Shawn Mendes (1) – Week Of July 14, 2018

I'm trying to think of fun things I can do on this blog while it's still summer and I still have free time on my hands. I do have something in mind, but I'm not completely sure I'm gonna roll with it yet. I'll let you guys know when I make the final decision. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Imagine Dragons – Thunder (#41) [5 Weeks At #1]
• Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt – Let Me Go (#43) [1 Week At #1]
• Camila Cabello – Havana (#45) [1 Week At #1]

Last Week's #1 Song: Taylor Swift – Delicate

The Countdown

45. Rudimental/Jess Glynne/Macklemore/Dan Caplen – These Days (#40)

44. Bad Wolves – Zombie (#39)

43. Dustin Atlas/Erin Bowman – Fake Ass Friends (#38)

42. Ed Sheeran – Perfect (#44) [2 Weeks At #1]

41. G-Eazy/Halsey – Him & I (#42)

40. Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe (#37)

39. Hundred Handed – Too Good (#36)

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

37. Dua Lipa – New Rules (#35)

36. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#32) [1 Week At #1]

35. Alessia Cara – Growing Pains (DEBUT)

34. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#34)

33. Bazzi – Mine (#21)

32. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (DEBUT)

31. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#30)

30. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (#31) [1 Week At #1]

29. U2/Cheat Codes – Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (#27)

28. The Wrecks – James Dean (#28)

27. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (DEBUT)

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

25. Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar (#16)

24. Maren Morris – Rich (#26)

23. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss (#23)

22. Maroon 5 – Wait (#24)

21. Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right (#20)

20. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#29)

19. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#22) [1 Week At #1]

18. Cardi B/Bad Bunny/J Balvin – I Like It (#18)

17. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#19)

16. Halsey – Alone (#15)

15. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#14)

14. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (#11)

13. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me (#17)

12. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#13)

11. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#12)

10. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#9)

  9. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#8)

  8. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#7)

  7. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#10)

  6. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#1) [1 Week At #1]

  5. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#4) [1 Week At #1]

  4. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#3) [9 Weeks At #1]

  3. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#2) [4 Weeks At #1]

  2. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#5)

  1. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#6) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Zedd/Alessia Cara – Stay (4)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Bazzi – Mine (–12)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (+9)

New Entrants
~ First up, we have the return of Alessia Cara with a song I'm kind of indifferent on. She debuts with Growing Pains, which is easily her weakest single so far not including her appearance on Stay by Zedd. It's not bad by any means. But there's a lot that can be improved upon here. I don't think there's a single thing I love about this song. I get that she was going for something new here. But when I first listened to this, the first word that popped into my head to describe the song was "awkward" and I kinda have to stick with it. It's a very weird track in my honest opinion. The production just sounds odd throughout pretty much the whole song. I tried getting into it, but I just couldn't. Her vocals despite seeming a little restricted at certain points are pretty good. Though I don't love how there are two layers of her voice in the chorus and if you listen to it, you'll know what I'm talking about. The song is similar to Wild Things in a way, but that song was a lot better and didn't sound as strange as this one. Maybe it's just because I had high expectations for Alessia Cara after Scars To Your Beautiful, which I think is an amazing and beautiful song. This is a massive step down in my opinion and I doubt that will change. But who knows? We'll see how well it does.

~ Next we have the return of Fall Out Boy with my favorite track from their excuse of an album titled MANIA. This song is The Last Of The Real Ones. This song similar to previous single Champion has a nice rock vibe to it that reminds me of older Fall Out Boy days, which is kind of what I was looking for in their new album. While I was pretty disappointed for the most part, The Last Of The Real Ones was a definite stand-out track and I'm glad it made its way over here onto Hits 1. The production is very good and the instrumentation is pretty solid here. Patrick Stump sounds really good on vocals, especially in the verses. I think it's a very catchy song and the chorus is very enjoyable. I would really like to see this song do well. I don't really know how it'll do. But hopefully it doesn't just do poorly. It deserves some success for being one of the few good Fall Out Boy songs these days.

~ Finally we have the long-awaited return of the Backstreet Boys with Don't Go Breaking My Heart. I've always been a fan of these guys and I still come back to some of their biggest songs like I Want It That Way and Everybody (Backstreet's Back). They're very talented and I'm glad they made their return this year. Don't Go Breaking My Heart is a really great song in a lot of ways. The production and piano sound really good and I really like the vocals here. I really like the lyrics as the song is about not wanting your heart broken in a relationship. As someone who has been in a relationship for almost two months now, this is definitely something I can relate to. Overall, I think the song is great and I really hope it does well. Backstreet Boys are back and they deserve another hit.


Best Debut of the Week: Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart


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

• Julia Michaels/Trippie Redd – Jump
• Justin Timberlake – SoulMate (DEBUT)
• lovelytheband – Broken
• Dan + Shay – Tequila
• Big Boi – All Night
• Madison Beer – Home With You
• Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess
• Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir
• MNEK/Hailee Steinfeld – Colour
• The Chainsmokers/Drew Love – Somebody (DEBUT)
• Brown & Gray – Top Down (DEBUT)
• Post Malone – Better Now
• Cole Redding – Father Father
• BTS – Fake Love
• Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind

~ Justin Timberlake releases another new single within one year of Man Of The Woods having been released. SoulMate is a step down from Say Something from earlier this year. Though the song is better than a lot of the tracks from Man Of The Woods. Few songs from that album were actually better than this like Montana and Breeze Off The Pond. This new song is good, I guess. I like his vocals. But there isn't much else to the song. So I don't really know what else to say. I'll have more if it manages to debut on the countdown.

~ The Chainsmokers continue to bring more mediocre songs with less of what made them unique as this week, they debut with Somebody. This is probably the worst of the bunch since Sick Boy. These guys have gotten very lazy with the production and I think Drew Love's voice is annoying. The only thing decent about this song is the vocal performance from Drew Taggart. But even then, I'm still getting a little tired of his voice. The Chainsmokers have some serious work to do if they are to impress me and most of America again.

~ New duo Brown & Gray debut on Hit-Bound this week with Top Down. I think this song is very enjoyable. I like the instrumentation. I also really like male and female duets and these two are no exception. Overall, it's a good song that I wouldn't mind seeing some success out of.

~ Twenty One Pilots released a couple new songs recently titled Jumpsuit and Nico and The Niners. I'm sure we'll see the former on the countdown soon. So I'll hold off on giving my opinions until then.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Dan + Shay – Tequila

2. Julia Michaels/Trippie Redd – Jump

3. Bebe Rexha – I'm A Mess

4. Brown & Gray – Top Down

5. Justin Timberlake – SoulMate

The Last Of The Real Blurbs

~ Shawn Mendes unexpectedly rose to #1 this week with In My Blood. I have to say, it did take quite a while to get there. But I don't really mind because it is a good song. We do have better, but this is pretty good for the time being.

~ Meanwhile, Selena Gomez rises to #2 with Back To You, making it her highest-peaking song since Come & Get It hit #2 back in 2013. I would totally be cool with this song at #1. It's something I've been listening to quite a bit lately. I mean seriously. That beginning always manages to pull me into the song.

~ Zedd/Maren Morris – The Middle is down to #4 this week, which is the lowest it's been in months. I really think it's time to get this song out of the Top 10. Seriously. I've had it with this song.

~ Bazzi – Mine took a very nice drop out of the Top 30 this week. I still don't understand why this song is popular. It's just way too childish for my taste and it has only gotten more annoying with each listen. Hopefully we can get this out of here soon.

~ Hundred Handed – Too Good and Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe don't seem to be doing very well at the moment. And for some reason, neither of them surprise me. Hopefully they can hold out for a little while longer.

~ As far as the exits go, we lost the three oldest songs on the countdown. Imagine Dragons – Thunder, having been the oldest, should've left a long time ago. I'm glad it didn't stay way too long. This one died out pretty fast for me, mostly because I realized just how bad of a song it is. Camila Cabello – Havana and Hailee Steinfeld/Florida Georgia Line – Let Me Go both debuted on the same week and had their success at different times (Let Me Go took much longer to rise to the top). Both songs are still good, especially Let Me Go, and I'm glad they did as well as they did. They will be missed by me.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

1 – Bad:

19. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

2 – Mediocre:

18. Cardi B – I Like It

3 – Decent:

17. Dua Lipa – IDGAF

16. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know

15. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

14. Niall Horan – On The Loose

13. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me

12. Halsey – Alone

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

10. Taylor Swift – Delicate

9. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry

8. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

7. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me

6. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

5. Selena Gomez – Back To You

4. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

3. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

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

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

Overall Score: 83/100 = 83% (A)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: U2 – With Or Without You

Most Missed Countdown Song: Pitbull/Osmani Garcia/Lil Jon – El Taxi (not sure why I miss this one, but I do)

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Daughtry – White Flag

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: The Chainsmokers/Coldplay – Something Just Like This (#3)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

2. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen

3. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

4. Bad Wolves – Zombie

5. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes