June 18, 2016 - Taylor Swift (2)

Well, I know that many were predicting a lot of exits on the countdown this weekend. And while we had a good shakeup of new debuts, the amount of drops and jumps wasn't quite what I'm sure some prepared for. And our #1 was not what I expected, either. We did get some nice activity in the higher part of the countdown, however. I like when there's competition throughout the minefield. With that being said, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• Sorry by Justin Bieber (#45)

• America's Sweetheart by Elle King (#44)

• Hello by Adele (#40) (spent 12 weeks at #1)

• In the Night by The Weeknd (#37)

• One Call Away by Charlie Puth (#32) (spent two weeks at #1)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake
#1 Song This Week 1 Year Ago: Bad Blood by Taylor Swift
45. Me, Myself and I by G-Easy and Bebe Rexha (#41)
44. Make Me Like You by Gwen Stefani (#42)
43. Work by Rihanna featuring Drake (#43)
42. No by Meghan Trainor (#38)
41. Roses by The Chainsmokers featuring ROZES (#35)
40. We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez (debut)
39. Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK (#29)
38. Lost Boy by Ruth B. (debut)
37. If It Ain't Love by Jason Derulo (#39)
36. Missing You by All Time Low (debut)
35. Youth by Troye Sivan (#26)
34. Wild Things by Alessia Cara (debut)
33. Toothbrush by DNCE (debut)
32. Love Yourself by Justin Bieber (#36)
31. Kill 'Em With Kindness by Selena Gomez (#31)
30. Irresistible by Fall Out Boy and Demi Lovato (#34)
29. My House by Flo Rida (#23)
28. Wherever I Go by OneRepublic (#28)
27. Once In a While by Timeflies (#20)
26. Pillowtalk by Zayn Malik (#17)
25. Me Too by Meghan Trainor (#25)
24. Jet Black Heart by 5 Seconds of Summer (#14)
23. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#22)
22. 7 Years by Lukas Graham (#19)
21. Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez (#10)
20. Figure Me Out by The Summer Set (#30)
19. This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna (#15)
18. Cake By The Ocean by DNCE (#7)
17. Messin' Around by Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias (#18)
16. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#21)
15. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (#33)
14. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#16)
13. You Don't Own Me by Grace (#27)
12. Victorious by Panic! At the Disco (#3)
11. Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande (#13)
10. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#12)
9. Close by Nick Jonas and Tove Lo (#24)
8. Just Like Fire by P!nk (#11)
7. History by One Direction (#4)
6. Let It Go by James Bay (#9)
5. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony (#5)
4. Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (#6)
3. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner (#8)
2. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (#1)
1. New Romantics by Taylor Swift (#2) (second week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: Tie between Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez and Cake By The Ocean by DNCE (-11)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (+18)

New Entrants
- First and foremost, with our former entry from Charlie Puth being no more, we have another one to replace it, with Selena Gomez, in We Don't Talk Anymore. And it's...well, better. I didn't like this one at all at first, the lyrics feel pissy (how exactly should you care that you "don't talk anymore" if you're seeing others?) and I'm not as big a fan of the acoustic guitar overlapping most of the song, but there are elements of the instrumental that work with me. I'll probably hate it again eventually, but for now it's not unbearable.

- Next in line is long-time Hit-Bound resident Lost Boy by Ruth B.. I think the song's cute for what it is, a piano ballad with Peter Pan references, but anyone else find it ironic that the singer is a female and she calls herself a "lost boy"? And I said last week that I wasn't sure if I would want it here on the countdown, and listening to it here I can see why I made that claim. So yeah, it's respectable, but we'll see if it continues to stick with me.

- And then we've got Missing You by All Time Low. Now, I'm not as big a fan of ATL as I'm sure many others are, but I can say that I do like the premise of the song, trying to reach out to someone that feels hopeless or weak. It's something that's been done many a times by different acts, though, and right now it comes off as countdown filler. Again, I'm not as big a fan.

- Following that is our fourth debut and my favorite of them by far - Wild Things by Alessia Cara. After her breakout hit with Here, it's natural that she would have a follow-up eventually, even if the song was first a thing at the end of winter and it's been teetering near the top half of the Hot 100 for a while now. Alessia sings quite well in this one, and those drums give a jungle-ish feel to the song but I think my favorite part is the chorus when the disco beat comes alongside the "aye aye aye aye"s backing. So yeah, this one's fun and I hope it has success on the countdown.

- Finally we have Toothbrush by DNCE. I'll reiterate what I said when I talked about it on Hit-Bound last week, in a way it feels like a rehash of Cake By The Ocean, except the lyrics aren't quite as sleazy. The groove is cool, though. Again, I could see this annoying me after a while, however.

I Am a Lost Blurb
- As mentioned in the prelude, we had a massacre this week in terms of exits. Thankfully we got rid of one big piece of junk in One Call Away by Charlie Puth, along with one of the biggest songs of the year so far with Hello by Adele, and two other songs that were losing their appeal to me. I also noticed that Spyder Harrison said "finally" before mentioning the latter, maybe he was getting sick of it as many were. And while I'm sure many are glad to see In the Night by The Weeknd off, I still like it and will probably be raving about it again in December when the Year-End Hot 100 comes. I'm not even gonna talk about our bottom two occupants again...

