Wow, it's been almost four years now since I've even logged into Blogger. Crazy how time just flies by! This place brings back some great memories and out of nowhere this week, I thought to myself, "Let's do one Hits 1 countdown review for old times' sake!" I loved getting to share my opinions on music and it's been a really long time since I've done that, and my music taste has evolved quite a bit over the years. So just for funsies, I will review this week's countdown and give some thoughts! A lot of these songs will be first listens for me, but I do know a good chunk of them! To be clear, this is not my return or anything like that! But maybe it'll be a thing where I review a week at random. I don't really know, but let's just get to it! Before we get to this week's Fresh 30, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.
- Post Malone – Mourning
- Morgan Wallen – Last Night
- Luke Combs – Fast Car
- David Kushner – Daylight
The Countdown
30. Doja Cat – Paint The Town Red (DEBUT)
29. New Jeans – Super Shy (DEBUT)
28. Post Malone – Enough Is Enough (DEBUT)
27. Kylie Minogue – Padam Padam (DEBUT)
26. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Like A Grudge
25. Lil Durk/Morgan Wallen – Stand By Me
24. TXT/Jonas Brothers – Do It Like That
23. Benson Boone – In The Stars
22. Nicki Minaj/Ice Spice/Aqua – Barbie World
21. Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For
20. Noah Kahan/Post Malone – Dial Drunk
19. Jungkook/Latto – Seven
18. Miley Cyrus – Jaded
17. Lil Durk/J. Cole – All My Life
16. Ed Sheeran – Eyes Closed
15. SZA – Snooze
14. Jonas Brothers – Waffle House
13. Dominic Fike – Mona Lisa
12. Fall Out Boy – We Didn't Start The Fire
11. David Guetta/Anne-Marie/Coi Leray – Baby Don't Hurt Me
10. OneRepublic – Runaway
9. The Weeknd/Playboi Carti/Madonna – Popular
8. Jonas Brothers – Summer Baby
7. Doechii – What It Is
6. Olivia Rodrigo – Vampire
5. FIFTY FIFTY – Cupid
4. Harry Styles – Satellite
3. Dua Lipa – Dance The Night
2. Taylor Swift – Cruel Summer
1. Crash Adams – Give Me A Kiss [3rd Week at #1]
~ I see Hits 1 is still doing their thing of having unknown songs hit #1. Now I don't know a lot of what's popular right now in general, but given that this artist doesn't have a Wikipedia page says enough about the song's status as a "hit". It's a fine song overall, but not something I picture as a #1 hit.
~ Taylor Swift has been having quite the year with Midnights, the release of her version of Speak Now, her version of 1989 coming in October, and of course Cruel Summer being released as a single. It always sounded like single material. I'm just surprised it happened years later. I was also fortunate enough to see her on the Eras Tour back in June, which was an amazing experience! I'm so happy I got to be there because she really puts on an awesome show. And I'm just thrilled that her versions of Speak Now and 1989 (aka her best albums) are being released just months apart!
~ We love to see the Barbie movie being represented here in a few ways! Dance The Night by Dua Lipa is really cute and fun. It's catchy and it has that disco feel of Future Nostalgia, which I admittedly did not love as much as everyone else, but had some really good songs like Hallucinate, Levitating, and Physical. I did see the Barbie movie and I absolutely loved it, and the dance scene with this song is a ton of fun! This is probably my pick for what the next #1 song should be.
~ I don't really have much to say about the next few songs. Both Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo have done better. Satellite is really not all that interesting. This album in general was a step down from Fine Line. I like the way Vampire picks up throughout the song, but it doesn't do a ton for me outside of that. She's not someone I listen to a lot, but Good 4 U and Brutal are my personal favorites from Olivia. And then Cupid and What It Is were pretty enjoyable first listens.
~ The Jonas Brothers are still as big as they were four years ago! I feel like over time, I realized that I don't like Nick Jonas' voice, particularly when he sings in falsetto. I just don't think he sounds good. Joe is the real talent of the group, but even then, these are very cheap sounding songs. Waffle House is probably my favorite, but it's cute at best. Really not memorable.
~ The Weeknd's song is okay. It's kind of boring for the most part and Playboi Carti brings it down a lot. OneRepublic have not had a good song in at least 5 years and I used to be a big fan of them. Oh My My was their last album that actually had some enjoyable tunes. Runaway sounds very cheap like the Jonas Brothers' songs. They've lost what made them stand out with their first three albums and now this just sounds like annoying radio filler. Having said that though, it is far from the worst song here.
~ The real offense comes next with David Guetta sampling more old and iconic songs. Last year he sampled Eiffel 65's Blue to give us I'm Good with Bebe Rexha, which I did enjoy as a guilty pleasure. But now he has sampled Haddaway's What Is Love with Anne-Marie of all people. I remember the first time I heard this on the radio and I was just cringing so hard. Why take such a great, iconic song and butcher it so much? Anne-Marie's voice is still as bad as I remembered and the production is so bland! David Guetta also used to be quite good once upon a time and I love that I still hear songs like When Love Takes Over at a club. This is downright awful though. I swear to god if he samples La Bouche next, I will lose my mind.
~ Fall Out Boy unsurprisingly have a couple of appearances. What is surprising is that the critically panned Billy Joel cover is here. Obviously the lyrics were changed a lot to make the song relevant to modern day. I enjoy it for what it is, but it's not something I seek out. That aside, they put out an excellent album earlier this year, which was amazing to see after the mess that was their previous album. I know Love From The Other Side hit #1 here, which is great because that was a killer lead single! Hold Me Like a Grudge is another stand out, and man is that guitar riff in the chorus catchy as hell. I also saw them live this year, which was another awesome experience!
~ Ed Sheeran is someone whose music I don't really like anymore. The only songs of his that I still listen to are off his debut album. I just like that he's still keeping up with the math-related album titles. Lil Durk has a couple songs here, which I find odd. Neither of them are good, with the Morgan Wallen one being especially awful because, as I will mention again later, I strongly dislike Morgan Wallen.
~ Miley Cyrus is an artist who's been consistently good over the years. That said, to this day I find Flowers to be extremely underwhelming, especially compared to the badass Midnight Sky, which is up there as one of her best songs. I don't really understand why Flowers was so popular other than maybe the message of the song. Jaded is good though and I really like how she sounds here. But still not as interesting as some of the songs on Plastic Hearts.
~ Dial Drunk is an okay tune, but I find it weird that it has a Post Malone feature. He sounds fine on here. Not all that interesting overall. His other song, Enough Is Enough, is surprisingly enjoyable and way better than that other song he had on here before. It has a nice instrumental and he sounds pretty decent, coming from someone who doesn't really like his voice for the most part.
~ What Was I Made For being here is VERY surprising to me. It just doesn't feel like a song that's meant for radio. It is a gut wrencher, especially in the context of the movie. If you've seen the movie, then you know where this song comes up. It had me crying both times I saw it (yes I saw the movie twice, don't judge me). I don't know if it really conveys the same amount of emotion as a standalone song. The movie really helps give it context. But she sounds beautiful on here. I'm just really surprised that it's a radio song.
~ Now I'm not surprised to see Barbie World on here. Obviously, it's a remake of Barbie Girl by Aqua, which I used to not like, but now it's really catchy to me. This version of it is okay I guess. A couple of my friends were disappointed that it only got played in the credits, but it's one of the weaker songs on the soundtrack in my opinion. It's also less than two minutes long, and it's a pet peeve of mine when songs are under three minutes, but that's a whole other discussion.
~ I remember hearing In The Stars by Benson Boone a long time ago, so I'm a little surprised to see it on the countdown now. The song doesn't do a lot for me, but it's not bad by any means. Same thing with the New Jeans and Doja Cat songs.
~ I did not realize the Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car was here. I love the original song and I really like Luke Combs' take on it. I've seen a lot of flat out hate for it but I think it's a nice rendition. I don't even like a lot of modern country music, but I think Luke Combs sounds really good on it. And then we have Last Night by Morgan Wallen, which is a terrible song and it baffles me that it's one of the biggest songs of the year. I do not like Morgan Wallen and I think he comes off as a pretty shitty person. There was the controversy with him using the n word. I also remember when we were at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, he was supposed to perform on SNL, but got dropped because he was out partying without a mask and breaking COVID protocols. It's crazy to me how he's still so popular when he (along with Jason Aldean) is like the bottom of the barrel for country music. It's embarrassing that this is one of the biggest songs of the year.
~ All that negativity aside, I just had to save the best for last! Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue is here and I am thrilled! I've been a fan of Kylie for years now and she's honestly the main artist who got me into disco within the last few years along with Jessie Ware. Padam Padam is insanely catchy and won the hearts of so many in the LGBTQ community, and while it's not her best work, I'm thrilled to see Kylie being recognized again, because she has been so underrated for so many years. Her last few albums had so many good songs that just did not get acknowledged. But now, the clubs that I go to are in love with this song. All of my gay friends know and love it, and it's just awesome to see. She's genuinely one of my favorite pop singers of all time. I'm so happy for her and I'm glad that Hits 1 is giving it some spins.
~ And that's all that I have to talk about today! I won't talk about Hit-Bound because I just don't know any of those songs other than Speed Drive, which goes really hard, and Mind Your Business, which is pretty terrible. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed reading! I certainly enjoyed catching up a little bit! Like I mentioned, this is not an official return, but just a fun little check-in. If there are any songs that you want to know what I think of for whatever reason, feel free to drop them in the comments and I'll check every once in a while! So yeah, thanks for reading and take care! :)
My Top 5 Picks
1. Kylie Minogue – Padam Padam
2. Dua Lipa – Dance The Night
3. Fall Out Boy – Hold Me Like a Grudge
4. Taylor Swift – Cruel Summer
5. Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For
