McCartney Really Must Do Eurovision.

I had hoped to retire the "Operation Misery" prefix.

In the very early hours of Sunday (25/1/15) in the UK (Saturday evening/afternoon in the US) Rihanna released her first single following the "Unapologetic" album and the Diamonds World Tour that supported it. The song "Four, Five Seconds" marked a dramatic change in style for Rihanna featuring her singing acoustically in the country/folk-punk style that is synonymous with Ani DiFranco. Her album "Out of Range" was very much my soundtrack to the Diamonds World Tour. In the first part the song "You Had Time" kept playing in my brain during the first US leg of the tour. Then there was that moment just before the European leg when I stretched my back in my police cell and thought; "I can't go to prison now, I've just brought a lot of stuff on Amazon."

A duet with Kanye West "Four, Five Seconds" is also reminiscent of "Jackson" a famous duet between Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash. This is a song I often use frequently to mock intelligence operations that keep going on long after everyone has lost interest. It seems particularly relevant to the US attempts to force Rihanna into a relationship with first Chris Brown and then Drake. The vocal hook about mistaking kindness for weakness is directly stolen from the song "Forever" by the Dropkick Murphy's - a band that is so poor and so scummy I'm pretty sure I was in it for a week. The song also makes reference to "Wilding'" which makes me think of the "Wildlings" who live in the constant winter wasteland beyond the wall in the TV Show "Game of Thrones." That TV show was very big in 2014 being referenced both in the Eurovision Song Contest and the Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

On a very superficial level the stormy duet between a female and male vocalist could be interpreted as a reference to the abusive relationship between Rihanna and whoever is currently cast in the little black boy role. Also on that superficial level you could interpret the references about there being three days until Friday as an attempt to give the song a commercical boost by making it the sound track for the mid-week blues as everyone's waiting desperately for the weekend. However on a deeper level it seems to be an examination of my role during the Diamonds World Tour which perhaps prevented the US from disrupting the COP19 Climate Change summit. The references to worries about someone going to prison at any moment are pretty self-explanatory but there are also lots of weird little references. For example I tend to only drink alcohol on Tuesdays and Fridays leaving a three day wait until Friday.

The song was written by Paul McCartney who closed the 2005 Live 8 concert amongst a few other things. Obviously I can't speak for him but it strikes me that the song was intended as a something of a palate cleanser or a pipe cleaner. The idea being to get Rihanna in a studio to look back over the Diamonds World Tour. That way once she'd come to terms with it she would be able to move on and prepare her comeback. I don't think the intention was ever for the song to be released as a single but due to Rihanna sort of emotional/narrative connection to her fans it may have made the cut as an album track. I however cannot stop thinking that it would have made a perfect UK entry to the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest because being snubbed in the Baltics Rihanna ghetto would certainly have been an improvement on what the UK actually managed.

Four, Five Seconds should never have been released as a single and it certainly shouldn't have been released just as US President Barack Obama was arriving in India for a state visit that will cover climate change amongst other things. As it was it is clear that Rihanna won't be making a comeback and will be continuing down the same tired old road. It also increases the likelihood that the US will be using the soon to be released album and the so-far mini-tour in 2015 as a way to look back on the Diamonds World Tour and its role in run up to COP19. Although that particular fire has long since gone out this doesn't seem particularly helpful because it just adds another level of pressure in the run up to the COP21 in summit in Paris which has already had to see a massive increase in venue security.

So buy Rihanna's new single or don't. However if I hear it on the radio I'm pretty sure all I'll be thinking about is the far superior songs it reminds me of.

12:00 on 26/1/15 (UK date).