So, the new Mortal Kombat movie recently came out last week.  I watched it all weekend on HBO Max (which is where is streaming).  Having been a fan of the video game franchise for a long time, it was a thrill to watch.  Sure, it’s gruesome, but I enjoyed it overall.  If you haven’t already, be sure to check it out.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Willow by Taylow Swift (#39)
  
• Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#40) [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
40. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#37) [–3]
39. Sacrifice by Bebe Rexha (DEBUT) 
38. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#35) [+3]
37. Hold On by Justin Bieber (#38) [+1]
36. Bang! by AJR (#33) [–3]
35. Good Days by SZA (#34) [–1]
34. Way Less Sad by AJR (#36) [+2]
33. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#28) [–5]
32. Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo (DEBUT)
31. The Business by Tiësto (#31) [=]
30. Bad Girl by Daya (#30) [=]
29. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line (#32) [+3]
28. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#25) [–3]
27. POV by Ariana Grande (#29) [+2]
26. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#27) [+1]
25. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#22) [–3] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
24. Up by Cardi B (#24) [=]
23. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#21) [–2]
22. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (#20) [–2]
21. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#19) [–2]
20. Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf (#23) [+3]
19. Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caeser and Giveon (#26) [+7]
18. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#10) [–8]
17. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#14) [–3]
16. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#18) [+2]
15. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuirng Megan Thee Stallion (#17) [+2]
14. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#15) [+1]
13. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (#16) [+3]
12. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#12) [=]
11. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#11) [=]
10. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#13) [+3]
9. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#9) [=]
8. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#7) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
7. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#8) [+1]
6. Positions by Ariana Grande (#5) [–1] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
5. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#3) [–2]
4. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#4) [=]
3. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#6) [+3]
2. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#1) [–1] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
1. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#2) [+1] [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Adore You by Harry Styles (2^nd And Final Week At #1) 

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (–8)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caeser and Giveon (+7)

New Entrants:
– More of Bebe Rexha isn’t exactly what I’m looking forward to.  But alas, here she is with her latest new single titled Sacrifice.  I haven’t been very fond of what she has had to offer in terms of her solo singles other than You Can’t Stop The Girl.  Earlier this year, she had a collaboration with Doja Cat in Baby I’m Jealous, which was terrible.  As for her new single, I can’t say I care for this one either.  Sure, I like the EDM production.  But Bebe herself sounds pretty underwhelming in parts of the song.  The pre-chorus is pretty decent, but that’s about it.  There really isn’t much to the lyrics.  Basically, it’s wanting to leave certain things out of one’s life to keep a relationship going.  I feel like more could’ve been done with the songwriting.  That’s just me.  So yeah, I’m pretty split on this overall.

– Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the first three months of 2021 or so, then you probably know by now that Olivia Rodrigo has become a big name this year thanks in large part to Driver’s License, which has reached monolithic levels of popularity.  Of course, it has just been dethroned from the #1 spot, and I’ll talk about that in a little bit.  Here we have the follow-up to its predecessor making its debut this week, by the name of Deja Vu.  Right off the bat, I think this song is cute.  It starts out with the twinkly sound and then it picks up from there.  Olivia’s voice fits well.  I love the chorus and the bridge that comes after it.  And then there’s the lyrics, which is basically reminiscing of her past relationship with one another.  While I won’t quite say it lives up to its predecessor, it’s still pretty solid in its own way.  I wouldn’t be opposed to it seeing it become another huge hit for Olivia, which it very likely will.

Best Debut Of The Week: Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo

Do You Get Deja Blurbs?
– I’ll be talking about our two exits, first.  Willow leaving was no surprise.  It didn’t exactly do well on this countdown.  But it was successful elsewhere including Billboard (where it reached #1), and I’m sure that one will end up on the Billboard Year-End come December.  It’s too bad we won’t be getting any new Taylor Swift anytime soon.  But she does have re-recorded albums coming soon.  And then there’s the big one, in which Blinding Lights is officially no more.  As a certain someone once said, it was “the song that would never go away”.  Although it spent 5 weeks at #1, it did break numerous records elsewhere, and it spent a year in the Top 10 on Billboard.  Easily his biggest hit of his career.  Farewell, Blinding Lights.  It’s been a wild ride.  You’ll be missed.

– I Hope has now finally fallen to the bottom of the countdown.  That’s some good news.  It’s only a matter of time before it ends up leaving soon, ideally next week.

– On the note of other good news, Holy dropped out of the Top 30.  Words cannot describe how excruciating it is to have to put up with the shitty song being in the Top 10 every week.  It won’t be much longer with us, fortunately.

– In Top 20 news, Astronaut In The Ocean makes it’s entry there.  I really don’t know how I feel because I don’t exactly find the song exciting.  But if anything, it’s not the worst thing in the world.

– And of course, Peaches takes the biggest jump of the week.  Not surprising at all.  The song is gaining momentum elsewhere and I wouldn’t mind seeing this one become a hit here.  It’s one of Justin Bieber’s better songs compared to his two current representations on the countdown.

– Good thing Go Crazy tumbled down big time after being in the Top 10 for a while.  It was scary seeing it peak at #2 a month ago.  But thankfully, it didn’t hit #1.  Now let’s hope it keeps on dropping.

– When there’s good, there’s also not-so-good.  WITHOUT YOU entered the Top 10, which annoys the crap out of me.  I’ll never see what’s so appealing about this song.  His voice is just terrible and the radio overplay isn’t helping matters at all.

– But in better news, it’s good to see Save Your Tears in the Top 5!  I’m glad this is becoming another hit for The Weeknd.  He just recently released the remix to the song with Ariana Grande this past week.  I’ll say that it’s not as good as the original.  But she does add some life to it, especially at the end.

– And that brings us to our new #1 this week, in which Therefore I Am claims the top spot.  I didn’t think it would get the #1 given the huge success of Driver’s License.  I’m glad I was wrong.  Therefore I Am is another highlight of Billie Eilish’s discography and I’m very happy to see it become successful.  It can stay there for as long as it likes.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• I’m Not Pretty by JESSIA
• Provide by G-Eazy featuring Chris Brown and Mark Morrison
• Kiss Me More by Doja Cat featuring SZA
• Calling My Phone by Lil TJay featuring 6LACK
• Arcade by Duncan Lawrence
• Montero (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk
• Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Lovato
• Delicate by Taylor Swift
• Dancing With The Devil by Demi Lovato
• Bad At Love by Halsey
• If The World Was Ending by JP Saxe featuring Julia Michaels
• Supalonely by BENEE featuring Gus Dapperton
• No Tears Left To Cry by Ariana Grande
• Ride It by Regard
• Dynamite by BTS

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
19. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
18. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
16. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
15. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion
14. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
13. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae

3 – Decent:
12. Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf
11. 34+35 by Ariana Grande

4 – Good:
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
9. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
8. Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caeser and Giveon
7. Anyone by Justin Bieber
6. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
5. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
4. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
2. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)

Overall Grade: 60/100 = 60% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Purple Rain by Prince (1984) (Five years since he passed…)

Most Missed Countdown Song: Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Shy Away by TWENTY ØNE PILØTS

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#2)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)
2. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
4. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
5. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
2. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
3. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
5. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Supalonely by BENEE featuring Gus Dapperton:
Toosie Slide by Drake:
Life Is Good by Future featuring Drake:

So, I know this post was a little late. It’s because I had got very busy during the week. But I’m glad I got it posted. So, here it is for you guys. Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week.

• Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#25)
• Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (#39)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
40. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#40) [=] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
39. Willow by Taylor Swift (#19) [–20]
38. Hold On by Justin Bieber (#39) [+1]
37. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#36) [–1]
36. Way Less Sad by AJR (#37) [+1]
35. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#32) [–3]
34. Good Days by SZA (#35) [+1]
33. Bang! by AJR (#30) [–3]
32. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line (#33) [+1]
31. The Business by Tiësto (#31) [=]
30. Bad Girl by Daya (#34) [+4]
29. POV by Ariana Grande (DEBUT)
28. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#27) [–1]
27. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#26) [–1]
26. Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caeser and GIVEON (DEBUT)
25. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#24) [–1]
24. Up by Cardi B (#28) [+4]
23. Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf (#29) [+6]
22. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#21) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
21. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#22) [+1]
20. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (#23) [+3]
19. Dakati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#20) [+1]
18. Goosembumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#18) [=]
17. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion (#17) [=]
16. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (#16) [=]
15. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#14) [–1]
14. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#13) [–1]
13. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#15) [+2]
12. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#11) [–1] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
11. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#12) [+1]
10. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#8) [–2]
9. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#9) [=]
8. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#10) [+2]
7. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#4) [–3] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
6. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#7) [+1]
5. Positions by Ariana Grande (#5) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
4. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#6) [+2]
3. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#3) [=]
2. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#2) [=]
1. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#1) [=] [5^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Adore You by Harry Styles (1^st of 2 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Willow by Taylor Swift (–20)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf (+6)

New Entrants:
– So, two entrants. We’ll start with Ariana Grande with her next single off of Positions, by the name of POV (or point of view). Basically, she’s tell her story about a relationship from her point of view (hence the title of the song). I like the vocals here and the minimalist beat sounds pretty good here. Overall, I enjoy this. But I still prefer her older albums as well as some of Sweetener. Those albums are where gems are located and I often revisit them from time to time. We’ll see if POV can stick with me long term.

– Then, we have more of Justin Bieber with another single from his album, Justice. This time, he collaborates with Daniel Caesar and Giveon, by the name of Peaches. First off, I like how he references Georgia and the fact that it’s known for it’s peaches. As for the rest of the song, I like the verses we get from them and I think the beat is good. I won’t quite say it lives up to songs like Anyone, Hold On, and As I Am. But it’s still good in its own way. This just recently hit #1 on Billboard and is gaining momentum right now. I won’t be surprised if it ends up doing well here.

Best Debut Of The Week: POV by Ariana Grande

I Got My Blurbs Out In Georgia
– We’ll begin with our two exits. First off, there’s Laugh Now Cry Later, which I didn’t care for to begin with, so I’m glad we got to say goodbye to it. But then there’s Monsters, which ended up having somewhat of a good run here. It was #1 for four weeks on Hits 1 and had great success on that countdown. I predicted it would be a replica of High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco from a couple years back, when it was a huge hit on Hits 1 and would eventually become successful elsewhere. But it didn’t exactly happen that way.

– You Broke Me First strangely decides to enter the Top 5 after spending almost half the year on the countdown. I would’ve been okay with this maybe a few months ago if I actually liked the song (which I never really did to start). I don’t know anybody who still supports this at the moment. But I’ll take it over Put Your Records On any day.

– So, Willow decides to take a massive 20-spot drop this week. If I’m correct, this is the biggest drop we’ve had so far in 2021. Dang! At least this was #1 on Hits 1 for the past few weeks. But now, it doesn’t look like the same will ring true here unfortunately. It looks destined to make the Year-End list for Billboard, though.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Sacrifice by Bebe Rexha
• I’m Not Pretty by JESSIA
• Dancing With The Devil by Demi Lovato
• Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo
• Provide by G-Eazy featuring Chris Brown and Mark Morrison
• Calling My Phone by Lil TJAy featuring 6LACK

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur
• I Like Me Better by Lauv
• Only Human by Jonas Brothers
• Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi
• Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug
• Lose You To Love Me by Selena Gomez
• ROCKSTAR by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch
• Star by LOOΠΔ
• Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
• Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
• I’m The One by DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper, and Lil Wayne
• Heathens by TWENTY ØNE PILØTS

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
19. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
18. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
16. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
15. Heat Waves by Glass Animals
14. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion
13. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
None!

