Owl City (4) - Week of November 10, 2012

Just in the nick of time…….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.

• Allstar Weekend - Life As We Know It
• Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side
• Flo Rida - Let It Roll
• Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean

The Countdown:

1. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#1) [Fourth Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#2) 

3. Ke$ha - Die Young (#14)

4. fun. - Some Nights (#4)

5. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#7)

6. Flo Rida - I Cry (#8)

7. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (#5)

8. Enrique Iglesias Ft. Sammy Adams - Finally Found You (#10)

9. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#9)

10. Rihanna - Diamonds (#16)

11. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#6)

12. One Direction - Live While We're Young (#11)

13. Imagine Dragons - It's Time (#17)

14. PSY - Gangnam Style (#3)

15. Alex Clare - Too Close (#13)

16. Taio Cruz - Fast Car (#18)

17. OneRepublic - Feel Again (#15)

18. Timomatic - Set It Off (#20)

19. Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G - Oath (#23)

20. Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven (#24)

21. Bridgit Mendler - Ready or Not (#19)

22. Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (#22)

23. Lumineers - Ho Hey (#30)

24. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#24)

25. Rudimental Ft. John Newman - Feel the Love (#26)

26. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#33)

27. Sam and the Womp - Bom Bom (#35)

28. Adele - Skyfall (#27)

29. Nicki Minaj - Va Va Voom (DEBUT)

30. BoysLikeGirls - Be Your Everything (#32)

31. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#31)

32. Rita Ora - R.I.P. (DEBUT)

33. The Cab - Intoxicated (#21)

34. Usher - Numb (#12)

35. Emeli Sande - Next to Me (#34)

36. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#29)

37. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#41)

38. Cher Lloyd - Want U Back (#38)

39. Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen (DEBUT)

40. Megan & Liz - Bad for Me (DEBUT)

41. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#37)

42. Karmin - Hello (#42)

43. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#39)

44. Martin Solveig - The Night Out (#40)

45. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#43)

Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOOPPPP!!!...of the week: Usher – Numb (-22)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Ke$ha – Die Young (+11)

Sometimes this job can be really difficult (woe is me) in that I have to review songs with less than a week’s notice.  A lot of songs wind up bunched in the middle because I haven’t given them enough spins for Judgement Day to really take place.  This week was particularly tough, as four female artists debuted with a song this week, and at first they were really close in quality….I couldn’t separate them.  The fortunate thing about not getting this recap together until Friday is that I’ve had a lot of time to mash the repeat button to fully form my opinions.  So, I present this countdown’s much-needed new blood that it hasn’t seen in a couple weeks now in ascending order of quality.

Think what you will about Nicki Minaj, she has the ability to produce some songs that are truly infectious.  My favorite, of course, is Super Bass.  However, when she falls short of greatness, it’s typically easy to move on from, and that’s what Va Va Voom is.  It’s interesting enough at first, but there’s not enough there to keep you wanting to hear it for months.  We’ll lump this one into the Starships category and move on.  Cool?  Cool.

I had never heard of Rita Ora before this summer, but I was truly delighted when she came out with the incredibly stupid How We Do.  The fun thing about spending this much time recapping pop music is that you are allowed to love songs that are hysterically terribly written, and that’s exactly my feelings on How We Do.  R.I.P., Rita Ora’s new single, kept the terrible lyrics but isn’t anywhere near as hooking.  That said, I don’t really dislike listening to it that much.  There’s worse stuff out there.

Long-time Hit-Bound veteran Megan & Liz – Bad For Me finally made its countdown debut.  Bad for Me furthers the theme of most countdown songs that I like in the 2^nd half of 2012 being guilty-pleasure types.  It’s a delightful little melody that doesn’t wow anyone, but has a good enough chorus to stick as an above-average countdown song.

The more I listened to these four songs, however, the more I realized that the clear flag-carrier was Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen.  Maybe it’s because the other three songs are completely terribly written, maybe it’s because my wife and I agree on a song we like for a change, or maybe it’s just because this tune is best at withstanding the tests of time of repetition (which I assure you I have put it through), but I’m calling it the best debut of the week, and superior to the infinitely more popular Lights

Bluuuuuuuuuuuuurbs

- Apparently HitBound just wasn’t able to let Megan & Liz – Bad for Me go.  Despite its countdown debut, it aired on Hit-Bound anyway (and not during one of the three moments in which Hit-Bound STOPS!....to play this moment’s most wutchuwanted song).  As far as I can tell, this is a first.

- Ke$ha – Die Young finally made its big move this week, jumping up to #3 after waiting in the weeds in the teens for about a month.

- Interestingly, Die Young swapped places with the song I thought would hit #1 this week, PSY – Gangnam Style.  Gangnam Style is out of the Top 10, down to #14.

- Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time is doing a fantastic job of illustrating the countdown’s propensity to keep songs at #1 long after I’m done with them.  But don’t get me wrong, I’m not going back on my assessment of Good Time, like I did on One More Night.

- Rihanna – Diamonds in the top 10?  Already?  For realz?

- Sam and the Womp – Bom Bom ascended into the Top 30 for the first time, which will surely piss off a lot of people.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Ke$ha – Die Young

2) Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G – Oath

3) Imagine Dragons – It’s Time

4) Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen

5) BoysLikeGirls – Be Your Everything