Marshmello (1) – Week Of November 10, 2018

Hey guys! Thanks to some available time, I was able to actually get this post out at a reasonable time. Overall, I thought this was a very good week (for the countdown at least). We have a cool new #1, some good jumps, great debuts, and one huge piece of shit left the countdown. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Zedd/Elley Duhé – Happy Now (#41)
• Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry (#44)

Last Week's #1 Song: Imagine Dragons – Natural

The Countdown

45. NF – Lie (#45)

44. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#42) [2 Weeks At #1]

43. Bazzi/Camila Cabello – Beautiful (#39)

42. George Ezra – Shotgun (#28)

41. Tiësto & Dzeko/Preme/Post Malone – Jackie Chan (#35)

40. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#34) [4 Weeks At #1]

39. Kim Petras – Heart To Break (#23)

38. Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (#30) [1 Week At #1]

37. Bryce Vine – Drew Barrymore (#25)

36. Taylor Swift – Delicate (#36) [3 Weeks At #1]

35. Juice WRLD – Lucid Dreams (#43)

34. Twenty One Pilots – My Blood (#38)

33. LSD – Thunderclouds (#21)

32. Alex Aiono – Big Mistake (DEBUT)

31. Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside (#27)

30. Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (#33) [9 Weeks At #1]

29. Ariana Grande – Breathin (DEBUT)

28. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#32)

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

26. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It (#20)

25. Loud Luxury/brando – Body (#37)

24. Walk The Moon – Kamikaze (#15)

23. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#12)

22. The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks (#40)

21. Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman (#17)

20. Pitbull/Theron Theron – Free Free Free (#31)

19. Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper – Shallow (#24)

18. Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises (#29)

17. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am (#18)

16. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects (#16)

15. Dan + Shay – Tequila (#22)

14. Silk City/Dua Lipa – Electricity (#19)

13. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#13)

12. Halsey – Without Me (#14)

11. Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan (#8)

10. lovelytheband – Broken (#11)

  9. Anne-Marie – 2002 (#9)

  8. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#1) [1 Week At #1]

  7. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (#6)

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

  5. Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess (#7)

  4. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#10)

  3. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#3) [3 Weeks At #1]

  2. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#2) [7 Weeks At #1]

  1. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (#4) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Demi Lovato – Sorry Not Sorry (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Kim Petras – Heart To Break (–16)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks (+18)

New Entrants
~ First up this week, we have Alex Aiono with Big Mistake. I have no idea who this guy is, but this song is great. I enjoyed it a lot when it debuted on Hit-Bound and I still enjoy it a lot now. It's fun and it's catchy. I love the chorus. His voice sounds great. I like the lyrics. There's a lot to like about this song. It probably won't last long, but I personally would like to see it do well.

~ Next we have Ariana Grande, who has not been that good this year in my opinion. No Tears Left To Cry was overrated and God Is A Woman is just not good. We even have a newer song from her, which I'll be discussing in the Hit-Bound section. But debuting this week, we have Breathin, which is easily the best song I've heard from Ariana this year and probably the best off of Sweetener. I really like the production and she actually shows off her voice very nicely here, which is great. I know she's very talented and has a great voice. So I'm glad she uses it here. Overall, I think this is a great song and the best song I've heard from Ariana since Into You.


Best Debut of the Week: Ariana Grande – Breathin (only by a short amount)


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

• Camila Cabello – Consequences
• Twenty One Pilots – Chlorine
• Steve Aoki/BTS – Waste It On Me
• Imagine Dragons – Machine (DEBUT)
• Little Mix/Nicki Minaj – Woman Like Me
• 5 Seconds of Summer – Killer Queen
• Lauv/Julia Michaels – There's No Way
• Post Malone/Swae Lee – Sunflower
• Olly Murs/Snoop Dogg – Moves (DEBUT)
• Lauren Jauregui – Expectations (DEBUT)
• Alec Benjamin – Let Me Down Slowly
• Ellie Goulding/Diplo/Swae Lee – Close To Me
• David Guetta/Anne-Marie – Don't Leave Me Alone
• Shawn Mendes – Nervous
• Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next (DEBUT)

~ I listened to Imagine Dragons' album Origins and I was not impressed for the most part. This week we have Machine, which is one of the worst tracks off the album, if not the worst. The song is just so messy. It tries to be this rock anthem, when in actuality it's just a pop song with an unusual amount of yelling. The guitar solo sounds very out of place. This is just terrible. You know it's bad when I prefer listening to Thunder over this. Also, was it necessary to release Origins not long after Evolve came out??? It's giving Imagine Dragons overexposure, something another certain artist is also going to have.

~ Olly Murs makes his return to Hits 1 this week with Moves. It might just be me, but I feel like his voice sounds slightly different than it used to. But anyway, I really like this song. It's very cool and groovy. The production is on point. I like his vocals. I kind of wish Hits 1 didn't edit out Snoop Dogg's verse because I thought he was a nice presence. But either way, this is a great song. I hope it debuts on the countdown soon.

~ Next we have Lauren Jauregui with I believe her debut single as a solo artist titled Expectations. I like the guitar here. I think it sounds very slick. But my god. Her vocals are so bad it ruins the song for me. This actually would've been a pretty good had it been sung by another artist. But Lauren just does not have a good voice. So yeah. I don't like this.

~ For some reason, Ariana Grande and her team thinks it's a good idea to already release the lead single for her NEXT album even though Sweetener was practically just released. Bad move, Ariana. It's just going to her overexposure, even worse than Imagine Dragons. As far as Thank U, Next goes, I do not like this song. This is the worst song she has put out this year. I like what she was going for lyrically, but musically it just did not work. The song is just boring. Her vocals are underwhelming. She is a much better singer than this. The way she drops the f-bomb in the chorus is very awkward and unnecessary. This song is just not good at all and it'll probably kill Breathin's momentum, which is infuriating.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Olly Murs – Moves

2. Little Mix/Nicki Minaj – Woman Like Me

3. Camila Cabello – Consequences

4. Ellie Goulding/Diplo – Close To Me

5. Shawn Mendes – Nervous

Blurbier

~ We have a new #1 this week in the form of Happier by Marshmello and Bastille! This is easily Marshmello's best mainstream hit after the mediocre Wolves and the terrible Friends. Bastille kind of stole the show though. And Marshmello's best song is still Ritual. But I really enjoy Happier and I'm glad this is the song that managed to hit #1.

~ lovelytheband – Broken is now in the Top 10. It could potentially make the Hits 1 year-end list, which I would be all for. I certainly did not expect this song to do this well when it debuted on Hit-Bound. I also didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I do. But this is a great song and I'm happy to see it having success even though it feels like a Foster The People song.

~ Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises is up in the Top 20. This song has kind of grown on me. I kinda like Sam Smith's vocals a little bit more now, but not enough for me to put the song in green. The female voice is still pretty annoying. But I guess it's growing on me.

~ Also in the Top 20 we have Free Free Free by Pitbull. I'm calling it right now that this song is not sticking around into 2019. I can't even imagine people voting for this song because of its irrelevancy.

~ The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks made a nice second-week jump up to #22. I'm praying to the gods of this countdown that they actually let this be a hit because it is just amazing. Shame on the public for not letting it be a hit everywhere else. It deserves its shot here.

~ After strong longevity, it looks like Selena Gomez – Back To You might be on its way out soon. I'm very impressed and pleased with how this song did considering that it's one of Selena Gomez's best songs, as well as her best solo single since Come & Get It.

~ For some reason, Eastside dropped on its second week. I actually really enjoy this song now, though mostly because it's the far superior Halsey track currently on the countdown. I'm hoping this does well and I would like if it did better than Without Me, though that most likely will not be the case.

~ Kim Petras – Heart To Break and George Ezra – Shotgun took some hard falls this week. I never cared too much about Shotgun. It could leave next week and I probably won't care. But Heart To Break is a very good song that deserved better. She just has such a great voice.

~ As far as the exits go, No Tears Left To Cry was very overrated. The song was decent, but didn't deserve as much praise as it got. So I'm glad to see it off. We also got rid of a huge piece of shit by the name of Happy Now by Zedd and Elley Duhé. I'm so glad this is finally gone. Zedd is much better than this and I just could not stand Elley Duhé's autotuned voice. So yeah. We can now celebrate the song's departure.

~ As a little bonus blurb, I thought I'd talk about some new music to check out. Imagine Dragons released Origins and I don't recommend it unless you liked Evolve. Muse released Simulation Theory and I actually enjoyed that album overall as a fan of Muse. I have my favorite track as the #1 recommendation for Hits 1 even though it'll probably never get picked up. Also, they released Kelly Clarkson's cover of Never Enough from The Greatest Showman. I loved the original and I thought Kelly Clarkson did a fantastic job with the cover. I highly recommend it.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Halsey – Without Me

1 – Bad:

19. Anne-Marie – 2002

2 – Mediocre:

18. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am

3 – Decent:

17. Pitbull/Theron Theron – Free Free Free

16. Silk City/Dua Lipa – Electricity

15. Calvin Harris/Sam Smith – Promises

4 – Good:

NONE

5 – Great:

14. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling

13. lovelytheband – Broken

12. Imagine Dragons – Natural

11. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

10. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies

9. Bebe Rexha – I'm A Mess

8. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You

7. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

6. The Chainsmokers/Emily Warren – Side Effects

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

4. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

3. Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan

2. Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper – Shallow

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Dan + Shay – Tequila

Overall Score: 83/100 = 83% (A) (It feels like this score never changes.)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: OneRepublic/Timbaland – Apologize

Most Missed Countdown Song: DJ Khaled/Rihanna/Bryson Tiller – Wild Thoughts

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Muse – The Dark Side

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Cheat Codes/Demi Lovato – No Promises (#11)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Dan + Shay – Tequila

2. Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper – Shallow

3. The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks

4. Selena Gomez – Back To You

5. Shawn Mendes/Zedd – Lost In Japan