January 14, 2017 - Maroon 5 (2)

So this was the Martin Luther King Jr. Day edition of the countdown... To put it easily, this week was just a mess. We have the same annoying #1 and the Top 5 isn't looking so hot right now. And while we got rid of one old waste, we lost another good one that was cut too short. Now 1/4 of the countdown is looking nasty. I had hopes for this year to be great, but that hope is not holding out. This is not gonna be fun to talk about. But at least an old face made his long-awaited return, which was interesting at least. Let's just get to it. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk (#45)
• Good Grief by Bastille (#33)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
45. Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer (#43)
44. Greenlight by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (#44)
43. Body Moves by DNCE (#41)
42. That's My Girl by Fifth Harmony (#27)
41. I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien (#37)
40. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (#40)
39. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (#31) (one week at #1)
38. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#32) (three weeks at #1)
37. HandClap by Fitz and The Tantrums (#39)
36. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ (#38)
35. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#30)
34. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Camilla Cabello (debut)
33. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (#36) (ten weeks at #1)
32. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran (debut)
31. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha (#8) (What the fuck...)
30. You're Not There by Lukas Graham (#35)
29. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#43)
28. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (#26)
27. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson (#29)
26. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#28)
25. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#25)
24. Kids by OneRepublic (#19)
23. Into You by Ariana Grande (#20)
22. Play That Song by Train (#24)
21. Chase You Down by Runaground (#18)
20. Mercy by Shawn Mendes (#21)
19. Love Me Now by John Legend (#22)
18. After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (#34) (You've gotta be kidding me...)
17. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#17)
16. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift (#23)
15. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (#15)
14. All Time Low by Jon Bellion (#16)
13. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#9)
12. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (#10)
11. Water Under The Bridge by Adele (#13) (Get in the Top 10 plz.)
10. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#14)
9. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#11) (two weeks at #1)
8. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#12)
7. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (#7)
6. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#6)
5. This Town by Niall Horan (#2)
4. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#4) (eight weeks at #1)
3. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#3) (one week at #1)
2. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#5) (three weeks at #1)
Top 5 This Week One Year Ago: 5. Hello by Adele
4. Same Old Love by Selena Gomez
3. Irresistible by Fall Out Boy and Demi Lovato
2. Perfect by One Direction
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Confident by Demi Lovato (first and only week at #1)
1. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (second week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha (-23)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (+16)

New Entrants
- So, who's gonna miss Camilla Cabello now that she's departed from Fifth Harmony? Not me, I'll say that. Bad Things apparently interpolates from a song by Fastball, not the one that they're most well known for. Machine Gun Kelly is on the track, and his verses aren't very innovative. I really can't say I'm feeling this one. This should've been done by better performers. I know that I won't be tuning in for Camilla Cabello's solo career when that takes off. Right now, I'm not impressed by this one.

- Ed Sheeran is back, and here he is with one of two new singles, this one named Shape Of You. This one falls under the vibe of the tropical themed songs we've been getting for a while now, but I can appreciate the guy trying to do something different, even if there are traces of the guitar in there. That being said, I'm not huge on the lyrics, with them being about appreciating a woman for her body. I may be in the unpopular crowd of liking Castle On The Hill more, but I am liking this.

I'm In Love With The Shape Of Blurbs
- While Setting The World On Fire had a pretty weird tenure, I'm not exactly sad to see it off. Good Grief, on the other hand, I really liked, because that song was upbeat which is something we needed this year. I'm sad that it didn't take off well.

- The guest DJ who introduced Greenlight was from San Diego, California. Hope their weather is nicer than it is here!

- Before introducing Cheap Thrills, Spyder mentioned how Sia will eventually be on Sesame Street. Kinda funny to imagine someone like her on a show that's meant to be kiddy based... Then again, Katy Perry was on it so what can I say.

- Interesting that Can't Stop the Feeling! is still here. In fact, some on Pulse Music Boards are speculating that it'll be one of the songs to repeat on 2017's Year-End Hot 100 chart. I'd be okay with that, honestly.

- Kinda funny how Ride switched spots with one of our debuts from last week.

- I'm not happy about In The Name Of Love having the biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! of the week. I really like this song, so to see it flopping is sad. I don't have a lot of hope for it recovering, unfortunately. We'll see.

- None of our debuts from last week took serious jumps. You're Not There was the only one to get at least five in, but I'll take that. That song doesn't feel as broad as 7 Years did, but it's still very sentimental.

- So the other day, I was playing Pokémon Black 2, and in the Virbank Complex (which is early in the game), I discovered the Lass there is named Daya. And she uses a Woobat. To think that for as many times as I've played Black 2 and White 2, I only just noticed that. Looks like Daya was liked by Game Freak well before she was liked by Hits 1. Good thing they made her a simple Lass early in the game and not something like an Ace Trainer, because that would be insulting to that trainer class.

- I am a little disappointed to see Kids drop out of the Top 20. While certain people I won't name are overjoyed to see that one gone, I was starting to like that one a lot.

- Before introducing Mercy, Spyder talked about how Shawn Mendes hasn't been completely caught up to his fame yet and has said that there are other people who deserve what he has. With this song's predecessor, yeah, there are songs that deserve to be bigger than that, for sure, but this is alright.

- Love Me Now is completely welcomed into the top 20. This looks like it could easily become a potential favorite of mine from this year if it gains momentum.

- After The Afterparty jumping into the Top 20, on the other hand, is unacceptable. After that drop last week I thought it was dead. Guess I was wrong. I don't know what happened to Charli XCX. Boom Clap from 2014 was beautiful and very well-written. This is just disappointing. I'm sorry, but now I have no choice but to put it in orange.

- Before introducing I Don't Wanna Live Forever, Spyder talked about the long list of acts who are going to have representations on the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack alongside that one. Interesting lineup! Wonder if it'll be 2015 all over again where those hits dominate the year.

- Chase You Down, Death Of A Bachelor and Scars To Your Beautiful are all starting to fade on me.

- Treat You Better back in the Top 10 is a big fat no. Stop it. Now. I really don't know who still likes this (come at me, Shawn Mendes fam).

- Can we please get 24K Magic into the Top 5, like, next week? That'd be so much better than it's looking right about now.

- The guest DJ who introduced Closer was from British Columbia and when saying his parents' names (forgot what they were), Spyder asked if those were really their names. Haha.

- Speaking of which, the Top 5 remained the same, even if some of them changed their spots. And on that note, for you who may be wondering, "When will _______ be in red/pink/blue/what have you?!"...

Cheap Thrills - This one won't avoid being red for much longer. Or maybe it won't turn red. I don't know.

Send My Love (To Your New Lover) and Heathens - I just can't bring myself to hate these. And no, not because I'm scared of Twenty-one Pilots fans or anything, don't think that! And because I like Adele in general. But I have to have them in dark yellow, basically.

Closer - I've basically stopped caring at this point. For all I know, this may be in blue for the remainder of its tenure...unless it passes Uptown Funk's 31 weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, which would actually bring it to the highest of all, with 32 from How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes. If that were to happen...ho boy, my reaction will NOT be pretty. and don't you even pretend you want that to happen kthxbai.

Into You - I still love this, no matter how overplayed it gets. And because this has been regarded by many as one of the best songs of the year, I have zero qualms with keeping it in green.

24K Magic - Yeah, the odds of me having this in anything lower than green are about as likely as a Paras with Dry Skin surviving a +6 Inferno Overdrive on base of Overheat from a Chandelure in sunlight after Flash Fire had activated.

Hit-Bound
Love On The Brain by Rihanna
Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
Guys My Age by Hey Violet
I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
Issues by Julia Michaels (debut)
Paris by The Chainsmokers (debut)
Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots (debut)
Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars
Love Like We Used To by Captain Cuts
Words by Daya
Dancing On My Own by Calum Scott
In My Mind by Maty Noyes
Blow Your Mind (Mwah) by Dua Lipa
Lights Down Low by MAX featuring Gnash

- Jon Bellion hosted Hit-Bound this week.

- Issues is not exactly the most exciting song. Not to mention the singer's voice is not very appealing.

- Oh goodness, not The Chainsmokers again... Paris does have some life to it, but I'm just sick of these guys at this point. I'll talk more about it when it inevitably debuts.

- I've heard Heavydirtysoul before now, since I own the Blurryface album, and it does work well. Twenty-one Pilots do have good skill in writing. Hopefully this debuts soon.

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Tie: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX
20. Tie: Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
18. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
17. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
16. Unsteady by X Ambassadors

1 — Bad:
None!

2 — Meh:
None!

3 — Decent:
15. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco
14. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
13. This Town by Niall Horan
12. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey

4 — Good:
None!

5 — Great:
11. Mercy by Shawn Mendes
10. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga
9. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
8. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift
7. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
6. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar
5. All Time Low by Jon Bellion
4. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
3. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
2. Love Me Now by John Legend
1. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Overall score: 67/100

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Tie: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX
1. Tie: Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
3. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya
4. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
5. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5

Countdown Top 5
1. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
2. Love Me Now by John Legend
3. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
4. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha
5. HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. Tie: Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
1. Tie: Love Like We Used To by Captain Cuts
1. Tie: I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
4. Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars
5. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots

Most Missed Song: America's Sweetheart by Elle King

Favorite Countdown Song From This Week One Year Ago: Tie between Here by Alessia Cara and Something Better by Audien featuring Lady Antebellum

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
The Fix by Nelly featuring Jeremih — Not exactly a fan of this kind of R&B. And does anyone notice that Jeremih is hard-pressed to be able to do a song on his own or without using a sample of some sort?
Wake Up by The Vamps — Happy and upbeat, even if it's not particularly standout and it's not exactly the biggest wake-up call.
Kamikaze by MØ — Ah yes, Adrian's bane. I actually thought this song was kinda cool at first. That said, it is kind of weird, and it does make me feel bad that Final Song never took off here in the US.

Thanks for reading, everybody!