The right direction, easily (Week of 8/1/2026)

 

Hello everyone, welcome to another post. This was a bit interesting, we had better jumps and drops, plus a reentry from a song that was on here for 20 weeks last year. Let's get into it, here are our exits:

Raye/ Hans Zimmer- Click Clack Symphony (#22 last week)

OneRepublic- Need Your Love (#12 last week)

Countdown:

30. Audrey Hobert- Sue Me (Re-entry) (Ummm....)

29. Noah Kahan- Orbiter (+1)

28. Katseye- Animal (Debut)

27. Sienna Spiro- Material Lover (+2)

26. The Beaches- Edge Of The Earth (-3)

25. Dominic Fike- Babydoll (-4)

24. Alyssa Grace- Bloodstream (+4)

23. Slayyyter- Dance (+4)

22. Bella Kay- ILoveItILoveItILoveIt (+4)

21. Ethan Burdick- Hold You (+4)

20. Ella Langley- Choosin Texas (-7)

19. Malcolm Todd- Earrings (+5)

18. Myles Smith- Heaven (+2)

17. Sabrina Carpenter- House Tour (+1)

16. Benson Boone- The Time Of My Life (+3)

15. Sombr- My Body Isn't Ready (+2)

14. Gracie Abrams- Hit The Wall (+1)

13. Martin Garrix/ Ed Sheeran- Repeat It (+3)

12. Stella Lefty- Boston (-1)

11. Niall Horan- Tastes So Good (+3)

10. Olivia Rodrigo- The Cure (-1)

9. Bruno Mars- Risk It All (-4)

8. Zara Larsson- Midnight Sun (=)

7. Teddy Swims- Mr Know It All (=)

6. Taylor Swift- I Knew It I Knew You) (-2)

5. Tame Impala/ Jennie- Dracula (+5)

4. Ariana Grande- Hate That I Made You Love Me (+2)

3. Sombr- Homewrecker (=)

2. Olivia Rodrigo- Drop Dead (=)

1. Alex Warren- Fever Dream (=)

Countdown Extra: Charli XCX- Camera

Last Year's #1: Alex Warren- Ordinary

#1 Two Years Ago: Shaboozey- A Bar Song

My Favorite Song Last Year: AJR- Betty

My Favorite Song Two Years Ago: Alex Warren- Carry You Home

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Meg Smith- Disco Dystopia

Seriously, the Off Campus stanning from Hits 1 has gotten super out of control, it seems as though they add every song they hear on that show. And here's the latest: After already spending 20 weeks on the countdown last year and being #18 on my 2025 best list, Sue Me by Audrey Hobert is back on the countdown. I'm not fully complaining, I still like the song, but I'm starting to get the feeling that this could break the record for most weeks spent in a 30 song countdown...

We also have one debut this week (as in, not on the countdown at all in 2025, much less spent almost half of that year on it), this is Animal by Katseye. This has to be their second best song thus far, behind only Internet Girl from earlier this year. It's worth mentioning that Ethan said this sounded like APT by Rosé and Bruno Mars, and I can actually sort of see that, although this one feels less annoying, maybe because it hasn't gotten as huge. Anyways, the beat here is on point and all of them sound really good, so yes, amazing Katseye song.

Hitbound:

Meek- Fabulous

Ariana Grande- Petal (Debut)

Role Model- Joy

Slayyyter- Brand New Chanel$ (Debut)

Robyn/ Zara Larsson- Talk To Me (Debut)

Temper City- Self Aware

Jennie- Less Than A Lover

Charli XCX- Camera

Morgan Wallen- Been By Now (Debut)

Bella Kay- I Deserve Better

Sienna Spiro- Pure

DJ Goja/ Jason Derulo/ Melody- Mi Chico

Stella Lefty- Good At Leaving

Bunt/ Lauren Spencer-Smith- Stay (Debut)

Gracie Abrams- Minibar

Tyla- That Girl

Ariana Grande just dropped her new album Petal this past weekend, and from it, we have the title track. This is solid. It has in interesting enough beat to keep me entertained and she sounds good, this just feels a bit forgettable. I'll take it though.

And since Slayyyter performed at Lollapalooza this past weekend, of course Hits 1 picked up on her new song Brand New Chanel$.  Yeah, this definitely isn't as good as Dance, but still good. It has a solid beat, I'm just not sold on the key it's in. I still like Slayyyter's vocals, so that's a plus. Again, not terrible at all.

At the beginning of the year, Robyn put out Talk To Me, and I liked it. Now, six months later, she got Zara Larsson on the remix, and as a result, makes her first appaerance on Hits 1 in 19 years, her song With Every Heartbeat dropped out of Hitbound in 2007. And this does not count when Calum Scott's cover of Dancing On My Own dropped out of Hitbound in 2016, because it wasn't the original from her, which Hits 1 apparently never picked up on. Now on to this new song, yeah, it's really good. The synthpop production works really well and both Robyn and Zara Larsson sound really good together. Yeah, super good to hear from Robyn again after all these years.

This next song is Morgan Wallen's third overall song of 2026, after McArthur with Hardy, Eric Church, and Tim McGraw and I Can't Love You Anymore with Ella Langley earlier this year. This is called Been By Now, and it is really good. I like the production on this, and he once again sounds really good, plus, it's in Bb major. Also, this seems to be about regretting something that was done during a relationship. So yeah, I would easily put this among his best songs, and that might be saying something.

Lastly, I don't think Lauren Spencer-Smith has ever done any EDM songs before... but that has now changed with her new collaboration with Bunt called Stay. I really like this, despite a mostly neutral track with Lauren Spencer-Smith overall. Lauren Spencer-Smith sounds really good over Bunt's drum & bass production, which also goes rather hard. Super interesting collab that works.

We lost Break Up In Reverse, E85, Ringtone, and After The Afterparty. Break Up In Reverse is the only one that I have no issues with leaving, the other three should've debuted the countdown.

Blurbs:

Our exits were Click Clack Symphony and Need Your Love. I feel like Click Clack Symphony could've peaked a bit higher, and Need Your Love had about the run I was expecting, so I'm not complaining there.

Looks like Hold You is definitely no sophomore slump for Ethan Burdick.

I'm definitely expecting Choosin Texas to be gone next week.

Earrings just now made the top 20 for the first time.

That could be it for Risk It All, who knows?

Dracula is back in the top 5, could this go #1 this late in its countdown run?

As I Predicted last week, Hate That I Made You Love Me is now in the top 5. It would be interesting to see if this can finally be Ariana Grande's first ever #1, but I've said this before and was wrong, so we shall see.

I guess that does it for me in this post, see you guys in the next one.