- ...But how the heck did Work by Rihanna featuring Drake survive that massacre? Leave already!!!

- It's disappointing to see yet another undeserved drop for Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK. What the heck, Hits 1?!

- Good thing Youth by Troye Sivan took a hit as well, because I'm sick of hearing the words "what if..." and "My youth!" a bunch of times. Other than the twinkling parts in the post-verses, it's officially old. Hopefully it'll be on its way out soon.

- And yet, I still haven't put Irresistible by Fall Out Boy and Demi Lovato or Love Yourself by Justin Bieber in red yet. Or Pillowtalk by Zayn Malik, which I still find kind of exaggerative in his delivery, and that's why.

- Thank goodness Me Too by Meghan Trainor didn't jump any higher after its debut. Can we please not with this one?

- At least the biggest DRRRRRRROP!!!s were both overdue ones. I already talked about how Cake By The Ocean by DNCE has officially worn on me, and Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez needs no explanation.

- We did have two pretty nice jumps this week - the first being Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul, which I figured would jump after its debut; no complaints there. The second is You Don't Own Me by Grace, which while I still wish G-Eazy was on this one it's still nice to see it peak much higher than I thought, especially given how much it's bombed on the Hot 100.

- Close by Nick Jonas and Tove Lo, on the other hand, which took a big jump presumably because Nick Jonas dropped his album last week, is one that I don't take lightly.

- And on the topic of things growing on me, I'll admit, Just Like Fire by P!nk has been starting to sound better. I don't love it as much as most of the bloggers in this vein do, but it won't make me want to change the station immediately. Still, P!nk is capable of better than this, and I may be tainted by it being a soundtrack hit. But I'm okay with putting it in blue for now.

- Even though I can't deny that History by One Direction is old, I'll still be sad when it leaves because it may be the last we see of One Direction for a very long time...

- ...And I can say the same about our returning #1, New Romantics by Taylor Swift, as her final single off of 1989. This definitely caught me off-guard, and I'll get to the former #1 in a moment, but you know, it really feels like a long time ago when Shake It Off debuted on the countdown in August 2014, so if this song was to last past August, the 1989 album representations as a whole would have an uninterrupted tenure of two years on the countdown. That is amazing. Poor Lance Warren...

- That jump for I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner up to #3 is definitely welcomed. I would be very happy to see it at #1, although that may not happen at this point.

- I was for sure expecting Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake to take another week at #1.  Hopefully that won't make it quite as insufferable for some for a bit longer. But it's nice to see competition going on around here.

Hit-Bound

• No Broken Hearts by Bebe Rexha and Nicki Minaj
• Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (debut)
• Lovesick by Jacob Whitesides
• Red Dress by MAGIC! (debut)
• I Wanna Know by Alesso with Nico and Vinz
• I'm Not Famous by AJR (debut)
• The Sound of Silence by Disturbed
• Say by Symon
• Hello Friday by Flo Rida featuring Jason Derulo
• The Sound by 1975
• Don't Mind by Kent Jones
• Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
• All About Us by Jordan Fisher (debut)
• Brand New by Ben Rector (debut)

Well it's not surprising that we got another round from Adele, in the form of Send My Love (To Your New Lover). This song isn't as good as Hello when it first came or When We Were Young, but it's good for now. Seeing as it's Adele, it'll probably make the countdown before long.

MAGIC! is back with yet another one, in Red Dress. Given that Lay You Down Easy didn't go anywhere, I'm not seeing this taking off. They might be known as one-hit wonders, but I could surely be wrong. Also, Rude was DLC in Rock Band 4 this past Tuesday, random fact. Anyway, the song's just decent for the time being.

We've also got I'm Not Famous by AJR. I know how much Adrian got annoyed with I'm Ready in 2014, but that was a big guilty pleasure of mine that year. This one is goofy as well, and I can surely appreciate what it tries to say. I don't mind funny songs like this.

I can safely say that The Sound of Silence and Say are not gonna make the countdown at this point.

I thought that Hello Friday would be gone given it wasn't available for vote last week. Guess not. Anyway, it still hasn't gotten any better since its debut last week. The song does nothing for me, even by Flo Rida's low standards.

Very surprised that Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes didn't make the countdown. I didn't talk about it last week, but I like the guitar parts of the song (or are those keys like I've heard some say they are?) and Mendes' vocal delivery, although the lyrics are questionable. I also caught Mikey Piff say that Mendes covered Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran and liked that cover. After that, I feel like he may have been better off taking that song.

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Me Too by Meghan Trainor
2. Work by Rihanna featuring Drake
3. Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez
4. No by Meghan Trainor
5. Work From Home by Fifth Harmony

Countdown Top 5
1. I Took a Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner
2. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake
3. Never Forget You by Zara Larsson and MNEK
4. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul
5. Wild Things by Alessia Cara

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. The Sound by 1975
2. I'm Not Famous by AJR
3. Say by Symon
4. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele
5. I Wanna Know by Alesso with Nico and Vinz

So yeah, that's that. And Happy Father's Day to any and all fathers out there! It was nice seeing shout outs, especially given that poor Spyder Harrison himself said that his has passed. Anyway, thanks for reading!