Taylor Swift (2) - Week of February 9, 2013

How ‘bout them Grammys, eh?  Congratulations to fun. and Gotye for taking home some serious hardware.  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.

• Imagine Dragons - It's Time (DTHNOBx2)
• One Direction - Little Things
• OneRepublic - Feel Again
• Conor Maynard Ft. Ne-Yo - Turn Around
• Carly Rae Jepsen - This Kiss
• Josh Baze - She's Gold

The Countdown:

1. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble (#1) [Second Week at #1]

2. Lumineers - Ho Hey (#4)

3. Ke$ha - Die Young (#5)

4. The Script Ft. will.i.am - Hall of Fame (#8)

5. Pink - Try (#3)

6. will.i.am Ft Britney Spears - Scream and Shout (#20)

7. Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath (#13)

8. Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child (#2)

9. Phil Phillips - Home (#31)

10. Nelly - Hey Porsche (#35)

11. Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks (#12)

12. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop (#18)

13. Olly Murs - Troublemaker (#11)

14. Justin Timberlake Ft. Jay-Z - Suit and Tie (#9)

15. Maroon 5 - Daylight (#10)

16. Redfoo - Bring Out the Bottles (#24)

17. fun. - Some Nights (#6)

18. Calvin Harris Ft. Florence Welch - Sweet Nothing (#26)

19. One Direction - Kiss You (#21)

20. Skylar Grey Ft. Eminem - C'mon Let Me Ride (#42)

21. Passion Pit - Take a Walk (#19)

22. Sam and the Womp - Bom Bom (#30)

23. Neon Trees Ft. Kaskade - Lessons In Love (#22)

24. Ke$ha - C'mon (#17)

25. Paper Route - You and I (#36)

26. Justin Bieber Ft. Nicki Minaj - Beauty and a Beat (#14)

27. Britt Nicole - Gold (#39)

28. Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light 'em Up) (DEBUT)

29. Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire (#28)

30. Hot Chelle Rae - Hung Up (DEBUT)

31. Pitbull - Don't Stop The Party (#7)

32. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#41)

33. Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven (#6)

34. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#23)

35. fun. - Carry On (DEBUT)

36. Flo Rida - I Cry (#37)

37. Cher Lloyd - With Ur Love (DEBUT)

38. Emeli Sande - Next to Me (#25)

39. Little Mix - Wings (DEBUT)

40. JTX - Seven Day Weekend (#33)

41. One Direction - Live While We're Young (#45)

42. Bruno Mars - If I Was Your Man (DEBUT)

43. The Ready Set - Give Me Your Hand (#27)

44. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#29)

45. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#32)

Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOPPPP!!!...of the week: Pitbull – Don’t Stop the Party (-24)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Nelly – Hey Porsche (+25)

Lots of newbies composing the bottom half of this week’s countdown.  I suppose the countdown gods frowned upon my hope that we wouldn’t see another Bruno Mars song in the Top 10 for a long time, because despite the continued plummeting of Locked Out of Heaven, we got a debut from If I Was Your Man.  Basically, he traded in his usual “annoying” for “straight-up boring”, which is laughably a pretty significant upgrade.  It was a long shot, but Bruno Mars managed to come out with only the second worst debut of the week.  Uh…..bravo?

The worst debut of the week?  Little Mix – Wings.  I don’t want to bludgeon it too bad, because initially, it’s reasonably catchy.  Heck, I sort of like it right now, but I can say with 95% certainty that I’m going to be hating this song like mad in 2 weeks.  One of the Hits-1 DJs mentioned that Little Mix was going to be like the next One Direction, which is horrendously offensive to One Direction.  On this week’s edition of “Cher Lloyd makes notably strange music”, we tackle With Ur Love.  I can’t remember if his part is cut out or not in the version Hits-1 plays, but the song features Mike Posner (remember him?) with such interesting lyrics as “First date, first base / Second date, second base”.  With Ur Love doesn’t really change underlying rhythm mid-song, and rhythm is its best asset, similar to Want U Back.  It’s a pleasurable enough listen, but without any high points, it’s an also-ran in the pop music universe.

Someone needs to step in and write Hot Chelle Rae’s music for them (and if someone is already being paid to do this….good lord).  Hung Up is their newest awfully-written song.  Tonight Tonight and especially I Like It Like That had obnoxious tendencies with increased exposures.  Since Hung Up is basically no different, I imagine it’ll go the same route.  After the initial honeymoon period where it gets its due as a catchy, fresh new song, of course.  Unlike Justin Timberlake, the countdown return of ZOMG Fall Out Boy!!!!!!!! was a little bit more deserved.  Debuting with the longest name of any song in recent memory, it’s My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘em Up). Patrick Stump sounds like he hasn’t missed a beat since the old days.

This week’s best new entrant is fun. – Carry On.  My initial reactions to We Are Young, Some Nights, and Carry On were all pretty positive.  Unfortunately, We Are Young and Some Nights were absolutely pulverized to death by Hits-1 to the point where I automatically change the station on both.  One might say this is par for the course for pop music, but that certainly isn’t necessarily the case for the songs I most fondly look back on when they’ve run their course.  Carry On is a very uplifting song, and I’m a huge fan for the moment, but I’m afraid with this track record, any excitement I have over a fun. song is going to be tempered until they put one out that can withstand the test of excessive airplay over a 6-month span.  Or one that gets DTHNOBbed quickly.

Blurbie Dolls

- Rough exit for Imagine Dragons – It’s Time, falling off from all the way up at #15.  I hope this isn’t the end….::sniff::

- will.i.am Ft. Britney Spears – Scream and Shout is now in the Top 10, which marks the official nadir of western civilization.

- Speaking of new entrants to the Top 10.  Nelly – Hey Porsche made it there on just its second countdown week, and Phil Phillips – Home now finds itself up there.  I have a confession to make about Phil Phillips – Home.  I don’t like it.  When it first hopped onto the countdown I thought it was a good song that I didn’t fully appreciate at first glance, but then those feelings deteriorated into “it’s just kinda there”.  And songs that are “just kinda there” are not ones that you want repeated with high frequency on a pop music station.

- I’ll reiterate because I can.  Paper Route – You and I, that song that has a mere 63k hits on YouTube, is the 25^th biggest song in North America according to this countdown.  I don’t forsee “wutchuwants” becoming an official measuring stick utilized by Billboard anytime soon.

Editors Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Ke$ha – C’mon

2) Passion Pit – Take a Walk

3) Kelly Clarkson – Catch My Breath

4) Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop

5) fun. – Carry On