I'm glad it finally made its debut. I love the production here. Kendrick Lamar is a great artist and one of the few I currently can stand from the rap genre. His verse is really good. But SZA steals the show here with that awesome chorus and I really like her verse as well. She does take on the majority of the song and I like that because she has a great voice and frankly, she deserves another hit. Overall, I love this song and I really hope it does well here.

~ Finally we have Selena Gomez with Back To You, which is from the soundtrack for season 2 of the Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why. I've definitely heard some mixed opinions on the show. I haven't actually watched it and I don't really plan on it, so I can't actually say anything. But either way, I'm here to talk about the music. This new song is pretty good for Selena Gomez, especially compared to the garbage she released last year in the form of Fetish and Bad Liar. There is still some mumbling going on, but there's also more singing going on, which is good. I like the production for the most part. It still doesn't really top her older work. But I'm just glad she finally released something good without the help of Kygo or Marshmello. Given how fast this debuted here, I'm pretty sure it'll do well.


Best Debut of the Week: Kendrick Lamar and SZA – All The Stars


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

• The Wrecks – James Dean
• Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right
• lovelytheband – Broken
• Echosmith – Over My Head
• Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind (DEBUT)
• 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (DEBUT)
• Sam Smith/Logic – Pray
• Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss
• In Real Life – Tattoo (How 'Bout You)
• Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar
• Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe
• Cardi B – I Like It (DEBUT)
• Maren Morris – Rich
• Hundred Handed – Too Good
• Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment
• HRVY – Personal

~ Nevermind has been around for quite a while at this point. It was released almost a year ago. But here it is. I have it in green because I was feeling generous. But this is by no means a great song. First off, it's two and a half minutes. I don't get why artists make short songs like this. I much prefer a song that's four and a half minutes. And the vocals aren't that great. They're good, but nothing that stands out. The song is also very repetitive. But I love the production here, which is why I decided to be nice and put it in green. But it could be demoted to blue at any point in time.

~ Of course any single released by 5 Seconds of Summer is bound to make it onto Hits 1. Here we have Youngblood, which is not as good as Want You Back. This one is also in green because I was being very nice. It's a step down in terms of the production. It could easily change to blue soon. But I'll talk more about if it debuts on the countdown.

~ Now we have more Cardi B as she debuts with I Like It. I will say that it's definitely a step up from some of the shit she has released like Bartier Cardi. But this is still not good. I hate her voice. She sounds so dumb and I know that sounds rude, but it's the truth. She sounds dumb even when she's just talking normally in an interview or something. And I hate the Latin vibe mixed with trap production. I'm particularly picky with Latin songs and this one is just not good. I think Hits 1 edited out Bad Bunny and J Balvin. But frankly, neither of them did any good for the song. So yeah. Not a fan.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar

2. Portugal. The Man – Live In The Moment

3. The Wrecks – James Dean

4. Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe

5. Sam Smith/Logic – Pray

All The Blurbs

~ The beyond mediocre The Middle appears to be back at #1 for some unknown goddamn reason. America slowly continues to disappoint me. This song is NOT GOOD. I can name a hundred EDM tracks that are much better than this that didn't even come close to being as successful. Seriously. It's time to stop this.

~ The rest of the Top 5 looks pretty good though. Whatever It Takes is back up at #2 and hopefully it can be our new #1 song next week. Say Amen and Tell Me You Love Me also made some nice jumps. Both are very welcome.

~ Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends appears to have jumped into the Top 10 much to my displeasure. But thankfully, we saw some slight drops from Maroon 5 – Wait and Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same.

~ The big jump back into the Top 20 from Lauv – I Like Me Better was very unnecessary and uncalled for. Once again, I do not see what people could possibly like about this song. It's straight up annoying and the line "I like me better when I'm with you" is just not good. That's not a very good compliment in my opinion.

~ The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me made quite a sudden drop out of the Top 20. I will admit that it has been fading on me, but this seemed a little too sudden. But hopefully this means that All The Stars can take over.

~ Noah Kahan/Julia Michaels – Hurt Somebody has randomly hit a new peak at #22. This song does absolutely nothing for me. I'm surprised it's still here. I personally would prefer if it just dropped again because frankly, no one cares about this one. Most people probably don't even know what this is.

~ As far as the exits go, End Game lasted longer than I thought it would. I'm pretty sure it only hit #1 because of Ed Sheeran. Beautiful Trauma was pretty underrated overall, but it did decent here peaking in the Top 10, so I'm happy with that. And finally, Good Old Days was also very underrated everywhere except here. I'm so glad the song did well here because it really is one of the best songs of the year so far. It deserved that one week at the top. Hopefully it did enough to make it onto Hits 1's Top 45 of 2018. Goodbye, Good Old Days. You will surely be missed. I believe these two will be performing it at the Billboard Music Awards. So I look forward to that.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same

1 – Bad:

19. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

18. Lauv – I Like Me Better

2 – Mediocre:

17. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses

16. Maroon 5 – Wait

15. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

3 – Decent:

14. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

13. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry

12. Dua Lipa – IDGAF

11. Taylor Swift – Delicate

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

10. Niall Horan – On The Loose

9. Halsey – Alone

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

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

6. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

5. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back

4. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me

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

2. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Bad Wolves – Zombie

Overall Score: 71/100 = 71% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet's Back)

Most Missed Countdown Song: Karmin – Acapella

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: OneRepublic/Logic – Start Again

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#4)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Bad Wolves – Zombie

2. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

3. Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars

4. Walk The Moon – One Foot

5. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me