Hello, fam! This is second consecutive week in which I got this out a little earlier than usual. It’s highly doubtful that it’ll happen every week. But I do try to get these out in a timely manner. Also, August has gone by pretty fast. We’re closing in on the month of September, and with it comes Fall, one of my favorite seasons of the year. I’m definitely looking forward it. Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Find U Again by Mark Ronson featuring Camila Cabello (#29)
• Paradise by Bazzi (#34)
• Summer Days by Martin Garrix featuring Macklemore and Patrick Stump (#36)
• Cool by Jonas Brothers (#39)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
40. Close To Me by Ellie Goulding featuring Diplo and Swae Lee (#40) [=]
39. Sunflower by Post Malone featuring Swae Lee (#38) [–1]
38. La La Land by Bryce Vine featuring YG (#27) [–11]
37. Better by Khalid (#37) [=]
36. One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown (DEBUT)
35. High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco (#35) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
34. All The Time by Zara Larsson (DEBUT)
33. Mother’s Daughter by Miley Cyrus (DEBUT)
32. Eastside by Benny Blanco featuring Halsey and Khalid (#31) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
31. Trampoline by SHAED (#32) [+1]
30. Hate Me by Ellie Goulding featuring Juice WRLD (#33) [+3]
29. Without Me by Halsey (#28) [–1] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
28. Boyfriend by Ariana Grande featuring Social House (DEBUT)
27. Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored by Ariana Grande (#26) [–1]
26. How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith (#30) [+4]
25. 7 Rings by Ariana Grande (#23) [–2] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
24. The Git Up by Blanco Brown (#25) [+1]
23. Just Us by DJ Khaled featuring SZA (#24) [+1]
22. Love Me Less by MAX featuring Quinn XCII (#22) [=]
21. Call You Mine by The Chainsmokers featuring Bebe Rexha (#21) [=]
20. Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max (#19) [–1]
19. Speechless by Dan + Shay (#17) [–2]
18. Old Town Road (Remix) by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (#15) [–3]
17. Only Human by Jonas Brothers (#20) [+3]
16. Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid (#18) [+2]
15. Wow. by Post Malone (#14) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
14. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi (#16) [+2]
13. Easier by 5 Seconds Of Summer (#13) [=]
12. Dancing With A Stranger by Sam Smith featuring Normani (#11) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
11. Never Really Over by Katy Perry (#10) [–1]
10. Goodbyes by Post Malone featuring Young Thug (#12) [+2]
9. You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift (#9) [=]
8. Sucker by Jonas Brothers (#5) [–3] [Spent 8 Weeks At #1]
7. Hey Look Ma, I Made It by Panic! At The Disco (#6) [–1]
6. Truth Hurts by Lizzo (#7) [+1]
5. Señorita by Shawn Mendes featuring Camila Cabello (#8) [+3]
4. Talk by Khalid (#3) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
3. If I Can’t Have You by Shawn Mendes (#4) [+1]
2. I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran featuring Justin Bieber (#2) [=] [Spent 2 Weeks At #1]
1. Bad Guy by Billie Eilish (#1) [=] [2^nd Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Girls Like You by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (3^rd of 5 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: La La Land by Bryce Vine featuring YG (–11)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith (+4)

New Entrants:
– Normally, I would go in order. But for this week, I’m going to save the two debuts for last. So, first up is more of Zara Larsson with her latest single titled All The Time. Earlier this year, she did give us Ruin My Life, which was solid overall. All The Time is just as good as its predecessor, maybe even better. One big reason for that is the production and the beat, which sounds really good. I like Zara’s voice here. She is a talented singer and she further proved my point in this song. The robotic vocals are just awesome. It makes me want to dance! So, hearing this one definitely puts a smile on my face. I don’t really expect it to last very long given that Zara is underrated in the US. But she has impressed me with this song.

– Immediately after that is Miley Cyrus with her single titled Mother’s Daughter, which is taken from her EP She Is Coming. She actually has a newer song out titled Slide Away, which was just recently released following her break-up with Liam Hemsworth. I do kinda like that song, but I won’t get into that one right now. As far as Mother’s Daughter goes, this is solid. I like the production in a way and her vocals sound good. Miley has talent as a singer and she uses it well here. I also like the lyrics for the most part. Yeah, this is a good song overall.

– Alright. Now I’m going to go through the two worst debuts of the week, and Dear Jesus, help me with those two. First up is more of Ariana Grande yet again because the whole world can’t seem to get enough of her these days. She collaborates with Social House in their new single, Boyfriend. Ever since Ariana released Thank U, Next, things have been going southward. 7 Rings was terrible and is easily a candidate for one of my Bottom 10 songs of 2019. But of course, it spent 5 fucking weeks at #1 on the AT40, which shows just how shitty the quality of music has gone. Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored isn’t any better either. And now we have Boyfriend. The song isn’t as bad as the other two, but it is still underwhelming in every sense of the word. The production is not interesting and I do not like the beat. There is very little to no cohesion in that aspect. I don’t see a damn thing interesting about it at all. Ariana barely shows any vocal talent here, which is very sad for me to say because I really like her. But she hasn’t impressed me with her latest singles and this song isn’t helping matters. The members of Social House hardly make any sort of contribution towards the song. What the hell did these guys show me exactly that would make me give them the benefit of the doubt? I’m not seeing any of it here. And then there’s the lyrics, which lack depth whatsoever and it sends bad messages. Ariana is a good songwriter, but she does not show it in the song. Honestly, I know she can do so much better. Overall, this song is straight up terrible and it shows just how much Ariana has been selling out. I really hope it does not become a big hit, because it will not take it very kindly if it does. But it probably will anyway.

– Sigh…help me with this one. Last and definitely least, we have my new least favorite song of the year. It comes from the return of Marshmello because of course. And he collaborates with country singer Kane Brown in One Thing Right. Let’s get into this one. I’ve not been very fond of what Marshmello has to offer lately. Ever since his collaboration with Anne-Marie in Friends, it’s been all downhill for him. Other than Here With Me, almost every release has sucked. One Thing Right is no exception. I found this simply bad initially and it has quickly gotten worse from there. I’ll never get the appeal to the song whatsoever. This is not EDM. I’m going to emphasize this again: THIS IS NOT EDM IN THE SLIGHTEST! Everything about the song is a fucking mess from top to bottom. Marshmello did not put forth any effort at all when it comes to production. It shows just how lazy he’s gotten as an EDM producer. Kane Brown is a good singer and he has some stuff that I liked. But here, he sounds like absolute shit in every second of the song. I honestly can’t think of any part of the song where he shines. As a matter of fact, he is DRENCHED in auto-tune. And don’t even get me started on the bridge, as well as the last chorus, because it is just insufferable. Simply put, this is a fucking terrible song and is the worst I’ve heard in EDM this year. Marshmello has basically sold out. He was at his peak when he did a collaboration with Selena Gomez in Wolves, which is easily his best song by a clear mile. I was rooting for him following his success of that song, but now he’s become lazy and I don’t even know if I like him anymore at this point. I’m sure some here were saying the same about Zedd at this point last year. I still hold the 100% unpopular opinion on loving songs like Stay, The Middle (my #1 favorite song of 2018), and Happy Now. But unfortunately, Marshmello has been a different story. His latest singles have not been to my liking and this is another low for him. Thanks a lot. This song really gives me another good reason to lose faith in EDM right now.

Best Debut Of The Week: All The Time by Zara Larsson 

Something About The Way You Blurb Tonight
– We’ll start with the exits. First off, good riddance to Cool. I did like its predecessor for the most part, but Cool was simply underwhelming and frankly, not very good. Paradise didn’t exactly appeal to me the same way Mine did. I just couldn’t quite get into that one. Find U Again I was recently starting to grow into and I find it pretty solid. But it leaving didn’t affect me that much. The saddest one for me is Summer Days. It was definitely my jam for the summer and I’m sad this wasn’t a huge hit. But at the same time, I can’t say I’m surprised given that Martin Garrix isn’t relevant in mainstream.

– It’s very nice to see La La Land making a big drop down to the Bottom 5. I’m glad this ended up flopping because everything about it is not good whatsoever. Bryce Vine hasn’t impressed me with his music so far.

– Goodbyes enters the Top 10 because of course, people can’t seem to get enough of Post Malone nowadays. I do like the song quite a bit, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it continue its momentum.

– Señorita is continuing is upward march as it enters the Top 5 this week. This’ll likely end up as the next #1 within the next couple of weeks or so. Once it gets up there, I’m sure it hold it for a little while. I wouldn’t object to that because it is cool song with a Latin vibe.

– In even better news, the record-breaking Old Town Road has FINALLY been dethroned by Bad Guy this week on the Billboard Hot 100! I definitely did not envision this happening, but I’m very happy. It’s probably one of the coolest #1 songs we’ve had in a while. Also, here’s a fun fact: Billie is the first artist born in the 21^st Century to hit #1. So congrats to her for this achievement!

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Time by NF
• Rescue Me by OneRepublic
• Panini by Lil Nas X

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
• Dead And Gone by T.I. featuring Justin Timberlake
• Don’t Wanna Know by Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar
• I Like Me Better by Lauv
• Look Back At It by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
• Wake Up by Travis Scott featuring The Weeknd
• I’m So Tired… by Lauv featuring Troye Sivan
• Nothin’ On You by B.O.B. featuring Bruno Mars
• Crazy In Love by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z
• No Promises by Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato
• Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton
• Worth It by Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink
• Friends by Marshmello featuring Anne-Marie

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Garbage:
20. Old Town Road (Remix) by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus

1 – Bad:
19. Easier by 5 Seconds Of Summer
18. Wow. by Post Malone
17. You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift

2 – Mediocre:
16. Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi
15. Talk by Khalid

3 – Decent:
14. I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran featuring Justin Bieber

4 – Good:
13. Goodbyes by Post Malone featuring Young Thug

5 – Great:
12. Sucker by Jonas Brothers
11. Hey Look Ma, I Made It by Panic! At The Disco
10. Truth Hurts by Lizzo
9. Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max
8. Only Human by Jonas Brothers
7. Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid
6. Speechless by Dan + Shay
5. Señorita by Shawn Mendes featuring Camila Cabello
4. Dancing With A Stranger by Sam Smith featuring Normani
3. Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
2. If I Can’t Have You by Shawn Mendes

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Never Really Over by Katy Perry

Total Score: 75/100 = 75% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Something About The Way You Look Tonight by Elton John (1997)

Most Missed Song: Stay The Night by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams (back when EDM was actually good)

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Higher Love by Kygo featuring Whitney Houston

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Tie between Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Backstreet Boys (#19) and The Middle by Zedd featuring Maren Morris and Grey (#18)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Never Really Over by Katy Perry
2. Call You Mine by The Chainsmokers featuring Bebe Rexha
3. If I Can’t Have You by Shawn Mendes
4. Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
5. Señorita by Shawn Mendes featuring Camila Cabello

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown
2. 7 Rings by Ariana Grande
3. Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored by Ariana Grande
4. Boyfriend by Ariana Grande featuring Social House
5. Love Me Less by MAX featuring Quinn XCII

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
The Way I Am by Charlie Puth: One of Charlie’s weakest singles off of Voicenotes. Outside of the production and his vocals, there’s not a lot that this one has to offer. That’s really all I have to say about this one
Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD: Nothing about the song works well at all. Terrible beat, shitty lyrics, and poor vocal performance by Juice WRLD. Do I even need to say anymore?