Shawn Mendes (7) – Week Of August 24, 2019

Hey guys! This isn't as on time as I was hoping it would be. But I actually went in depth on my reviews this week, which I'm pleased with. It did take longer because of that, which I'm okay with. Since I started school this week, I don't know how my blogging schedule is going to look. We'll see how things go. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• P!nk – Hustle (#37)
• Andy Grammer – Don't Give Up On Me (#40)

Last Week's #1 Song: Shawn Mendes – If I Can't Have You

The Countdown

45. Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho (#45)

44. Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (#44) [2 Weeks At #1]

43. Halsey – Without Me (#41) [5 Weeks At #1]

42. Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar (#42)

41. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (#38) [7 Weeks At #1]

40. Thomas Rhett – Look What God Gave Her (DEBUT)

39. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (#39) [8 Weeks At #1]

38. Asher Angel – One Thought Away (#36)

37. Marshmello/CHVRCHES – Here With Me (#26)

36. Alec Benjamin – Let Me Down Slowly (#30)

35. Ava Max – So Am I (#33)

34. Taylor Swift/Brendon Urie – ME! (#31)

33. Dan + Shay – Speechless (#34)

32. Zara Larsson – All The Time (DEBUT)

31. Lil Nas X/Billy Ray Cyrus – Old Town Road (#29)

30. Public – Make You Mine (#19)

29. Mark Ronson/Camila Cabello – Find U Again (#23)

28. SHAED – Trampoline (#35)

27. Lizzo – Truth Hurts (#27)

26. Kaskade/Meghan Trainor – With You (#43)

25. Stephen Puth – Look Away (#32)

24. Miley Cyrus – Mother's Daughter (#20)

23. OneRepublic – Rescue Me (#24)

22. Blanco Brown – The Git Up (#22)

21. Katy Perry – Small Talk (#28)

20. Post Malone/Young Thug – Goodbyes (#25)

19. AJR – 100 Bad Days (#21)

18. The Chainsmokers/Bebe Rexha – Call You Mine (#18)

17. MAX/Quinn XCII – Love Me Less (#10)

16. Alec Benjamin – If We Have Each Other (#17)
15. Halsey – Nightmare (#13)
14. Khalid – Talk (#16)
13. Panic! At The Disco – Dancing's Not A Crime (#15)
12. Katy Perry – Never Really Over (#14)
11. Billie Eilish – Bad Guy (#11)
10. Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved (#9)
  9. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Easier (#6)
  8. Ed Sheeran/Justin Bieber – I Don't Care (#12)
  7. Jonas Brothers – Cool (#5)
  6. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It (#3) [3 Weeks At #1]
  5. Shawn Mendes/Camila Cabello – Señorita (#7)
  4. Taylor Swift – You Need To Calm Down (#8)
  3. The Chainsmokers/5 Seconds Of Summer – Who Do You Love (#4) [2 Weeks At #1]
  2. Jonas Brothers – Sucker (#2) [13 Weeks At #1]
  1. Shawn Mendes – If I Can't Have You (#1) [7^th Week At #1]


#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (1)

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Tie Between Marshmello/CHVRCHES – Here With Me and Public – Make You Mine (–11)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: ....Kaskade/Meghan Trainor – With You (+17) (???)


New Entrants
~ First up we have last week's debut that I didn't talk about. Although my thoughts are still the same as when I discussed it while it was on Hit-Bound. It's Small Talk by Katy Perry. The Charlie Puth-produced track is very different from the Zedd-produced Never Really Over. That one was overproduced, messy, and just felt very cluttered, while this one just feels empty and boring. There's really not much to the song at all and Katy Perry does not have a great voice, which is a problem since in a song like this, her voice is kind of the center of attention. The production is just too minimalistic and it's not meant for her in my opinion. I believe she was at her peak when she made songs people could actually jam to like most of the singles from One Of The Boys and Teenage Dream. That's what made her unique to begin with and it is lost here. So yeah I'm not feeling this.

~ Next is Look What God Gave Her by Thomas Rhett. Although I like the song, it's kind of unfortunate that this is what I believe his first song on Hits 1. The man has done a lot better. I prefer when he makes country songs with the exception of Marry Me because that doesn't exactly sound like a country song. But this is straight up pop, which is not a bad thing by any means, but it doesn't make him or the song stand out. It sounds like one of those pop songs that will come on the radio and ten minutes later I will completely forget about it. It's not memorable nor is that great. It's a cute song that's a perfectly pleasant listen when it comes on. But it's not something I will ever actively seek out. I have it green because, like I said, I do like the song. But there are many ways in which things here can be improved upon because this is not very unique.

~ Finally we have Zara Larsson with All The Time. Earlier this year she had Ruin My Life, which I was very mixed on. This is an improvement, but as with most new songs recently, there are criticisms for me to give. This suffers the same problem as Look What God Gave Her in the sense that this is not memorable at all. I listened to it once when it debuted on Hit-Bound and I had to listen to it again for this because I could not for the life of me remember what this sounded like. The memorability of this might have to do with the fact that it's not very unique, whereas her one big hit, Never Forget You, was pretty different from what other pop songs sounded like at the time. That one was memorable and very enjoyable. Also, I can hear the auto tune in her voice. She is insanely talented, but this does not come anywhere near as good as her vocal performances in her other songs. And those weird background robotic-sounding vocals in the chorus should not be there. They don't sound good and it brings the song down. Overall, this song gets a light "good" from me. It's catchy, but the vocal performance is not great and the song just lacks something to make it memorable and something to make it stand out.


Best Debut of the Week: Tough call... I guess Thomas Rhett – Look What God Gave Her


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

• Ellie Goulding/Juice WRLD – Hate Me
• Alec Benjamin – Jesus In LA
• Jax Jones/Bebe Rexha – Harder
• Lizzo – Good As Hell
• 5 Seconds Of Summer – Teeth (DEBUT)
• Ariana Grande/Social House – Boyfriend
• Sam Smith – How Do You Sleep
• Panic! At The Disco – Roaring 20s
• Charlie Puth – I Warned Myself (DEBUT)
• Ed Sheeran/Khalid – Beautiful People
• Twenty One Pilots – The Hype
• Taylor Swift – Lover
• Dominic Fike – 3 Nights
• Jonas Brothers – Only Human
• Waterparks – Dream Boy

~ Not a very good pair of debuts we have here. 5 Seconds Of Summer bring us Teeth from the third season of 13 Reasons Why. Before I talk about the song, I just wanna say that I find it interesting that they're actually making a third season of this show. I tried watching the first episode of the first season and I just could not get into it. It's also gotten a mixed response over the years from what I've heard. So I just thought that was interesting. As far as the song goes, it sucks. There are parts where musically, it's pretty decent. But for the most part, it's just annoying with terrible vocals. I love good rock music, but not failed attempts at making rock songs from pop groups.

~ Next is I Warned Myself from Charlie Puth. I was extremely underwhelmed by this song and I'm very disappointed because I was looking forward to what he would bring. As we saw in Small Talk and in this, Charlie's specialty seems to be producing minimalistic songs. It has worked in the past with the singles from Voicenotes. But those were still catchy. This is just very boring. I'm unimpressed by the vocals. The whole thing is just very lackluster and leaves a lot to be desired. We are supposed to be getting more new songs from him in the coming weeks, one of which I assume will be released following his appearance on the NBC show Songland. So I'm hoping those will be better.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Taylor Swift – Lover

2. Jonas Brothers – Only Human

3. Ed Sheeran/Khalid – Beautiful People

4. Lizzo – Good As Hell

5. Dominic Fike – 3 Nights

Look What Blurbs Gave Her

~ So If I Can't Have You is really still at #1. I feel like I should be more over it at this point, but there's not very much worthy competition. I can see Taylor Swift getting a #1 in the near future, which I'd be fine with.

~ A few songs have become more tolerable this past week. You Need To Calm Down is not as bad as I remembered. It's still far from a great song, but it's fine. Someone You Loved also isn't as bad just because I like a nice piano ballad. The vocals are not very good, but everything else is so there's no reason for me to really hate the song. And then Bad Guy has proven to be pretty catchy and not a bad listen.

~ For some reason, Hits 1 is determined to make Meghan Trainor relevant again. There's a reason why she hasn't had a hit since Me Too. People are OVER HER! I've been over her since the beginning but it's nice to see the general public finally understand that she's not a good artist. Hits 1 needs to understand that as well and let this irrelevant Kaskade song leave.

~ It looks like Trampoline could be a hit, which I'd be cool with. I'm also okay with the performance of Find U Again so far. I don't expect this to be a hit at all and I'm okay with that because it's not a very interesting song unlike some of Mark Ronson's other songs.

~ And songs like High Hopes are still here. Do people actually still want to hear this song???

~ As far as the exits go, both are very good songs but I'm not too surprised with their performances.


Top 20 Review
0 – Crap:
20. Halsey – Nightmare
19. Katy Perry – Never Really Over
18. AJR – 100 Bad Days

1 – Bad:
17. Shawn Mendes/Camila Cabello – Señorita
16. Alec Benjamin – If We Have Each Other
15. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Easier
14. Jonas Brothers – Cool
13. Khalid – Talk

2 – Mediocre:
12. The Chainsmokers/5 Seconds Of Summer – Who Do You Love
11. Panic! At The Disco – Hey Look Ma, I Made It
10. Jonas Brothers – Sucker
9. Shawn Mendes – If I Can't Have You

3 – Decent:
8. Post Malone/Young Thug – Goodbyes
7. MAX/Quinn XCII – Love Me Less
6. Panic! At The Disco – Dancing's Not A Crime
5. Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved
4. Billie Eilish – Bad Guy
3. Taylor Swift – You Need To Calm Down

4 – Good:
2. Ed Sheeran/Justin Bieber – I Don't Care
1. The Chainsmokers/Bebe Rexha – Call You Mine

5 – Great:
NONE

Overall Score: 39/100 = 39% (D)


Throwback Pick Of The Week: Leona Lewis – Better In Time

Most Missed Countdown Song: Audien/Lady Antebellum – Something Better

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Of Monsters and Men – Alligator

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Tie Between Backstreet Boys – Don't Go Breaking My Heart (#7) and Dan + Shay – Tequila (#21)


My Top 5 Picks
1. Miley Cyrus – Mother's Daughter
2. The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling
3. Taylor Swift/Brendon Urie – ME!
4. Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar
5. Marshmello/CHVRCHES – Here With Me