Panic! At The Disco (4) – Week Of September 29, 2018

Hey guys! The deadline for the 2013 Rankdown is in a couple of hours. However, there will still be time to submit if you're working on it. All of the calculations for averages and standard deviations will be done in an Excel file. But right now, I have to do the tedious process of entering everyone's ranking for each individual song. With school happening at the same time, that will take another week or so. So there is still a little bit of extra time to submit a list. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Cardi B – I Like It (#40)
• Madison Beer – Home With You (#41)
• PRETTYMUCH – Summer On You (#42)
• Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind (#43)
• Drake – In My Feelings (#45)

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

The Countdown

45. DJ Khaled/Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper/Quavo – No Brainer (#38)

44. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me (#36)

43. Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo (#27)

42. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#44)

41. Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends (#33)

40. The Vamps – Just My Type (DEBUT)

39. Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#39)

38. Brown & Gray – Top Down (#28)

37. Bryce Vine – Drew Barrymore (DEBUT)

36. Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir (#34)

35. Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#35)

34. AJR – Burn The House Down (#32)

33. Kim Petras – Heart To Break (DEBUT)

32. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#30) [2 Weeks At #1]

31. Anne-Marie – 2002 (DEBUT)

30. NOTD/Bea Miller – I Wanna Know (#29)

29. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It (DEBUT)

28. Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love (#37)

27. lovelytheband – Broken (#16)

26. Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa – One Kiss (#25)

25. Weezer – Africa (#11)

24. LSD – Thunderclouds (#31)

23. George Ezra – Shotgun (#24)

22. Bazzi/Camila Cabello – Beautiful (#23)

21. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#22) [1 Week At #1]

20. Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now (#21)

19. Dan + Shay – Tequila (#20)

18. Post Malone – Better Now (#10)

17. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#19) [3 Weeks At #1]

16. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#9) [4 Weeks At #1]

15. NF – Lie (#26)

14. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman (#15)

13. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (#18)

12. Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess (#17)

11. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#13)

10. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects (#6)

  9. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#7)

  8. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#8) [9 Weeks At #1]

  7. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am (#14)

  6. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#12)

  5. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (#4) [2 Weeks At #1]

  4. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#3)

  3. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#5)

  2. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#2) [2 Weeks At #1]

  1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#1) [4^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Liam Payne/Quavo – Strip That Down (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo (–16)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: NF – Lie (+11)

New Entrants
~ First up this week, we have The Vamps with Just My Type. Despite these boys being underrated, Hits 1 still picks up some of their songs including Just My Type. I don't think there has been a single song from them that I've legitimately disliked. They're pretty likable in my opinion and this new song is pretty good. It's fast and catchy. I like the chorus and the vocals sound good. This seems like one of those songs that gets better with each listen. So overall, I'm enjoying this. I can't picture it staying long, but we'll see what happens.

~ Next we have Bryce Vine with Drew Barrymore. There isn't much to say about this one. I think it's rather self-explanatory why this one is not very good. It's boring and there's nothing very interesting or exciting about it. This man's voice is hard to listen to. It's honestly just not a good song and I went into it with an open mind. If I were Drew Barrymore, I would not want a song like this to be named after me. So yeah. I'm hoping this doesn't last very long.

~ Up next, we have Kim Petras with Heart To Break. My original criticism regarding this song was about the beat and the production. But after listening to the song more, it has grown on me and I do actually really enjoy the song now. And this might just be me, but I just learned that she is transgender. She sounds fantastic and she looks great in the music video. So yeah. This is a really good song in my opinion. I would love to see it have some success.

~ Following that, we have Anne-Marie with 2002. It goes without saying that this song is a step up from Friends. But there are still numerous issues that I have with it. I don't love the lyrical content with all the references to older hits in the chorus. The song loses originality by going that route. I also find the production very similar to Friends. It's rather messy and not very pleasing to the ears. And Anne-Marie's vocals have only improved slightly. There are a few moments where I think she sounds good. But there's still a lot of scratchiness and that honestly might just be her voice. But it does not very good in my opinion. Overall, I don't really like the song. But I don't exactly hate it. It could be worse.

~ Last, but not least, we have Panic! At The Disco with Hey Look Ma, I Made It. I am definitely a fan of Brendon and I'm glad that Hits 1 gives him the success that he deserves. When I listened to Pray For The Wicked the day it was released, I mentally noted Hey Look Ma, I Made It as one of the standout tracks. So I'm thrilled to see it on the countdown with Say Amen and High Hopes, which are also two great songs. I think it's catchy. I like the use of the horns in the chorus. Brendon sounds great as usual. It's honestly just a fun listen and I'm sure it'll do well here.


