Burn | 5ive Songs

On the 34^th edition of 5ive Songs (2022), we select five songs that are associated with the word BURN in some form or fashion.

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elcome to 5ive Songs, where we keep things short and sweet – no extra calories or needless fluff! There’s a theme/topic, five songs, and a short blurb.  Yes, it’s a playlist, but it’s a miniature playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  On the 34^th edition of 5ive Songs (2022), we select five songs that are associated with the word BURN in some form or fashion.  Okay, let’s get into it!

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1. Future, “Keep It Burnin” (Ft. Kanye West)

💿 I NEVER LIKED YOU • 🏷 Epic • 📅 2022

“Cross me so much, I got nails in my hand / City on fire.” Ooh, wee, Ye – 🎙 Kanye West that is! 🎙 Future taps his fellow 🏆 Grammy-winning rapper for the third song from his highly successful 2022 album (💿 I NEVER LIKED YOU), 🎵 “Keep It Burnin”. “Keep It Burnin” was produced by 🎛 ATL Jacob, who gives Pluto and Kanye a lit 🔥 backdrop to work with.

West gets some great parts in “Keep It Burnin,” beginning with the ‘Biblical’ chorus.  Ye also delivers an interesting first verse, which features the eyebrow raising lyric, “When you run for ’24, I bet your spouse gon’ be with you.” That’s disturbing, shady, and honestly, West being true to self.  It’s also not the only time he says it – it reappears in the third verse, slightly altered. Also in that same verse, he asserts, “Testin’ my faith and I fell in a trance.”  Moving on, this is Future’s track after all, and he gives us, um, well, sex, money, violence, drug – typical stuff honestly.  One thing’s for sure: “Money like sage in my house, keep it burnin’.” Woo!

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2. Carrie Underwood, “Burn”

💿 Denim & Rhinestones • 🏷 UMG Recordings, Inc. • 📅 2022

🎙 Carrie Underwood proves she’s still got it on her 2022 album, 💿 Denim & Rhinestones.  Fittingly, the American Idol winner scored another top-10 album – all of her albums have debuted in the top 10! Would it be far-fetched to say Underwood is ‘burning’ those charts up? Honestly maybe, considering album sales aren’t what they once were, and CU debuted at no. 10… Still, the 🏆 Grammy-winning superstar has plenty of firepower on the Denim & Rhinestones joint, 🎵 “Burn.”

“Sittin’ there wrapped up tight / In your flannel button-up / With your arms around me / Watchin’ those flames dance high.” That sounds wonderful 🤩! “Burn” is a moderately paced record, featuring slick contemporary country production.  As always, Carrie bestows the listener with respectable vocals.  She’s a bit subtler in the first verse (excerpted). In the second, she’s more assertive,  leading into that dynamic, catchy chorus:

“Burn

Like whiskey in my glass

Even though it’s sittin’ on ice

It’s always gonna burn

Little too hot real fast

Like when you were mine, yeah

That’s the thing about your memory

It’s keeping me warm, but it’s killing me

Every time I think about you now

Even though our love died out

It’s always gonna burn, burn, burn.”

Uh-oh – the love is gone 😢! Underwood truly shines in the chorus. I especially love the powerful, vocal harmonies. This country veteran remains potent as she approaches two decades in the game!

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3. Osvaldo Supino, “Body Burning”

🎵 “Body Burning” • 🏷 Osvaldo Supino • 🗓 2022 

“When we move like this, we got the / Body burning up, body burning.” Ooh, wee! It’s incredibilmente caldo qui dentro (incredibly hot in here)! Please, do continue! “Oh, the floor so hot we own it / Body burning up, body burn I /… Burning up burning up / Burn that son of a bitch!” Hot, hot, hot 🔥! The catalyst for the hotness is the incredibly handsome, talented Italian musician 🎙 Osvaldo Supino 😍.  The award-winning independent musician delivers a must-hear, surefire bop with 🎵 “Body Burning”.  Infectious from the get-go, there’s no way you won’t ‘feel some type of way’ partaking of this bop that more folks need to be listening to beyond Italy.

