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Song of the Day #606: ‘Rude Boy’ – Rihanna

Rihanna’s Rated R is a decidedly dark and downbeat affair, but one song bucks that trend. ‘Rude Boy,’ the latest single, is a raunchy dance-hall come-on that checks any trace of inner pain or turmoil at the door.

Rihanna has pushed her sexuality front and center in the promotion of Rated R, taking the album’s title to heart. It’s as if the 22-year-old wants to prove that the past year has forced her to grow up in all sorts of ways. Or else she just wants to use her ample, um, assets to sell more records. Either way, I’m not complaining, though I sometimes have the urge to cover her with my jacket and walk her home.

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Song of the Day #605: ‘Crash and Burn Girl’ – Robyn

Here’s an album I haven’t thought much about since I bought it a couple of years ago. But like many of my “forgotten” CDs, it’s a consistently rewarding listen.

Robyn is a Swedish performer who had some success internationally in the late 90s as a teenager. She fell off the map after that early success and eventually made her comeback in 2005 by forming her own label and releasing a self-titled album. The new material had an electro-pop and hip hop feel to it and was reportedly influenced by Madonna’s later work. It received a U.S. release in 2008, which is when it came to my attention.

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Song of the Day #604: ‘Red Red Red (Unreleased Version)’ – Fiona Apple

In early 2005, leaked versions of Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine began showing up on the Web. These songs were recorded in 2003 and produced by Jon Brion, who had produced Apple’s previous album. However, the new album had no release date and the rumor was that the studio had shelved the disc fearing the songs weren’t commercial enough.

That was a very frustrating and exciting time to be a Fiona Apple fan. There was much outrage over her supposed treatment by her label, complicated by the complete silence from the artist herself. And then the songs began to trickle out, so that every day for a few weeks a trip around the Web might result in a new uncovered gem. Eventually, by hitting the right sites, fans were able to piece together their own version of Extraordinary Machine, adhering to a song sequence that had also been leaked (by whom remains unclear to this day).

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Song of the Day #603: ‘Red Red Red’ – Fiona Apple

Today and tomorrow I’m going to take a look at the difference song production makes by highlighting two versions of the same song given completely different studio treatments.

The song is Fiona Apple’s ‘Red Red Red,’ which appeared on her third album, 2005’s Extraordinary Machine. It’s hard to believe the album came out five years ago already. That means we’re approaching the 6-year delay between her sophomore album When the Pawn… and this one. Only now there’s no new album on the horizon, no promise of new material. I really wish she’d record more often.

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Song of the Day #602: ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’ – Bob Dylan

Blonde on Blonde was the first double album of the rock era, but it doesn’t have all that many songs. Fourteen tracks is pretty normal on a single album these days. But these were some long songs. Three clocked in at more than 7 minutes, and the nearly 12-minute ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ took up one whole side of disc two.

And these are among Dylan’s most celebrated and successful songs. Blonde on Blonde features such classics as ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,’ ‘Just Like a Woman,’ ‘Visions of Johanna,’ ‘I Want You’ and ‘Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.’

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