Panic! At The Disco (5) – Week Of October 6, 2018

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a good week. We are entering the last quarter of the year, which is crazy. Time has gone by so fast. Soon I gotta start putting together my year-end posts for December. It felt like it was not that long ago that I was putting together my Top 45 songs of 2017. Now we're almost through a whole other year. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Dua Lipa – IDGAF (#35)
• Train/Cam/Travie McCoy – Call Me Sir (#36)
• Clean Bandit/Demi Lovato – Solo (#43)

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

The Countdown

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

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

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

42. Niall Horan – On The Loose (#42)

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

40. Brown & Gray – Top Down (#38)

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

38. Silk City/Dua Lipa – Electricity (DEBUT)

37. The Vamps – Just My Type (#40)

36. Kim Petras – Heart To Break (#33)

35. Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan (DEBUT)

34. Bryce Vine – Drew Barrymore (#37)

33. AJR – Burn The House Down (#34)

32. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (DEBUT)

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

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

29. Dan + Shay – Tequila (#19)

28. Sabrina Carpenter – Almost Love (#28)

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

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

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

24. Anne-Marie – 2002 (#31)

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

22. Post Malone – Better Now (#18)

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

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

19. lovelytheband – Broken (#27)

18. LSD – Thunderclouds (#24)

17. Weezer – Africa (#25)

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

15. George Ezra – Shotgun (#23)

14. Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess (#12)

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

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

11. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#11)

10. Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now (#20)

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

  8. NF – Lie (#15)

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

  6. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#4)

  5. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (#13)

  4. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am (#7)

  3. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#6)

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

  1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#1) [5^th Week At #1]

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

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Taylor Swift – Delicate (–22)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now (+10)

New Entrants
~ First up this week, we have Silk City, which consists of Diplo and Mark Ronson. They bring Electricity with vocals from Dua Lipa. I can see why people may enjoy this. I'm personally a little sick of Dua Lipa's voice at the moment, so I don't love the song. However, I do like the production here. It's a catchy song. I just personally don't love the vocals. I'm not sure how well this song will do here. We'll have to wait and see.

~ Next we have Shawn Mendes with the Zedd remix of Lost In Japan. I talked a lot about this last week. Despite Zedd's recent music being no good, I actually enjoy this remix. The ticking clock is overused, but I do like the production here for the most part. I like the drop and Shawn's vocals sound good here even if his voice is layered in autotune courtesy of Zedd. His voice with the autotune is not grating like Maren in the The Middle and Elley in Happy Now. So I actually enjoy this. It's not the Zedd I used to love, but it's a step up from what he's done recently. And obviously I think the original version of Lost In Japan is better. But I enjoy the remix for what it is.

~ Lastly we have The Chainsmokers with This Feeling featuring country singer Kelsea Ballerini. I also talked about this one last week. This is a step in the right direction for these guys. It is better than everything they have released this past year except for Side Effects. That one is still the best from this new project. I like the vocal duet between Drew and Kelsea. The production is good, but not great. It's one of those songs that may grow on me with more listens. Right now, Something Just Like This is still my favorite song from The Chainsmokers and it'll be hard to top that. But I do think This Feeling is a good song and it deserves to be here.


Best Debut of the Week: Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan


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

• Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises
• Shawn Mendes – Nervous (RE-ENTRY)
• Tiësto & Dzeko/Preme/Post Malone – Jackie Chan
• Halsey – Without Me (DEBUT)
• Walk The Moon – Kamikaze
• Pitbull/Theron Theron – Free Free Free
• Ariana Grande – Breathin
• The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks
• Jason Derulo & David Guetta/Nicki Minaj/Willy William – Goodbye
• Lady Gaga – I'll Never Love Again (DEBUT)
• Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside
• Alex Aiono – Big Mistake
• Twenty One Pilots – My Blood
• Loud Luxury/brando – Body

~ Like Dua Lipa, I'm a little tired of Halsey's voice at the moment. I think we've gotten enough from her this year. But of course, she releases Without Me. I don't know if she thinks she's being edgy with the single cover having a skull on it. But it just doesn't seem like Halsey. The weird production with her autotuned vocals just don't mix well. This is not a good song overall, but it'll probably do well anyway because Halsey.

~ The A Star Is Born soundtrack is now out and from that, we get I'll Never Love Again from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Lady Gaga is, in my opinion, one of the most talented artists of our time. This song is beautiful. Her vocals are quite amazing and the lyrics really spoke to me. I really want this on the countdown.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Lady Gaga – I'll Never Love Again

2. The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks

3. Ariana Grande – Breathin

4. Alex Aiono – Big Mistake

5. Walk The Moon – Kamikaze

Lost In Blurbs

~ Selena Gomez – Back To You is back up in the Top 3. I still really like this one, especially compared to what we've gotten from Selena last year. I have a hard time picturing this song at #1 at this point. But I really like it and I'm glad it's having this amount of success.

~ Of course The Way I Am just had to outpeak Done For Me, which is easily the superior of the two quality-wise. The production was great and I loved the vocals, especially Kehlani's. The same can't be said for The Way I Am and it's a shame to see this one doing better.

~ Meanwhile, Marshmello/Bastille – Happier jumps into the Top 10 telling us that this could very well be a bigger hit than Friends. While the song is definitely better, it still should not be this big of a hit. I like Bastille and they deserve success. But I'm quite tired of mainstream Marshmello at this point.

~ Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now is up in the Top 10 despite not being a hit because Hits 1 loves this new mediocre mainstream Zedd. This song just keeps getting worse, so I really hope they realize that this isn't a hit and kick it out. I would take the Lost In Japan remix over this in a heartbeat.

~ The Middle is out of the Top 20 fortunately. But of course, now we have Thunderclouds in the Top 20. One bad song replaces the other. Glorious.

~ Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You took a tumble down to #25. I still think this song is only okay. It was a little uncalled for to have it drop like that. But I haven't grown attached to it at all. So it could leave whenever and I probably won't care all too much.

~ Taylor Swift – Delicate dropped out of the Top 20 towards the Bottom 5 this week. This song has faded on me big time. While it's definitely better than that odd lead single we got, it's not that great of a song. It's very boring and Taylor does not have the best voice. So there really isn't much to enjoy in my opinion. Three weeks at the top was pushing it. It deserved some success, but not this much.

~ As far as the exits go, IDGAF was never a good song. It was okay and then I grew out of it after hearing it so much. It stayed longer than it should've. Solo is the second song this year to last only two weeks. I actually liked this one quite a bit. So I'm a little disappointed. But oh well. These things happen. Good riddance to Call Me Sir, which was also never a good song. Train should go back to more fast, upbeat songs. This style does not suit them.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now

19. LSD – Thunderclouds

1 – Bad:

NONE

2 – Mediocre:

18. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am

3 – Decent:

17. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

16. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman

4 – Good:

15. George Ezra – Shotgun

5 – Great:

14. Bazzi/Camila Cabello – Beautiful

13. NF – Lie

12. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen

11. Weezer – Africa

10. lovelytheband – Broken

9. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects

8. Imagine Dragons – Natural

7. Bebe Rexha – I'm A Mess

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. Selena Gomez – Back To You

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: Coldplay – The Scientist

Most Missed Countdown Song: fun. – Some Nights

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water (there's no other good stuff worth recommending)

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Macklemore/Skylar Grey – Glorious (#8)

My Top 5 Picks

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

2. Foster The People – Sit Next To Me

3. Selena Gomez – Back To You

4. Dan + Shay – Tequila

5. Brown & Gray – Top Down