Avicii - Week of October 12, 2013

Not too much beating around the bush for Avicii and Aloe Blacc, spending only one week in the Top 5 before grabbing the crown from Katy Perry.  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.

• Florida Georgia Line - Cruise
• Bonnie McKee - American Girl
• Cody Simpson - Pretty Brown Eyes
• Bruno Mars - Treasure

The Countdown:

1. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc - Wake Me Up (#2) [First Week at #1]

2. Katy Perry - Roar (#1)

3. Capital Cities - Safe and Sound (#29)

4. Lady Gaga - Applause (#6)

5. Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran - Everything Has Changed (#16)

6. Imagine Dragons - Radioactive (#3)

7. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Same Love (#4)

8. Paramore - Still Into You (#7)

9. Pink - True Love (#14)

10. The 1975 - Chocolate (#10)

11. MKTO - Classic (#9)

12. Lana Del Ray Ft. Cedric Gervais - Summertime Sadness (#13)

13. Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight (#23)

14. Fall Out Boy - Alone Together (#15)

15. Mika Ft. Ariana Grande - Popular Song (#11)

16. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki - A Light That Never Comes (#39)

17. Zedd Ft. Foxes - Clarity (#8)

18. Lorde - Royals (#18)

19. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz - Rough Water (#22)

20. Neighborhood - Sweater Weather (#20)

21. Selena Gomez - Slow Down (#35)

22. Robin Thicke ft. Pharrell and T.I. - Blurred Lines (#28)

23. Jesse McCartney - Back Together (#21)

24. Eminem - Berzerk (#17)

25. Demi Lovato - Made in the USA (#19)

26. Train Ft. Ashley Monroe - Bruises (#12)

27. Britney Spears - Work B**ch (#24)

28. The Mowgli's - Say It, Just Say It (#37)

29. Krewella - Live for the Night (#30)

30. Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone (#25)

31. John Newman - Love Me Again (#32)

32. Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light 'em Up) (#5)

33. Icona Pop - All Night (#26)

34. Bruno Mars - Gorilla (#27)

35. Daft Punk - Get Lucky (#40)

36. Labrinth Ft. Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful (#34)

37. Karmin - Acapella (RE-ENTRY)

38. Imagine Dragons - Demons (DEBUT)

39. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding - I Need Your Love (#38)

40. Hunter Hayes - I Want Crazy (DEBUT)

41. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us (#36)

42. Maroon 5 - Love Somebody (#41)

43. Robin Thicke - Give It 2 U (DEBUT)

44. Awolnation - Sail (#45)

45. Tegan & Sara - Closer (#42)

Biggest DDDDRRRROOOPPPPP!!!!....of the week: Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up) (-27)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (+26)

We got ourselves a resurrection from Karmin – Acapella, so continuing the pattern of the last couple weeks, there’s only 3 new songs replacing the 4 exits.  Imagine Dragons – Demons has been around for a little bit and is excellent for plenty of reasons besides the absurdly catchy way that Dan Reynolds sings the words “kingdom come”.  If It’s Time was the song that helped get Reynolds out of depression, Demons hints at the lingering issues that likely caused it in the first place, without getting into too many specifics.  Demons feels a little bit like a good Coldplay song (yes, those are real).  Come to think of it, I think Reynolds actually sounds a good deal like Chris Martin during the verses of Demons.  Has anyone ever seen them in the same place!?!??!??!?!!!!1111!!!?!  Imagine Dragons has now produced 3 pretty good countdown songs (even if Radioactive got pretty stale when beaten to death) and all of them are pretty unique.  They’re cementing themselves as one of the better pop groups out there.

Hunter Hayes failed to crack the countdown after a previous foray into HitBound, but this time around he broke through with I Want Crazy.  Hayes is a country singer by trade, but pieces of this song feel like they were influenced by Irish music.  I Want Crazy is joyfully upbeat and will keep me coming back for more.  It’s a keeper.  ”Accomplished” “musician” “Robin Thicke" had that one song that did sorta good, so now he can make whatever he wants as a follow-up and it’ll get sorta popular because this is how the world works.  Give It 2 U actually resembles an actual song, unlike Blurred Lines, but outside of the semi-melodious chorus, it’s pretty much a waste.  Oh, and we didn’t want to spell out the last two words of the title, because it’s much kewler this way, amirite???

Once Upon a Blurb

- So just as Capital Cities – Safe and Sound looks like it’s on its way out, it gets launched all the way to #3, higher than it’s ever been on the countdown.  Isn’t logic great?  Sometimes you gotta love just how little sense these weekly rankings really make…they’re fickle as all hell.

- I’m a little sad about the short tenure of my Guilty Pleasure of 2013, Bonnie McKee – American Girl.  I guess the countdown gods wanted to appease my loss by bringing back another guilty pleasure to replace it in the form of Acapella.

- So….Awolnation – Sail and Tegan and Sara – Closer are just gonna float around the bottom 5 of the countdown forever, huh?  We’re all just gonna look the other way on that one?  Cool.  16 songs have been kicked off the countdown since Sail last saw #40.

- From the Dept. of “Big Fat Sack of “NO!!”, Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran – Everything Has Changed not only jumped into the Top 10 for the first time, it's at #5.

- Also in the Top 10 for the first time is Pink – True Love.  Though at least a little better than Everything Has Changed, it remains one of the worst-written songs of the year.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Imagine Dragons – Demons

2) Train Ft. Ashley Monroe – Bruises

3) MKTO – Classic

4) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

5) Karmin - Acapella