Halfway through presenting my countdown of 2008’s top ten songs (which has already been signed, sealed and delivered) I realized I committed a major blunder in overlooking one of last year’s gems, Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia.’

I bought her multi-platinum album Good Girl Gone Bad toward the end of December but didn’t consider it for my year-end list because it was released in 2007. However, three bonus tracks on the edition of the CD I have were released in 2008. Silly me.

First, let me sing the praises of this album. I know I’m a year and a half late to this party, but that’s not gonna stop me from raiding the snack table and jumping in the pool with my clothes on. Good Girl Gone Bad is, put simply, the best album of its kind I’ve heard since… maybe ever.

Now, to clarify, I don’t own many albums of its kind, and I don’t really know what “its kind” is. I suppose it’s a dance album or a pop album… maybe a bit of an R&B or hip-hop album. The album I’m most reminded of it as I listen to Good Girl Gone Bad on repeat is Michael Jackson’s Thriller (perhaps because one song samples ‘Wanna Be Starting Something’). Pound for pound, song for song, this thing should be as much of a monster hit as that classic. I suppose in the age of digital downloads nothing will sell like that again, but this deserves to.

Lead-off track ‘Umbrella‘ is followed by a quartet of hard-driving beat-heavy tracks and Rihanna knocks them all out of the park. Things slow down on a pair of acoustic ballads before a couple of Timbaland-produced tracks in the middle break things up like a visit from a troublemaking relative. The marching band riff on ‘Lemme Get That’ is alone worth the price of the CD. The album takes one serious wrong turn toward the end with ‘Question Existence,’ a syrupy trip-hop whine about the price of fame. But things wrap up nicely with the groovy swing of the title song.

Perhaps the best moment on the rereleased album, though, is ‘Disturbia.’ If I had it to do over again, this song would definitely be on my top ten list — probably high on it. It’s ridiculously well put-together, and so chock full of goodies that it could really be split into at least three great songs.

I don’t know much about songcraft, but it seems to me this song has either three choruses or verses so good they can pass as choruses. The way I see (hear) it, the song breaks down like this:

1. Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
This recurring phrase is catchy enough to drive the song all by itself

2. No more gas, in the red, can’t even get it started…
So begins the first proper verse

3. It’s a thief in the night to come and grab you…
Something shifts here, but I don’t know if that makes this a chorus or just a change-up in the verse

4. Throw on your brake lights, you’re in the city of wonder…
Now this definitely sounds like a chorus

5. Your mind is in disturbia…
But this sounds like an altogether different chorus

6. Release me from this curse…
Close to the 3-minute mark we get a proper bridge

So that’s five distinct parts in the first minute of the song, which is just not the kind of thing I hear much of these days. We’ve had a lot of discussion recently on this blog about pop songcraft and for my money this song is pop songcraft of the highest order.

So my apologies to Rihanna for not properly acknowledging ‘Disturbia’ in my year-end list. I’ll be happy to make amends in person should you so desire. Call me.

Note: The official video of this song is one of the freakier things I’ve seen. Check it out if you dare!

Update: I found out how to embed video from Dailymotion, a YouTube alternative. The official (and officially creepy) video is now included below.