Imagine Dragons - Week of December 14, 2013

Biggest shake-up at the top we’ve seen in a good while here on the Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown.  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.

• Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
• Zedd Ft. Foxes - Clarity
• Maroon 5 - Love Somebody
• Pink - True Love

The Countdown:

1. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#2) [First Week at #1]

2. Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (#11)

3. OneRepublic - Counting Stars (#24)

4. Katy Perry – Roar (#3)

5. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#4)

6. Lorde – Royals (#7)

7. Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster (#13)

8. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#22)

9. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#1)

10. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (#9)

11. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#14)

12. Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (#15)

13. MKTO – Classic (#20)

14. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – White Walls (#21)

15. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#12)

16. Lady Gaga – Applause (#6)

17. Paramore – Still Into You (#5)

18. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#45)

19. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#8)

20. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#10)

21. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (#25)

22. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#18)

23. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#36)

24. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#28)

25. John Newman – Love Me Again (#23)

26. Panic! At The Disco - Miss Jackson (#16)

27. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (#17)

28. One Direction - Story Of My Life (#34)

29. Flo Rida - How I Feel (#19)

30. Passenger - Let Her Go (DEBUT)

31. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#40)

32. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#27)

33. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#32)

34. The Wanted - We Own The Night (#37)

35. Ellie Goulding - Burn (#35)

36. Midnight Red - Hell Yeah (DEBUT)

37. Rihanna - What Now (#41)

38. Sara Bareilles - Brave (DEBUT)

39. Icona Pop – All Night (#39)

40. Justin Timberlake - Drink You Away (DEBUT)

41. Wax – Rosana (#29)

42. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#26)

43. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#33)

44. New Politics – Harlem (#44)

45. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#43)

Biggest DDDDRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!.....of the week: Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (-16)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (+27)

So I guess here’s one for all the people on the Hits-1 Facebook page that complain about the lack of Justin Timberlake on Hits-1, as Drink You Away busted its way onto the countdown this week.  The multi-talented Timberlake sort of scores here…(I’m probably in the minority that thinks his acting is better than his music), as Drink You Away makes use of actual musical instruments (!!!) in lieu of his typical synth’d stuff.  It caught me a bit off guard, and in a good way.  The music video for Passenger – Let Her Go was published on July 25, 2012 and has been played pretty regularly on other Hits-1 stations (The Pulse comes to mind) for awhile now, so this one isn’t exactly new.  Let Her Go is a nice little song with pretty solid lyrics about our tendency to only really appreciate things when we don’t have them.  It’s not the type that’s dependent on sucking you in with a catchy hook or something, so it’ll take more time for me to have a fully formed opinion on this.  For what it’s worth, I’m optimistic.

Katy Perry – Roar Sara Bareilles – Brave is an uplifting song that pre-dates its sound-alike that has been #1 on this countdown 7 times already.  This one came out first, so if there is a copycat, we know who it is.  Brave was released in May or thereabouts, so it’s odd to see it debut this late in the year, but here we are.  I suppose I don’t need to tell you which one is lyrically ahead of the other.  Midnight Red – Hell Yeah has various catchy components….the beat during the verses is a serious plus, but the chorus unfortunately gets away from that, presumably to give more focus to the singing.  It’s a boy band, so I guess that’s to be expected.  I sort of get the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts here, but reasonable minds can disagree.  Also: the lyrics are downright Hot Chelle Raeian.  It’s a boy band, so….oh right, right…mustn’t repeat myself.

Blurbaholics

- Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha – Timber and One Republic – Counting Stars have both jumped into the Top 3, which was especially surprising for Counting Stars.  Most One Republic songs tend to do this well at some point, and I’m nowhere near as upset about Counting Stars reaching this height as I have about its predecessors.  Counting Stars is downright interesting, which has made me pinch myself as a reality check on more than one occasion given who produced it.

- I will not be considering any of the songs that debuted this week for the year-end rankings.  This is the cutoff point.

- If we could stop bouncing Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love all over the place from week to week (except, of course, OFF the countdown), that would be just swell.

- Kind of odd that Imagine Dragons’sseszes breakout song (and best song) is the only one of the three to never top the Sirius XM Hits-1 Weekend Countdown.  Not that I’m complaining, Demons is plenty worthy of the crown.

- I’ve been listening to 2013’s music pretty relentlessly over the past month or so (I know, yuck), gearing up for the flurry of year-end activity that we’re going to see around these parts in the next 2 weeks.  Stay tuned!

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

2) Ellie Goulding – Burn

3) Lady Gaga Ft. R Kelly – Do What U Want

4) Passenger – Let Her Go

5) Imagine Dragons - Demons