September 17, 2016 - The Chainsmokers + Daya (2)

So to start, I noticed that we hit 4,000 pageviews! Thanks, everyone! It's great that you guys have been viewing this blog that I made pretty much because I have no life. :P It'd be great if we can hit 5,000 by the end of the month, and maybe 10,000 before 2016 is out?! We'll see what happens. As for the countdown, Hit-Bound was where things really got interesting. We'll get to that later, but even though there wasn't much activity in the countdown we still had some new stuff, for better or for worse. I can only hope that as we enter the fall things will pick up. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• * Figure Me Out by The Summer Set (#38)
• Once In A While by Timeflies (#41)
• One Dance by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla (#42)
• All In My Head (Flex) by Fifth Harmony (#45) (You've gotta be kidding me...)

* Was not announced as an exit by Spyder Harrison.

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya
45. Kill 'Em With Kindness by Selena Gomez (#43) (How are you still here?!)
44. 7 Years by Lukas Graham (#44)
43. No by Meghan Trainor (#39)
42. Toothbrush by DNCE (#40)
41. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony (#37)
40. New Romantics by Taylor Swift (#36) (two weeks at #1)
39. Gold by Kiiara (debut)
38. Victorious by Panic! At The Disco (#34) (one week at #1)
37. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (debut)
36. Just Like Fire by P!nk (#33)
35. Hands To Myself by Selena Gomez (#35)
34. Perfect Illusion by Lady Gaga (debut)
33. Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande (#29)
32. Cake By The Ocean by DNCE (#32) (four weeks at #1)
31. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner (#31) (two weeks at #1)
30. Kids by OneRepublic (debut)
29. Me Too by Meghan Trainor (#27)
28. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#30)
27. Rise by Katy Perry (#25)
26. Mama Said by Lukas Graham (#18)
25. Say by Symon (#21)
24. Missing You by All Time Low (#24)
23. Never Be Like You by Flume featuring Kai (#23)
22. Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (#28) (five weeks at #1)
21. Lovesick by Jacob Whitesides (#20)
20. Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk (#26)
19. I'm Not Famous by AJR (#15)
18. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ (#19)
17. Spirits by The Strumbellas (#22)
16. Body Say by Demi Lovato (#17)
15. The Sound by The 1975 (#10)
14. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#13)
13. Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds of Summer (#14)
12. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#15)
11. We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez (#11)
10. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#7)
9. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (#5) (ten weeks at #1)
8. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna (#6)
7. Into You by Ariana Grande (#8)
6. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#12)
5. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#9)
4. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (#3) (one week at #1)
3. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (#4)
2. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#2)
#1 Song This Week 1 Year Ago: Can't Feel My Face by The Weeknd
1. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (second week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: Mama Said by Lukas Graham (-8) (...)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Tie between Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots, Setting The World on Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk, and (+6) (...)

New Entrants
- To start off with, we have, much to the dismay of most here, Gold by Kiiara. From the first few seconds I heard this, I thought it was some kind of joke. Apparently, making a pop song out of a YouTube Poop is enough to get you success. That's kinda sad. The lyrics aren't memorable at all, either. Let's hope this doesn't stay long.

- Then we've got Hailee Steinfeld, with Zedd and someone else I've never heard of before named Grey, with Starving. And...she sounds good enough, but there's not much to the guitars, and the drop is just crap. There are also the lyrics, which a part of me wants to call so bad it's good, but I don't know. Right now this really is not that exciting a song for me and will probably be red eventually.

- And most importantly, we have another long-awaited return, this one from Lady Gaga, name of Perfect Illusion. And this will probably be an unpopular opinion in this community, but right now I think this song is really cool. While her vocals are a little strong here and loud, not to mention there's a lot of glimmering, I still think the song is cool right about now. It does come together for me, better than I feel like it should. Also, one of the people behind both writing and producing this song was Mark Ronson, and guess what song he did! That said, I can see myself getting sick of this if it gets overplayed, but right now I am definitely enjoying it.

- Finally we have Kids by OneRepublic. To say the least, I'm still not sure if I'm completely used to this new sound from them, as my initial reaction to Wherever I Go was not favorable when it debuted and I did grow into that. Right now I do think this is pretty decent, but we'll see if I come to like it more.

I Didn't Know That I Was Blurbing Till I Tasted You
- So to start off, our exits. Two of them outright did not deserve to go, one I really couldn't care less about, and the other I did enjoy while it lasted. Well, Once In A While did take that big drop a little while ago so I can't say I'm completely surprised, but All In My Head (Flex) by Fifth Harmony was completely undeserved. Also, Spyder Harrison didn't announce Figure Me Out as one of the exits. Was he too sad about that departure? :P

- Our bottom 5 seriously needs cleaning out. I'm not even gonna comment on Kill 'Em With Kindness, No and Work From Home again, and Toothbrush by DNCE needs to leave. I can safely say that I only liked this song to start because I wanted to like it and because I was sick of its predecessor. But I realized how stupid the lyrics are, especially in the pre-chorus, and that falsetto is not helping.

- So Taylor Swift apparently crashed a date between Zayn Malik and his girlfriend Gigi Hadid? I remember her thinking he was cool, so that's kinda funny.

- Three of the songs in our third set of five held their positions from last week.

- Heh. Didn't think Mama Said by Lukas Graham would drop that hard. And on that note, we actually had single digit biggest drops and jumps. Honestly, it feels like it's been 3,000 years since that's happened.

- It's nice to see some indie folk in the form of Spirits by The Strumbellas get some traction.

- So, random story. The other day, I was at a sports bar, and they were playing some classics, and in the middle of one of them they cut out for Rihanna, then Blank Space by Taylor Swift came on. Let me make one thing clear: I do still like that song, but it is NOT a club song. I also heard a few other not club songs while I was there, like We Don't Talk Anymore, Stressed Out, Send My Love (To Your New Lover), and Treat You Better. It felt weird, but I still had fun there. I couldn't imagine those songs being played in a Chickie's and Pete's or something. At least they played some fun stuff, too.

- The Sound by The 1975 dropped out of the Top 10, which leaves me hoping that it won't be cut too short like two of our exits today. Let's hope it can make the final Top 45.

- There are quite a few songs I've grown into here, most notably Cold Water and Closer, which, while they're not songs that I'd pay for on iTunes with my money, I'm all game for hearing them now. We'll see how long they stick with me.

- Speaking of We Don't Talk Anymore, before introducing that song, Spyder Harrison mentioned that Charlie himself is currently seeking. What happened, Charlie Puth? Did things not work out with you and Meghan Meghans? Ah, I can only guess that they...don't talk anymore. Okay, that was a lame pun.

- As for the elephant in the room... It had a reportedly high amount of spins, so it did catch me a little off-guard seeing Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake drop out of the Top 5. Even so, I haven't been hearing it as much as I did throughout the summer, so its shot at 12 weeks may be finished. But we'll see.

- Yes, Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots is in purple. I've listened to that song so many times this past week and really, this song just gets cooler and cooler every time I hear it. I have a feeling that Ride may not be in green for much longer, but this is just so eerie and awesome. So yeah, take that, Graham. ;D

- I'm still wondering if Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul still has a chance to hit #1.

- You silly Spyder, this is not Don't Let Me Down's third time at #1!!! :P He also didn't call it "this week's numero uno", which was disappointing.

Hit-Bound
I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien (debut)
Kiss The Sky by Jason Derulo (debut)
Bacon by Nick Jonas
This Girl by Kungs vs Cookin' On 3 Burners
Green Light by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (debut)
Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer
My Way by Calvin Harris (debut)
Be As You Are by Mike Posner
Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco
The Little Things by Big Gigantic featuring Angela McCluskey
Still Falling For You by Ellie Goulding (debut)
Red Dress by MAGIC!
Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (debut)
The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (debut)

- So we did lose some songs from Hit-Bound this week, including Wild by Troye Sivan and Alessia Cara, Cruel by Snakehips featuring Zayn, Superstitious by MKTO, and most sadly, Back 2 U by Steve Aoki and Boehm featuring Walk The Moon, the very latter of which is currently in contention for my Lights Over Paris award come December. But we're thinking a bit ahead here, so that aside, we got A LOT of debuts here. Let's just go through them quick.

- To start, we have I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien. I like this one, it's kinda sad but it's a nice little song for one that tells a story about two estranged lovers.

- Then we've got something new from Jason Derulo, in Kiss The Sky. This song kicks butt pretty hard. It has so much energy and charisma to it, unlike quite a few of his other hits in recent memory (looking at you, Wiggle and Trumpets).

- Green Light by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida has some pretty solid bluesy production, and a nice return from LunchMoney Lewis after Bills from 2015 sadly failed to take off. Definitely my new favorite song on Hit-Bound. Let's hope it debuts soon!

- Calvin Harris looks to finally be striking back against Taylor Swift, with from what I've heard is a diss track known as My Way. Ooooooh!!! I can tell that Hits 1 is going to really adore this one, because I'm already hearing it more than once. To say the least, it's nice to have Calvin Harris singing for a change, like in songs like Feel So Close and Summer.

- I talked a little bit about Still Falling For You by Ellie Goulding last week when it was on the YouTube15, and, well, it's pretty, even if it's no Love Me Like You Do.

- Next up we have Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber. I can appreciate what the song wants to be, but for now it's only in blue. I can certainly see it growing on me in time, however. Also, they used the cover of Bieber's My World 2.0 album when the song came on, and I do think that's pretty silly. It's 2016, not 2010.

- Finally we come to The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar. To say the least, this song is very...not Sia. This doesn't sound like something she would perform. This'll probably turn red eventually. Also, I'm surprised they kept Kendrick in this seeing as they tend to cut rappers out of a lot of songs (i.e. all three Fifth Harmony singles, Bad Blood, etcetera).

- Hit-Bound is actually looking pretty good right about now if you ask me. Aside from the crappy The Little Things, every song here is at least decent (or bearable, at absolute worst).

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya

1 — Bad:
None!

2 — Meh:
19. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna

3 — Decent:
18. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
17. I'm Not Famous by AJR

4 — Good:
16. We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez
15. Body Say by Demi Lovato
14. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
13. Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk
12. Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds of Summer
11. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele
10. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul
9. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya

5 — Great:

8. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ

7. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake

6. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots
5. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay
4. Spirits by The Strumbellas
3. The Sound by The 1975
2. Into You by Ariana Grande
1. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots

Overall score: 80/100 - Great

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Me Too by Meghan Trainor
2. No by Meghan Trainor
3. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony
4. Kill 'Em With Kindness by Selena Gomez
5. Toothbrush by DNCE

Countdown Top 5
1. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
2. Into You by Ariana Grande
3. The Sound by The 1975
4. Perfect Illusion by Lady Gaga
5. Spirits by The Strumbellas

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. Greenlight by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida
2. Kiss The Sky by Jason Derulo
3. This Girl by Kungs vs Cookin' On 3 Burners
4. I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien
5. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco

Most Missed Song: Style by Taylor Swift - Man, I am not making friends with Graham today, am I?

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1 And The Countdown: Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Levels by Nick Jonas — Not quite as good as Chains, but still a pretty respectable track with a nice groove.
Ex's and Oh's by Elle King — I've already discussed this one, but it's pretty nice when we get banging bluesy rock like this in the 2010s. Also, fun fact: this song left both the Weekend Countdown and the Hot 100 on the same week.
Bring It Back by Shy Carter — I feel like I should like this a lot more than I do, because it has an interesting oldies vibe, but it feels too full-force at more points than one.
Hold Each Other by A Great Big World featuring Futuristic — Eh, I was juggling between blue and green for this one, and decided it wasn't quite enough for me to call great, but for another song about being close to those that we love, I think it's well-written. I don't think it's quite as good without Futuristic, who adds more meaning to the song, though, but of course Hits 1 hates rap, hence why I crossed out the words "featuring Futuristic". Plus, Chad King is gay, huh? Never would've guessed. Video's pretty interesting, too.

Thanks for reading, everybody!