June 11, 2016 - Justin Timberlake (2)

Looks like we got a big burst of activity on the countdown this time around, but not all the changes were for the better. We got some good, some bad, and some ugly. And I mean really, REALLY ugly. But thankfully we had plenty of good to countermeasure. I wonder if all the tumbles here will just be a hoax and things will reform next week. But seeing as Hit-Bound actually saw some activity, things look to be bound for a shake-up before long, especially as the summer is finally in reach. With that being said, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• Stand By You by Rachel Platten (#35)

• Somebody to Love Me by Tryon (#36)

• I Know What You Did Last Summer by Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello (#41)

The Countdown!

Last Week's #1 Song: Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake

#1 Song This Week 1 Year Ago: See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth

45. Sorry by Justin Bieber (#39)

44. America's Sweetheart by Elle King (#43)

43. Work by Rihanna featuring Drake (#44)

42. Make Me Like You by Gwen Stefani (#45) (wow...)

41. Me, Myself and I by G-Eazy featuring Bebe Rexha (#42)

40. Hello by Adele (#40)

39. If It Ain't Love by Jason Derulo (#22)

38. No by Meghan Trainor (#31)

37. In the Night by The Weeknd (#30)

36. Love Yourself by Justin Bieber (#29)

35. Roses by the Chainsmokers featuring Rozes (#38)

34. Irresistible by Fall Out Boy featuring Demi Lovato (#32)

33. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (debut)

32. One Call Away by Charlie Puth (#33)

31. Kill 'Em With Kindness by Selena Gomez (debut)

30. Figure Me Out by The Summer Set (#27)

29. Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK (#13) (:sadpanda:)

28. Wherever I Go by OneRepublic (#37)

27. You Don't Own Me by Grace (#26)

26. Youth by Troye Sivan (#14)

25. Me Too by Meghan Trainor (debut)

24. Close by Nick Jonas and Tove Lo (#23)

23. My House by Flo Rida (#9) (about time...)

22. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#28)

21. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#18)

20. Once In a While by Timeflies (#24)

19. 7 Years by Lukas Graham (#21)

18. Messin' Around by Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias (#34)

17. Pillowtalk by Zayn Malik (#5)

16. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#16)

15. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna (#19)

14. Jet Black Heart by 5 Seconds of Summer (#10)

13. Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande (#25)

12. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#17)

11. Just Like Fire by P!nk (#20)

10. Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez (#15)

9. Let It Go by James Bay (#6)

8. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner (#11)

7. Cake By The Ocean by DNCE (#8)

6. Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (#4)

5. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony (#7)

4. History by One Direction (#2)

3. Victorious by Panic! At the Disco (#12) (heh...)

2. New Romantics by Taylor Swift (#3)

1. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (second week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: If It Ain't Love by Jason Derulo (-18)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Messin' Around by Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias (+17)

New Entrants

- Our first debut comes from Sia, who's back with a new hit named Cheap Thrills. This song is about not needing money to have fun at parties, and it has a fun groove to it. I feel like Sean Paul doesn't do too much to contribute to the song other than some backing stuff and one extra verse, but he does have a lot of personality to him. Also, did Sia say "come on, come on, turn Hits 1 on"? That is awesome! I hope to see success from this one.

- Then we have Selena Gomez, with another release from Revival, this time around called Kill 'Em With Kindness. The groove is decent, but the lyrics leave something to be desired. And what the heck is with that whistling throughout the song? It's definitely better than Hands to Myself, and I don't care right now, but we'll see if that changes. Oh, and trigger warning, because...

- ...Now we come to our third and final new entry, and hoooooooooo boy, we've got a doozy here. I heard terrible things about Me Too by Meghan Trainor before I even heard the song, and at first the song was just goofy, but after repeated listens...wow. Remember Wiggle by Jason Derulo from 2014? How that song (nearly) topped several worst of 2014 lists (including mine) and received almost unanimous thrashing for utter incompetence? Some are saying this will be the Wiggle of 2016. For starters, that bass overlaps over half the song, which kinda shows that she really is all about that bass. The chorus is asinine, and I don't know what that...drop, thing, or whatever it is after the chorus is, but it sounds like distorted burping. Trainor sounds so satisfied with herself in this and her lines are nonsensical ("So bless me baby, achoo"? Are you kidding me?!). What even is this thing?! This song is a bigger mess than Dear Future Husband ever was. Heck, as much as I hated Marvin Gaye with Charlie Puth (my most hated song from 2015's Year-End Hot 100, and Dear Future Husband was my #3 on that note), at least that song tried to be pretty. I mean, it failed spectacularly in every way you can think of, but it TRIED! Here, she acts like she's the best thing ever and wants you to be jealous of her. You expect me to be jealous of weird burping, trying to be fancy, and then some? If that's what you pass yourself off as, no, Meghan Trainor, I will never want to be you, attracting controversy as much as you have. Speaking of Jason Derulo, I found out that he actually worked on this thing, which explains how it managed to get ugly. Okay, I'll stop the puns there. So, that long rant aside, hopefully its tenure on the countdown will be short.

I Love Cheap Blurbs!

- Seems Justin Bieber is starting to tumble once again, as now Sorry is at the tail-end of the countdown and Love Yourself also took a hit too. I'm pretty much over both of those songs, even if the latter does feel on the silly kind of dissing side.

- Does anyone else besides me hear Elle King saying "fuck this town" in America's Sweetheart? I know the line's "Well, they say I'm too loud for this town" because I looked it up, but I could've sworn I heard the f-bomb. But of course you can't have that on the radio.

- Seems that Make Me Like You by Gwen Stefani and Me, Myself and I by G-Eazy featuring Bebe Rexha won't give up without a fight. It's impressive that they're both still hanging on after those big drops.

- So I heard that Fall Out Boy will be doing a theme for the Ghostbusters reboot that is around the corner. Given that the movie has already been dreadfully (no pun intended) received based on the trailer, I cannot picture that going well at all. Maybe it'll be so bad it's good, but I do not see it ending well. That aside, Irresistible has had its time on the countdown, but I'm ready for it to go already.

- Charlie Puth, please hang up your phone, let Superman beat the crud out of you and get One Call Away out of the countdown.

- That huge drop for Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK makes me a sad panda. :(

- It annoys me that Venus keeps G-Eazy's verses in You Don't Own Me by Grace, yet Hits 1 cuts them out. Still like the song though, but without G-Eazy it might change color eventually.

- After My House by Flo Rida has spent most of the year in the Top 15, that drop was to be expected eventually. Although he has a much worse follow-up that might show up in its stead, and I'll get to it in a bit, but at least this had a good run here.

- So when Spyder Harrison introduced 7 Years by Lukas Graham, he said that the eponymous lead singer is expecting his first child in September. D'awwwww. Wonder if his child will find the song inspiring. I still like the song even though I see why people have hated it.

- And also on the note of big drops, it's good to see Pillowtalk by Zayn Malik drop out of the Top 10. As hilarious as it can be to hear his exaggerated delivery of the song's name in the second verse, the song is definitely old now. I'm amazed it stuck around the Top 10 of the Hot 100 after its #1 debut back in February as long as it did, though.

- It's crazy how sometimes opinions from one side and the other can be complete opposite ends of the spectrum, because I saw a podcast group who between combined opinions ranked Just Like Fire by P!nk as the worst song in the Top 20 of the Hot 100...and yet, every single Weekend Countdown blog I've seen here has that song in either green or purple. Except mine. It took a big jump this week, why am I not surprised. I guess I can see the appeal, as it's a comeback single, but it's not what I crave.

- As much as I didn't want to put Cake By The Ocean by DNCE in red, the song has been here too long and I'm officially sick of hearing that not-Uptown Funk intro followed by "Oh no". I would appreciate if it'd start to tumble again soon.

- Guess I spoke too soon about Victorious by Panic! At The Disco, because it rebounded right back to #3 after that drop to #12 last week. I do like the rock that the song tries to throw on the table, but I could definitely tire on it.

- I was juggling between whether to choose Never Forget You, I Took a Pill In Ibiza and Can't Stop the Feeling! for purple, but ultimately decided on the very latter. They're all great, but right now  the upbeat groove of that one has been pulling me in more and more recently. I say once more, get ready for the summer, everybody.

And since I didn't do Hit-Bound last week, I figure it's only fair I do it here, especially since we had a nice shake-up in activity this time around that shows we could be bound for something interesting.

Hit-Bound

• Say by Symon
• Lost Boy by Ruth B.
• We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez
• Hello Friday by Flo Rida featuring Jason Derulo (debut)
• No Broken Hearts by Bebe Rexha featuring Nicki Minaj
• Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (debut)
• The Sound by The 1975
• Don't Mind by Kent Jones
• Lay You Down Easy by MAGIC! featuring Sean Paul
• The Sound of Silence by Disturbed
• Wild Things by Alessia Cara (debut)
• Lovesick by Jacob Whitesides (debut)
• Toothbrush by DNCE
• I Wanna Know by Nico and Vinz featuring Alesso (debut)

I turned Lost Boy by Ruth B. to green. The song's become quite cute to me recently as I've listened to it more, and while I don't know if I'd want to see it on the countdown, I can still appreciate it.

Ugh... On the other side, we have Hello Friday by Flo Rida featuring Jason Derulo. Not only does it feel like an edgy ripoff of Friday I'm In Love by The Cure, but Jason Derulo's autotune in the chorus and Flo Rida referencing Limp Bizkit's Nookie in the second verse is off-putting. I'm out for this party. Let's hope it doesn't make the countdown.

Don't Mind by Kent Jones isn't much better. This Pitbull ripoff recently jumped into the Top 20 on the Hot 100 and is bound for the Top 10, and I do not feel good about that.

With Cheap Thrills now on the countdown, my favorite song on Hit-Bound right now would be Wild Things by Alessia Cara. As the follow-up to her anti-partying smash hit Here, I've liked the song since March, because there are some fun elements to it, but unfortunately, at the rate it's going on the Hot 100, it'll most likely miss the year-end list there. But hopefully it can make the countdown.

And lastly, since I didn't talk about it last week, we have Toothbrush by DNCE, which in ways feels similar to Cake By The Ocean - decent groove, but weird lyrics. I don't mind it for now, but if it makes the countdown I can see it annoying me.

Countdown Top 5:

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

2. Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK

3. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner

4. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul

5. Let It Go by James Bay

Hit-Bound Top 5:

1. Wild Things by Alessia Cara

2. The Sound of Silence by Disturbed

3. Say by Symon

4. No Broken Hearts by Bebe Rexha featuring Nicki Minaj

5. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes

Overall, a pretty good week I'll say. I like the direction things seem to be headed, but we'll see if it holds up. Thanks for reading!