“Oh yeah, it’s alive / I feel it growing and the feeling is golden / Ugh, yeah, we got it all right!” So, what makes “Body Burning” the bop that it is? It starts with the confident, playful, sexy vocals of Osvaldo 💪 (“Everybody in the club, yeah they know my name”). He has a gorgeous instrument – a truly clear, ripe tenor on his hands – tailor-made for pop.  Combine that with dancefloor-ready, suggestive, seductive lyrics, and born is an indisputable pop hit.

“This song, it’s got me feeling things

I’ve learned a lot and boy, I’ve grew

Yeah, my time is overdue

Oh, it’s happening, happening

Yeah, the beat take over my life.”

Furthermore, sick production work, with a beat readymade for the club/disco/‘busting a move’ at home, is the cherry on top.  This, my friends, is a surefire vibe!

Appears in 🔻:

• Osvaldo Supino, “Body Burning”: LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 15 (2022)
• 35 Intriguing LGBTQ Songs, Young & Old
• 13 B Songs: No Rhyme or Reason, Vol. 2

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4. Juice WRLD, “Burn”

💿 Fighting Demons • 🏷 Grade A Productions / Interscope • 📅 2022

“Gotta put the narcotics down, I can feel ‘em fucking up my kidney / And punching my liver,” 🎙 Juice WRLD spits on 🎵 “Burn,” the opener from his second POSTHUMOUS studio album, 💿 Fighting Demons.  Hearing and reading those devastating lyrics really ‘fuck you up’ knowing that Juice WRLD died at just 21 years old, struggling with the very thing he raps about. “If I let it kill me, my mama’ll never forgive me,” he continues in the first verse, adding, “Ain’t numbing my feelings, if I let it kill ’em, my baby will never forgive me.” Ugh…=

The struggle is real for Juice WRLD.  He goes on, in the centerpiece, the chorus, to “Pray to God for some water to wash down these Percs…” Supporting this self-destructiveness is dramatic production work.  I love the moody synths, strings, and various thoughtful musical cues utilized. 🎛 Metro Boomin truly outdoes himself on this minor-key production.  He does a fabulous job of only using the beat selectively, letting the rhythmic music lines speak for themselves, coupled with Juice’s own powerful performance. “Burn” is simultaneously beautiful and dark – a complicated musical selection.

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5. Usher, “Burn”

💿 Confessions • 🏷 LaFace • 📅 2004

“It’s gon’ burn for me to say this, but it’s coming from my heart / It’s been a long time coming, but we done been fell apart…” Like 🎵 “Yeah!” – OKAY!!! 🎙 Usher was that dude back in 2004 – untouchable! 💿 Confessions was the biggest album of the year, in a year rich with elite music.  Of course, I don’t have to tell you the album didn’t win the 🏆 Grammy for Album Of The Year (🎙 Ray Charles’ posthumous Genius Loves Company came out on top).  While “Yeah!” was the biggest hit from this diamond-selling affair, 🎵 “Burn” was a juggernaut, nominated for two Grammys itself (Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song).

Even as Confessions approaches 20 years old (shocking), “Burn” still sounds incredibly fresh.  Usher delivers the ballad with supreme sincerity, capped off by “Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,” representing the singer’s own ‘burning.’ What’s causing this burning, you ask? Breaking up… it’s hard to do! The chorus says it best:

“When your feeling ain’t the same and your body don’t want to

But you know, gotta let it go ‘cause the party ain’t

Jumpin’ like it used to, even though this might bruise you

Let it burn, let it burn, gotta let it burn

Deep down, you know it’s best for yourself, but you

Hate the thought of her bein’ with someone else

But you know that it’s over, we knew it was through

Let it burn (Let it burn), let it burn (Let it burn), gotta let it burn.”

I can’t end commentary on “Burn” without highlighting one of its best  lyrical moments: “You’ve been gone for too long / it’s been fifty-leven days, umpteen hours / I’mma be burnin’ till you return…” #CLASSIC!

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Burn: 5ive Songs No. 34 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, Clovis Cheminot, Epic, Grade A Productions, Interscope, LaFace, The Musical Hype, OpenClipart-Vectors, Osvaldo Supino, Pixabay, Sebastian Pociecha, UMG Recordings, Inc.]

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