Katy Perry (2) - Week of August 11, 2012

Reasonably decent recovery week as Maroon 5 – Payphone is stranded at #2 for the 7^th week in a row.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• The All-American Rejects - Walk Over Me
• Sammy Adams - Only One

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#1) [Second Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#5)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#6)

5. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#3)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#4)

7. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#16)

8. Flo Rida- Whistle (#8)

9. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#9)

10. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#12)

11. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#7)

12. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#11)

13. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#14)

14. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (#26)

15. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#15)

16. Usher- Scream (#10)

17. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (#31)

18. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#22)

19. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#18)

20. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#28)

21. One Direction- One Thing (#20) 

22. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#24)

23. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (#29)

24. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#13)

25. K'Naan - Hurt Me Tomorrow (#32)

26. fun. - Some Nights (#25)

27. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (#34)

28. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#21)

29. Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm (DEBUT)

30. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#19)

31. Marina & the Diamonds - Primadonna (#42)

32. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#23)

33. Alex Clare- Too Close (#17)

34. Katy Perry - Part of Me (#33)

35. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#41)

36. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#36)

37. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#43)

38. Train- Drive By (#38)

39. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#35)

40. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#40)

41. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#34)

42. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#27)

43. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#45)

44. Maroon 5 - One More Night (DEBUT)

45. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#30)

Biggest DDDRRROOOOOPPPPPPP!!!!!....of the week: Alex Clare – Too Close (-16)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean (+14).

See?  You can tell just from the quick hits that this week was solid.  It’s about time Walk Over Me went on its merry way.

The new entrants this week are from a couple of the usual suspects.  Maroon 5 has been on a bit of a roll lately and it somewhat continues with One More Night.  It’s a song about uncontrollable attraction to someone that it’s obvious it won’t work out with.  Like that hasn’t been done before.  The song is definitely a step down from Payphone and Moves Like Jagger, but it still has a good sound.

You all know I’m plenty shameless about “guilty pleasure” pop songs.  So I’ll just say it.  I am a huge fan of Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm.  The song is twenty kinds of fun, and Minaj does an excellent job of hitting those vocal notes that drive addiction to trashy songs.  It falls into a similar pitfall as Starships in that it has a bizarre techno interlude that isn’t very good, but at least this time it’s mitigated in that it fits a little better with Pound the Alarm than it did in Starships (where the techno interlude was ridiculously out of place) and that Nicki Minaj repeats “pound the alarm” in the middle of it.

I don’t do this often, but I want to rescind something I said last week thanks to some feedback provided by a reader.  Last week, I said the following:

“Ed Sheeran – The A Team is the countdown’s new resident slow(er) song.  I think this one is good, but I’m never going to like it more than I do right now.  Pretty low growth potential.”

Less than an hour after writing that, I liked it significantly more than I did in that moment.  Regarding a Top 45 countdown like this, one can be at least a little forgiven to not reading into song lyrics, as most songs tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves (e.g., you think I’m going to bother to google the lyrics to Pound the Alarm?).  Anyway, the reader pointed out what an excellent songwriter Ed Sheeran really is.  Despite the lighthearted, almost playful melody of The A Team, it’s actually a pretty dark song about a woman’s cocaine addiction supported by prostitution.  What’s brilliant about it is that both of those things are pretty much only referenced metaphorically with words that when read literally, could lend a completely different, plausible meaning to the song.  I'll always appreciate feedback if someone thinks I missed something like this.  Just not things like "OMG u are soooo wrong Rihanna's song is der terrps!!!!"

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

3) Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm

4) Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean

5) Ed Sheeran – The A Team