Panic! At The Disco (1) – Week Of August 11, 2018

Hey guys! I think this week was pretty good for the most part. We have a great new #1 song. Also, I start school a week from this Monday. So I'm not sure what will happen with my blogging schedule. I'll still try to get posts out over the weekend. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (#42)

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

The Countdown

45. Liam Payne/J Balvin – Familiar (#45)

44. Twenty One Pilots – Jumpsuit (#33)

43. Bazzi – Mine (#43)

42. Sugarland/Taylor Swift – Babe (#44)

41. Charlie Puth/Kehlani – Done For Me (#38)

40. Halsey – Alone (#27)

39. Drake – In My Feelings (#37)

38. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects (DEBUT)

37. Walk The Moon – One Foot (#40)

36. Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (#36) [1 Week At #1]

35. 5 Seconds of Summer – Want You Back (#35) [1 Week At #1]

34. Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right (#25)

33. The Wrecks – James Dean (#30)

32. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#21)

31. Lauv – I Like Me Better (#41)

30. Madison Beer – Home With You (#29)

29. lovelytheband – Broken (#28)

28. U2/Cheat Codes – Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (#34)

27. Maroon 5 – Wait (#26)

26. MNEK/Hailee Steinfeld – Colour (#39)

25. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me (#32)

24. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#14)

23. PRETTYMUCH – Summer On You (#31)

22. Alessia Cara – Growing Pains (#23)

21. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (#24) [1 Week At #1]

20. Post Malone – Better Now (#15)

19. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#22)

18. Cardi B/Bad Bunny/J Balvin – I Like It (#19)

17. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#20)

16. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#17)

15. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#18) [2 Weeks At #1]

14. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss (#12)

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

12. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#5)

11. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#9)
10. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#8)
  9. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#11) [1 Week At #1]
  8. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (#10)
  7. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (#13)
  6. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#7)
  5. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#6) [4 Weeks At #1]
  4. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#3) [9 Weeks At #1]
  3. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#4)
  2. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#1) [3 Weeks At #1]
  1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#2) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Imagine Dragons – Believer (3)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Halsey – Alone (–13)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: MNEK/Hailee Steinfeld – Colour (+13)

New Entrants
~ Our one new entrant this week comes from The Chainsmokers along with Emily Warren, who have collaborated on a few songs from their album Memories...Do Not Open including the hit Paris. They bring us Side Effects and it's easily the best song I've heard from The Chainsmokers since Something Just Like This. They were going on a serious decline with their other recent singles like Everybody Hates Me and Somebody. But it's almost as if they took my criticism when putting together Side Effects. Emily Warren handled all the vocals, which is good since I was getting sick of Drew's voice. The production is much better this time around as well. The song has a nice groovy beat to it. I'm glad these guys didn't get lazy again. It's not their best work by any means, but it is great improvement. Hopefully they can keep going this path because I think this is what will get people to be interested in them again. Overall, great song and I think it'll do well.


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

• Noah Cyrus, MAX – Team
• Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir
• Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman
• Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now
• Justin Timberlake – SoulMate
• DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper/Quavo – No Brainer
• Years & Years – If You're Over Me
• Brown & Gray – Top Down
• Bazzi/Camila Cabello – Beautiful (DEBUT)
• Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love (DEBUT)
• Charlie Puth – The Way I Am
• NF – Lie (DEBUT)
• Weezer – Africa
• Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind
• AJR – Burn The House Down (DEBUT)

~ First up we have more Bazzi with Beautiful. And of course we have the rerelease with Camila Cabello. I will say that it is a step up from Mine, which I still do not like. Bazzi's vocals are decent here, but I'm not huge on Camila's contribution and I don't really like the production here. This was just off of one listen though, so my opinion could change.

~ I don't know why but I have a hard time getting into Sabrina Carpenter. She has a good voice, but I don't think she takes advantage of it very well. Some of her songs in the past have just been bland as hell. Almost Love is decent. I think she sounds good some of the time. But I find the production to be rather underwhelming at certain points. This one could grow me. But for now, I don't really know what to think of it.

~ More AJR is never something to look forward to. I genuinely hate their music. I try not to use that word very often. But it's necessary for these guys. Jon from ARTV talked about problems with AJR in a recent video and it pretty much sums up what I dislike about them. Burn The House Down is not good at all. Their voices are very average at best. But the production here is shit. The song is not very interesting at all and the horns are absolutely obnoxious. I don't know why Hits 1 likes them because they are not good and I've been pretty consistent about that for the most part. Of course this will debut at some point and I'm not looking forward to it.

~ After all that, we do have one good new song from NF called Lie. I like him. I think he's talented and he's someone we need in rap music these days. He's a very good rapper and I even like his singing voice a little bit. Lie does sound similar to Let You Down in a way. But I liked that song too, so I would say that's a good thing. I think this song is very enjoyable. It's nice and fast and I was captivated the whole time.

~ I'm not sure why Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind is still here. I have a very hard time picturing this on the countdown.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Weezer – Africa

2. NF – Lie

3. Noah Cyrus/MAX – Team

4. Justin Timberlake – SoulMate

5. Years & Years – If You're Over Me

Blurb Effects

~ Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes has achieved the #1 spot, which I'm very happy with. This is still a very enjoyable song and I'm glad it is having some success here. Say Amen sits at #5 and I'm still happy that one did as well as it did. It's actually still doing well, which is even better.

~ Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones is up in the Top 10, which is a very good thing considering it's one of Fall Out Boy's few good songs nowadays. I'm glad this one seems to be doing well here.

~ Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends is finally out of the Top 10. Hopefully that means we can see it continue to drop with time. This song still gets worse with each listen. That introduction could not be any more annoying.

~ Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry is out of the Top 20. I've been losing interest in this one. My opinion is back to where it started. I still really like the beginning of the song. But everything else I'm not huge on. She does have a good voice though when she's not speak-rapping.

~ I talked about the beginning of Friends being annoying. But no intro is more annoying than Lauv – I Like Me Better. Whatever that instrument is sounds so bad in the song and I do not like the chopped-up vocals at all. Seriously, what is there to like about this song???

~ Meghan Trainor – Let You Be Right dropped out of the Top 30 this week. Hopefully that means this one won't be a hit here since it's not actually a hit anywhere else. Meghan Trainor is one of the least-appealing artists in pop music these days and so far, her new album does not sound very promising. Songs like Let You Be Right are so bland that they just get annoying.

~ If Drake – In My Feelings is gonna keep going on this path, then why is it even here? This is the biggest song in the country right now, so it should be doing decent here at least. It's not even a bad song. It's actually pretty enjoyable. Although I'm not surprised.

~ I'm also not too surprised to see Twenty One Pilots – Jumpsuit down at #44. It seems a little too rock for Hits 1 despite their love for the duo. I'm still indifferent on the song myself. I personally wouldn't mind if it just left.

~ Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me is our one exit this week and I'm fairly pleased with how this song did here even though it wasn't a big hit elsewhere. Even though this didn't live up to Sorry Not Sorry in terms of success, it is miles better in terms of quality. Goodbye Tell Me You Love Me. You will be missed. Also, Demi Lovato is slowly recovering from her recent incident, so I wish her the best.

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

17. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know

3 – Decent:

16. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You

4 – Good:

15. Post Malone – Better Now

5 – Great:

14. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood

13. Taylor Swift – Delicate

12. Niall Horan – On The Loose

11. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes

10. Imagine Dragons – Natural

9. Selena Gomez – Back To You

8. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss

7. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen

6. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies

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

4. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

3. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

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

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: Sinéad O'Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U

Most Missed Countdown Song: Armin van Buuren/Trevor Guthrie – This Is What It Feels Like

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Calum Scott/Leona Lewis – You Are The Reason

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: DJ Khaled/Rihanna/Bryson Tiller – Wild Thoughts (#15)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

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

3. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

4. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

5. Walk The Moon – One Foot