Best Songs of 2009 – #2
I wonder what Rihanna’s follow-up to Good Girl Gone Bad would have been like had she not been beaten up by boyfriend Chris Brown last February. Clearly she was capable of the sort of darkness and edginess she displays on Rated R but apparently it took that ugly incident to inspire her to capture it on record. I hate to say her pain is our gain, but it’s true.
I suppose 2008’s ‘Disturbia,’ written by Brown, was a start down this path but the songs on Rated R that tackle the violent incident directly and indirectly are a whole new ball game.
The surprising thing is that the album manages to be not just a catalog of her dark year but a great pop record at the same time, with even the sexy come-on ‘Rude Boy’ not feeling out of place.
‘Fire Bomb’ is among the songs most directly tied to that February night. Its “plot” is something that would fit into an Eminem album… the lead singer is driving a burning car with plans to crash it into her ex’s house (and him).
Can’t wait to see your face
When your front windows break
And I come crashing through
But the line that drives this song, and really the whole album, is this one: “I just wanna set you on fire so I won’t have to burn alone… then you’ll know where I’m coming from.” I believe that line captures the insult added to Rihanna’s injuries, which was Brown’s cavalier attitude in the months following the incident.
In her 20/20 interview, Rihanna struck me as a combination of angry and embarrassed about the whole thing, with the embarrassment serving as fuel on the fire of her anger.
‘Fire Bomb’ is all of those emotions rolled into one damn good song.
Fire is on my trail and it’s after me
Hope it don’t get here before I get where I’m going
I gotta get where I’m going
Take off my mask to breathe
You could’ve been a part of a masterpiece
Fluid in the brakes was the last to leave
That’s the thing
Where I’m going, I don’t need my brakes
Can’t wait to see your face
When your front windows break
And I come crashing through
The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
‘Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh
I just wanna set you on fire
So I won’t have to burn alone
Then you
Then you’ll know where I’m coming from
Fire bomb
Seems cold but baby, know it doesn’t have to be
Microwaving our metal tragedy
Watching it burn and it’s beautiful and it’s blue
And it’s pitiful when its through
It’s the other half of me
I didn’t do it, you lit the match for me
Now we’re flying from the blast, baby
That’s the thing
Where we’re going, we don’t need no brakes
Can’t wait to see your face
When your front windows break
And I come crashing through
The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
‘Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh
I just wanna set you on fire
So I won’t have to burn alone
Then you
Then you’ll know where I’m coming from
Fire bomb
Baby, we were killing them
They couldn’t handle the millionth degree
We were criminals
As we were burning, the world called the police
Fire department, ambulance
You can call me crazy ’cause I believe
The only move for me and you
Is to go out blazing
The lovers need to clear the road
Oh, oh, oh
Cause this thing is ready to blow
Oh, oh, oh
I just wanna set you on fire
So I won’t have to burn alone
Then you
Then you’ll know where I’m coming from
Fire bomb
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is a powerful – and catchy – song. I must admit that I don’t “get” your approach to choosing the top 10 singles of the year. By focusing solely on your own collection of albums, and on any cut on any of those albums, your top 10 likely reflects few if any of the actual hits (or best singles) of the year. I understand that these are the 10 songs that made the biggest impression on you, but it seems impossible to have a top 10 ist of the best songs of 2009 that doesn’t include ,,,
OR
OR
Basically, songs that someone who doesn’t have your album collection but does listen to the radio might have had a difficult time NOT encountering over the past year. Not that it being ubiquitous is necessarily a good thing, but it does make the song have a strong association with the year in which it was released. When I think of “best of…” a year, I think of the songs I associate with that year. The few I’ve included I heard in the car, in shops at the mall, being sung by my 21 year old nepew and my far younger nieces. And me. That makes a song qualify – in my book – as one that BELONGS to the year. Otherwise, it’s just a list of songs you like.
