March 18, 2017 - Ed Sheeran (6)

Hey guys, so first I should explain why this post is so late. For one, I have not felt very motivated to post recently, and I will have more to say on the matter in due time. Secondly, I was on vacation last weekend, and I brought my new computer and forgot to make the layout for the post, which definitely slowed this down. Also, as a result of last week's mess that the comments turned into, I now have to turn on comment moderation because I do not want things blowing up like that ever again. You can thank a certain user whom I won't name for that. But anyway, this week had a lot of randomness going on, I'll say that. Initially I was going to combine this post with the one for the countdown we'll get tomorrow, but I decided, ah what the heck, but this will be very condensed. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#29)
• After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (#44)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran
45. Love Me Now by John Legend (#45)
44. Words by Daya (#42)
43. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#43)
42. I Got You by Bebe Rexha (#13)
41. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#41)
40. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#39)
39. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (#30) (three weeks at #1)
38. This Town by Niall Horan (#34)
37. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (#24)
36. L.A. Devotee by Panic! At The Disco (debut)
35. Love On The Brain by Rihanna (#40)
34. Heavy by Linkin Park featuring Kiiara (#19)
33. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#31)
32. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots (#23)
31. Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth (#32)
30. Believer by Imagine Dragons (debut)
29. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#28) (two weeks at #1)
28. All Time Low by Jon Bellion (#27)
27. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#18) (four weeks at #1)
26. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#35)
25. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (#37)
24. Miss You by James Hersey (#38)
23. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#25)
22. Weak by AJR (#21)
21. Heathens by Twenty One Pilots (#14) (two weeks at #1)
20. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#17)
19. Issues by Julia Michaels (#26)
18. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson (#5)
17. HandClap by Fitz and The Tantrums (#4)
16. Stay by Zedd featuring Alessia Cara (#22)
15. Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran (#33)
14. It Ain't Me by Kygo featuring Selena Gomez (#15)
13. Play That Song by Train (#12)
12. Paris by The Chainsmokers (#20)
11. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (#36)
10. Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley (#6)
9. Water Under The Bridge by Adele (#10)
8. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (#8)
7. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello (#11)
6. Mercy by Shawn Mendes (#2)
5. That's What I Like by Bruno Mars (#9)
4. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift (#3)
3. Cold by Maroon 5 (#16)
2. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#7) (eight weeks at #1)
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: One Call Away by Charlie Puth (first of two weeks at #1)
1. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran (#1) (sixth week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: I Got You by Bebe Rexha (-29)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (+25)

New Entrants
- So, more Panic! At The Disco is a thing. After Victorious died out and Death Of A Bachelor continues to hold on, we have more from them in the form of L.A. Devotee. To say the least, this is the kind of fast-paced rock that I enjoy. For the lyrical content, it's about a guy who thrives to succeed in LA, exactly as the title suggests. Also, the video for the song features Noah Schnapp, who is best known for his role in Stranger Things. I've never watched that show, but that is pretty cool. I'll actually take this over either of the two previous representations from the album. So yeah. We'll see how far this gets.

- Then we have more Imagine Dragons. After I Bet My Life from 2015 was successful here but nowhere else to my recollection, Dan Reynolds did the chorus on Sucker For Pain from the Suicide Squad soundtrack, which was acceptable, but nothing worth seriously caring for. And now we come to Believer, the song that was used in the commercial for the Nintendo Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild that aired during the Super Bowl, which Spyder mentioned before introducing the song. But me, I kinda like it. Even though the verses do feel eerie with the guitar line, and the lyrics don't have all too much to them beyond going through the pain and becoming a believer, I guess it's good enough for me, even if that chorus does feel overdone. I don't see it sticking with me in the long run, though. We'll see.

First Blurbs First
- Neither of our exits will be missed by me. Okay, at least not After The Afterparty. That deserved it entirely. The Greatest, however, I did like to a degree, and it looks like it'll barely miss the Year-End Hot 100, not to mention how it tumbled out relatively quickly after we thought it had potential to hit #1, but it's nothing I'll be losing sleep over.

- Sure, throw I Got You right down to the bottom 5 right after I start to grow into the song. Sounds about right.

- After Side To Side has jumped all over the countdown, it looks like this may be the end for it.

- I'm still not pleased to see Heavydirtysoul flopping like this. Come on Hits 1, get it together!

- Was it necessary for Let Me Love You and Scars To Your Beautiful to jump that much?!?! Come on people, now it's virtually impossible for me to like the latter any further.

- Our lone debut from last week, Miss You, did jump also, so that's alright with me.

- Very pleased to see Castle On The Hill enter the Top 20, as well. Nice to see that it could potentially become a real hit.

- It's interesting to see Say You Won't Let Go become the sleeper hit that it's turned out to be. It's top 10 on iTunes currently, and that's without a discount, so I will say I do like what it's managed to go through.

- Meanwhile, our Top 10 gets two unwelcome entrants that I'm not thrilled about. At least we still have mostly good stuff there.

Bottom 5: Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth, Play That Song by Train, Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5, Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes, Words by Daya

Top 5: I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk, Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran, L.A. Devotee by Panic! At The Disco, 24K Magic by Bruno Mars, That's What I Like by Bruno Mars

Favorite Song on Hit-Bound: Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Let It Go by James Bay
The Story of Tonight by We The Kings

There will not be a QOTD today, unfortunately, on account of how late this post was and how quick I am to get this out. Sorry for the extremely delayed post, but hopefully I'll have tomorrow's countdown ready and not have it look sloppy. Thanks for reading, everybody!