Halsey (5) – Week Of February 9, 2019

Hey guys! If you haven't seen it already, I posted my thoughts on the Panic! At The Disco concert I attended this past week as well as the Super Bowl Halftime Show. You should definitely check that out. The Grammys are tomorrow and I will be tuning in. Whether or not I write a review depends on how the show goes and whether or not my schedule will allow it this week. So we'll see how things go. Also, this Thursday is Valentine's Day. So be sure to have something planned for your significant others. I know I will. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• The Struts/Kesha – Body Talks (#21)
• Lauren Jauregui – Expectations (#31)

Last Week's #1 Song: Halsey – Without Me

The Countdown

45. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (#45) [2 Weeks At #1]

44. Pitbull/Rhea – Ocean To Ocean (#40)

43. Charlie Puth – The Way I Am (#43)

42. Jennifer Lopez – Limitless (#44)

41. George Ezra – Shotgun (#41)

40. Bebe Rexha – I'm a Mess (#42)

39. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (#39) [4 Weeks At #1]

38. Ariana Grande – Breathin (#33)

37. Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#37)

36. Selena Gomez – Back To You (#35)

35. Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You (#34)

34. Stephen Puth – Sexual Vibe (DEBUT)

33. lovelytheband – Broken (#32)

32. Avril Lavigne – Tell Me It's Over (DEBUT)

31. Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (#25) [2 Weeks At #1]

30. Alessia Cara – Trust My Lonely (#28)

29. Imagine Dragons – Machine (#23)

28. Charli XCX/Troye Sivan – 1999 (#38)

27. James Arthur – Empty Space (#27)

26. Mark Ronson/Miley Cyrus – Nothing Breaks Like A Heart (#22)

25. Seeb/Bastille – Grip (#30)

24. Khalid – Better (#24)

23. Lauren Daigle – You Say (#29)

22. Benny Blanco/Calvin Harris – I Found You (#26)

21. Zara Larsson – Ruin My Life (#20)

20. Imagine Dragons – Natural (#14) [1 Week At #1]

19. Post Malone/Swae Lee – Sunflower (#18)

18. Dean Lewis – Be Alright (#36)

17. David Guetta/Anne-Marie – Don't Leave Me Alone (#17)

16. Twenty One Pilots – Chlorine (#16)

15. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies (#15)

14. Dan + Shay – Speechless (#19)

13. Ellie Goulding/Diplo – Close To Me (#13)

12. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It (#8)

11. Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho (#11)

10. Alec Benjamin – Let Me Down Slowly (#10)

  9. Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next (#5)

  8. Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside (#7)

  7. Dan + Shay – Tequila (#12)

  6. Anne-Marie – 2002 (#10)

  5. 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood (#6) [5 Weeks At #1]

  4. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (#3) [4 Weeks At #1]

  3. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#2) [8 Weeks At #1]

  2. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (#4) [2 Weeks At #1]

  1. Halsey – Without Me (#1) [5^th Week At #1]

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

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Tie Between Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones, Imagine Dragons – Natural, and Imagine Dragons – Machine (–6)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Dean Lewis – Be Alright (+18)

New Entrants
~ First up, we have the sibling of a Hits 1 favorite. Debuting this week is Stephen Puth with his song Sexual Vibe. I initially didn't care for this song, but it definitely got better with more listens. I quite like the production and the beat is solid. I can understand if people don't really like Stephen Puth's baritone voice, but I enjoy it. I personally think deep voices are very sexy and I think that fits well with the vibe of this song. After all, this is supposed to have a sexual vibe and his voice works well with the song. That might just be me who thinks that, but I enjoy everything about this song. It's not as good as a lot of what his brother has done, but it's pretty enjoyable for a first single.

~ Next we have Tell Me It's Over, which is the follow-up to Head Above Water, which I absolutely loved. I'll talk about that song more in my next year-end post. But Tell Me It's Over is honestly just amazing. I've been waiting years for an Avril Lavigne comeback and these two singles really delivered. Tell Me It's Over shows that her fantastic voice did not go anywhere. She is still the amazing singer I remember. Her voice absolutely shines in this song, especially in the chorus. Her transition from the bridge into the final chorus sounds absolutely divine. The song was very well-written. I absolutely love this song and I'm so glad it's here. Avril Lavigne's new album comes out next week and I am so looking forward to that. Hopefully this song does well.


Best Debut of the Week: Avril Lavigne – Tell Me It's Over


Hit-Bound
~ Here is the Hit-Bound list. The Chainsmokers hosted this week in place of Mikey Piff.

• Lil Peep/iLoveMakonnen/Fall Out Boy – I've Been Waiting (DEBUT)
• Sam Smith/Normani – Dancing With A Stranger
• Lauv/Troye Sivan – I'm So Tired
• Panic! At The Disco – Dancing's Not A Crime
• Post Malone – Wow
• Grandson – Apologize (DEBUT)
• The Chainsmokers/5 Seconds Of Summer – Who Do You Love (DEBUT)
• Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar
• Sabrina Carpenter – Sue Me
• Rita Ora – Let You Love Me
• lovelytheband – Maybe, I'm Afraid
• Ariana Grande – 7 Rings
• Gesaffelstein/The Weeknd – Lost In The Fire
• Kelsea Ballerini – Miss Me More
• Jake Miller – Wait For You
• Travis Scott/Drake – Sicko Mode

~ Hits 1 doesn't usually pick on these kind of posthumous singles. But this week we have Lil Peep, iLoveMakonnen, and Fall Out Boy with I've Been Waiting. I should dislike this because it's Lil Peep, but I don't. I don't think it's good, but it's pretty decent. Lil Peep is easily the worst thing about the song. Makonnen's voice is pretty generic for the most part. But Patrick Stump sounds really good and I quite like the chorus. So yeah. The song overall is decent.

~ Apologize does not seem like the kind of song Hits 1 would normally pick up. I kind of like this song to some extent. The instrumentation is really good. But I don't like Grandson's voice. Other than that though, it's pretty enjoyable. But overall, I'd say it's a decent song.

~ We know Hits 1 stans The Chainsmokers. We know Hits 1 stans 5 Seconds Of Summer. So them collaborating must be literal heaven to them. At first listen, I thought it was pretty good. Then it got better with more listens. Now I like it quite a lot. The vocals here are fantastic and I'm glad Drew Taggart doesn't appear anywhere. I didn't like the drop initially, but it got better with more listens and I enjoy it now, especially the last one. But overall, I love this song and I really hope to see it become a hit.


Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks
1. TIE: Panic! At The Disco – Dancing's Not A Crime
1. TIE: The Chainsmokers/5 Seconds Of Summer – Who Do You Love
3. Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar
4. Kelsea Ballerini – Miss Me More
5. Rita Ora – Let You Love Me


YouTube15
~ Here is the YouTube15 list.

• Travis Scott/Drake – Sicko Mode
• Clean Bandit/Marina/Luis Fonsi – Baby
• AJR – 100 Bad Days
• Post Malone/Swae Lee – Sunflower
• The Chainsmokers/Winona Oak – Hope
• Maroon 5/Cardi B – Girls Like You
• Galantis/OneRepublic – Bones
• Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside
• Alan Walker, Au/Ra, Tomine Harket – Darkside
• Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next
• Billie Eilish – Bury A Friend
• Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes
• Julia Michaels/Selena Gomez – Anxiety
• Marshmello/Bastille – Happier
• Ally Brooke/Tyga – Low Key

~ A typical AJR consists of an overproduced chorus with generic vocals and bad lyrics. That's basically 100 Bad Days in a nutshell. It's not as bad as I'm Ready, Weak, and Burn The House Down, but it's AJR so it's bound to be awful, which it is. Seriously, these guys haven't made a single song that I can consider good. Everything ranges from mediocre to straight up garbage.

~ Next we have generic producer Galantis with probably their best song to date. Bones has much more interesting production than just about every song of theirs and Ryan Tedder is a great singer whose voice shines very nicely in this song. It's not exactly the most memorable thing ever, but it's definitely a step up for Galantis and I'm happy to see it get some recognition because I talked about this on Wake The Pop Up a couple weeks ago and I didn't think it would go anywhere.

~ In case I haven't made it clear already, I don't like Billie Eilish. Her song Lovely with Khalid is the only song of hers I consider great. But in general, I don't like her voice or her persona. She comes off as this weird individual I would not want to be friends with in real life. Bury A Friend shows how creepy she can be. Songs like When The Party's Over bore the hell out of me, while songs like Bury A Friend and You Should See Me In A Crown creep the fuck out of me. I just don't get her appeal honestly. The weird creepy vibe doesn't do anything for me and she's just not a good singer. I'm honestly kind of tired of her being praised for her lack of talent. Bury A Friend is one of the worst songs of the year so far and I doubt her new album will be any good since she decided to include When The Party's Over and You Should See Me In A Crown, both of which are terrible.

~ Speaking of not good singers, we have Julia Michaels returning with Anxiety from her latest EP. I did not like Issues as well as the majority of her debut album. I don't think she's a good singer aside from a few occasions like Kygo's Carry Me and her own song Jump, which is easily her best song. Anxiety suffers from god awful vocals and underwhelming guitars. I will admit that the lyrics are good and Julia Michaels is a good songwriter. But the lyrics are one small part of the song and everything else about it is so bad that the lyrics barely help the song at all. Even Selena Gomez sounds underwhelming in her verse. So yeah. I don't like this. I still think it's better than Issues, but I would much prefer something like Jump, which actually has great production.

~ Now that each Fifth Harmony member has been going solo, I'm starting to realize that almost none of them are good singers. Normani Kordei is easily the best and I absolutely love her voice. But Camila Cabello is not that good aside from Havana and Lauren Jauregui is very bad. Now we have Ally Brooke, who proves to be yet another generic singer. It doesn't help that the song was poorly produced and badly written. No one wants to listen a generic song where Ally talks about how she wants Tyga to fuck her. It's just a nothingness of a song and I don't see the appeal at all.

Top 5 YouTube Picks

1. TIE: Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

1. TIE: Alan Walker, Au/Ra, Tomine Harket – Darkside

3. Galantis/OneRepublic – Bones

4. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

5. Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside

Sexual Blurb
~ So.........yeah. High Hopes is my favorite song on the countdown right now. Although it's 100% the result of having seen Panic! At The Disco live this past Monday. So it won't last. But the song is still an absolute jam.

~ Ummmm. I don't really know what else to say. I'm glad to see Be Alright jump and Ocean To Ocean drop. This week was pretty uneventful as a whole. So I'll just use this space to say go do my rankdown if you're interested.

~ As far as the exits go, Expectations was trash because of Lauren Jauregui's vocals alone. It's a shame that a good guitar ended up going to waste. Body Talks definitely deserved better. I still think the song is a jam. I am happy that it peaked in the Top 10, but I would've loved to have seen it stick around longer. Oh well. It still managed to get a high spot of #20 in my Top 45 Songs of 2018. So that's something.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Halsey – Without Me

1 – Bad:

19. Alec Benjamin – Let Me Down Slowly

18. Anne-Marie – 2002

17. Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next

16. Twenty One Pilots – Chlorine

2 – Mediocre:

NONE

3 – Decent:

15. Ellie Goulding/Diplo – Close To Me

14. David Guetta/Anne-Marie – Don't Leave Me Alone

13. Post Malone/Swae Lee – Sunflower

4 – Good:

12. Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho

5 – Great:

11. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood

10. Imagine Dragons – Natural

9. Khalid/Normani – Love Lies

8. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling

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

6. Dan + Shay – Speechless

5. Benny Blanco/Halsey/Khalid – Eastside

4. Dan + Shay – Tequila

3. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

2. Dean Lewis – Be Alright

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:

1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

Overall Score: 73/100 = 73% (B)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Coldplay – Lost!

Most Missed Countdown Song: Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor

Most Missed Hit-Bound Dropout: Betty Who – All Of You

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Blake Rose – Lost

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Tie Between Walk The Moon – One Foot (#6) and Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (#9)

My Top 5 Picks

1. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

2. Avril Lavigne – Tell Me It's Over

3. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier

4. Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night)

5. Shawn Mendes – In My Blood