Imagine Dragons (3) - Week Of January 6, 2018

Hello everyone! I still have one final Year-End post to catch up on, and hopefully that will be out before the end of the month. I hope you are all having a great year so far. Before we get started with the first fresh 45 of the year, here are the songs that are leaving us this week.

• Linkin Park - One More Light (#33)
• Nick Jonas - Find You (#36)

Last Week's #1 Song: Halsey - Bad At Love

#1 Song This Week 1 Year Ago: Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know

The Countdown

45. MAX/Gnash - Lights Down Low (#45)

44. Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You (#41) [9 Weeks At #1]

43. Charlie Puth - Attention (#40) [1 Week At #1]

42. Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do (#37)

41. Harry Styles - Kiwi (#43)

40. Macklemore/Skylar Grey - Glorious (#44)

39. Symon - Lonely Girl (#35)

38. Cheat Codes/Demi Lovato - No Promises (#42)

37. Louis Tomlinson - Miss You (#31)

36. Zedd & Alessia Cara - Stay (#39) [4 Weeks At #1]

35. Niall Horan - Slow Hands (#38) [3 Weeks At #1]

34. Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future - End Game (DEBUT)

33. Fall Out Boy - Hold Me Tight Or Don't (DEBUT)

32. Liam Payne - Strip That Down (#25) [2 Weeks At #1]

31. P!nk - What About Us (#30) [1 Week At #1]

30. The Shadowboxers - Hot Damn (#27)

29. Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back (#29) [5 Weeks At #1]

28. Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry (#28) [1 Week At #1]

27. Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill (#24) [3 Weeks At #1]

26. Kesha - Praying (#11)

25. Liam Payne - Bedroom Floor (#34)

24. Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still (#26)

23. Lauv - I Like Me Better (#21)

22. Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? (#7)

21. Zayn/Sia - Dusk Till Dawn (#10)

20. X Ambassadors - Ahead Of Myself (#18)

19. Eminem/Ed Sheeran - River (#32)

18. Walk The Moon - One Foot (#20)

17. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line - Meant To Be (#13)

16. Imagine Dragons - Believer (#22)

15. Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask (#14)

14. Macklemore/Kesha - Good Old Days (#19)

13. Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes (#16)

12. Dua Lipa - New Rules (#23)

11. Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl (#12) [4 Weeks At #1]

10. Selena Gomez & Marshmello - Wolves (#15)

9. Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft (#9)

8. Post Malone/21 Savage - Rockstar (#17)

7. Charlie Puth - How Long (#8)

6. Maroon 5/SZA - What Lovers Do (#5)

5. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt - Let Me Go (#6)

4. Camila Cabello - Havana (#3) [1 Week At #1]

3. Ed Sheeran - Perfect (#2) [1 Week At #1]

2. Halsey - Bad At Love (#1) [2 Weeks At #1]

1. Imagine Dragons - Thunder (#4) [3rd Week At #1]

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Tie Between Kesha - Praying and Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? (-15)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Eminem/Ed Sheeran - River (+13)

#1 Recommendation Of The Week: Kesha/The Dap-Kings Horns - Woman

New Entrants

~ Well, we get another song from the new era of Taylor Swift. This week enters End Game, the newest single off of reputation. I haven't come to the consensus if this is better than ...Ready For It? so far, but I definitely find this track and ...Ready For It? better than Look What You Made Me Do, which still is good, of course. I think Taylor really showcases her voice here more than in this album's previous two singles. She sounds good as usual, so no surprise there. My favorite part is when she sings leading up to the final chorus. It is very catchy. Ed Sheeran also bears his SIXTH, count it, SIXTH, appearance on this countdown, which is insane, because I always thought that this countdown only allowed three songs per artist, which is the most this countdown has had of one artist, until now. Besides that, Ed Sheeran has nice vocals on this song, as I was expecting. Future is also a feature on this song. I was quite surprised to see his name listed on this track at first, but his verse is actually quite good here. I feel like his features in pop singles are his best work. His solo songs are nothing really to be desired. I hope this song does well here, and starts taking off in other places as well. I just really want to see this song do well.

~ All of the music that Fall Out Boy has released off of their upcoming album has been frankly okay, mediocre, or just bad. In this case, it was just bad. They enter the countdown this week with Hold Me Tight Or Don't. They experimented way too much on this song in my opinion and it is something that should have never come close to this countdown. The chorus sucks in this song as well and the vocals are just mediocre. The annoying whistling is also unnecessary throughout this song. My only hope is that this song doesn't do so well here and it's one of those songs with a really short tenure.

Hit-Bound

• Spencer - Whatever
• AJR/Rivers Cuomo - Sober Up
• Sofi Tukker/NERVO/The Knocks/Alisa Ueno - Best Friend
• Bruno Mars/Cardi B - Finesse [Remix] (DEBUT)
• WOLVES - Animal
• Imagine Dragons - Whatever It Takes
• Maroon 5 - Wait (DEBUT)
• NF - Let You Down
• Justin Timberlake - Filthy (DEBUT)
• Camila Cabello - Never Be The Same
• P!nk - Beautiful Trauma
• Clean Bandit/Julia Michaels - I Miss You
• All Time Low - Last Young Renegade
• Alan Walker/Noah Cyrus/Digital Farm Animals - All Falls Down

My Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Camila Cabello - Never Be The Same

2. Maroon 5 - Wait

3. Clean Bandit/Julia Michaels - I Miss You

4. P!nk - Beautiful Trauma

5. Bruno Mars/Cardi B - Finesse [Remix]

Blurb Me Tight Or Don't

~ I believe that Imagine Dragons - Thunder is definitely not the best choice for a number one song to start off the year. Any of the other four songs in the top 5 would have been much better. Hopefully we cans see one of them rise to the top next week. 

~ I do not understand why or how Post Malone/21 Savage - Rockstar is in the top 10. This song needs to go right back in the other direction. It does not belong here. Also, I just am plain surprised that this song was even on this countdown in the first place. This is normally not the type of music that Hits 1 picks up.

~ Dua Lipa - New Rules is moving right on up. I don't really mind this too much at the moment, but it is not my favorite song here right now. So, I don't really care exactly what it does. It's just "good".

~ Of course Imagine Dragons - Believer is seen back in the top 20 again this week. I am absolutely sick of this song. It needs to leave now. I don't understand how this is still getting this many votes. 

~ Eminem/Ed Sheeran - River is on the rise. In fact, it had the biggest jump this week. I am very happy about this. This is one of the songs I have been listening to the most lately.

~ Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? and Kesha - Praying are both sadly on the decline. Both songs dropped the largest amount of spots this week and are no longer in the top 20. It is a shame because these are two of the best songs we have here at the moment.

~ Louis Tomlinson - Miss You is sadly not off to a really good start. It is going in the other direction. It is showing similarities to Harry Styles - Kiwi. I guess Hits 1 is starting to lesser favor more band members of One Direction. I just hope these two are going to pull off some miracle and jump a good number of spots, but sadly, that is probably not going to happen.

Let's Do A Top 20 Review!

0-Garbage

20. Imagine Dragons - Believer

19. Post Malone/21 Savage - Rockstar

1-Bad

NONE

2-Mediocre

NONE

3-Decent

18. Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl

17. Imagine Dragons - Thunder

16. Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft

4-Good

15. Dua Lipa - New Rules

14. Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes

13. Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line - Meant To Be

5-Great

12. Charlie Puth - How Long

11. Macklemore/Kesha - Good Old Days

10. Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask

9. Halsey - Bad At Love

8. X Ambassadors - Ahead Of Myself

7. Maroon 5/SZA - What Lovers Do

6. Walk The Moon - One Foot

5. Selena Gomez & Marshmello - Wolves

4. Eminem/Ed Sheeran - River

3. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt - Let Me Go

2. Camila Cabello - Havana

1. Ed Sheeran - Perfect

Score: 81% (B-)

My Bottom 5 Countdown Picks

1. Imagine Dragons - Believer

2. Liam Payne - Strip That Down

3. Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill

4. Post Malone/21 Savage - Rockstar

5. Niall Horan - Slow Hands

My Top 5 Countdown Picks

1. Ed Sheeran - Perfect

2. Camila Cabello - Havana

3. Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future - End Game

4. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt - Let Me Go

5. Eminem/Ed Sheeran - River

Thanks everyone for reading!

~ Jack :)