Well, I’ve never heard the first two songs you posted and I don’t like the third, so they certainly wouldn’t have a spot in my list of favorite songs from the past year.
I don’t listen to the radio so I don’t have much exposure to the kind of music you’re talking about. And when I do and I like something, I generally buy it. The Phoenix song on this list is an example.
I’m not looking to summarize the year in songs or create a list that evokes 2009 for the general populace… I’m listing my favorite songs of the year, which naturally will be music I own.
Applying your logic to a top ten movies list would suggest that no 2009 list is complete if it doesn’t include, say, Avatar, The Hangover and Transformers 2, regardless of whether you liked them or not.
no, but I would suggest you should have seen Avatar or The Hangover to determine whether they belong in your list.
How is it POSSIBLE that you never heard “I Gotta Feeling”? I find that utterly shocking. It was everywhere. Anyway, obviously preference is important, and I likely wouldn’t include “Party in the U.S.A.” in my list, even though I like it well enough, because I like other songs more. Still, my main criteria is this notion that a song BELONGS to a year, the way any film we rank will belong to 2009. If the single has been released on the radio, then I would think it qualifies. Still, the fact that an artist released an album and you like the 4th cut from the end, makes that song less likely to BELONG to that year because only fans of that artist are likely to have heard it.
It’s the difference between singles and albums; rank the albums, by all means. But how can a song qualify as a single that hasn’t been released as a single? That’s all I”m saying.
And, once more for the road – how have you not heard “I’ve Got a Feeling”?!?!!?
I understand the rationale behind ranking singles, but I’ve never been very interested in those lists, primarily because I’ve rarely heard anything on them. Rolling Stone did its list of the 50 best singles of the year and I knew about five.
That’s why I don’t count down the best singles but rather the best songs of the year… meaning the songs released this year (on albums or otherwise) that I liked the best.
I’m just not qualified (or interested in becoming qualified) to rank the best singles of the year.
I listened to your clip of ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ and I can say with 100% certainty that I’ve never heard it before, or at least I have no recollection of hearing it if I did.
I see Rolling Stone gave the other ubiquitous Black-eyed Peas song the nod. As much fun as it is to say “Boom Boom Pow,” I prefer “I Gotta Feeling.” Of course, with a little more poking around, I just realized BBP may have gotten the edge because Rolling Stone named “I Gotta Feeling” the 11th best single of the ENTIRE DECADE! š
What the hell were they thinking?? Haven’t they heard track six on Josh Rouse’s independently released third EP?
š clearly not.
Actually, that was the readers’ poll. The magazine didn’t have Black Eyed Peas anywhere on their decade list.
Well, the readers know what they’re talking about, obviously. I thought that was too astute a move for the magazine itself to make.
Wow, I have ONE busy day, and all hell breaks loose on the SOTD blog:)
Well, I have to say that I tend to side with Amy on this one. As I suggested earlier, the songs you are picking are all well and good, but they are basically just an extrapolation of your best albums of the year. And the list is even more removed from any notion of a “single” because you are choosing largely obscure songs from these albums, rather than even the singles these artists released.
I understand your mea culpa that you don’t listen to radio, but, quite honestly, this would be like a music critic publishing his top ten songs and featuring nothing but polkas, and when called out on it, saying “Hey, I don’t listen the radio and I only buy polka albums.” Or, in the movie context, being a movie critic whose top ten only contains documentaries, and when challenged, saying “I don’t watch fictional films.” It’s just shockingly limiting and, frankly, puts a knock on your credibility as a ranker (which is what you set yourself up as being, like it or not, when you post top ten lists on your blog).
I am equally stunned at how sheltered you truly are when you have not heard “I’ve Got a Feeling.” As Amy said, the song is friggin’ EVERYWHERE. I would respectfully suggest that you really need to come out of your bubble a bit to hear at least some of the songs that are on radio (or satellite, VHI, MTV, SNL, etc…) Look, I’m not a big fan of radio either, and don’t listen to it all that much, but I would feel rather inadequate putting a list of “best songs of 2009” together if I was so woefully out of touch with the songs that made up the landscape of the year. That’s all I’m saying.
