Back to mostly normal (Week of 1/17/2026)

 

Hello everyone, welcome back to another post. It finally seems like I am starting to get into my regular rhythm of getting posts out on time. We had a decent enough week this week. Let's just get into it, here are our exits:

Chappell Roan- The Subway (#12 last week)

Role Model- Writing's On The Wall (#27 last week)

Alessi Rose- First Original Thought (#20 last week)

Countdown:

30. Justin Bieber- Yukon (=)

29. Tame Impala- Dracula (Debut)

28. Kehlani- Folded (Re-entry)

27. Bruno Mars- I Just Might (Debut)

26. Tyla- Chanel (+3)

25. Jonas Brothers- Backwards (=)
24. Sienna Spiro- Die On This Hill (+4)

23. Meghan Trainor- Still Don't Care (+1)

22. Madison Beer- Bittersweet (=)

21. Charlie Puth- Changes (=)

20. Tate McRae- Tit For Tat (+6)

19. AJR- The Big Goodbye (+4)

18. Sophia James- So Unfair (=)

17. Benson Boone- Mr Electric Blue (-2)

16. 5 Seconds Of Summer- Not Ok (+1)

15. Laufey- Lover Girl (+1)

14. Kevin Jonas- Changing (-3)

13. Katseye- Gabriela (+1)

12. Ed Sheeran- Camera (-3)

11. Alex Warren/ Jelly Roll- Bloodline (+8)

10. Kpop Demon Hunters- Golden (=)

9. Sombr- 12 To 12 (+4)

8. Sabrina Carpenter- Tears (=)

7. David Guetta/ Teddy Swims/ Tones And I- Gone Gone Gone (=)

6. Raye- Where Is My Husband (=)

5. Taylor Swift- Opalite (-1)

4. Sombr Back To Friends (-2)

3. Olivia Dean- Man I Need (=)

2. Conan Gray- Vodka Cranberry (+3)

1. Taylor Swift- The Fate Of Ophelia (=)

Countdown Extra: MGK- Times Of My Life

Last Year's #1: Rosé/ Bruno Mars- APT

#1 Two Years Ago: Tate McRae- Greedy

My Favorite Song Last Year: The Weeknd/ Playboi Carti- Timeless

My Favorite Song Two Years Ago: Lil Nas X- J Christ

Recommendations For Hits 1:

Duke & Jones/ India Shan- Three Words

We Three- Drunk Driving

Matthew Orgel- I'll Never Know

Brynn- Impossible Shoes

Olivia Cox- Made Friends

Illenium/ Bastille/ Dabin- Feel Alive

Mitski- Where's My Phone

Megan Moroney- Wish I Didn't

Ella Mai- 100

First up, after a few weeks in the abyss, Dracula by Tame Impala is finally here. If you saw my 2025 best list, you know I had this at #20, and I still quite like this. His production on this is really cool and goes quite well with his voice, and the references to Dracula as well as other interesting reference made on here is rather interesting. Glad this finally debuted.

For some reason, Folded by Kehlani re-entered three months after initially leaving three months ago. Apparently, this just recently debuted AT40, so I guess it's still a thing...

And last up, we have Bruno Mars's latest song I Just Might. I quite like this one. It has a fun beat, Bruno Mars sounds quite good, and this seems to be about some kind of hookup at a club. I highly suspect this will be huge, and I'm ready for that.

Hitbound:

NF- Fear

Madison Beer- Bad Enough (Debut)

5 Seconds Of Summer- I'm Scared I'll Never Sleep Again

Charlie Puth- Beat Yourself Up (Debut)

Stephen Sanchez- Sweet Love (Debut)

Doechii/ Sza- Girl Get Up

Hilary Duff- Roommates (Debut)

Charli XCX- Wall Of Sound (Debut)

JYT- What U Want

Senses- Tiptoeing (Debut)

Nick Jonas- Gut Punch

Girlset- Little Miss

MGK- Times Of My Life

Katseye- Internet Girl

The Kid Laroi/ Lithe- Rather Be

Sabrina Carpenter- Such A Funny Way

Madison Beer dropped a new album this past week, and from it, we have Bad Enough. Not gonna lie, this sort of sounds like a carbon copy of Reckless from 4.5 years ago, therefore making it decent at best. Madison Beer sounds pretty good though, so that makes the song tolerable here. From what I've heard, a lot of the album is like this, Daniel didn't even add any songs from it to HOF. So hopefully, her next album is better.

On the topic of artists making songs that sound like previous songs of theirs, Charlie Puth is back with Beat Yourself Up. Tbh, this sounds a lot like a lot of his songs from 2022, notably Light Switch and That's Hilarious. That rather makes the song good. Charlie Puth sounds pretty good here and the beat is rather solid. So I'll take this.

Looks like Stephen Sanchez is back after a couple years with a new song, this is called Sweet Love. This is also just good. It has a solid beat and Stephen Sanchez sounds pretty good, this is just rather forgettable. It could grow on me, who knows?

Hilary Duff is still continuing a musical comeback, she's now back with Roommates. This is pretty good. Ethan said this sounds a lot like Anti Hero by Taylor Swift, but I can't exactly see that. This has a really solid beat and Hilary Duff sounds pretty good. Also, this seems to be about the longing for nostalgia that happens when people get older. Great song.

Up next, we have a new Charli XCX song called Wall Of Sound. My opinion here is mixed. Part of me wants to like this more since it seems to be in G Minor, but the production can't fully decide what to do with itself, although Charli XCX sounds pretty good. Maybe this lives up to its title... it's a wall of sound.

Lastly we have a band called Senses making their HB debut with Tiptoeing. Here's my opinion: If you were going to add any song from a random new band, maybe try Drunk Driving by We Three, which debuted on Daniel's HOF show this past week. As for what we currently have, this is solid, though rather forgettable. It does have solid production and whoever is singing sounds pretty good. So I'm fine with this on here at the moment.

We lost So Easy (To Fall In Love), Silent Treatment, Nobody's Girl, Lighter, and Eternity. The first two are in the abyss, so I hopefully see them on the countdown soon. Nobody's Girl lasted a bit too long, I liked Lighter, but was never expecting it to debut, and it was good seeing the remix of Eternity on here while it was.

Blurbs:

Our exits were The Subway, Writing's On The Wall, and First Original Thought. The Subway was starting to fade on me, so I'm fine with it leaving. I don't know if Writing's On The Wall is in the abyss or not, but hopefully it is since it only lasted a few weeks. And First Original Thought is finally out of here after being unable to decide where to be, and maybe we can now go a few weeks with no Alessi Rose...

Um... we didn't need Die On This Hill to rebound.

Though I will take The Big Goodbye doing that.

Even better seeing Bloodline making a major rebound.

Looks like Vodka Cranberry has made its way to #2. Hopefully this dethrones The Fate Of Ophelia soon, if not next week, because we really need someone else at #1 right now.

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