March 4, 2017 - Ed Sheeran (4)

This week... I'd hesitate to call it a great week. We did have more things going on, some decent, some not quite as much. On one hand, we have some good stuff leave the higher ranks for some not as good stuff. On the other hand, at least we had some pretty solid stuff coming in, and other stuff took drops down to where they belong. Even though our #1 is nothing new at this point, but it's still gaining it seems. But let's just get to it! So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• You're Not There by Lukas Graham (#45)
• Greenlight by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (#44)
• Kids by OneRepublic (#43)

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

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: All Time Low by Jon Bellion (-20)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Heavy by Linkin Park featuring Kiiara (+16)

New Entrants
- So, AJR are an act who get a lot of hate from certain people in this community whom I won't name for no reason other than what feels like their songs are considered annoying. But at least they're actually trying to be something! Enter Weak. That being said, the synths in the choruses feel like they're literally copy/pasted from Never Be Like You from last year, a song that I ultimately didn't care for in the final picture. As for the lyrical content, it's about how people can only give into peer pressure and not stand up for themselves, from what I'm getting. It's a premise I can certainly relate to. Overall, I don't mind this, but we'll see how long I end up enjoying it.

- So if you can't stand Alessia Cara, too bad, because she has yet another single going for her as she teams up with one Zedd for a new song called Stay. I don't really have a lot to say about this one, the lyrical content is basically what Alessia Cara is known best for. I do like the vocal effects on the chorus as well as the drum hits in the pre-chorus. If I can pick anything I don't exactly like at all, it'd be that humming in the verses and the bridge. That can get annoying. But overall, I like this for right now.

- Then we have a returning entry from Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran. Fun fact, this is actually the first re-entry that the countdown has had since In The Night by The Weeknd back in May. Just goes to show that being cut short quick can mean a resurgence. Anyway, song's still as solid as it was from the beginning. I don't know if it's been released as an official single yet, but I'm sure it will eventually. Since his new album Divide just released yesterday, he's about to get more going for him, I'm sure. I haven't given the entire album a listen just yet, but I will eventually. The point is, please stick around for real this time!

All You Have To Do Is Blurb
- So our entire bottom three from last week were purged out. All three of them were songs I enjoyed to a degree and I think deserved better than they got, especially Greenlight.

- We had four bad songs fall right into the bottom five, three of them taking drops that were over ten spots. Poor Love Me Now must not enjoy being thrown in with them. It'd be great if this was actually the end for Unsteady. Maybe it'll just take a gigantic jump back into the Top 10 next week, maybe not. Hopefully we can get another purge down on these four.

- Before introducing 24K Magic, Spyder talked about how Thomas Rhett did a cover of the song at a concert of his recently. For you who don't know who Thomas Rhett is, he's a country star who's gotten some big flack, and his last album, Tangled Up, was pretty terribly received. The thought of that guy trying to say some of the things that Bruno says in the song just makes me laugh at how sterile it'd sound coming from him. To be fair, Spyder also said that Rhett did say the man was a favorite of his. That being said, nice to see it jump out of the Bottom 10. Stay as long as you want to!

- Of course that piece of crap that debuted last week had to take a 10+ spot jump. It hasn't been doing that much elsewhere, so hopefully it'll flop.

- Before introducing Say You Won't Let Go, Spyder talked about how James Arthur recently got back together with his former girlfriend, who was the inspiration for this song. How about that? But that makes this drop out of the Top 20 even worse. I knew that jump from last week was too good to be true.

- When Mikey Piff first discussed Heavy when it debuted on Hit-Bound, he said that there were no guitars at all in it. But is it just me or do I hear guitars there near the end? Anyway, it had the biggest jump of the week, which was odd because I did not hear it much while out over the past few days. As I said last week, it's an unusual collaboration, but right now I don't care if it just sticks around.

- Before introducing Million Reasons, Spyder talked about how Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu blames Lady Gaga for their Super Bowl loss because of how long her halftime show went. After supposedly looking some things up, Spyder said that he could lose his man-card for that.

- On the good side, we had three Top 10 entrants, two new ones that I completely welcome there, and one being a re-entrant into the Top 5 that I'm glad is still hanging on despite it flopping elsewhere, which for an Adele song is pretty sad.

- As for Starving jumping back into the Top 5... Why?! I was softening on this a little bit, but now it's virtually impossible for me to not throw it back into the bottom tier.

Hit-Bound
Cake by Flo Rida featuring 99 Percent
Touch by Little Mix
Miss You by James Hersey
L.A. Devotee by Panic! At The Disco
Slide by Calvin Harris with Frank Ocean and Migos (debut)
Believer by Imagine Dragons
Everyday by Ariana Grande featuring Future
All Night by The Vamps featuring Matoma
Talk Too Much by Coin (debut)
Don't Leave by Snakehips featuring MØ
Lights Down Low by MAX featuring gnash
Rockabye by Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul and Anna-Marie
American Girls by One Ok Rock (debut)
Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay

- The Vamps hosted Hit-Bound this week. I only just found out during this round that they're British.

- While Migos aren't the first thing I'd imagine teaming up with Calvin Harris, I'll say that Slide is actually kind of fun, but it's not completely solid. I'll discuss it more if it debuts.

- Since I didn't talk about Everyday last week, I may as well do that now. This song is overall rather messy, and not just because of Future's verse, which Hits 1 actually kept. I genuinely wonder why Future is getting this much overexposure given the last two albums that he surprise dropped. Ariana Grande herself does okay though.

- Talk Too Much sounds kinda like 90's alternative. But hey, I'll take that. It's not something I think I'll remember after this year, though.

- American Girls, on the other hand, feels a bit loud for my liking. It could potentially be a grower, but I don't know.

- I briefly said last week that I liked Something Just Like This, but listening to it in my own time... For an act who has been seriously testing my patience recently, I'm liking this more than I let on with that small blurb. Let's just say I can't wait for this to get big. I'll save my words for this when it debuts.

- We're actually looking pretty good, I'll say. Aside from Lights Down Low (wow I am not making friends with Adrian on that), every song here is at least decent, though of all the blue songs I'd say Cake is the closest to red.

Also, sorry to say that I won't be doing a Top 20 review, because that takes a lot of time and this is already seriously late as is. Sorry.

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth
2. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
3. Play That Song by Train
4. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
5. Unsteady by X Ambassadors

Countdown Top 5
1. Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran
2. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
3. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots
4. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
5. Love Me Now by John Legend

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay
2. Rockabye by Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul and Anna-Marie
3. Don't Leave by Snakehips featuring MØ
4. Touch by Little Mix
5. Believer by Imagine Dragons

Most Missed Song: Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon - It departed from the countdown this week one year ago, exactly right after crossing the milestone of making a full year here.

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: When We Were Young by Adele

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
7 Years by Lukas Graham — The way I see it, you're one of two minds with this one: you either think it's a beautiful tribute to Lukas' late father, or a totally conceited ego trip. You can clearly see which side I'm on. I was mad when this failed to hit #1 by the skin of its teeth.
Work by Rihanna featuring Drake — Not helping that was that THIS was one of the songs that blocked it. Yes, I understand that this is apparently supposed to have a deeper meaning to it, but would it have killed her to actually enunciate properly?
New Romantics by Taylor Swift — Honestly, I feel obligated to like Taylor Swift and her 1989 style at this point.
El Taxi by Pitbull featuring Osmani Garcia and Lil Jon — Kinda interesting that Mr. Worldwide scooped up the guy who was on his first proper single in the mid-2000s - which also had a Spanish name - for another song that sadly got nowhere.

QOTD: Are there any songs from Ed Sheeran's Divide that you are hoping become singles? I haven't listened to the full album yet, but I'm sure there are some that will get big.

Thanks for reading, everybody!