Maroon 5 (3) - Week of December 22, 2012

Merry Christmas from all one of us here at Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown Review!  I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday.  Per usual on the holiday weekend, we were treated to 4 days of the countdown.  I got a little bit unlucky, because each long car trip I took, I flipped on the countdown during songs #3, #2, or #1, so I wasn’t able to hear most of it, and had an overexposure of Hit-Bound, which isn’t particularly good at the moment.  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.

• One Direction - Kiss You
• Megan and Liz - Bad for Me
• One Direction - Live While We're Young

The Countdown:

1. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#3) [Third Week at #1]

2. Ke$ha - Die Young (#2)

3. fun. - Some Nights (#1)

4. Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven (#8)

5. Lumineers - Ho Hey (#7)

6. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble (#4)

7. Imagine Dragons - It's Time (#5)

8. Flo Rida - I Cry (#6)

9. JTX - Seven Day Weekend (#21)

10. Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (#10)

11. Bridgit Mendler - Ready or Not (#11)

12. Pitbull - Don't Stop The Party (#12)

13. OneRepublic - Feel Again (#13)

14. Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child (#14)

15. Maroon 5 - Daylight (#19)

16. Sam and the Womp - Bom Bom (#16)

17. Carly Rae Jepsen - This Kiss (#26)

18. Rihanna - Diamonds (#20)

19. Olly Murs - Troublemaker (#17)

20. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#38)

21. Josh Baze - She's Gold (#22)

22. Pink - Try (DEBUT)

23. Rolling Stones - Doom and Gloom (#23)

24. Cher Lloyd Ft. Becky G - Oath (#24)

25. Phil Phillips - Home (#27)

26. Nicki Minaj - Va Va Voom (#18)

27. Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks (#25)

28. The Script Ft. will.i.am - Hall of Fame (#29)

29. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#30)

30. One Direction - Little Things (#32)

31. will.i.am Ft Britney Spears - Scream and Shout (DEBUT)

32. Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath (DEBUT)

33. Alex Clare - Too Close (#31)

34. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#39)

35. Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen (#42)

36. Timomatic - Set It Off (#35)

37. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#34)

38. Emeli Sande - Next to Me (#33)

39. Rudimental Ft. John Newman - Feel the Love (#41)

40. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#37)

41. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#36)

42. Enrique Iglesias Ft. Sammy Adams - Finally Found You (#45)

43. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#44)

44. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#15)

45. Adele - Skyfall (#40)

Biggest DDDRRRROOOOPPPPP!!!!!.....of the week: Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time (-29)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Neon Trees – Everybody Talks (+18)

Three newbies this week.  We’ll kick it off (saving the worst for first, I guess) with will.i.am Ft. Britney Spears – Scream and Shout, which is a completely horrid song.  Anyone else shocked that this duo of artists didn’t produce a winner?  This guy isn’t.  It’s tough to take a song with these lyrics seriously, but I’ll try.  Scream and Shout makes me want to neither scream, nor shout.  The reasonably exciting song title belies the lazy beat and lethargic, monotone singing.  Repetition never sounded quite so…..repetitive.  This song would get a long look for my Bottom 5 Songs of 2012 (to be released later this week), except given the timing of its debut weekend, I probably won’t be fully exposed to this song’s awfulness until around February, so it’ll be deferred for consideration until 2013.

Kelly Clarkson continues her relatively strong year with Catch My Breath, which is now my favorite song she’s ever made (I’ve never been that big of a fan).  She stretches herself vocally more than usual, and the melody is upbeat and well-paced.  The end product is winding up on my Editor’s Picks list.  Well done, Ms. Clarkson.  And hey, she’s engaged now too!  Finally we come to Pink – Try.  Where Blow Me (One Last Kiss) was about the act of breaking up with someone, Try is about recovering from a breakup.  I’m reserving judgment on this one and will probably comment on it in a later installment.

Merry Blurbmas

- Not a good week for One Direction.  It’s bad enough for them that two of their songs were DTHNOBbed, but Kiss You was ranked all the way up at #9 last week.  That’s a hard fall.

- Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time looks like it’s taking a PSY – Gangnam Style-level quick exit.  Current path is #4 -> #15 -> #44.  We’ll see next week, I guess.

- I made an above reference to the poor quality of Hit-Bound.  However, there’s still 2 songs (now that Catch My Breath has graduated) for me to pull for: Muse – Madness and Paper Route – You and I

- This is getting ridiculous already with Neon Trees – Everybody Talks. 

- Hits-1 will be counting down the Top 45 Songs of 2012, probably using the usual dumb criteria.  I’ll post the list and explain what I mean next week.  As this will be taking place this upcoming weekend, this was the last regular countdown of the year.  Stay tuned for a couple special year-end installments.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) The Script Ft. will.i.am – Hall of Fame

2) Swedish House Mafia – Don’t You Worry Child

3) Kelly Clarkson – Catch My Breath

4) Maroon 5 – Daylight

5) Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks