HBwise, a lot to talk about (Week of 6/28/2025)

 

Hello everyone, welcome to another post. Let's just get into it, here are our exits:

Ed Sheeran/ Arijit Singh- Sapphire (#27 last week)

D4vd- Feel It (#21 last week)

Countdown:

30. Jonas Brothers- No Time To Talk (Debut)

29. Drake- Nokia (+1)
28. Audrey Hobert- Sue Me (Debut)

27. Jessie Murph- Blue Strips (+1)

26. Miley Cyrus- Easy Lover (=)

25. Sza/ Kendrick Lamar- 30 For 30 (=)

24. Morgan Wallen/ Tate McRae- What I Want (-2)

23. Alessi Rose- Same Mouth (-4)

22. MGK- Cliche (+2)

21. Maroon 5/ Lisa- Priceless (-1)

20. Lorde- What Was That (+3)

19. Dasha- Not At This Party (-1)

18. Charli XCX- Party 4 U (-1)

17. Myles Smith- Nice To Meet You (-5)

16. Tate McRae- Just Keep Watching (+13)

15. Ravyn Lenae- Love Me Not (+1)

14. Rosé- Messy (-1)

13. Sombr- Undressed (+1)

12. Ariana Grande- Twilight Zone (-1)

11. Benson Boone- Mystical Magical (-1)

10. Sabrina Carpenter- Manchild (+5)

9. Ed Sheeran- Azizam (-4)

8. Doechii- Anxiety (+1)

7. Alex Warren- Ordinary (-1)

6. Miley Cyrus- End Of The World (+1)

5. Jonas Brothers- Love Me To Heaven (+3)

4. Lady Gaga- Abracadabra (-1)

3. Role Model- Sally When The Wine Runs Out (-1)

2. Benson Boone- Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else (+2)

1. Sabrina Carpenter- Busy Woman (=)

Countdown Extra: Addison Rae- Fame Is A Gun

Last Year's #1: Sabrina Carpenter- Espresso

#1 Two Years Ago: Taylor Swift/ Ice Spice- Karma

My Favorite Song Last year: Eminem- Houdini

My Favorite Song Two Years Ago: Morgan Wallen- Last Night

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: BigXThaPlug/ Shaboozey- Home

First up, we have No Time To Talk by the Jonas Brothers. This samples Staying Alive by the Bee Gees. I quite like this one, especially more than when DJ Khaled, Drake, and Lil Baby sampled that same song a few years ago. The beat is nice and chill, and both Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas sound good per usual. I hope this is a hit.

Our other debut this week, which I surprisingly like more, is Sue Me by Audrey Hobert, who wrote a few songs on Gracie Abrams' The Secret Of Us album, including former #1s I Love You I'm Sorry and That's So True. This honestly gives off the vibes of a classic Gracie Abrams song while somehow being better than one. Audrey Hobert has a solid singing voice and this has a decent beat. I'm kinda glad she started making her own songs as well, if this song is any indication of what she will be putting out.

Hitbound:

Super Hi/ Neeka- Following The Sun

Lewis Capaldi- Survive (Debut)
Renee Rapp- Mad (Debut)

Benson Boone- Mr Electric Blue

Lizzo/ Sza- IRL (Debut)

Twenty One Pilots- The Contract

Kpop Demon Hunters- Golden (Debut)

Lorde- Shapeshifter (Debut)

Katseye- Gameboy (Debut)

Kesha- The One (Debut)
Alex Warren/ Rosé- On My Mind (Debut)

Jessie Murph- Touch Me Like A Gangster

FlowerOvLove- New Friends (Debut)

Alessi Rose- That Could Be Me

All Time Low- Suckerpunch

Mariah The Scientist- Burning Blue

First up is Lewis Capaldi with his latest, Survive. I want to like this more since it's more upbeat than what he usually does, but unlike Forget me from three years ago, this isn't in a key that I would revisit something like this in. So it's good, but not exactly great.

Renee Rapp also put out new music recently, this is called Mad. I'll give you this, that definitely isn't how I felt when I listened to this, since it has a solid beat and Renee Rapp sounds pretty good, and this is in a key that will cause me to like it more than I should. Solid song.

Lizzo put out a surprise mixtape last week, and from it, we have a sequel to her song Special with Sza from 2023 called IRL. This is solid but I liked Special more. They both sound fine but the beta, while solid seems like something a bit generic, and Lizzo's rapping is... interesting to say the least. So really, this is just there for me.

So this new Netflix movie musical Kpop Demon Hunters is having a bit of an Encanto moment, as in some of the songs from the soundtrack seem to be becoming hits on the Hot 100, and this one, Golden, seems to be the We Don't Talk About Bruno of the Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack, mainly because both made Hits 1. As much as I liked We Don't Talk About Bruno a few years ago, this is nowhere near as good. All actresses playing the members of the fictional Kpop girl group Huntr/x sound pretty good, it has a decent enough beat, it just hasn't clicked on me yet, especially when there is a much better song from an IRL female Kpop singer to talk about later. So stay tuned...

First, though, I need to talk about this song from Lorde's new album called Suckerpunch. This is just there for me. It feels like a slowed down version of What Was That, and that's pretty much all I can remember about it. It's that forgettable otherwise. 

So we still have to talk about Katseye in the present day, and their latest song, Gameboy. Gonna be honest, this might be among their better songs. It is pretty fun, they all sound pretty good, and it is in a tolerable key. That's all to know here.

I only have three more left, and up next we have a new song from Kesha called The One. This is really good, with an intro that sounds like a cross between those of Industry Baby by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow and High Hopes by Panic At The Disco, and the beat here is solid and Kesha sounds quite good here per usual, and this is in Bb major, so obvious bonus. Another fun Kesha song.

Well, I have been waiting through all the rest of these debuts to talk about this one. This is a collab between Alex Warren and Rosé called On My Mind, and you may be surprised that I that collab as good as I find it, but I have my reasons. This is just purely amazing. It may be somewhat on the slow side, but the song is in Bb major and Alex Warren and Rosé sound really good here, probably among the best vocal performances by either artist, and then there's the lyrics, which seem to be directed towards a significant other to tell them that they are on your mind all the time, and when Alex Warren and Rosé sing the hook together, they sound really good together and it gets the message of this song across quite well. By the way, this is what I was talking about at the end of my review on Golden earlier.

To cap off our list of debuts, we have another song from FlowerOvLove called New Friends. This is alright. It's quite forgettable, especially compared to what I just talked about. Though FlowerOvLove sounds fine and it has a decent enough beat. So, just there.

We lost Drive, Fame Is A Gun, Castle, Why, Bliss, Bloodline, and Here Again. The first two are in the abyss, so hopefully, Drive debuts in the coming weeks and I could not care less about what happens to Fame Is A Gun. Good riddance to Castle and Why, they both sucked ass, Bliss was nothing too memorable, and both Bloodline and Here Again both deserved to debut, though I feel like that last one could live up to its title...

Blurbs:
Our exits were Sapphire and Feel It. I feel like Sapphire could re-enter at some point down the road, though I feel like Feel It is done for good this time.

I guess Same Mouth's time in the top 20 was short lived.

Seems like Nice To Meet You still can't fully decide what to do.

Just Keep Watching got a major boost to just outside the top 15.

Can the blatant ripoff of our still not good #1 not jump anymore?

Welp, seems like Azizam might have lost a shot at the #1 spot. 

But thankfully, we have a contender that is just as good, Love Me To Heaven. I'd love if this would hit #1 before Manchild gets there and blocks a few more much better songs.

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