3 – Decent:
12. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
11. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez
10. 34+35 by Ariana Grande

4 – Good:
9. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
8. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
7. Anyone by Justin Bieber
6. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
5. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
4. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
2. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)

Overall Grade: 57/100 = 57% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman (1995)

Most Missed Countdown Song: Breathin’ by Ariana Grande

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Street Runner by Rod Wave

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#3)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
4. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
5. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
2. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
3. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
5. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
July by Noah Cyrus: This is probably her most tolerable song she has released (outside of her collaborations with Alan Walker and One Bit). I’ve been hearing this a lot at work and I find that she has an okay voice. But it still pales in comparison with her sister, Miley, who has seen a career resurgence last year.

Nice To Meet Ya by Meghan Trainor featuring Nicki Minaj: My second least favorite single from Meghan Trainor (only behind Wave with Mike Sabath), and for good reason. It’s just sad to see how far she has fallen. Between the nonsensical lyrics and these two having no chemistry, this is just not a fun listen. And the whispering of the words “nice to meet ya” is rather unsettling.

In Your Eyes by The Weeknd: The follow-up to Blinding Lights. It’s too bad In Your Eyes never became as big as its predecessor, because almost everything about this is on point. And once again, The Weeknd does it again by channeling his inner Michael Jackson.

Break My Heart by Dua Lipa: It doesn’t quite live up to Don’t Start Now. But it’s still divine in every sense of the word. Between the disco vibe and her breathtaking voice, it’s one of the best Future Nostalgia has to offer.

If you’ve been keeping up with baseball this weekend, then you probably already know that Joe Musgrove became the first Padres pitcher ever to throw for a no-hitter last Friday. So congrats to him! That was a thrill. On the not-so good side, Atlanta got robbed of a series sweep against Philly on Sunday all because of some bullshit call in the last inning. Just shameful. In basketball land, the Hawks have been on the winning track and look poised to make the playoffs, so that good news. Yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk about. Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Golden by Harry Styles (#17)
• Star by LOOΠΔ (#37)
• Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug (#39)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
40. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#40) [=] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
39. Hold On by Justin Bieber (DEBUT)
38. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (#38) [=]
37. Way Less Sad by AJR (DEBUT)
36. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#35) [–1]
35. Good Days by SZA (DEBUT)
34. Bad Girl by Daya (#36) [+2]
33. Lil Bit by Nell featuring Florida Georgia Line (#34) [+1]
32. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#31) [–1]
31. The Business by Tiësto (#30) [–1]
30. Bang! by AJR (#29) [–1]
29. Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf (#33) [+4]
28. Up by Cardi B (#32) [+4]
27. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#26) [–1]
26. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#28) [+2]
25. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#20) [–5]
24. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#23) [–1]
23. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (#27) [+4]
22. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#24) [+2]
21. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#18) [–3] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
20. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#22) [+2]
19. Willow by Taylor Swift (#16) [–3]
18. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#19) [+1]
17. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion (#21) [+4]
16. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (#25) [+9]
15. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#15) [=]
14. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#14) [=]
13. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#13) [=]
12. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#12) [=]
11. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#9) [–2] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#10) [=]
9. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#11) [+2]
8. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#8) [=]
7. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#7) [=]
6. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#6) [=]
5. Positions by Ariana Grande (#) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
4. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#3) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
3. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#4) [+1]
2. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#2) [=]
1. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#1) [=] [4^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (5^th And Final Week At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (–5)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (+9)

New Entrants:
– I’m sure many here are tired of hearing more from Justin Bieber (save for Anyone). Don’t worry, I am too. But it looks like he’s here to stay. This week, he gives us another new single in the form of Hold On. His newest album, titled Justice, recently came out and it comes just after Changes, which was last year. I would question such a move given that it’s just going into his overexposure. But I’ll admit, it’s a solid album overall and I’m happy that it dethroned the terrible album from Morgan Wallen after several weeks of being #1 on the Billboard 200. As far as the song goes, I like it a little more than I should. It’s not quite his best and I prefer the singles off of Purpose because that album was a masterful work of art. Hold On has a nice sentiment to it. I enjoy the beat and the production here. Plus, Justin sounds pretty good in the chorus. He does have another song, Peaches which is gaining huge traction right now, so I’m sure we’ll see that one on the countdown pretty soon. But Hold On is a solid track overall and I hope it sticks around for a long while.

– Oh, this is just great. More of AJR is exactly what the world needs because why the hell not. They give us their latest song titled Way Less Sad. It comes as no shock that I don’t like these guys. They have not been impressing me with their music. Every single they’ve released has ranged from pretty bad to outright terrible. So you won’t be shocked to know that I’m not fond of Way Less Sad. It’s a little bit of a step up from Bang!, which is just a mess. But that in and of itself isn’t saying much because their new song is still awful. It is overproduced and I don’t like the loud solo trumpets that come after the chorus. But even beyond that, they don’t sound good in any part of the song and lyrically, it’s annoying as crap. They tried to take a different approach here and the result (as you would expect) is not good. And the sad thing is is that these guys have suddenly became popular in mainstream, which makes me even further annoyed. Hopefully, it dies out fast because it’s terrible.

– Last but not least, we have a song that is finally here!  It’s from the return of SZA and she gives us Good Days!  I’ve been a fan of her for quite sometime.  It’s was this time last year when she collaborated with Justin Timberlake in The Other Side, which unfortunately failed to take off chart-wise.  In terms of how the new song goes, it’s pretty amazing.  Basically, she’s talking about moving past negativity and thinking about the good days (hence the title).  I like the sentiment to it and it’s executed very well. The production is well put together and SZA has an amazing voice throughout the song.  Like I said, I’ve been a fan of her and she’s talented as evidenced in songs such as The Other Side and her feature in All The Stars from Kendrick Lamar.  I’m in love with this song overall.  SZA has wowed me yet again.

Best Debut Of The Week: Good Days by SZA

Good Blurbs
– We’ll start with our exits. To begin, Talk About Love didn’t last long at all and it’s no shock considering Zara Larsson is underrated in the US. But it wasn’t anything amazing to start. She’s done better. So, I guess you could say I’m kinda happy with it departing. Star was something I loved, and it’s sad that it didn’t catch on unlike Dynamite by BTS.  Lastly, there’s Golden, which leaves from a relatively high poisition this week.  This is probably the last we’ll hear from Harry Styles, at least for a while.  But he had a good run.

– As you probably can tell, I’m not thrilled about Put Your Records On being in the Top 3.  Hopefully, it won’t last very long up there.  Again, why we made this shitty cover of a song from Corinne Bailey Rae a massive hit is beyond me.

– In better news, Leave The Door Open makes it’s way into the Top 20 by having the Biggest Rise Of The Week.  It’s definitely an enjoyable song and I’m impressed with how Bruno and Anderson put it all together.  With this becoming a massive hit, I’m almost certain it’ll stick around for a while and I’ll be happy with that.

– I’m not surprised to see Beautiful Mistakes enter the Top 20 as it continues to gain a little traction at the moment.  But I’m not thrilled about this.  I know I say this all the time, but I much prefer their older albums and some of V because they were full of gems that I revisit from time to time.  Beautiful Mistakes is not memorable in any way and Megan didn’t contribute to anything in the song at all.  Hopefully, it ends up flopping like Nobody’s Love.  But I have my doubts.

– With Monsters having the Biggest Fall Of The Week, it’s safe to say that this won’t become a sleeper hit.  I still like the song, and when it started gaining momentum at the beginning of the year, I kinda thought it would be similar to Panic! At The Disco from 2018-19 when High Hopes became a surprise hit.  Unfortunately, that won’t be the case with All Time Low.  At least it was #1 on Hits 1, so I’m kinda happy with the tenure it had.

Breakouts/On The Verge

• POV by Ariana Grande
• Sacrifice by Bebe Rexha
• I’m Not Pretty by JESSIA
• Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caeser and Giveon

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Umbrella by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z
• Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles
• Wolves by Selena Gomez featuring Marshmello
• Wake Me Up by Avicci featuring Aloe Blacc
• How Long by Charlie Puth
• Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo
• Heartless by The Weeknd
• Truth Hurts by Lizzo
• RITMO (Bad Boys For Life) by The Black Eyed Peas featuring J Balvin
• Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi
• Better Now by Post Malone
• SO DONE by The KID LAROI
• It Ain’t Me by Kygo featuring Selena Gomez
• Uptown Funk! by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
19. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
18. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
16. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
15. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion
14. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
None!

3 – Decent:
13. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
12. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez
11. 34+35 by Ariana Grande

4 – Good:
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
9. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
8. Willow by Taylor Swift
7. Anyone by Justin Bieber
6. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
5. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
4. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
2. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)

Overall Grade: 61/100 = 61% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Party Up (Up In Here) by DMX (2000)

Most Missed Countdown Song: Love Lies by Khalid featuring Normani

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Street Runner by Rod Wave

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
4. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
5. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
2. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
3. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
5. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Sunday Best by Surfaces: My #2 least favorite song of 2020, and for good reason.  This is definitely not Sunday Best whatsoever.  Terrible production, obnoxious vocals, and embarassing songwriting doesn’t make this a fun listen for me.

Modern Loneliness by Lauv: This is another in a long line of underwhelming songs from this guy.  The piano leaves a lot to be desired and I don’t like his voice in general.  Yeah, this is not good, and it’s not surprising since Lauv has mostly been a miss with his music.

Hello, fam!  I hope everyone here had a good Easter weekend!  First off, I want to say congrats to Baylor for winning the NCAA Championship.  They dominated that game.  It was a thrill watching them from start to finish.  Baseball season is now underway.  I’m hoping my Braves can win it all this year after choking the 3-1 series lead in the NLCS.  That one hurt.  I’m hoping they can bounce back.  But we’ll see how their season plays out.  This week’s countdown was definitely a lot more interesting as far as the debuts go.  We got rid of one huge piece of trash and replaced it with quite possibly my new favorite song of the year so far.  We did get some activity here and there, but not much.  Let’s get right into things.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#22)
• Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#27)
• Skin by Sabrina Carpenter (#35)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
40. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#39) [–1] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
39. Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug (#38) [–1]
38. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (#36) [–2]
37. Star by LOOΠΔ (#37) [=]
36. Bad Girl by Daya (DEBUT)
35. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#33) [–2]
34. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line (#34) [=]
33. Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf (DEBUT)
32. Up by Cardi B (#40) [+8]
31. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#30) [–1]
30. The Business by Tiësto (#31) [+1]
29. Bang! by AJR (#26) [–3]
28. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#29) [+1]
27. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (#32) [+5]
26. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#23) [–3]
25. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (DEBUT)
24. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#24) [=]
23. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#19) [–4]
22. Dakaiti by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#25) [+3]
21. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion (#28) [+7]
20. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#18) [–2]
19. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#21) [+2]
18. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#16) [–2] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
17. Golden by Harry Styles (#14) [–3]
16. Willow by Taylor Swift (#17) [+1]
15. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#20) [+5]
14. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#15) [+1]
13. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#13) [=]
12. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#12) [=]
11. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#11) [=]
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#9) [–1]
9. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#8) [–1] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
8. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#6) [–2]
7. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#10) [+1]
6. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#7) [+1]
5. Positions by Ariana Grande (#5) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
4. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#4) [=]
3. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#2) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
2. Therfore I Am by Billie Eilish (#3) [+1]
1. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#1) [=] [3^rd Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (4^th of 5 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (–4)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Up by Cardi B (+8)

New Entrants:
– Kicking things off is the return of Daya with her latest single Bad Girl.  It’s been about five years since she rose to fame with Hide Away and Sit Still, Look Pretty, both of which were absolutely putrid in their own way.  There was also a collaboration with The Chainsmokers in Don’t Let Me Down, which I didn’t mind for the most part.  The last time she made an appearance on the countdown was back in 2018 with New, which only lasted one week and never took off elsewhere.  Now, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to hearing more from her.  But after listening to Bad Girl in its entirety, I find it to be pretty good.  The lyrics are pretty questionable, but everything else works well for me here.  I like the production.  It’s got an interesting beat and Daya sounds good with her voice.  So yeah, it’s one of her better songs.  I doubt it’ll last very long, though.

– Next up is another song that is blowing up out of nowhere.  It’s from newcomer Masked Wolf and he brings us Astronaut In The Ocean.  Now, this was actually released in 2019, but here it is catching on in 2021.  Seems like there’s a lot of songs that’s getting popular nowadays despite it being out for a while.  Anyway, I like his energy and what he brings to the table.  His vocal performance shows that and the verses are pretty good.  But production-wise, it’s not as interesting and it’s missing something that makes it catchy.  I don’t know.  I think this is fine, but it could’ve been a lot better.

– So, it’s been five years since the release of 24K Magic, and I was wondering whether we get something new from Bruno Mars anytime soon.  Well, five years later, here he is with his newest project.  He teams up with Anderson.Paak to form his own band called Silk Sonic.  They give us Leave The Door Open.  Bruno has come a long way since his debut album, which is almost a decade ago.  My goodness, time flies!  He has the type of energy and charisma that pulls me in and that’s one of the reasons why I adore his music.  It wasn’t exactly like this early on, as proven in songs like Grenade, It Will Rain, and the god-awful The Lazy Song where he didn’t harness much of his talent.  But when Treasure and Uptown Funk were released, everything changed.  People started to love him because he was able to embrace his old school style by channeling his inner Michael Jackson (although I can say this about The Weeknd as well as his latest music is a reflection of that).  He was able to do it again with 24KMagic.  That album was filled with gems such as Finesse, Chunky, That’s What I Like, and of course the title track itself.  It comes as no surprise that I absolutely adore his newest song.  I love the chemistry between him and Anderson.Paak.  These guys have such amazing voices and they know how to deliver in the chorus.  They also had a hand in the production and it works well to perfection.  I enjoy the final chorus with the key change as Bruno delivers with his very high notes.  Yeah, this is my new favorite song of the year so far.  I’m looking forward to this becoming a hit!  🙂

Best Debut Of The Week: Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)

I’ma Leave The Blurbs Open
– I have no complaints at all about either of our exits.  Skin was just a mess and thankfully didn’t take off.  I don’t even know what Sabrina Carpenter was going for here, but it did not send a good message at all.  Yeah, that song will never be missed, and it’s definitely a candidate for My Bottom 10 Songs of 2021 when December rolls around.  Lifestyle wasn’t really my thing either, though it wasn’t nearly as annoying and I can somewhat see the appeal unlike Skin.  And Lasting Lover was getting less interesting with each and every additional listen.  Sigala has done much better in the past, but the song didn’t live up to that.  So I’m kinda glad it’s gone.

– Before introducing Star, Ryan Seacrest mentioned that when the group created the song, they wanted to interconnect with the fans and they were able to make a visual music video out of it.  I like the fact that they care for the fans.  I think they feel special to them.

– Ryan Seacrest mentioned during his introduction for Up that Cardi B doesn’t want Selena Gomez to retire from music.  She said that fans wanted something they’ve never heard before.  I mean, I don’t blame her not one bit, because I think Selena Gomez is still talented vocally and she hasn’t lost a step.  I’m hoping we hear more from her soon.

– I honestly don’t know how songs like I Hope and Bang! are still here.  They both need to leave.  Like, right now.

– On the note of shitty songs, we have WITHOUT YOU entering the Top 15.  Why the hell are we making this a thing?!?!  There is no appeal.  It’s just as bad as SO DONE, which left about a couple weeks ago.  He’s not a good singer at all and everything about the song is a mess.  Seriously, it needs to die out, fast.

– Ryan Seacrest mentioned upon introducing My Ex’s Best Friend that Machine Gun Kelly decided to make the switch from hip-hop to alternative rock for his latest album.  I find it interesting considering that the majority of his discography consisted of hip-hop songs.  I do quite like what he’s going for in his album.

– Not much has changed in the Top 10 othe than some songs moving spots, so really nothing else to talk about here.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Good Days by SZA
• Way Less Sad by AJR
• Hold On by Justin Bieber

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Afterglow by Ed Sheeran
• Breathin’ by Ariana Grande
• Work From Home by Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla $ign
• I Like It by Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J. Balvin
• Lemonade by Internet Money featuring Gunna, Don Toliver, and Nav
• Be Like That by Kane Brown featuring Swae Lee and Khalid
• Demons by Imagine Dragons
• Same Old Love by Selena Gomez
• The Bones by Maren Morris
• Holiday by Lil Nas X
• Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers featuring Coldplay
• Over Now by Calvin Harris featuring The Weeknd
• If I Can’t Have You by Shawn Mendes

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
19. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
18. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
16. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
15. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
14. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco

3 – Decent:
13. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
12. 34+35 by Ariana Grande

4 – Good:
11. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
10. Willow by Taylor Swift
9. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
8. Anyone by Justin Bieber
7. Golden by Harry Styles
6. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
5. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
4. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 62/100 = 62% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Fast Car by Tracy Chapman (1988)

Most Missed Song: Treasure by Bruno Mars

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Street Runner by Rod Wave

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#8)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic
2. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
3. Therfore I Am by Billie Eilish
4. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
5. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
2. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
3. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
5. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Sad Tonight by Chelsea Cutler: Yeah, I think it’s a nice song and the girl’s voice is cute.  That’s really all I can say about this one.  Fun fact: her and my father both share the same birthday (February 11).

I Love Me by Demi Lovato: Yeah…I’m not a fan of this.  It’s underwhelming and Demi doesn’t showcase her talent here.  This was not a good comeback for her overall.  She did get better with Dancing With The Devil, which just recently came out.

Hello, fam!  I swear, time just keeps going by faster and faster.  We’re at the end of March (already) and April is fast approaching.  I want to do something special for your guys on this blog.  I’ll try to come up with something soon.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• ily (i love you baby) by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee (#37)
• Savage Love by Jawsh 685 featuring Jason Derulo (#39) [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
40. Up by Cardi B (#40) [=]
39. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#35) [–4] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
38. Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug (#38) [=]
37. Star by LOOΠΔ (#36) [–1]
36. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (#32) [–4]
35. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter (#34) [–1]
34. Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line (DEBUT)
33. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#30) [–3]
32. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (#33) [+1]
31. The Business by Tiësto (#31) [=]
30. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#26) [–4]
29. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#29) [=]
28. Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion (DEBUT)
27. Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#27) [=]
26. Bang! by AJR (#23) [–3]
25. Dakiti by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#25) [=]
24. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#28) [+4]
23. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#20) [–3]
22. Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#21) [–1]
21. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#22) [+1]
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#24) [+4]
19. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#14) [–5]
18. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#18) [=]
17. Willow by Taylor Swift (#17) [=]
16. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#11) [–5] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
15. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#19) [+4]
14. Golden by Harry Styles (#13) [–1]
13. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#15) [+2]
12. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#16) [+4]
11. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#12) [+1]
10. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#9) [–1]
9. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#10) [+1]
8. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#8) [=] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
7. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#7) [=]
6. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#3) [–3]
5. Positions by Ariana Grande (#5) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
4. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#6) [+2]
3. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#4) [+1]
2. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#2) [=] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
1. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#1) [=] [2^nd Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (3^rd of 5 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Tie between Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby and Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (–5)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Tie between Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat, WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI, We’re Good by Dua Lipa, and Anyone by Justin Bieber (+4)

New Entrants:
– I have not been impressed with the debuts we’ve gotten for the past few weeks.  This week is probably the worst so far this year as we get two pretty bad songs entering the countdown.  We’ll start with the worst debut of the week as Nelly makes his return, and he collaborates with bro-country band Florida Georgia Line (again) in Lil Bit.  We haven’t heard much from Nelly since he gave us The Fix back in 2015, which wasn’t really to my liking.  As far as his new single goes, it’s straight up garbage.  The last time they did a collaboration together was back in 2013 with Cruise, which I absolutely loathe with a burning passion.  Lil Bit is just as bad, maybe even worse.  This is not country music in the slightest.  It’s basically a hip-hop song that tries to be country and it fails miserably.  The guitar lacking energy , the gutless beat, and the rest of the instrumentation leaving a lot to be desired makes for a poorly produced song.  Florida Georgia Line as a group sound like crap as their vocals are underwhelming and they show that they have no charisma or personality of any kind whatsoever.  Nelly also sounds like shit with his verses and in one of the lines, he mentions how he calls himself the GOAT.  Just no.  It’s just lousy songwriting at it’s finest.  This is basically what I would call not fun and honestly not something worth my damn time because it lacks uniqueness of any sort, there’s no vocal chemistry to speak of, and the instrumentation that is rotten to the core.  In other words, this is a skip.  NEXT!

– Our second (and final) debut of the week isn’t any better.  It comes from the return of Maroon 5 because why the hell not.  They team up with Megan Thee Stallion in Beautiful Mistakes.  With Adam Levine and company not impressing me with their music in recent years (other than What Lovers Do), I expected this song to not be to my liking and sure enough, I was proven right.  Adam sounds okay but for the most part, he is underwhelming vocally, especially in the chorus.  There’s no band here, which has been a recurring theme with their music for the past five or so years.  Megan Thee Stallion didn’t do anything to help save the song.  My point is further proven as their is no vocal chemistry between the two.  There are parts where she sounds okay, but it leaves so much to be desired.  Basically, her talent went to waste here, just like how Kendrick Lamar wasted his in the god-awful Don’t Wanna Know.  I knew right off the bat even before it’s released that she would waste her talent in this song and I was right.  Simply put, this is pretty bad and it’s no shock considering I haven’t been fond of what Maroon 5 have had to offer lately.  I want something more along the lines of their older singles and some of V and Overexposed.  Not this.

Best Debut Of The Week: Yeah, there’s nothing good here to select from.

Beautiful Misblurbs
– Our two exits consist of songs that won’t really be missed by me.  Savage Love was overdue to leave for sometime.  ily (i love you baby) I did tolerate for a while, but I could never fully get into the song.  It was missing something that makes it special.  But I do wish both of them were replaced by better songs because like I just mentioned, I haven’t been fond of the new arrivals entering the countdown lately.

– Our debuts from last week barely did anything in it’s second week here, with only Heat Waves jumping one spot.  Not that I’m complaining since neither of those songs are really any good.

– So….Anyone just keeps getting better with each listen.  I’m glad Justin redeemed himself with this song.  I decided to hear most of his new album Justice and there were some songs that I liked.  Also, the album looks like it’s headed for #1 on the Billboard 200.  I’m fine with that since it’s much better than Changes, which sucked for the most part.

– Eck.  Put Your Records On has entered the Top 5.  Just no.  Why it keeps gaining momentum is beyond me.  The fact that the cover of Corinne Bailey Rae’s song is a much bigger hit than the original is just not right.   Who the hell is supporting this?  Seriously, it’s time to stop this.

– On the other hand, we have Therefore I Am continuing to reach new peaks as it has it #3 this week.  I’m holding out hope that it can hit #1, but one can dream at this point.  Also, Billie just decided to go blonde this past week.  Wow.  She looks so different with her new hairstyle.  Cool stuff!

–  It was, of course, expected that Driver’s License would hold the #1 for the second week in a row.  No way it was going to hit #1 and immediately leave that spot.  It’s still going strong elsewhere.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf
• Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)
• Bad Girl by Daya
• Way Less Sad by AJR
• Good Days by SZA

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Break My Heart by Dua Lipa
• Jealous by Nick Jonas
• I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
• Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul
• Roxanne by Arizona Zervas
• Body by Megan Thee Stallion
• Friends by Marshmello featuring Anne Marie
• What’s My Name? by Rihanna featuring Drake
• Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa
• Crazy In Love by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z
• Only Girl (In The World) by Rihanna
• I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran featuring Justin Bieber

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
19. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
18. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
17. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
15. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco

3 – Decent:
14. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
13. 34+35 by Ariana Grande

4 – Good:
12. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
11. Willow by Taylor Swift
10. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
9. Anyone by Justin Bieber
8. Golden by Harry Styles
7. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
6. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
5. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:s
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 68/100 = 68% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: To Love You More by Céline Dion (1995) (Happy 53rd Birthday to her!)

Most Missed Song: Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Angels Like You by Miley Cyrus

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#1)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
4. Therfore I Am by Billie Eilish
5. Kings & Queens by Ava Max

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
2. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
3. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
4. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
5. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
The Bones by Maren Morris: I was pleasantly surprised when this became a sleeper hit last year.  But it makes me happy because it is divine.  Although I prefer some other singles from GIRL including the title track, everything about this song works to pefrection.

No Judgement by Niall Horan: Not as upbeat as Nice To Meet Ya and Small Talk, but it still shows that Niall is good with his solo music.  I quite like the instrumentation here and everything else is good both vocally and lyrically.

Hello, fam!  I finally got my first Year-End post out.  In case you’ve missed it, you can check it our right here. I have more Year-End posts coming within the next few weeks.  Also, March Madness is officially upon us.  As a sports fanatic, I plan on watching all the games this weekend.  So yeah, it’s gonna be wild.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Dynamite by BTS (#38)
• SO DONE by The KID LAROI (#39)
• Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi (#40) [Spent 1 Week At #1]

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: 34+35 by Ariana Grande
40. Up by Cardi B (DEBUT)
39. Savage Love by Jawsh 685 featuring Jason Derulo (#36) [–3] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
38. Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug (DEBUT)
37. ily (i love you baby) by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee (#34) [–3]
36. Star by LOOΠΔ (#37) [+1]
35. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#32) [–3] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
34. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter (#35) [+1]
33. Heat Waves by Glass Animals (DEBUT)
32. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Durk (#30) [–2]
31. The Business by Tiësto (#33) [+2]
30. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#28) [–2]
29. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#31) [+2]
28. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#29) [+1]
27. Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#27) [=]
26. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#23) [–3]
25. Dákiti by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#26) [+1]
24. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#25) [+1]
23. Bang! by AJR (#21) [–2]
22. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#22) [=]
21. Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#24) [+3]
20. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#17) [–3]
19. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#20) [+1]
18. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#19) [+1]
17. Willow by Taylor Swift (#18) [+1]
16. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#15) [–1]
15. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#16) [+1]
14. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#10) [–4]
13. Golden by Harry Styles (#14) [+1]
12. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#13) [+1]
11. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#8) [–3] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#12) [+2]
9. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#11) [+2]
8. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#7) [–1] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
7. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#9) [+2]
6. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#6) [=]
5. Positions by Ariana Grande (#4) [–1] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#5) [+1]
3. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#2) [–1]
2. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#1) [–1] [Spent 3 Weeks At #1]
1. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#3) [+2] [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (2^nd of 5 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (–4)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (+3)

New Entrants:
– Three not so interesting debuts this week.  Up first is the return of Cardi B with her new single Up.  We haven’t seen much of Cardi B since 2019 when Please Me was a hit.  There was also WAP with Megan Thee Stallion, but I won’t get into that one right now.  I can’t say I care for this one.  I’ll say that Cardi B is talented and she has some good songs I like.  But I’m not particularly sold on Up for the most part.  Something about the song doesn’t click with me the say way WAP did.  There are moments where Cardi B shows some of her talent.  But it feels a little forceful in some parts and while the production is fine, it’s missing something that makes it special.  I don’t know.  Yeah, I’m a little indifferent on this one.

– Next, we have the return of Zara Larsson who is collaborating with Young Thug in her new single Talk About Love. I adore Zara Larsson and her music is very much underrated (at least in the US). I can’t say I’m enjoying Talk About Love at the moment. Her voice is pretty good here, but I’m not too fond of Young Thug. He doesn’t really add anything to the song. The production is okay, but there are ways in which it can be improved upon because the beat isn’t too interesting. Overall, the song is pretty decent. But I know Zara is capable of better because Never Forget You was a divine work of art. Talk About Love doesn’t really live up to that, unfortunately.

– Finally, we have alt band Glass Animals making their first appearance on the AT40 countdown with Heat Waves.  Having listened to the song in its entirety, I don’t really see the appeal.  I’m sorry.  I mean, I can get what the song is going for.  It’s about staying strong through the bad times and we’ve seen a lot of songs about those.  But it wasn’t executed in the best way possible.  I don’t like the production as it has a brittle beat and weaker instrumentation.  The vocals aren’t very good here either.  I know I feel alone in this opinion, but I really don’t see anything interesting about it nor is it special.  I’m sorry, but I find this to be underwhelming at best.  It’s in blue, but it’s much closer to red.

Best Debut Of The Week: Hmm…I guess Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug

Talk About Blurbs
– In terms of our exits this week, good riddance to the mess that is of SO DONE by The KID LAROI. That one should’ve never debuted. As of right now, it’s set to appear in My Bottom 10 Songs of 2021. We’ll see. There’s also Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi which was long overdue. All I have to say about that is it’s about damn time. The only other exit happens to be Dynamite by BTS, which was a bop and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I’m glad it became BTS’s biggest hit and I’ll definitely revisit that one again. So farwell, Dynamite. It’s been a fun ride. You will be missed.

– I would appreciate if songs like Girl Like Me and Best Friend not move up any further, especially the former.  That one has only been getting worse with each and every additional listen.  Preferably, they both need to drop at the very least.

– Bang! also needs to go as well.  I really don’t know who is still supporting this song.

– My Head & My Heart has only been getting better with each listen.  Hopefully, it can continue it’s momentum.  It would be nice to see Ava Max getting another hit.

– Unfortunately, we saw Levitating out of the Top 10 for good.  It’s too bad this never ended up becoming a #1 song, but at least it was another hit for Dua.  I’m hoping this’ll end up sticking around for a little bit longer.  I still adore that song as opposed to her other song (We’re Good for the matter).

– In Top 10 news, we have My Ex’s Best Friend and Save Your Tears both enter that region.  I’m very thrilled to see Save Your Tears become another Top 10 hit for The Weeknd.  He’s been killing it this past year.  I hope to see it enter the Top 5 soon.

– And finally, we’ve come to our #1.  I saw it coming from a mile away.  It was of course expected that Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo is at #1 because it’s a massive success elsewhere.  I’ll say that it’s a pretty divine song and it’s refreshing to see a great song at the top after four weeks of middling #1’s. I’m almost certain that it’ll hog the #1 spot for a long while.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line
• Good Days by SZA
• Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf
• Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic (starring Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak)
• Bad Girl by Daya
• Beautiful Mistakes by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Him & I by G-Eazy featuring Halsey
• Sugar by Maroon 5
• Stay by Zedd featuring Alessia Cara
• Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding
• Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
• Unforgettable by French Montana featuring Swae Lee
• Diamonds by Sam Smith
• Happier by Marshmello featuring BΔSTILLE
• Yeah! by Usher featuring Ludacris and Lil Jon
• Sunflower by Post Malone featuring Swae Lee

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
19. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
18. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
17. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
15. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco
3 – Decent:
14. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
13. 34+35 by Ariana Grande
12. Willow by Taylor Swift

4 – Good:
11. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
10. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
9. Anyone by Justin Bieber
8. Golden by Harry Styles
7. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
6. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
5. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:s
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 67/100 = 67% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees (1977)

Most Missed Song: HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Angels Like You by Miley Cyrus

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#1)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
4. Kings & Queens by Ava Max
5. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
2. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
3. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira
4. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
5. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Sugar by BROCKHAMPTON: I like how these guys were able to go in depth about being in a relationship.  Everything else works well to perfection.

The Other Side by SZA featuring Justin Timberlake: An interesting collaboration here.  These guys have good chemistry here and I love the beat.  It’s a shame that this ended up flopping because it’s one of SZA’s best songs, along with her feature in All The Stars.

Stupid Love by Lady Gaga: Ah yes, Lady’s Gaga big return.  Interestingly, this took place a year after Shallow gained popularity in large part thanks to Shallow winning the 2019 Oscars.

Hello, fam!  It’s been a long time coming, but my first Year-End post for 2020 is finally here!  We’ve completed the first year of the new decade.  Obviously, 2020 has been a rough year for all of us, what with the pandemic and the fact that it led to cancelled events, parties, weddings, and concerts.  It’s just that kind of year.  It seemed like yesterday we were celebrating all of those special events and now we can’t seem to get together because crowds.  When we rung in 2020, we had no idea how different things were going to be.  But now here we are.  I’m hoping things will get much better for all of us in 2021 and beyond.

Putting all that aside, it’s now time for me to dive right in to my Year-End posts!  Over the next several weeks, I’ll be doing a series of Year-End posts that will cover many different topics. All of this will be time-consuming as I will go into much detail.  But if all goes as planned, I may end up getting this done within a month or so.  But we’ll see what ultimately happens.  With that in mind, I’m ready to get the ball rolling.

The first thing that I’ll be doing (or in this case, my least favorite thing to do or whatever you want to call it) is counting down My Bottom 10 Songs of 2020.  We did get plenty of good music like we do every year.  You’ll see me countdown some of my favorite songs of 2020 later on.  But of course, there were also plenty of shitty songs mixed in as well, so not everything is all positive.  Here, I’ll be discussing several different reasons as to why I legitimately despise those songs.  The list applies to songs that have made both the Hits 1 Weekend Countdown and the American Top 40, which I review on a weekly basis.

What I’m going to do first is talk about my dishonorable mentions.  Don’t get me wrong, I disliked these songs below.  But they weren’t bad enough to be able to make my Bottom 10.  Here, I’ll be discussing why I feel that way about these songs.  Of course, this wouldn’t really be a Year-End list if I didn’t have any honorable mentions (or dishonorable in this case) to talk about, now wouldn’t it?  So without further adieu, it is now time for me to present you my dishonorable mentions:

• AJR – Bang!

We’ll start things off with a band that is hated by many YouTube critics (and myself).  AJR have proven to be just that.  They have not been impressing me with their music.  Almost every single they’ve released for the past several years has been crap and Bang! is no exception.  I don’t like the obnoxious piano that starts off and the instrumentation is very loud (and not in a good way).  The chorus is annoying, especially when the awful production kicks in.  And the lyrics are shitty as usual.  I’m not thrilled that this is becoming a hit outside of Hits 1.  I’m sure this’ll end up being on next year’s Year-End list on many charts.  But oh well.  Can’t really do anything about that.

• AJR – Dear Winter

Oh, great.  More AJR.  I’ll say this is better than the majority of their singles.  But it’s not saying a whole lot.  At least it’s not overproduced like Bang! and many others.  All it is is basically an acoustic guitar.  That’s really the only good thing about it.  I can’t get on board with his voice mainly because of his falsetto and the lyrics are still no good.  Yeah, I’m not fond of this (to the surprise of nobody).

• Bebe Rexha featuring Doja Cat – Baby I’m Jealous

Here, we have two of these artists coming together to make a shitty song.  I don’t get what the song is going for here.  It’s basically about being jealous of one another because of being on social media flirting with someone else and what not.  But they really should’ve taken a different approach because it was not executed very well at all.  The beat is terrible.  Bebe is drowned in auto-tune in the chorus and she sounds underwhelming for the rest of the song.  Doja Cat barely adds anything to the song as her verses are obnoxious.  Simply put, this is garbage.  NEXT!

• The Black Eyed Peas featuring J Balvin – RITMO (Bad Boys For Life)

The big return of The Black Eyed Peas, and a terrible one at that.  Underwhelming reegae production, nonsensical lyrics, and awful verses we get from these artists makes this an unpleasant listen to say the least.  How we let this become a hit, I’ll never understand.

• Blackbear – Me & Ur Ghost

I’m not very fond of Blackbear and this song is one of many good reasons as to why.  I’ll admit the production  and the groove is very decent here.  But I just don’t like his voice here.  He’s basically the anchor that’s weighing this song down from being better than it is.  As for the lyrics, it leaves quite a bit to be desired.  So yeah, I’m not feeling this.  NEXT!

• BLACKPINK featuring Selena Gomez – Ice Cream

I remembered first listening to this song when it came out and thinking, “Wow, this is a flaming hot mess.” In hindsight, I probably should’ve placed this in My Bottom 10. But there was so much worse that came along during the year. It’s still a shitty song no matter how you slice it. I don’t get the appeal here. The verses we get from them are awful and Selena herself adds virtually nothing to the song. Plus, terrible production with trap elements and asinine lyrics doesn’t make it a fun listen for me. I’m not finding any redeeming qualities here, so I’d rather not with this song.

• Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby – My Oh My

Romance was not a very good album for the most part and it further proves that Camila is just not a very good singer.  My Oh My is another good example of such.  I’m not fond of her vocals and the production leaves a lot to be desired.  DaBaby doesn’t add anything to the song at all.  So yeah, I’m not a fan.  NEXT!

• CYN – Drinks

I don’t remember much about this song other than it being forgettable.  But hearing it again, it’s worse than what I remembered. Basically, it’s underwhelming all around.  Her voice is not good.  It’s just her whispering and there’s barely any singing going on.  Other than the beat, the production is virtually nonexistent.  So yeah, I’m not fond of this at all.  She didn’t really make a good first impression here.

• Demi Lovato – I Love Me

I honestly was expecting more out of Demi Lovato when she made her comeback.  I’ve been a fan of her for quite a while and she’s made plenty of songs that I’ve enjoyed.  But I Love Me has proven to not be one of them.  Something about the song just didn’t click with me and I don’t like what it’s going for.  The production is pretty weird, and not in a good way.   The chorus is pretty underwhelming, especially for Demi.  She’s a good singer, but I’m not fond of her vocal performance here.  Yeah, this was a disappointment overall.  I know she’s better than this.

• Diplo featuring Jonas Brothers – Lonely

Believe it or not, I actually forgot this song existed (and rightfully so).  It’s probably one of the worst songs Diplo has put out (outside of his collaboration with LSD, which was terrible).  The guitar is okay here.  But then it goes to shit when the drop comes in after the chorus.  It’s messy and the rest of the production is incredibly generic.  The Jonas Brothers hardly contribute to anything as their vocals are underwhelming, especially in the chorus.  This was not a good display of talent for both parties.  NEXT!

• DJ Khaled featuring Drake – POPSTAR

This song is not to my liking at all.  DJ Khaled is talented and he’s made quite a few songs that I enjoyed.  I have mixed feelings on Drake, but at least he has talent.  But POPSTAR was not a good display of talent for both of them.  The production is lifeless.  The lyrical content is nonsensical.  There’s nothing to it and they didn’t do well with the verses.  So yeah, I’m not fond of this.

• Doja Cat – Say So

I think I’m ready to say that Doja Cat is one of my least favorite artists of 2020.  I tried to get into her music, I really did.  But it did not work out for me at all.  This song is just the pure definition of generic pop music.  Bland production, weak vocals from Doja Cat, and unsettling verses just doesn’t make it a fun listen for me.  And the fact that we let this become a hit only makes matters worse.

• Drake – Toosie Slide

I’ll say this song isn’t as bad now, in large part because worse music came along this year and makes this song look better in comparison.  But this is still pretty bad.  Underwhelming beat, terrible lyrics and the verses doesn’t make for a fun listen.  Like I said, Drake is talented and has made some stuff I like for sure.  But this was not a good display of talent.  Let’s move on.

• Ellie Goulding featuring Blackbear – Worry About Me

On the note of other artists who have disappointed me in 2020, we have Ellie Goulding.  Yeah, this is just a mess.  The production is terrible.  I don’t like the beat here and everything else is unsettling.  Ellie sounds like shit all throughout the song and Blackbear didn’t contribute at all.  I’m in love with her music and she made a bunch of gems that I’ve enjoyed over the years, such as Lights and Love Me Like You Do.  Even Close To Me, despite not being her best, is still a really good song and it barely missed out on making my My Top 10 for 2019.  But Worry About Me is basically Ellie Goulding hitting rock bottom.

• French Montana featuring Cardi B, Post Malone, and Ryssian – Writing On The Wall

I remember when French Montana gave us Unforgettable back in 2017.  It was a huge favorite of mine and I still enjoy it to this day.  I can’t say that for Writing On The Wall, unfortunately.  The artists hardly make any contribution here because they show virtually no charisma and no personality whatsoever.  French Montana himself disappointed me with his vocals.  Nothing about the production works here as the beat is gutless and the guitar is weak.  As someone who adores Unforgettable, this is huge disappointment for French Montana and ultimately forgettable at best.  NEXT!

• Future featuring Drake – Life Is Good

Blech.  Do I even need to explain this?  I was this close to putting this in my Bottom 10 just because of how bad it sounds.  This is basically the epitome of uninteresting rap music.  Only here it takes a song from Drake and it combines into one with different beats.  They should’ve taken a different approach here because it sounds like crap.  They show no personality here, and the beat is horrendous.  So yeah, this is garbage.  NEXT!

• Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth – I Hope

It’s crazy how much my opinion has changed on this song.  I actually liked at first mainly because I thought Gabby sounded pretty good and I liked Charlie’s contribution.  But now I can’t stand it anymore.  Her voice is drowned in auto-tune and I don’t like the lyrics here.  I’ll explain more about it in a future post.  But yeah, this was not a good first impression here.

• Lauv – Modern Loneliness

I have not been very fond of what Lauv has had to offer.  Almost every single he’s released has not been very good at all and Modern Loneliness is no exception.  It’s not nearly as annoying as I Like Me Better and I’m So Tired, both of which were a mess in their own unique way.  But the song is is flavorless, bland, and just downright underwhelming.  Lauv does not sound good, the piano is generic, and the lyrics leave a lot to be desired.  So yeah, it’s another in a long line of mediocre songs from him.

• Lewis Capaldi – Before You Go

A follow-up to Someone You Loved, which was my #2 least favorite song of 2019 and for a good reason.  His voice was just god-awful throughout the song.  I can say Before You Go is better than its predecessor, but that’s not saying much.  The instrumentation is much better and I like the rest of the production.  But I still cannot get on board with Lewis’s voice.  His vocals aren’t very good here and the lyrics leave a lot to be desired.  I remember liking this at first.  But now, not so much.

• Lil Mosey – Blueberry Faygo

This is another in a long line of mediocre rap songs that dominated the charts throughout 2020.  I’ll never understand how we let this become a hit.  He’s just spouting nonsense and I don’t like his voice here.  Not much else beyond that.  Moving on…

• Lizzo – Cuz I Love You

I’ve been impressed with what Lizzo has had to offer in 2019 and 2020.  I fell in love with songs such as Juice and Good As Hell, both of which were huge favorites of mine.  But Cuz I Love You was not one of those songs unfortunately.  Her obnoxious yelling and loud instrumentation doesn’t make this a fun listen for me.  I get what the song is going for, but it was not executed very well.  Overall, this was a poor follow-up to her previous singles.  She is capable of much better.

• Maroon 5 – Memories

This is another in a long line of underwhelming singles from Adam Levine and company.  I’d say this is the most boring song they’ve released.  I’m not the type of music critic that would classify songs as “boring”.  But really, that’s what this song basically is.  What makes me think this way is the production.  It’s lifeless in every sense of the word.  Adam’s vocals are underwhelming.  He sounds very unenthusiastic here.  Overall, it’s not a good song and it’s no surprise considering that they’ve disappointed me lately.

• Powfu featuring Beabadoobee – Coffee For Your Head

This is quite possibly the strangest song I’ve heard in a while.  To keep it short, I don’t really like the background vocals used here.  The verses are underwhelming and there’s not a lot to the production.  Overall, it’s just not good alternative music.  I’m sorry, but I can’t get into this.  NEXT!

• Saweetie – My Type

Despite what the name of the song implies, this is definitely not my type of song that I want to hear.  Asinine lyrics, terrible production, and Saweetie sounding like crap easily makes this forgettable to say the least.  I don’t know what she was going for here, but it did not work out to my liking at all.  NEXT!

• Trevor Daniel – Falling

Here, we have a song that was actually released in 2018, but gained momentum in 2020 because Tik Tok.  To say the least, this was not a good first impression.  I don’t like what the song is going for and the sentiment is quite dull here.  He basically sounds like Post Malone except he doesn’t have the energy or personality to pull it off.  The lyrics are no good and some of the lines are unsettling.  So yeah, I’m not a fan.

That covers my dishonorable mentions.  Those were songs I disliked, but they weren’t bad enough to make the list.  I’m sure there was appeal to some of these.  But of course I couldn’t get into them.  Now, I’m ready do dive right in and talk about My Bottom 10 Songs of 2020.  Are you ready?  Let’s go!

10. Arizona Zervas – Roxanne
Kicking off the Top 10 is a artist who tried to make a good first impression, but failed miserably.  Arizona Zervas has proven to be such as this song was a mess.  Basically, this song talks about a girl who’s into partying and what not.  He really should’ve taken a different approach because it was poorly executed in every way.  The lyrics are asinine in every sense of the word and the beat is putrid.  But the single biggest problem is that his voice is heavily drowned in auto-tune.  Yet despite all of this, it became a massive hit peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 (#2 on the AT40 and #9 on Hits 1) because why the hell not.  I honestly don’t get why people bought into this.  This just blows on pretty much every level you can think of.

9. Doja Cat featuring Gucci Mane – Like That
Doja Cat has made herself known in 2020 and I’ve not been impressed with what she had to offer.  Say So was extremely generic and bland.  But if anything, I’d rather hear that song than it’s successor, Like That.  Dear Jesus, this song blows.  The beat is obnoxious.  I honestly can’t think of any song right now that has worse production (besides the ones on this list).  Whatever they were going for here did not work out to my or anyone else’s liking.  Her voice isn’t just underwhelming, it’s drowned in auto-tune and the chopped-up vocals don’t sound good either.  And Gucci Mane hardly adds anything to the song.  In fact, he just makes it worse.  Fortunately, it ended up flopping.  I’m sure if Doja Cat makes anymore music, it’ll be a lot better than this.

8. The Black Eyed Peas featuring Ozuna and J. Rey Soul – Mamacita
In my dishonorable mentions, I talked about The Black Eyed Peas’s comeback single RITMO (Bad Boys For Life).  That song was pretty awful.  I didn’t think they would bring anything worse in 2020.  I was mistaken.  They give us Mamacita, and my goodness this is a mess.  There’s no other way to describe it.  It’s basically similar to its predecessor, except worse.  The reggae production is scrambled in more ways than one.  They sound like shit throughout the song and the verses…eck.  Overall, this is just awful and it’s a new low for them.  Thankfully, it never took off unlike it’s predecessor.  NEXT!

7. Tayla Parx featuring Florida Georgia Line – Fight
I’m sure everyone remembers the 2018 hit Meant To Be, which I absolutely detested with a burning passion.  Trap production mi xing with country made that song an unplesant listen.  Two years later, we have another attempt at pop country in the form of Fight.  There is no appeal here.  The production is just terrible with trap mixed with country elements (the instrumentation is pretty bad as well).  The lyrics are nonsensical.  And here we go again with F.G.L. taking over the entire song with terrible vocals.  What makes this so much worse is Tayla Parx herself.  At least in Meant To Be, Bebe Rexha showed some personality and talent.  But here, Tayla doesn’t have any of that.  She sounds so flat and her voice is heavily drowned in auto-tune.  Yeah, this blows.  NEXT!

6. Meghan Trainor featuring Nicki Minaj – Nice To Meet Ya
Over the past two years, Meghan Trainor hasn’t really been impressing me with her music.  She recently released her new album, Treat Myself and I was not very fond of it at all.  There were many songs that I legitimately disliked.  One in particular is Wave which features Mike Sabath.  My goodness, that one is just a mess.  It’s quite possibly her worst song in my opinion.  Here, we have her collaboration with Nicki Minaj in Nice To Meet Ya, which is my second least favorite single from her.  She tried to go for something different when she collaborated with Nicki.  But it did not work out to my or anyone else’s liking.  There’s no chemistry at all between the two and in the chorus, they’re both DRENCHED in auto-tune.  Their verses have no momentum of any kind whatsoever. The lyrics are basically nonsense.  Not helping matters is the shitty production, which has a terrible beat and the whispering of the words “nice to meet ya” which comes after the chorus is rather unsettling.   I still hold somewhat of an unpopular opinion on her music and there are a few songs that I liked in recent years such as Let You Be Right, Treat Myself, and All The Ways.  But Nice To Meet Ya is another new low for Meghan and it shows just how far she has fallen.

5. Diplo featuring Morgan Wallen and Julia Michaels – Heartless
This song has actually been around since 2019, but it gained a bit of momentum in 2020 all thanks to the remix.  After Diplo gave us Lonely which I didn’t like as I’ve referenced in my dishonorable mentions above, I had no idea how low he was going to go.  But sure enough, he gives us Heartless.  There is no appeal.  The trap production mixed with country elements makes for a poorly produced song.  Diplo’s work here is lazy as shit and he puts forth no effort to make the song any better.  The vocals are pretty bad, especially Julia’s who makes it so much worse in the remix.  Yeah, this blows.  I’m not sure what they were going for here.  But they should’ve taken a different approach as everything about this is a mess.  This is easily Diplo at rock bottom.  NEXT!

4. Justin Bieber – Yummy
So, I could go on and on about just how fucking abysmal his comeback single was.  And to think, it was his first solo single since Purpose.  That album showed how much he improved vocally.  I was hoping for something more along the lines of that album.  And yet I’ve waited four years just for this?  My goodness, man.  I honestly can’t think of a worse comeback single than this.  Yet for some reason, he pushed it hard to the masses so that it would be #1.  It only peaked at #2.  But anyway, onto the song itself.  It’s literally mess in every fucking way.  He’s just spouting nonsenses about a girl who has that “yummy, yummy” and what not.  That line is among one of the worst lines I’ve ever heard in my entire life and the rest of the lyrics…Blech.  Just no.  I cringe every time I look at the lyrical content in this song.  But even beyond that, we have Justin doing a Chris Brown impression and he fails MISERABLY at that because he showed absolutely no personality of any kind whatsoever and he’s DRENCHED in auto-tune.  And don’t even get me fucking started on the production.  It has trap elements and there is no melody at all.  Yeah, what a mess of a song that is.  But despite that, he’s had much worse, as you will soon find out…

3. Justin Bieber featuring Quavo – Intentions
Blech.  After his predecessor tanked hard (and rightfully so), he brings another new song in its stead.  And holy shit, this is even worse.  Of course this ended up becoming a hit despite it being god awful because why the hell not.  I took one listen of this and I gave it fair shot.  But this is just terrible.  The songwriting is an absolute mess.  The production is incredibly bland with trap elements and no melody.  Quavo was not a good fit at all.  He barely adds anything to the song.  And here we go again with Justin doing a impression of Chris Brown (and failing miserably at it).  Yeah, this is a mess.  It’s nothing more than a way to get chart success because of his popularity.  If this is the direction he intends to take with his music, then I’m good.

2. Surfaces – Sunday Best
Blech.  More like “Sunday Worst” if you ask me.  I cringe at this every time I hear it.  Whether it’s at work or on the radio, it doesn’t matter.  It starts out with obnoxious vocals from these guys and it only gets worse from there.  I knew then that this would not be a fun listen for me.  Sure enough, I was right.  I get that these guys want to talk about being positive.  But it did not work out here as the writing is absolutely embarrassing in every sense of the word and everything else leaves so much to be desired.  The piano sounds like shit right from the start and the percussion is a messy.  Basically, the production is scrambled in more ways than one.  I like alternative music, but not when it’s as shitty as this song.  And this became a sleeper hit worldwide because why the hell not.  I hope to have to never hear this song again because this is lousy from top to bottom.

1. Blackbear – Hot Girl Bummer
It comes as no shock that this is my #1 pick for worst song of 2020.  And to be frank, it really wasn’t even close.  I remember from the day Blackbear gave us the monstrosity that is of Do Re Mi back in 2017.  My ears screamed in torture when I first heard it.  Fast-forward to 2020, and he gives us Hot Girl Bummer.  All I can ask is, “why?”  Why would he try to copy what Megan Thee Stallion did with Hot Girl Summer?  I just…I literally have no words.  Here he’s just spouting nonsense about him partying and what not.  I mean, some of those lines just make it harder for me to take an artist seriously.  And even beyond the lyrics, it’s not like everything else is better because it certainly isn’t.  He sounds like complete crap all throughout the song and that chorus makes it unbearable to listen to.  The verses…BLECH.  I honestly can’t think of anyone who put out worse verses than him.  But the production is what also bought this song down for me a lot.  Watered-down synths, terrible melodies, and some other stuff makes things even more unpleasant.  This is just pathetic in every sense of the fucking word.  Easily one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life.  Just…blech.

And with that, I’m finally done.  It took a little longer than expected, but it was worth it.  I hope you all enjoyed reading this list.  I have more Year-End posts coming, so stay tuned!  Thank you for taking the time to read this post.  I hope everyone here has a good day!  🙂

Hello, fam.  Today marks the one year anniversary of nearly everything shutting down (whether it be concerts, sports, etc.) due to the pandemic.  I had no idea the type of lifestyle that was in store for us.  Social distancing has become the norm and large gatherings are being frowned upon.   I miss the days of going to concerts and sporting events and all the parties (the last time I’ve been to one was a couple years ago).  We’re still not out of the woods yet.  So, everyone please keep washing your hands and stay safe out there.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Body by Megan Thee Stallion (#21)
• Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles (#40) [Spent 8 Weeks At #1]

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: 34+35 by Ariana Grande
40. Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi (#39) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
39. SO DONE by The Kid LAROI (#35) [–4]
38. Dynamite by BTS (#37) [–1]
37. Star by LOOΠΔ (#38) [+1]
36. Savage Love by Jawsh 685 featuring Jason Derulo (#34) [–2] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
35. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter (DEBUT)
34. ily (i love you baby) by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee (#32) [–2]
33. The Business by Tiësto (DEBUT)
32. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#30) [–2] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
31. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#36) [+5]
30. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Durk (#25) [–5]
29. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#33) [+4]
28. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#27) [–1]
27. Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#29) [+2]
26. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#26) [=]
25. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#24) [–1]
24. Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#28) [+4]
23. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#22) [–1]
22. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#23) [+1]
21. Bang! by AJR (#18) [–3]
20. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (#31) [+11]
19. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#20) [+1]
18. Willow by Taylor Swift (#19) [+1]
17. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#15) [–2]
16. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#17) [+1]
15. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#16) [+1]
14. Golden by Harry Styles (#14) [=]
13. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#13) [=]
12. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#12) [=]
11. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#11) [=]
10. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#9) [–1]
9. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#10) [+1]
8. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#5) [–3] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
7. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#7) [=] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
6. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#8) [+2] 
5. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#6) [+1]
4. Positions by Ariana Grande (#2) [–2] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
3. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#4) [+1]
2. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#3) [+1]
1. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#1) [=] [3^rd Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (1^st of 5 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (–5)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: We’re Good by Dua Lipa (+11)

New Entrants:
– Oh boy…I was not looking forward to hearing anymore of Sabrina Carpenter.  But alas, here she is with her worst single to date, in the form of Skin.  What this is is basically a response to Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo, the biggest hit of the year so far.  And this came just a couple weeks after it’s release.  And I recently found out that Joshua Bassett’s single (Lie, Lie, Lie) was also a response to that song.  I won’t go into much detail about it, as it is too time consuming and I want to speed things through.  Now, onto this shitty song.  Sabrina has proven single after single that she is not a good singer and Skin is another good example of such.  She sounds like absolute shit from the very first line and I knew then that this would not be a fun listen.  Her voice in both the pre-chorus and the chorus is DRENCHED in auto-tune.  And don’t even get me fucking started on the lyrics.  “Maybe blonde was the only rhyme”.  No, just no.  That line is very unsettling and the rest…Eck.  Simply put, this song absolutely blows.  You know things are really bad when I prefer to listen to both songs from The KID LAROI.  I don’t think we’ll ever get something more along the lines of Almost Love, which is easily her best song.  Hopefully, it doesn’t stay very long because it is TRASH.

– Now onto the much better debut, and it’s from EDM artist Tiësto with his new single.  It’s been a while since we’ve heard from him.  I believe the last time we saw him was back in 2018 when he gave us Jackie Chan.  Also, his last big hit was I believe back in 2014 with Wasted.  Now, let’s get down to The Business of reviewing that song, shall we?  I do like what the song has to offer.  It’s got a good beat and I adore the production.  Tiësto did a nice job with his work overall.  We also get vocals as well, which sounds good.  I don’t know who the singer exactly is, but I’m sure his voice is fine.  So yeah, it’s a solid song and I hope it sticks around.

Best Debut Of The Week: The Business by Tiësto

Let’s Get Down To Blurbiness
– So we have two exits.  First, there was Body by Megan Thee Stallion which ended up flopping.  No surprise there given that it never really took off elsewhere.  I liked the song, but it’s not something worth crying over.  The most important exit is Watermelon Sugar.  I enjoyed it overall and it became another massive hit for Harry Styles this past year.  It’ll be somewhat missed by me.

– I’m not thrilled by the big jump we get from We’re Good.  I still can’t believe she chose this as a single out of all the songs from Future Nostalgia.  It’s not catchy and it’s not groovy in any way.  It’s just flavorless with an uninteresting beat.  Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised given thatDua Lipais a big name right now.

– Before introducing My Head & My Heart, Ryan Seacrest mentioned that Ava Max’s tour is going to be driven by color and fashion.  Heh, I guess you can say that when she can tour again, everything is going to be colorful.

– Before introducing Anyone, Ryan Seacrest mentioned that Justin Bieber wants to make music that can help comfort anyone.  I’ll have to agree with him on that one because everytime I hear Anyone, I get a little emotional.  It’s a nice and sweet song.  It’s better than his two current representations on the countdown.

–  Therefore I Am reaches a new peak of #5.  It’s not a shock considering that people are still buying into Billie Eilish and her music.  I have no complaints at all about this as I love the song.  I wouldn’t be opposed to it hitting #1 (though I have my doubts given that a certain song has it’s sights set on the #1).

– I don’t really have much else to say other than the fact that the Grammys are going to be this Sunday.  I unfortunately won’t be able to watch given that I have a long day at work tomorrow.  Hopefully, the performances will be exciting.  I’m still disappointed that The Weeknd got snubbed from nominations.

– Also, I just want to say congrats to The Weeknd for making history by having Blinding Lights spend the entire year in the Top 10 on Billboard.  It’s the first song ever to do it.  Congrats, The Weeknd!  🙂

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line
• Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug
• Heat Waves by Glass Animals
• Up by Cardi B

Extras/Optional Extras:

• All Of Me by John Legend
• Slow Hands by Niall Horan
• Prisoner by Miley Cyrus featuring Dua Lipa
• Roses by SAINt JHN
• Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish
• Don’t Wanna Know by Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar
• Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande
• Thunder by Imagine Dragons
• Be Kind by Marshmello featuring Halsey
• Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars
• Take You Dancing by Jason Derulo
• Stitches by Shawn Mendes

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
19. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
18. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
17. We’re Good by Dua Lipa
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
15. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco

3 – Decent:
14. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
13. 34+35 by Ariana Grande
12. Willow by Taylor Swift

4 – Good:
11. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
10. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
9. Anyone by Justin Bieber
8. Golden by Harry Styles
7. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
6. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
5. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:s
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 67/100 = 67% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Disturbia by Rihanna (2008)

Most Missed Song: Pray For Me by The Weeknd featuring Kendrick Lamar

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#1)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
4. Kings & Queens by Ava Max
5. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish

My Bottom 5 Picks
1. Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
2. SO DONE by The KID LAROI
3. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
4. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
5. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Ride It by Regard: Really the only interesting thing I can say about this is that it’s a remix of the song from Jay Sean.  Other than that, there’s really not a whole lot about the song that’s seriously worth caring for.  On that note, he did release follow-up with RAYE in Secrets, which although not that amazing either, is a lot better thant his.  (P.S. I’ve been hearing that a lot at work).

To Die For by Sam Smith: This was actually released on Valentine’s Day last year.  I don’t have much to say about this one.  Sam’s voice is still pretty good and I kinda like the lyrics.  So yeah, good song.  But still pales in comparison to Dancing With A Stranger.

Hello, fam!  March is upon us, and you know what that means.  It’s almost time for March Madness to begin.  It’s going to be a fun ride in college basketball.  I can’t wait to see who wins it all after it was cancelled last year.  Also, we have the Grammys coming up as well after being delayed a couple months ago.  I’ll be watching, and I hope the performances are exciting. So yeah, I’ll be looking forward to that. Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Afterglow by Ed Sheeran (#18)
  
• Diamonds by Sam Smith (#22)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: 34+35 by Ariana Grande
40. Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles (#40) [=] [Spent 8 Weeks At #1]
39. Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi (#38) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
38. Star by LOOΠΔ (DEBUT)
37. Dynamite by BTS (#36) [–1]
36. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (#39) [+3]
35. SO DONE by The Kid LAROI (#27) [–8]
34. Savage Love by Jawsh 685 featuring Jason Derulo (#34) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
33. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#35) [+2]
32. ily (i love you baby) by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee (#32) [=]
31. We’re Good by Dua Lipa (DEBUT)
30. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#29) [–1] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
29. Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#33) [+4]
28. Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#30) [+2]
27. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#26) [–1]
26. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#28) [+2]
25. Laugh Now Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Durk (#24) [–1]
24. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#37) [+13] (How is this even okay?!?!)
23. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#31) [+8]
22. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#19) [–3]
21. Body by Megan Thee Stallion (#21) [=]
20. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#23) [+3]
19. Willow by Taylor Swift (#20) [+1]
18. Bang! by AJR (#12) [–6]
17. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#25) [+8]
16. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#17) [+1]
15. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#9) [–6]
14. Golden by Harry Styles (#15) [+1]
13. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#16) [+3]
12. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#13) [+1]
11. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#14) [+3] (Get in the Top 10, please!)
10. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#10) [=]
9. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#6) [–3]
8. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#11) [+3] 
7. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#5) [–2] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
6. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#8) [+2]
5. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#2) [–3] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
4. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#7) [+3]
3. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#4) [+3]
2. Positions by Ariana Grande (#3) [+1] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
1. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#1) [=] [2^nd Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Circles by Post Malone (7^th And Final Week At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: SO DONE by The KID LAROI (–8)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (+13) (#NoWords #NotOkay)

New Entrants:
– So, we have two new arrivals on this week’s countdown.  First, we have new K-Pop girl band LOOΠΔ with their single titled Star.  With Dynamite finally dying out elsewhere, it was really only a matter of time until a new K-Pop band would start to gain momentum.  Sure enough, I was right.  I’ve been hearing this song at work and I had to shazam it to see what the title was because I quite liked it upon the first listen.  Turns out it was actually brand new at the time and now we see it gaining some steam.  It’s about dreaming about one’s love and the adventures spent together as well as their feelings.  It’s definitely relatable if you’re in a relationship.  But I myself consider to be single and it doesn’t appear that I’ll find that special someone anytime soon.  It’ll probably be another couple years or so before I start falling in love.  Anyway, onto the rest of the song.  I love the 80’s-style retro beat and the melody that comes with it.  I love the vocals here and these girls shine in the chorus.  In a way, it sort of reminds me of Take On Me by A-Ha.  Yeah, this is such a bop.  I’m looking forward to see it become a hit, which I hope it will.

– So, who’s ready to hear more of Dua Lipa?  You are?  Well, guess what?  I am too.  But unfortunately, she brings us quite possibly her worst single so far.  It’s titled We’re Good.  Out of all the songs from Future Nostalgia, this is the one she chose.  It’s got a tropical beat that I’m not very fond of and the rest of the production isn’t interesting.  Her vocals are underwhelming, especially for Dua.  The only interesting thing I cay say about it is the music video itself, which is based off a scene of Titanic, and I’ll give her that. Other than that, there’s really nothing I like about the song overall.  I get that she was going for something different here.  But this didn’t work out to my liking.  I enjoyed a lot of what her album has had to offer. I love songs like Don’t Start Now, Break My Heart, and Levitating because they’re fast, catchy, and groovy.   We’re Good doesn’t have any of that.  It’s flavorless and bland compared to what she has done before. Yeah, I’m not fond of this and it’s the first song that I legitimately dislike from Dua, which is sad for me to say because she is talented.

Best Debut Of The Week: Star by LOOΠΔ

Shine A Blurb All Through The Night
– So, we have two exits.  First off, Afterglow I wasn’t particularly fond of, so I’m kinda okay with it departing.  As for Diamonds, I loved it from the start and it’s another one of my favorite from Sam Smith, even if it doesn’t quite hit the heights of Dancing With A Stranger.  It wasn’t an outright flop as it did okay here peaking at #10.  But I’m afraid it might get caught in between years seeing as it’s momentum has stalled out and it’ll probably miss the Year-End list.  Oh well.

– I’m kinda hoping that Lasting Lover can die out soon.  I still have the song in blue for now, but that could possibly change.  It’s slowly becoming less interesting with each listen.  Sigala has done much better and I much prefer his older singles than this.

– I’m also hoping that I Hope can seriously leave us soon.  Who is still supporting this song? It has been getting worse with every listen and again, I’m not so sure why I even liked it from the start.  I regret having it in green for a while.  Her voice being drowned in auto-tune and the asinine lyrics aren’t helping matters.

– Blech.  Just when SO DONE has the Biggest Fall Of The Week, we have WITHOUT YOU getting the Biggest Rise Of The Week.  I mean, how is this even okay?!  Not cool.  And yes, you’re reading it right.  Both songs from The KID LAROI are now in orange.  I may have said AJR is annoying in general.  But my goodness, I just cannot stand his voice at all.  It just makes me cringe everytime I hear them both.  Seriously, if we let WITHOUT YOU become a hit, I’ll be pissed.

– On the note of jumps that I’m not very thrilled about, we have Goosebumps taking a quick rise to the Top 30.  Seriously, I don’t know why we’re making it a thing.  This song blows on almost every level you can think of.  Hopefully, it’s momentum doesn’t last very long because this is also not okay.

– Entering the Top 20 this week is both Monsters and My Head & My Heart.  Monsters has been #1 on Hits 1 and I’m glad that All Time Low is finally getting some love.  It’s similar to Panic! At The Disco a couple years ago when High Hopes became a hit.  Also, Ava Max replaces herself as her successor swapped places with Kings & Queens, which has now fallen out of the Top 20 entirely.

– Before introducing Willow, Ryan Seacrest mentioned that Taylor Swift decided to make a blanket for Katy Perry’s daughter, as well as some other stuff she’s been doing.  How cute!  I haven’t seen the picture of the blanket, but I’m willing to bet she likes it.  That’s some fun stuff.

– Speaking of My Head & My Heart, Ryan Seacrest mentioned upon introducing the song that Ava Max took her time to make her deluxe album and was finally able to release it after over a year.  Heh, I guess she wanted to make her music pitch perfect (no reference to the movie).  Also, is it me, or does the chorus sound eerily similar to Around The World (La La La La La) by ATC?

– Before introducing Golden, Ryan Seacrest mentioned that Harry Styles has a personal connection with his music and his song is basically just that.  It’s really nothing new as almost everyone has a connection with his or her music.  I have that kind of connection as well.

– Put Your Records On in the Top 10 is a big fat no.  Stop the madness, now.

– In Top 5 news, the crappy Go Crazy reaches a new peak of #3 just to piss me off because why the hell not.  But we did see Driver’s License enter the Top 5 at #4.  That one is all but certain to hit #1 in the near future and I’ll be cool with it spending some weeks at #1.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• The Business by Tiësto
• Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug
• Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
• Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line

Extras/Optional Extras:

• No Promises by Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato
• Good As Hell by Lizzo
• Starships by Nicki Minaj
• Raising Hell by Kesha featuring Big Freedia
• Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
• Better by Khalid
• Time by NF
• See You Again by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
• Come & Go by Juice WRLD featuring Marshmello
• Havana by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug
• Baby I’m Jealous by Bebe Rexha featuring Doja Cat
• Hey Look Ma, I Made It by Panic! At The Disco

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
19. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
18. Bang! by AJR
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug

1 – Bad:
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

2 – Mediocre:
15. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco

3 – Decent:
14. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
13. 34+35 by Ariana Grande
12. Willow by Taylor Swift

4 – Good:
11. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
10. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
9. Anyone by Justin Bieber
8. Golden by Harry Styles
7. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
6. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max
5. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 66/100 = 66% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Take On Me by A-Ha (1984)

Most Missed Song: Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#2)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
5. Kings & Queens by Ava Max

My Bottom 5 Picks
TIE: 1. SO DONE by The KID LAROI
TIE: 1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI
3. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
5. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Say So by Doja Cat: Not a good first impression for Doja Cat.  This song is basically the pure definition of generic pop music, and not in a good way.  Weak production and underwhelming vocals makes this not a very fun listen, and the rap breakdown isn’t helping.

The Box by Roddy Ricch: I was a little indifferent on this one at first.  But I eventually came around to it after a while.  I’ll talk more about this in my Year-End post.  But let me just say there’s a lot to like about this one.

Hello, fam!  I know it’s hard to believe.  But today is actually the 25th anniversary of Pokémon.  Man, it’s crazy.  I remember back when I LOVE to watch the anime (and I still do even today) and play the actual games on my console.  Those were good times.  I might end up doing a post regarding my thoughts on the franchise in general, if I have the time.  Before we get to this week’s fresh 40, here are the songs we’re saying goodbye to this week:

• Take You Dancing by Jason Derulo (#22)

The Countdown:
Last Week’s #1 Song: Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco
40. Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles (#39) [–1] [Spent 8 Weeks At #1]
39. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (DEBUT)
38. Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi (#36) [–2] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
37. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (#38) [+1]
36. Dynamite by BTS (#34) [–2]
35. Best Friend by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat (#37) [+2]
34. Savage Love by Jawsh 685 featuring Jason Derulo (#32) [–2] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
33. Lasting Lover by Sigala featuring James Arthur (#33) [=]
32. ily (i love you baby) by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee (#30) [–2]
31. Goosebumps (Remix) by Travis Scott featuring HVME (#35) [+4]
30. Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (#40) [+10]
29. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (#27) [–2] [Spent 5 Weeks At #1]
28. Dákati by Bad Bunny featuring Jhay Cortez (#29) [+1]
27. SO DONE by The KID LAROI (#28) [+1]
26. I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth (#24) [–2]
25. My Head & My Heart by Ava Max (#31) [+6]
24. Laugh Now, Cry Later by Drake featuring Lil Turk (#21) [–3]
23. Monsters by All Time Low featuring Blackbear (#26) [+3]
22. Diamonds by Sam Smith (#13) [–9]
21. Body by Megan Thee Stallion (#25) [+4]
20. Willow by Taylor Swift (#23) [+3]
19. Kings & Queens by Ava Max (#15) [–4]
18. Afterglow by Ed Sheeran (#17) [–1]
17. Anyone by Justin Bieber (#19) [+2]
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke (#18) [+2]
15. Golden by Harry Styles (#16) [+1]
14. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd (#20) [+6]
13. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear (#14) [+1]
12. Bang! by AJR (#10) [–2]
11. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (#12) [+1]
10. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae (#11) [+1]
9. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (#5) [–4]
8. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish (#8) [=]
7. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo (#9) [+2]
6. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby (#7) [+1]
5. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior (#4) [–1] [Spent 10 Weeks At #1]
4. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug (#6) [+2] (…….)
3. Positions by Ariana Grande (#3) [=] [Spent 4 Weeks At #1]
2. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco (#1) [–1] [Spent 1 Week At #1]
1. 34+35 by Ariana Grande (#2) [+1] [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Circles by Post Malone (6^th of 7 Weeks At #1)

Biggest Fall Of The Week: Diamonds by Sam Smith (–9)

Biggest Rise Of The Week: Lifestyle by Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine (+10)

New Entrants:
– Another week of not-so-good debuts.  Well, we have only one new entrant actually.  It’s come from The Black Eyed Peas who collaborate with Shakira in Girl Like Me.  It was this time last year that Shakira teamed up with Jennifer Lopez for their performance in Super Bowl LIV.  They were honestly amazing overall.  In terms of her solo music, we haven’t seen much from her since 2014, when Can’t Remember To Forget You was her last big hit.  I loved that song and it was a huge favorite of mine back then.  I’m hoping we get some new solo music from her soon.  But right now, she is teaming up with The Black Eyed Peas in this song….and no, I don’t buy into this.  The production is basically nonexistent other than just the beat, which is very bland.  It literally goes nowhere and that’s not good.  Their versses have no momentum and I don’t like the chorus at all.  Here, she is singing “ayyy” in the chorus on top of being underwhelming.  Is this really the best you could do?  Not really, and don’t even get me started on will.i.am.  He just shows no personality here, and the lyrics are basically nonsense.  Simply put, this song is shit and worse than Mamacita and RITMO (Bad Boys For Life), both of which I also despised.  Huge disappointment for Shakira.  If this is the direction that she is going to take for her next album, then I’m good.

Where Have All The Blurbs Gone?
– As far as our exit goes, we say goodbye to Take You Dancing by Jason Derulo.  I didn’t particularly love the song, so I’m okay with it departing.  However, I much prefer that song over Jason Derulo’s two current representations still on the countdown, in part because it was better produced.

– Lightning won’t strike twice for Justin Bieber this time around as 34+35 by Ariana Grande gets the #1 spot this week.  Sure I’ll take it over Lonely, but this is still decent at best.  As I’ve referenced before, Ariana has done much better in the past with her first two albums and some of Sweetener.  But she’s also done a lot worse (cough *7 Rings* cough).  34+35 lands somewhere in the middle when ranking her songs in my opinion.  It’s not that exciting of a song, but it’s nothing I loathe in the big picture.

– Are you kidding me?!  Go Crazy magically rose to #4 this week.  Gross.  The only reason it’s up there is because Tik Tok.  I honestly can’t believe we’re letting this become a bigger hit than No Guidance (which I detested as well).  This has no business being in the Top 5.  Let’s hope that 34+35 can hold the #1 long enough for this to drop down soon.

– Here, we have You Broke Me First by Tate McRae enter the Top 10, which I’m also not really too thrilled about either.  This song continues less interesting with each and every additional listen.  Then again, it did kick Bang! by AJR out of the Top 10 for good, which is a nice plus.

– Gotta love how The Weeknd is continuing his momentum with Save Your Years jumping big to #14 this week.  That Super Bowl performance really helped the song get a boost.  Here’s to hoping it can get to the Top 10 soon.

– Of all the debuts from last week, Lifestyle of course ends up taking the Biggest Rise Of The Week despite it not being a good song.  However, we did see My Head & My Heart move up six spots so it’s nice to see it gain a little momentum.

Breakouts/On The Verge:

• Star by LOOΠΔ
• Talk About Love by Zara Larsson featuring Young Thug
• Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
• We’re Good by Dua Lipa
• The Business by Tiësto

Extras/Optional Extras:

• Coffee For Your Head by Powfu featuring Beabadoobe
• Don’t Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya
• Intentions by Justin Bieber featuring Quavo
• Wild Thoughts by DJ Khaled featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller
• Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
• Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
• ROCKSTAR by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch
• The Middle by Zedd featuring Maren Morris and Grey
• High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco
• Lights Down Low by MAX featuring Gnash
• Falling by Trevor Daniel
• One Thing Right by Marshmello featuring Kane Brown

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 – Crap:
20. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney
19. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper
18. Bang! by AJR
17. Go Crazy by Chris Brown featuring Young Thug
16. What You Know About Love by Pop Smoke

1 – Bad:
None!

2 – Mediocre:
15. Lonely by Justin Bieber featuring Benny Blanco
14. Afterglow by Ed Sheeran

3 – Decent:
13. You Broke Me First by Tate McRae
12. 34+35 by Ariana Grande
11. Willow by Taylor Swift

4 – Good:
10. My Ex’s Best Friend by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Blackbear
9. Positions by Ariana Grande

5 – Great:
8. Anyone by Justin Bieber
7. Golden by Harry Styles
6. Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo
5. Kings & Queens by Ava Max
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby

BONUS: 6 – Best Song On The Countdown:
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd

Total Score: 62/100 = 62% (C)

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Where Have All The Cowboys Gone by Paula Cole (1996)

Most Missed Song: Get Lucky by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell

#1 Recommendation For The American Top 40: Overdrive by Conan Gray

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (#3)

My Top 5 Picks
1. Save Your Tears by The Weeknd
2. Levitating by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby
3. Mood by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior
4. Therefore I Am by Billie Eilish
5. Kings & Queens by Ava Max

My Bottom 5 Picks
TIE: 1. SO DONE by The KID LAROI (His voice is extremely annoying)
TIE: 1. WITHOUT YOU by The KID LAROI (Same applies here)
3. Put Your Records On by Ritt Momney (Should not even exist)
4. Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper (Should not still be in the Top 10)
5. Girl Like Me by The Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira (A terrible collaboration)

Congrats to both AJR and Travis Scott for somehow missing out on my Bottom 5 picks.

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Intentions by Justin Bieber featuring Quavo: Blech.  More Justin Bieber.  At least with Yummy, I somewhat find it amusing.  But my goodness, this is just a dumpster fire on so many levels.  Do I even need to say anymore?

Know Your Worth by Khalid featuring Disclosure: These two team up once more, this time with a more superior track.  Whereas Talk is just bland and underwhelming, this one is more upbeat and lively.  And I hear this song A LOT at work and I often dance to it whenever I’m not busy.  Good times.

Rare by Selena Gomez: A step down from Lose You To Love Me if you will.  There’s really not much to the production, and the verses don’t have any momentum here.