Zedd (9) – Week Of May 26, 2018

Hey guys! Happy Memorial Day weekend! For those unaware, I posted my review of the Billboard Music Awards the other day. There, I pretty much just ranked all of the performances from worst to best based on my opinion of them. Do check that out if you haven't already. It's my previous post. Onto the countdown, things are looking decent, I guess. It could be better, but it also could be worse. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Alice Merton – No Roots (#39)

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

The Countdown

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

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

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

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

41. MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low (#34)

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

39. Drake – God's Plan (#40)

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

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

36. Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Friends (#37)

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

34. Dua Lipa – New Rules (RE-ENTRY)
33. Zayn – Let Me (#27)

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

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

30. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#31)

29. AJR/Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up (#28)

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

27. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#26)

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

25. Bazzi – Mine (#23)

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

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

22. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#29)

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

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

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

18. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#17)

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

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

15. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#19)

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

13. Halsey – Alone (#14)

12. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#13)

11. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses (#11)

10. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#18)

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

  8. Maroon 5 – Wait (#10)

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

  6. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#8)

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

  4. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#6)

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

  2. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#3) [1 Week At #1]

  1. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#1) [9^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (–19)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho (+14)

New Entrants
~ This week we have the return of New Rules. I'm kinda tired of the song at this point. But given that it's been fading away lately everywhere else, I don't think this will stay long.


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

• Sam Smith/Logic – Pray
• HRVY – Personal
• Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (DEBUT)
• The Wrecks – James Dean
• Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss
• 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood
• Cardi B – I Like It
• Maren Morris – Rich
• Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar
• Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right
• lovelytheband – Broken
• In Real Life – Tattoo (How 'Bout You)
• Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind
• Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe
• Hundred Handed – Too Good
• Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (DEBUT)

~ For once, I'm able to review Hit-Bound debuts without having to listen to them because I'm already familiar with them. First we have Fall Out Boy with The Last Of The Real Ones. MANIA was a disappointment of an album, but frankly I wasn't expecting much. The Last Of The Real Ones is one of the few good songs on there and I'm glad it made its debut here. Great production and the vocals are good. It reminds me of the old Fall Out Boy that I loved. It definitely has more of a rock feel than some of the other songs on the album, which is very much a good thing. Hoping this debuts on the countdown soon.

~ Next we have more Brendon Urie with High Hopes, which literally just came out a couple of days ago. I really like this song. It's very fun and enjoyable. The instrumentation is great and Brendon almost never disappoints with his vocals. I'll have more to say when this debuts. But this song is definitely a keeper.

~ We lost two songs this week: Over My Head and Live In The Moment. The former I really didn't care about. Echosmith has definitely done better in my opinion. It just wasn't for me I guess. But the latter is somewhat disappointing, but I'm not really surprised. At least it was on the countdown and, therefore, is eligible for my Top 45 songs of 2018.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

2. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones

3. Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar

4. The Wrecks – James Dean

5. Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe

New Blurbs

~ Niall Horan – On The Loose is new to the Top 5. Despite this song not being big anywhere else, I do think it's a good song. So I'm cool with it being where it is. We definitely have worse in the Top 10.

~ Bad Wolves – Zombie made a very nice jump into the Top 10 this week. I'm very impressed with how well this song has been doing. Definitely keep the votes coming for this one. I love hearing a good rock song on this station. Frankly, I see no flaws with this song whatsoever. Hopefully it continues to do well.

~ However, Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho made a rather annoying jump into the Top 20. Like I said, I can tolerate Rockstar. But there's really nothing good about Psycho. This is a good example of boring rap music that no one wants to listen to, or at least people with good taste. Hopefully this one drops soon, but I doubt it since Hits 1 appear to have become fans of Post Malone.

~ On the bright side, Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same took a nice drop out of the Top 20. Definitely a little sudden, but I'm very pleased with it. This song has been bad from the start and I'm hoping it can keep declining from here. (Watch it jump back up next week. I'm calling it.)

~ Kendrick Lamar/SZA – All The Stars barely jumped this week and Foster The People – Sit Next To Me dropped right back down to #35. Hopefully the former can make a better jump soon and the latter can recover. Both are great songs that absolutely do not deserve to be underrated.

~ I find it fascinating how Psycho jumped despite God's Plan being the bigger hit of the year so far, and frankly the better song. Yet this doesn't surprise me considering that I've been a Hits 1 listener long enough to understand that they have strange logic.

~ Falling into the Bottom 5, we have MAX/Gnash – Lights Down Low. I'm still really impressed with how well this song did here. It's been strong for over a year now. That time might unfortunately be coming to an end soon. Hopefully it did enough to lock itself into Hits 1's Top 45 of 2018 after (barely) missing their Top 45 of 2017.

~ As far as the exit goes, we lost No Roots. It's really not a big loss, at least in my opinion. To reclarify, I don't hate the song. I just find it to be not very interesting. I dislike it, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad song if that makes any sense. I can perfectly understand why people like it. It's just not my personal taste I guess. But whatever. It didn't do so well here, which doesn't really surprise me too much.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Post Malone/Ty Dolla $ign – Psycho

1 – Bad:

19. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

18. Lauv – I Like Me Better

2 – Mediocre:

17. Meghan Trainor – No Excuses

16. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

15. Maroon 5 – Wait

3 – Decent:

14. Dua Lipa – IDGAF

4 – Good:

13. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

12. Taylor Swift – Delicate

5 – Great:

11. Halsey – Alone

10. Niall Horan – On The Loose

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

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

7. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry

6. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

5. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me

4. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back

3. Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me

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

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Bad Wolves – Zombie

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

Throwback Pick Of The Week: The All-American Rejects – Gives You Hell

Most Missed Countdown Song: Selena Gomez – Come & Get It

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Tie Between Christina Aguilera/Demi Lovato – Fall In Line and Bebe Rexha/Quavo – 2 Souls On Fire

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#1)

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