Well, first I’ll say that, having now heard ‘I’ve Gotta Feeling’ twice, I’m convinced I wasn’t missing anything.
I’m not a music or movie critic… I don’t get paid to write this blog. If I did, I’d feel obligated to keep up with all the latest releases. For an amateur, I think I do a pretty good job of staying on top of the kind of music I like.
As for the music I don’t like… whether or not it makes up “the landscape of the year,” I don’t particularly care about hearing or discussing it.
That’s the same reason you’ll be out of luck if you come here looking for reviews of the year’s horror films. Fortunately there are thousands of other blogs that cover those things so it’s not as if I’m denying the world something.
Besides, if every one of the bazillion top ten lists out there featured the same songs, that would be incredibly boring.
I didn’t mean to suggest you should be exposed to every type of music out there – far from it. I’m regularly amazed by how much you know.
and i’m very glad you don’t watch horror films – yuck!!
Still, I’m sorry that you can’t appreciate “I’ve Gotta Feeling” for the infectious song it is. How can you not like a song that throws “Mazal Tov” into its chorus? š It’s genius – pure genius.
Truth is I couldn’t begin to compile such a top ten list, unless it was for my top favorite songs from 1987; if you want to know those songs, I’m ready to go! š
okay, point taken that you aren’t paid to do the blog (though I’m sure Alex wishes you would be!:))
And, while I know “I’ve Got a Feeling” and possiblly a few more of the “hits” this year, in looking over the RS list, I ddin’t know most of them, so I am certainly not claiming to know the “landscape” any better than you.
I do suspect, however, that if a horror film was getting rave reviews and Oscar nominations, you might be tempted to see it (and rank it). So, I guess all I am suggesting is that, just as you have amassed a number of great albums through reading what critics have liked, you may want to consider at least hearing and considering songs that critics praise. I think you have an aversion to doing that because you are very much an “album” guy, which is why you are reticicent to pluck songs from Itunes. Still, I’m just thinking that, for the type of excercise in which you have engaged this week, some of that ITune plucking might have produced some more expansive results (expansive in the sense of going beyond just picking a track from an album you love).
I don’t disagree with that point… in fact, I kind of made the same point when I featured Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ on the blog. I realized I’d missed out on ‘Umbrella’ in 2007 and ‘American Boy’ in 2008 and determined not to miss out on the summer hit of 2009.
I suppose I did, if that hit was ‘I Gotta Feeling.’ It also might have been something by Lady Gaga, of whom I’m equally ignorant. So I fell into the same trap again.
Incidentally, here is the Rolling Stone list of ‘Best Songs’ of 2009 (they didn’t go with released singles either):
1. U2 ā “Moment of Surrender”
2. Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys ā “Empire State of Mind”
3. Bruce Springsteen ā “Outlaw Pete”
4. Miley Cyrus ā “Party in the USA”
5. Phoenix ā “1901”
6. Pearl Jam ā “The Fixer”
7. Dirty Projectors ā “Stillness is the Move”
8. The Big Pink ā “Dominoes”
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs ā “Zero”
10. Lady Gaga ā “Bad Romance”
I did listen to the Jay-Z song as a possible candidate for the blog but I didn’t care for it. Ditto Dirty Projectors and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose albums got a lot of acclaim but didn’t do anything for me.
I guess I really should spend some time on Lady Gaga, though. š
I listened to Lady Gaga on SNL, and she did NOTHING for me. But she certainly is a pop culture sensation, so I am glad to be able to say something about her music (or, more likely, her costumes! š
As your kids get older, you’re less likely to miss the summer hit of the year – they’ll bring it into the house one way or the other, whether you love or despise it.