Best Debut of the Week: Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It


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

• Loud Luxury/brando – Body
• Twenty One Pilots – My Blood (DEBUT)
• Jason Derulo & David Guetta/Nicki Minaj/Willy William – Goodbye
• The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (DEBUT)
• The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks
• Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside
• Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises
• Walk The Moon – Kamikaze
• Tiësto & Dzeko/Preme/Post Malone – Jackie Chan
• Silk City/Dua Lipa – Electricity
• Pitbull/Theron Theron – Free Free Free
• Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan (DEBUT)
• Alex Aiono – Big Mistake (DEBUT)
• Ariana Grande – Breathin (DEBUT)

~ A week before the release of Trench, we get the single My Blood from Twenty One Pilots. I've only listened to this a couple of times, so I'll give a more detailed review later on. But I do think it's a good song and I can picture a song like this doing well on Hits 1. So I wouldn't mind seeing it debut soon.

~ Next we have The Chainsmokers and country singer Kelsea Ballerini with This Feeling. I think this is another step in the right direction for these guys. I like the whole male/female duet between Drew and Kelsea. I think both of their voices sound good here. It's not their best in terms of the production. I still think Side Effects and Something Just Like This are better. But I still think this is better than the four singles before Side Effects.

~ Replacing Nervous, we have the Lost In Japan remix by Shawn Mendes with Zedd. Although the original is obviously better, the remix is growing on me. The main criticism I have is that it sounds very similar to Stay and The Middle. The ticking clock has been overused at this point and Shawn's vocals sound very computerized and autotuned in the chorus. However, Shawn has a rather soothing voice and I actually like how he sounds in the chorus. His voice is not annoying like Maren Morris in The Middle and Elley Duhé in Happy Now. And I actually like the drop a little bit. Like I said, the original is better. But the remix is still enjoyable in its own way. This is the best thing we've gotten from Zedd since Beautiful Now.

~ Following that, we have Alex Aiono with Big Mistake, which is probably my favorite debut this week. The song is fun and catchy. I really like his voice. This is definitely something I can picture myself enjoying for a while. More on it if it manages to graduate to the countdown.

~ Finally, we have Ariana Grande with Breathin. I haven't exactly been huge on her recent music. But this is easily the favorite of the three singles we've gotten so far. Everything from her vocals to the production work very well here. I would love to see this on the countdown soon.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks

2. Alex Aiono – Big Mistake

3. Ariana Grande – Breathin

4. Walk The Moon – Kamikaze

5. Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan

Heart To Blurb

~ Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen is the lowest it's been in a while. It might just be me, but I don't think it's right to let this song drop BEFORE The Middle, which has been high up much longer. That's all I'll say.

~ LSD – Thunderclouds and Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love are the only debuts from last week that jumped this week. The latter makes me happy, but the former is honestly just annoying. I'm really hoping this doesn't end up being a hit.

~ Can we please get rid of Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir??? It's one of the most annoying things to listen to that "Oh oh oh oh oh oh OHHHHH". Pat Monahan's voice just does not work with this kind of song.

~ Marshmello/Anne-Marie – Friends is down to the Bottom 5, though most likely only because of the debut from 2002. Though I am hoping we can kick this one off soon. It's not worthy of still being here.

~ Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo took quite the tumble down to #43 on its second week. Yikes. I was hoping this one could do reasonably well and give Clean Bandit another hit. I guess that's not gonna be the case here. Oh well.

~ Unsurprisingly, No Brainer is at the very bottom of the countdown. I simply could not picture this song doing well here. All of these artists have done better. This song is just bland and a little childish. I know DJ Khaled is capable of more.

~ As far as the exits go, we said goodbye to three unknown and unpopular songs as well as two of the biggest songs currently. Home With You, Summer On You, and Nevermind were nothing special. I did not picture any of them lasting long and they weren't that great. I Like It was not a good song, but it wasn't terrible. So it will not be in my Bottom 10 songs of the year. It's a step up from what Cardi B has done in the past. And of course, In My Feelings was destined to do poorly because these people at Hits 1 have something against Drake, which is why God's Plan did poorly and Nice For What never debuted. I like In My Feelings even if it's not Drake's best. So I'm not too happy about how it was treated here. But oh well.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now

19. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle

1 – Bad:

NONE

2 – Mediocre:

18. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am

17. Taylor Swift – Delicate

3 – Decent:

16. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

15. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman

14. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

13. Post Malone – Better Now

12. NF – Lie

11. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen

10. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects

9. Selena Gomez – Back To You

8. Bebe Rexha – I'm A Mess

7. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies

6. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

5. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

4. Imagine Dragons – Natural

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

2. Dan + Shay – Tequila

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

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

Overall Score: 79/100 = 79% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Snow Patrol – Run

Most Missed Countdown Song: Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Macklemore/Skylar Grey – Glorious (#11)

My Top 5 Picks

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

2. Dan + Shay – Tequila

3. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

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

5. Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo