Fall Out Boy (1) – Week Of August 25, 2018

Hey guys! So nowadays I have to try to get these posts over the weekend if possible. If it doesn't come out over the weekend, then that's when it'll end up coming out late in the week and I want to get it done as soon as possible. Anyway, we are cleaning house this week. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#21) [1 Week At #1]
• The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#33)
• Walk The Moon – One Foot (#39)
• U2/Cheat Codes – Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (#41)
• MNEK/Hailee Steinfeld – Colour (#43)
• Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe (#44)
• Bazzi – Mine (#45)

Last Week's #1 Song: Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

The Countdown

45. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#34)

44. Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right (#40)

43. Drake – In My Feelings (#36)

42. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#42)

41. Alessia Cara – Growing Pains (#24)

40. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#37) [1 Week At #1]

39. George Ezra – Shotgun (DEBUT)

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

37. Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir (DEBUT)

36. Halsey – Alone (#35)

35. Brown & Gray – Top Down (DEBUT)

34. PNAU – Go Bang (#38)

33. Weezer – Africa (DEBUT)

32. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#29)

31. Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind (DEBUT)

30. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#26)

29. Maroon 5 – Wait (#25)

28. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects (#20)

27. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am (DEBUT)

26. Madison Beer – Home With You (#32)

25. Post Malone – Better Now (#14)

24. Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess (#30)

23. PRETTYMUCH – Summer On You (#27)

22. Cardi B/Bad Bunny/J Balvin – I Like It (#22)

21. Dan + Shay – Tequila (#31)

20. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman (DEBUT)

19. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#17)

18. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#16)

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

16. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me (#15)

15. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (#6)
14. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#23) [2 Weeks At #1]
13. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#10) [2 Weeks At #1]
12. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#12)
11. lovelytheband – Broken (#19)
10. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#4) [9 Weeks At #1]
  9. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#9) [1 Week At #1]
  8. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss (#8)
  7. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#13)
  6. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#2)
  5. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#5) [4 Weeks At #1]
  4. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#11)
  3. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#3)
  2. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#1) [2 Weeks At #1]
  1. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (#7) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Charlie Puth – Attention (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Alessia Cara – Growing Pains (–17)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Dan + Shay – Tequila (+10)

New Entrants
~ First up we have George Ezra with Shotgun. I talked about this one last week when it was on Hit-Bound. I like the song. I think George Ezra is a talented individual. He has a great voice and I like the instrumentation on this song. It's very different and unique. I'm not sure how this song will do here, but hopefully it does decent at least because it is a good song.

~ Next we have Train with Call Me Sir featuring Cam and Travie McCoy. Train have been going a weird direction with their music lately. I much prefer their older work. I'm not huge on this new stuff. I liked Play That Song in more of a guilty pleasure kind of way. Call Me Sir really does not have any redeeming qualities. The pacing is slow and I'm not huge on the songwriting. The guest features did nothing for the song. This style really just doesn't fit Train in my opinion and I would prefer if they made faster-type songs like Drive By.

~ Following that we have country duo Brown & Gray with Top Down. This song was released over a year ago, but it's here now anyway. I think this song is much better than the majority of mainstream country music. The lyrics here are good. I like the instrumentation. Both vocalists sound good on their own as well as together. It's a nice song overall and it's good to see underrated songs get some attention on here. I'm curious to see how it'll do here.

~ In the middle of it all, we have Weezer with their cover of Africa by Toto. I've never been a huge fan of Weezer. My brother is the one who's more interested in them. I think they did a nice job with this cover. It sounds very similar to the original. Rivers Cuomo does a nice job on the vocals. I think it's really good. My opinion on this is similar to my opinion on Zombie by Bad Wolves. Both are really good covers. While they don't top the original versions, the covers are still good on their own.

~ Next we have long-time Hit-Bound veteran Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind. I actually said that I thought this song had no chance of being on this countdown. Now here it is. There's not much to say here because there's not much to this song. The lyrical content is very limited. It seems like it's basically the same lines being repeated over and over again, especially the chorus. I don't really like his voice. I can't understand a single thing he's saying. The song is only two and a half minutes. The production is the only redeeming quality here. So yeah. Not a huge fan of this one.

~ I'm not huge on the fact that Charlie Puth selected The Way I Am as the next single from Voicenotes. I remember first hearing this song when it was released as a promotional single before the album came out and thinking, "This is not that good," especially compared to songs like Attention and Done For Me. Of course it's another song he produced on his own and I can't say this one worked out as well as it did with the other singles. This one is hard to explain honestly. But I don't love his vocals and I'm not huge on the lyrics either. It's not hard to picture myself potentially enjoying this song in the future, but I don't really think that'll be the case.

~ With the highest debut of the week, we have Ariana Grande with the next single from Sweetener, titled God Is A Woman, which I'm sure is a controversial title to those who are religious. I don't really know what to think here. My opinion is practically the same as it was when it debuted on Hit-Bound a while ago. The song doesn't actually grab my attention until the end when Ariana actually shows what she's capable of vocally. The rest of the song I find rather boring, but that's just me obviously. I know people will disagree with me and that's okay. It's all subjective. I just don't think this song is that great and I can't picture myself ever listening to this in my free time.


Best Debut of the Week: Weezer – Africa


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

• DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper/Quavo – No Brainer
• Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (DEBUT)
• Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love
• Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now
• The Vamps – Just My Type (DEBUT)
• LSD – Thunderclouds (DEBUT)
• Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It (DEBUT)
• NF – Lie
• Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo (DEBUT)
• Bazzi/Camila Cabello – Beautiful
• Walk The Moon – Kamikaze (DEBUT)
• Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises (DEBUT)
• Anne-Marie – 2002
• AJR – Burn The House Down
• Bryce Vine – Drew Barrymore (DEBUT)

~ Marshmello brings another song. This one is Happier with Bastille. The production here is not very interesting. I know Marshmello is capable of more. He has become very mainstream similar to Zedd, though not that low. I do like the vocals though from Dan Smith. But I'm fascinated by how the band is credited here. What exactly did the other members contribute?

~ The Vamps are back. They bring us Just My Type, which is nothing more than just a good song. I like some of their other songs more like Somebody To You and All Night. This one seems fun and all, but not too memorable in the long.

~ I was really hoping Hits 1 would be smart and not pick up a song from LSD. This is a collaboration between three of the most random artists: Labrinth, Sia, and Diplo. And my goodness this is awful. I think Thunderclouds is the third song they've released. Audio and Genius both sucked ass. This new one is no different. The production is extremely weird and actually pretty annoying. The vocals are irritating and there are some chopped vocals somewhere in there, which you all know that I dislike. The single covers are hard to look at. This whole project is just a weird mess that is just so random and unnecessary. Seriously. Sia is so much better than this. It's such a shame to see her go this route.

~ Thankfully right after that mess, we have Hey Look Ma, I Made It, which was and still is one of my favorite songs from Pray For The Wicked. It's catchy, Brendon sounds great as always, and I love the use of the horns in the chorus. Overall, great song that I'm glad is here and I hope to see it on the countdown soon.

~ I've always liked Clean Bandit and I think they're very underrated. Solo is not their best work by any means. But I really like Demi Lovato's vocals and the production is still pretty good. Overall, I like the song as I do with their other songs. It's not their best, but I like it for what it is.

~ After the departure of One Foot, we have Walk The Moon here with Kamikaze. Obviously, it's not as good as its predecessor or Shut Up and Dance for that matter. But I still think this song is good. It's just a little bit weirder, which isn't always a bad thing. LSD is bad weird, this song is good weird.

~ With the success of One Kiss, Calvin Harris releases another single, titled Promises. This one is okay if I'm being honest. I could grow into it, but right now it didn't stand out as anything amazing. I like the production for the most part, but I don't know if Sam Smith's voice is meant to be on an EDM track. It worked well with Latch by Disclosure, but this isn't exactly the same thing. And there's this other weird voice in the background in the chorus that really should not be there. So right now, I don't love this one.

~ Finally we have Bryce Vine with Drew Barrymore. This one has underwhelming production and mediocre vocals. There's really not much else to say. It's not an awful song, but it's kind of bland and boring.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It

2. NF – Lie

3. Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love

4. Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo

5. Walk The Moon – Kamikaze

The Way I Blurb

~ Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones is #1 this week. Consider me pleasantly surprised. I did not see that coming, but I'm very happy about it. This is a great song that is underrated and I'm happy to see it up at #1. Hits 1 did a nice job here. This is definitely the best song from MANIA.

~ Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You is of course now up in the Top 5. It was only a matter of time. With how successful this song is right now because of Cardi B's contribution, I could very well see this song at #1 in the near future unlike their previous singles.

~ Wow. This is insane. Zedd/Maren Morris – The Middle is down to the #10. This is the first time it is out of the Top 5 in seemingly forever. Hopefully this means we can finally start seeing it make its way down.

~ lovelytheband – Broken is catching on quickly as it's already right outside of the Top 10. I have no problems with that since I do actually like the song now.

~ Alessia Cara – Growing Pains made a sudden drop to the Bottom 5. I really don't care about this song, so to me this is actually a good thing. I wouldn't mind seeing it off the countdown within the next couple weeks.

~ Can we PLEASE get rid of Lauv – I Like Me Better already??? This is not even funny. This song is terrible and it is somehow still here. I can't think of anything I hate more than that opening.

~ As far as the exits go, Colour was not going to last. Babe flopped unfortunately, which is a shame because it's a good song. Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way did decent-ish here. It never got to the upper half of the countdown, but it stayed longer than I thought it would. So that's something. Mine deserved to leave. The song has really only gotten worse with each listen. Meant To Be, One Foot, and Pray For Me all had great runs on the countdown. The former left sooner than I expected, but it still lasted a long time. Pray For Me went above and beyond my expectations, which is a good thing. And One Foot was a fantastic song that got robbed for never hitting #1. This song will definitely be missed by me. But I'm glad it lasted as long as it did even though it lost all popularity a long time ago.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

1 – Bad:

19. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends

2 – Mediocre:

18. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know

3 – Decent:

17. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman

16. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry

15. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

14. Taylor Swift – Delicate

13. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

12. lovelytheband – Broken

11. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

10. Imagine Dragons – Natural

9. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss

8. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen

7. Selena Gomez – Back To You

6. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies

5. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

4. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

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

2. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart

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

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

Most Missed Countdown Song: Swedish House Mafia/John Martin – Don't You Worry Child

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Logic/Ryan Tedder – One Day

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Kesha – Praying (#20)

My Top 5 Picks

1. TIE: Dan + Shay – Tequila

1. TIE: Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart

3. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

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

5. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes