1st post of 2025 (Week of 1/4/2025)

 

Hello everyone, and happy new year. Since we're in a new year, it's time to change my color coding again, I do that every year, so here we go:

Great

Good

Decent

Mediocre

Awful

Now that that's out of the way, time to begin. It was pretty typical for the first countdown of a calendar year, including no exits. So let's just get into it:

Countdown:

30. Tate McRae- 2 Hands (-1)

29. Jack Harlow- Hello Miss Johnson (+1)

28. Addison Rae- Diet Pepsi (-2)

27. Damiano David- Born With A Broken Heart (=)

26. Kendrick Lamar/ Sza- Luther (+2)

25. Katseye- Touch (-1)

24. Gigi Perez- Sailor Song (+1)

23. Tate McRae- It's Ok I'm Ok (-1)

22. Teddy Swims- Bad Dreams (+1)

21. Charli XCX- Apple (-4)

20. Alex Warren/ Joe Jonas- Burning Down (-2)

19. Gracie Abrams- I Love You I'm Sorry (+2)

18. Shaboozey- Good News (-6)

17. David Guetta/ Alphaville/ Ava Max- Forever Young (+3)

16. Morgan Wallen- Love Somebody (-2)

15. Cynthia Erivo/ Ariana Grande- Defying Gravity (+4)

14. Lisa- Moonlit Floor (-1)
13. Ariana Grande- Popular (+3)

12. Gracie Abrams- That's So True (-1)

11. Jelly Roll- I Am Not Okay (-1)

10. Meghan Trainor- Criminals (+5)

9. Myles Smith- Stargazing (-1)

8. Chappell Roan- Pink Pony Club (+1)

7. The Weeknd- Dancing In The Flames (-1)

6. Sabrina Carpenter- Bed Chem (+1)

5. Billie Eilish- Birds Of A Feather (=)

4. Gracie Abrams- Close To You (=)

3. Rosé/ Bruno Mars- APT (=)

2. Lady Gaga/ Bruno Mars- Die With A Smile (-1)

1. Sabrina Carpenter- Taste (+1)

Countdown Extra: Crash Adams- Optimist

Last Year's #1: Tate McRae- Greedy

#1 Two Years Ago: Taylor Swift- Anti Hero

My Favorite Song Last Year: Thirty Seconds To Mars- Seasons

My Favorite Song Two Years Ago: Metro Boomin/ The Weeknd/ 21 Savage- Creepin

Recommendations For Hits 1: Brysn- Madison Beer and Zerb/ Wiz Khalifa/ Ty Dolla Sign- Location

No exits means no debuts, so let's move on.

Hitbound:

Twenty One Pilots- The Line

Sza- Drive

Almost Monday- Can't Slow Down

Ariana Grande/ Cynthia Erivo- What Is This Feeling (Debut)

Raye- Oscar Winning Tears

The Marias- No One Noticed

Kesha- Delusional

Twice/ Megan Thee Stallion- Strategy

Crash Adams- Optimist

Nessa Barrett- Pins And Needles (Debut)

Sza- BMF
Lola Young- Messy

Rosé- Drinks Or Coffee

Dasha- Bye Bye Bye

Griff- Last Night's Mascara

Balu Brigada- So Cold

Jesus, how many Wicked songs can they mentally pick up? Well, now we have What Is This Feeling making its way to HB, and this is fine if you're hearing this while watching the movie, but that's not saying a shit ton since I'm listening to this on Hitbound... the issues with Popular and Defying Gravity are still prominent here (it goes better in the context of the film and the production makes it belong in a musical rather than pop radio), and then each third of the song is in a different key, half step higher than the previous third. Disclaimer: I liked Be Our Guest from Beauty And The Beast, but multiple key changes were executed better there than here. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sound fine, but it doesn't really save the song at all. I may need a break from Wicked after this.

Our other debut is from Nessa Barrett (because why the fuck not), this is called Pins And Needles. This is more tolerable than what she had these past few weeks, but still not that great. The key is basically what makes this work, it's a little bit slow but at least there is somewhat of a beat. So yeah, decent song.

We lost Mustang Baby and Slow Motion. Mustang Baby was replaced by a better Nessa Barrett song, and Slow Motion deserved to debut.

Blurbs:

Why is Diet Pepsi still here?

Looks like Apple might be on its way out.

Noooo why did Good News drop? This deserves to be as much of a hit as A Bar Song.

Looks like Forever Young's second run is off to a good start.

The Wicked songs are now in the top 15... cool, I guess

Criminals made it to the top 10... I guess I'll take it.

Why the fuck is Taste at #1 again? This is quite fucking ridiculous since this has little to no airplay at the moment, we honestly need better songs in the top 5 soon.

I guess that does it for me this week, see you guys next week.