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

Olly Murs - Week of December 7, 2013

This countdown never ceases to surprise me.  That’s a key difference between this and, say, the American Top 40 – sometimes you never really do know what you’re going to get, and sometimes a song that got bounced a year and a half ago hits #1.  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.

• The 1975 - Chocolate
• Bruno Mars - Gorilla
• Cher Lloyd - I Wish

The Countdown:

1. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#3) [First Week at #1]

2. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#4)

3. Katy Perry – Roar (#1)

4. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#2)

5. Paramore – Still Into You (#8)

6. Lady Gaga – Applause (#5)

7. Lorde – Royals (#6)

8. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#7)

9. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (#11)

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

11. Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (#9)

12. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#12)

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

14. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#14)

15. Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (#18)

16. Panic! At The Disco - Miss Jackson (#17)

17. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (#28)

18. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#16)

19. Flo Rida - How I Feel (#20)

20. MKTO – Classic (#19)

21. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – White Walls (#22)

22. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#23)

23. John Newman – Love Me Again (#36)

24. OneRepublic - Counting Stars (#27)

25. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (#30)

26. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#25)

27. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#15)

28. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#29)

29. Wax – Rosana (#24)

30. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#33)

31. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#38)

32. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#31)

33. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#26)

34. One Direction - Story Of My Life (#21)

35. Ellie Goulding - Burn (DEBUT)

36. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#32)

37. The Wanted - We Own The Night (DEBUT)

38. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#39)

39. Icona Pop – All Night (#40)

40. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#44)

41. Rihanna - What Now (DEBUT)

42. Pink – True Love (#37)

43. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#42)

44. New Politics – Harlem (#35)

45. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#34)

Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOOPPPPP!!!!....of the week: One Direction – Story of My Life (-13)

Biggest Jump of the Week: John Newman – Love Me Again (+13)

Long-time Hit-Bound veteran Ellie Goulding – Burn is one of the more interesting songs of the recent past.  Ellie Goulding contrasts well-sung, rhythmically-smooth verses with a more intense chorus with a pretty good accompanying beat.  The silent pause just before the last chorus is a nice touch as well.  Consistently frustrating-but-talented Rihanna is back with another frustrating song, What Now, that might otherwise earn high marks if it wasn’t for a completely disastrous chorus that ranks among the worst of the year.  Rihanna tries to make the chorus “epic”, but fails miserably, and it’s fun to contrast this song with Burn, which accomplishes that feat with much less (perceived) effort.  The Wanted has put 3 songs onto the countdown, and they’ve steadily improved with each passing effort.  Their best is the newly debuted We Own the Night.  It boggles my mind that the lifeless Glad You Came was their breakout hit, but I guess the payoff was worth it.  We Own the Night has been on HitBound for about 372 weeks (I’ll have to check that figure, but it’s something like that), so it’s far from a “new” song.

And We Gonna Let It Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb

- Imagine Dragons – Demons has hit their to-date peak, and I really wouldn’t mind seeing that get itself at least one #1 bid, especially since the inferior Radioactive got eight.

- I’m pretty relieved that Burn and We Own The Night are here, not only because they’re good, but because I’m familiar with them and feel comfortable ranking them in 2013.  This is pretty big, because I was looking at the crop of songs I have to rank, and it’s a struggle to come up with 45 I actually like.  Shades of 2011, only without the big winners.

- So I recently found out that the lead singer of Neighbourhood is male.  This was quite the revelation.  You’ll have to pardon me for not paying more attention when they first showed up on the countdown.  Their song wasn’t worth the time.

- It seems that the Wutchuwant Crew and I had pretty similar appreciation patterns for New Politics – Harlem.  Seems like they’re done with it after some mild interest, and I am too.

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) Imagine Dragons – Demons

5) Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber

Katy Perry (7) - Week of November 30, 2013

In a move designed to make the show as unentertaining as possible, Britney Spears guest-hosted the Thanksgiving Weekend Countdown, and I bet it will be a total shock to you all to learn that she was monotone, robotic, and generally completely and totally awful at it.  As one might expect from a short week (the countdown began airing Thursday) and a guest host, no songs leavin’ the countdown this week.

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry – Roar (#4) [Seventh Week at #1]

2. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#2)

3. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#6)

4. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#3)

5. Lady Gaga – Applause (#7)

6. Lorde – Royals (#5)

7. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#10)

8. Paramore – Still Into You (#34)

9. Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (#16)

10. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#11)

11. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (#14)

12. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#15)

13. Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster (#12)

14. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#13)

15. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#18)

16. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#17)

17. Panic! At The Disco - Miss Jackson (#28)

18. Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (#9)

19. MKTO – Classic (#8)

20. Flo Rida - How I Feel (#39)

21. One Direction - Story Of My Life (#20)

22. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – White Walls (#43)

23. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#1)

24. Wax – Rosana (#41)

25. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#22)

26. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#29)

27. OneRepublic - Counting Stars (#24)

28. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (#21)

29. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#19)

30. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (#34)

31. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#36)

32. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#33)

33. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#30)

34. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#37)

35. New Politics – Harlem (#26)

36. John Newman – Love Me Again (#27)

37. Pink – True Love (#42)

38. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#45)

39. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#32)

40. Icona Pop – All Night (#23)

41. The 1975 – Chocolate (#38)

42. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#25)

43. Bruno Mars – Gorilla (#44)

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

45. Cher Lloyd – I Wish (#40)

Biggest DDDDRRRROOOPPPP!!!!....of the week: Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (-22)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Paramore – Still Into You (+26)

A Blurb in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush

- Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha – Timber snuck into the Top 10 in just its third week on the countdown

- I never in a million years would have expected Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight, the song that randomly had a 1-week stint on the countdown back in April, 2012, would be #3 on the countdown in December, 2013.  Just curious, has anyone actually heard this song in a forum other than Hits-1?  How this is ranked 3^rd and like, Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball is nowhere to be seen makes me wonder who really pulls the chains in determining which songs get to break into the Hits-1 rotation.  Because it’s pretty clear that it’s not rooted completely in “which songs are currently biggest in North America.”

- I expect a good amount of new entrants next week, though for purposes of year-end rankings, they might need to be deferred until 2014, depending on how long they’ve been around.

- I’d like to see Daughtry – Waiting for Superman to hit the countdown….that guy can flat out sing.

- Hits-1 is conducting a variety of “Best of” polls on their website for the year….if you feel so compelled, I’d hop on over to their website (http://www.siriusxm.com/hits1) and participate

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

2) Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha – Timber

3) Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams – Stay the Night

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

5) Imagine Dragons - Demons

Fall Out Boy - Week of November 23, 2013

Bit of a sudden rise to the top, as Fall Out Boy - Alone Together took just 2 weeks to ascend from #18 to #1.  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.

• Krewella - Live For The Night (DTHx2)
• Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Same Love (DTHx2)

The Countdown:

1. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#4) [First Week at #1]

2. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#1)

3. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#6)

4. Katy Perry – Roar (#3)

5. Lorde – Royals (#2)

6. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#5)

7. Lady Gaga – Applause (#8)

8. MKTO – Classic (#7)

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

10. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#9)

11. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#16)

12. Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster (#19)

13. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#12)

14. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (#27)

15. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#14)

16. Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (#41)

17. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#18)

18. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#17)

19. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#20)

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

21. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (#23)

22. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#10)

23. Icona Pop – All Night (#13)

24. OneRepublic - Counting Stars (#34)

25. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#11)

26. New Politics – Harlem (#22)

27. John Newman – Love Me Again (#31)

28. Panic! At The Disco - Miss Jackson (#36)

29. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#25)

30. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#30)

31. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#33)

32. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#38)

33. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#29)

34. Paramore – Still Into You (#32)

35. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (#35)

36. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#26)

37. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#37)

38. The 1975 – Chocolate (#40)

39. Flo Rida - How I Feel (DEBUT)

40. Cher Lloyd – I Wish (#24)

41. Wax – Rosana (#21)

42. Pink – True Love (#42)

43. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – White Walls (DEBUT)

44. Bruno Mars – Gorilla (#44)

45. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#39)

Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOOOPPPP!!!!...of the week: Wax - Rosana (-20)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (+25)

Parts of Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - White Walls (including the chorus) have a beat with very similar pacing to that of Phil Collins - Home.  Those are the parts of the song that work best, but the remainder is something of a letdown.  My first impression of Flo Rida - How I Feel is a positive one, though Flo Rida's recent past renders any optimism fairly cautious.  Therefore, I'm not going to put a snap judgement on this one.  Flo Rida is somewhat guilty of making the verses sound pretty similar across his songs, but his trademark quick flow ("flo?") is slowed down a little bit for How I Feel, and that, coupled with the more-interesting-than-usual background music, gives me at least some hope that the relative uniqueness here will make it a winner long-term.

Third Degree Blurbs

- Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Same Love and Krewella - Live For the Night were apparently resurrected for a one-week-only farewell tour.

- Spyder Harrison abandoned his "songs we're saying good-bye to" in favor of "songs leaving" this week.  I'm not sure I've heard him do that before.  This is the sort of hard-hitting, need-to-know news that you come here every week to read.

- Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay The Night is our lone new Top-10 song this week...it's growing on me a bit and seems to be doing so as well with the Wutchuwant crew.

- Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster seems poised to begin an extended stay in the Top 10.

- From all 1 of us here at the Sirius XM Hits 1 Weekend Countdown Review, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Editor's Picks - Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes - I Want Crazy

2) Imagine Dragons - Demons

3) Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber

4) Lady Gaga Ft. R Kelly - Do What U Want

5) Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay The Night

Avicii (4) - Week of November 16, 2013

One still gets the feeling that things are about to turn around, but for the time being, we’re still waiting.  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.

• Labrinth Ft. Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful
• Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran - Everything Has Changed
• Jesse McCartney - Back Together
• Avril Lavigne - Rock and Roll
• Tegan and Sara - Closer (DTHx2)

The Countdown:

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

2. Lorde – Royals (#1)

3. Katy Perry – Roar (#4)

4. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#18)

5. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#8)

6. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#3)

7. MKTO – Classic (#6)

8. Lady Gaga – Applause (#9)

9. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#11)

10. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#10)

11. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#17)

12. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#20)

13. Icona Pop – All Night (#21)

14. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#12)

15. Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (#43)

16. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#7)

17. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#31)

18. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#15)

19. Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster (#33)

20. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#22)

21. Wax – Rosana (#23)

22. New Politics – Harlem (#28)

23. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (#35)

24. Cher Lloyd – I Wish (#24)

25. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#29)

26. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#14)

27. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (#39)

28. One Direction - Story Of My Life (#26)

29. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#37)

30. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#16)

31. John Newman – Love Me Again (#19)

32. Paramore – Still Into You (#5)

33. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#41)

34. OneRepublic - Counting Stars (DEBUT)

35. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (#25)

36. Panic! At The Disco - Miss Jackson (DEBUT)

37. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#13)

38. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#34)

39. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#27)

40. The 1975 – Chocolate (#38)

41. Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha - Timber (DEBUT)

42. Pink – True Love (#36)

43. Krewella – Live For The Night (RE-ENTRY)

44. Bruno Mars – Gorilla (#42)

45. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Same Love (RE-ENTRY)

Biggest DDDDRRRRRROOOOPPPPPP!!!!!....of the week: Paramore – Still Into You (-27)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams – Stay the Night (+28)

Two resurrections this week, Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Same Love and Krewella – Live For The Night are both back, so three newbies.  I am surprised that this the first time Panic! At the Disco has appeared on the countdown (at least since I started following it in late 2009), given that they seem fairly popular.  I thought upon seeing the title that Miss Jackson was going to be a reboot of the Outkast tune to some degree, but instead it turned out to be a unique, Fall Out Boy-esque tune.  It’s passable.

OneRepublic has churned out a lot of famous pop music despite a general lack of catchiness or general interestingness inherent in their tunes.  For the most part, their music is lethargic and there’s not all that much life to Ryan Tedder’s singing voice.  Counting Stars struck me as something of a surprise because it was a little bit more upbeat and had a little more bounce and rhythm to it.  I can’t really peg a long-term look on it yet, but it’s probably grabbed my attention more than any other song they’ve produced.  Even if I want it to go away 30 spins later, it’s still a step in the right direction for a band sorely in need of changing their sound.

Pitbull and Ke$ha teamed up to produce our third new entrant, Timber.  Timber is a harmonica-laden jam that gets some bonus points for uniqueness.  Ke$ha is featured on the chorus, and given my usual disdain for Pitbull, I kind of assumed that it would be one of those situations where I could just tune out for the verses, but I think they actually put together a decent, cohesive piece of work on this one.  Approval.

Blurbage Disposal

- Fall Out Boy – Alone Together ascended to the Top 5.  I’ve reversed course on my original impression of this one, but that’s not to say I think it should reach the heights that it has.

- Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight also strikes me as a somewhat surprising new entrant.  I don’t listen to mainstream radio all that much, but I can’t imagine that this one’s getting spun all that often outside of Hits-1.  I’ve never heard it anywhere else.

- Early signs are that Serebro – Mi Mi Mi isn’t going to catch on, but an early drop like this can be misleading.  I sure hope not.

- Neighborhood – Sweather Weather and Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness are knocking on the door of the Top 10, which is great, because I’ve been saying for weeks now that the top of the countdown could use an infusion of boring.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

2) Imagine Dragons – Demons

3) Pitbull Ft. Ke$ha – Timber

4) Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie – This Is What It Feels Like

5) Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams – Stay the Night

Lorde - Week of November 9, 2013

Those big changes that were on the horizon?  They’re here.  Lorde sits atop the countdown for the very first 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.

• Daft Punk - Get Lucky (DTHx2)
• Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis - Same Love
• Britney Spears - Work B**ch
• Robin Thicke - Give It 2 U
• Krewella - Live For The Night

The Countdown:

1. Lorde – Royals (#3) [First Week at #1]

2. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#2)

3. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#40)

4. Katy Perry – Roar (#1)

5. Paramore – Still Into You (#7)

6. MKTO – Classic (#10)

7. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#11)

8. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#8)

9. Lady Gaga – Applause (#4)

10. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#14)

11. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#12)

12. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#20)

13. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#6)

14. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#9)

15. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#17)

16. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#5)

17. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#25)

18. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#24)

19. John Newman – Love Me Again (#13)

20. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#36)

21. Icona Pop – All Night (#15)

22. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#16)

23. Wax – Rosana (#18)

24. Cher Lloyd – I Wish (#22)

25. Serebro - Mi Mi MI (DEBUT)

26. One Direction - Story Of My Life (#33)

27. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#35)

28. New Politics – Harlem (#34)

29. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#29)

30. Labrinth Ft. Emeli Sande – Beneath Your Beautiful (#31)

31. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#23)

32. Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran – Everything Has Changed (#28)

33. Eminem Ft. Rihanna - The Monster (DEBUT)

34. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#38)

35. Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly - Do What U Want (DEBUT)

36. Pink – True Love (#42)

37. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#32)

38. The 1975 – Chocolate (#44)

39. Armin van Buuren Ft. Trevor Guthrie - This Is What It Feels Like (DEBUT)

40. Jesse McCartney – Back Together (#30)

41. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#39)

42. Bruno Mars – Gorilla (#26)

43. Zedd Ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (DEBUT)

44. Avril Lavigne – Rock N Roll (#19)

45. Tegan & Sara – Closer (#41)

Biggest DDDDRRRRROOOOPPPPP!!!!....of the week: Avril Lavigne – Rock and Roll (-25)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Imagine Dragons – Demons (+37) (not a typo)

There are bad songs that enter the countdown, like Enrique Iglesias – Turn the Night Up, and then there are songs that truly make me weep for the future of mankind, like Serebro – Mi Mi Mi.  No, that isn’t the device that Professor X uses to locate other mutants, it’s a girl group from Russia that’s showing up here….to increase noise pollution, I guess?  Mi Mi Mi has some explicit lyrics, but a sing-songy melody that's tailor-made for children who like obnoxious music.  There's a great combination.

Last time Eminem and Rihanna teamed up, we got one of the best songs of 2010 in Love the Way You Lie.  Their latest, The Monster, doesn’t quite hit that height, but it’s good, and it’s a welcome relief after the disaster that was Berzerk.  Apparently Eminem feels he has a lot in common with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.  Who knew?  For the moment, anyway, I’m not over the top in love with Lady Gaga Ft. R. Kelly – Do What U Want (heh….this whole “you” = “U” thing sure is fascinating to today’s pop artists), but it does put the classic, addictive Gaga singing voice and pacing back on display, something we haven’t seen in quite some time.  And hey, R. Kelly is alive!  So there’s that.  Unfortunately, his contribution to Do What U Want is the worst part of the song, except for that last bit that makes for an excellent transition to a chorus.  Thanks for The World’s Greatest, though.  That was a cool thing to give to the planet.

Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren debuted this week with This Is What It Feels Like, featuring Trevor Guthrie.  There’s nothing really objectionable about it….lively beat, pretty melodious on the whole, but I have trouble seeing it hold value long-term, because it really lacks any semblance of a “high point”.  The same piano-esque line is played throughout the song, and it switches off accompanying it with an underlying beat, but there’s not a lot of room for variety.  By the time the song ends, it feels repetitive even though you’ve only heard it once.  I’ve dismissively called songs “repetitive” here before, but usually they don’t sound quite as good as This Is What It Feels Like.  For that reason, judgment really needs to be withheld on this one for the time being.

Those who are over-the-top sick of Clarity might find themselves pretty disappointed to find out that Zedd has parlayed his breakout hit into another countdown entry, Stay the Night, featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore.  As mentioned on HitBound, the lyrics were literally written in a day by Hayley Williams, and it was the day before the song was recorded.  This is how easy it is for these people to make music that winds up on the charts.  Yikes.  Stay the Night is somewhat staccato in places, and I’m not sure that really works all that well.  However, much like he did with the relatively unknown Foxes, Zedd did a pretty good job with the voice of the star-keeps-rising Williams.  Any sort of apples-to-apples comparison to Clarity is pretty much impossible at this point since Stay the Night is new and I’ve heard Clarity like 200 times, but we’ll do our best in a month and a half when it’s time to decide on such things.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Blurbs

- So my words last week about big changes were true.  But look!  Tegan and Sara – Closer is still here!  

- The big news this week is clearly the out-of-nowhere ascent of Imagine Dragons – Demons all the way to the Top 3.  At this point it should be clear that I find this to be a very welcome development.

- Demons moving into the Top 3, of course, necessitated Radioactive being bumped out of the Top 10, because we all know how the countdown doesn't allow songs by the same artists to be anywhere close to each other on the countdown.  You can sort of see the same thing happening with Fall Out Boy right now.

- Sometimes Hits-1 seems to either be far ahead of, or far behind the more mainstream charts, but this time they seem to be right on target with Lorde – Royals, which hit #1 for the first time the very same week that it did so on the American Top 40.

- Despite my generally positive thoughts on 4 of the 5 new entrants, none of them have really grabbed my attention enough to merit a spot on my personal Editor’s Picks.  For the time being.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

2) Imagine Dragons – Demons

3) Avril Lavigne – Rock and Roll

4) New Politics – Harlem

5) Jesse McCartney – Back Together

Katy Perry (6) - Week of November 2, 2013

Bit of a transition week here.  Not much going on, but some big changes look to be on the horizon, and that’s more than welcome.  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.

• Eminem - Berzerk

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry – Roar (#2) [Sixth Week at #1]

2. Avicii Ft. Aloe Blacc – Wake Me Up (#1)

3. Lorde – Royals (#7)

4. Lady Gaga – Applause (#4)

5. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (#9)

6. Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (#34)

7. Paramore – Still Into You (#5)

8. Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight (#8)

9. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive (#3)

10. MKTO – Classic (#6)

11. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up) (#37)

12. Selena Gomez – Slow Down (#10)

13. John Newman – Love Me Again (#14)

14. Linkin Park Ft. Steve Aoki – A Light That Never Comes (#15)

15. Icona Pop – All Night (#22)

16. The Mowgli's – Say It, Just Say It (#17)

17. Katy Perry – Unconditionally (#33)

18. Wax – Rosana (#19)

19. Avril Lavigne – Rock N Roll (#31)

20. Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather (#19)

21. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (#20)

22. Cher Lloyd – I Wish (#38)

23. Travie McCoy Ft. Jason Mraz – Rough Water (#24)

24. Fall Out Boy – Alone Together (#11)

25. Lana Del Rey Ft. Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness (#16)

26. Bruno Mars – Gorilla (#25)

27. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Same Love (#12)

28. Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran – Everything Has Changed (#13)

29. Enrique Iglesias – Heart Attack (#28)

30. Jesse McCartney – Back Together (#27)

31. Labrinth Ft. Emeli Sande – Beneath Your Beautiful (#40)

32. Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines (#32)

33. One Direction - Story Of My Life (DEBUT)

34. New Politics – Harlem (#35)

35. Zedd Ft. Foxes – Clarity (#18)

36. Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy (#23)

37. Britney Spears – Work B**ch (#26)

38. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody (#42)

39. Macklemore Ft. Ryan Lewis – Can't Hold Us (#30)

40. Imagine Dragons – Demons (#29)

41. Tegan & Sara – Closer (#41)

42. Pink – True Love (#44)

43. Robin Thicke – Give It 2 U (#43)

44. The 1975 – Chocolate (#21)

45. Krewella – Live For The Night (#36)

Biggest DDDDDRRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!....of the week: The 1975 – Chocolate (-23)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love (+28)

The lone new entrant is from a group putting their 7^th song on the countdown since November of 2011, One Direction.  Story of My Life is one of their better ones, they strayed from the typical “boy band” sound and actually cooked in some decent instrumentals.  When I first heard it, I was disappointed, but I think that’s mostly because this is a group that’s conditioned me for that particular emotion since the heights of What Makes You Beautiful.

Breaking Blurb

- Even Spyder Harrison’s call-in guest DJ acknowledged how ridiculous it was that I Need Your Love made it’s huge leap back into the Top 10

- It looks like we’re not far away from Lorde – Royals taking over the countdown, though I’ve been wrong about such impressions before.

- Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘em Up) made just as ridiculous a leap as I Need Your Love.  I really don’t want to dislike that song, but Hits-1 is making that goal increasingly difficult

- I genuinely had a very pleasant experience listening to HitBound this past weekend….there’s some decent stuff that could make the jump in the next couple weeks.  Maybe it was refreshing to hear something new and interesting for a change.  Then again, maybe it’s not the “new”-ness of it all that was refreshing….after all, there’s been a relatively decent rate of turnover on the countdown lately.

- We’ve entered November and there haven’t been any over-the-top spectacular songs on the countdown in 2013…..it certainly seems at this point that my #1 song of the year will dip in quality for the 2^nd straight year, but who knows what the rest of this month has in store.  I also go on a major listening binge towards the end of the year to make sure I’ve got my rankings right, and sometimes that makes me realize the hidden value of some of the stuff you see here.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Hunter Hayes – I Want Crazy

2) Imagine Dragons – Demons

3) MKTO – Classic

4) Avril Lavigne – Rock and Roll

5) New Politics - Harlem