Every summer needs its song. In 2007 it was obvious. Umbrella Rihanna’s everlasting gobstopper of a hit featuring the best use of an echo (“… ella … ella … ella”) since the Von Trapps topped the charts and achieved the kind of ubiquity that allowed those who heard it to indulge a harmless but essential fantasy: that the entire world was watching the summer float by on the same breezy tune.
Songs Of The Summer 2008: Number Two
Rihanna’s Disturbia: Take a Bow, her ballad, is unremarkable, but Disturbia has one of those rubber-ball melodies that bounce around your head even before Rihanna hammers it home as a lyrical refrain (“Bum bum be-dum, bum bum be-dum bum”). Co-written by R&B star Chris Brown, Disturbia ingratiates itself by not trying to be more than the silly piece of product that it is. But a summer anthem should have at least one moment when it feels enormous.
Time Magazine’s Songs Of The Summer 2008
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