House On Fire

Album: Amelia (2022)
Charted: 6
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Songfacts®:

  • This revenge fantasy finds Mimi Webb imagining getting even with her cheating boyfriend by setting fire to his home. Webb pictures being far away before anyone calls the fire brigade, and if she gets questioned, she'll deny their relationship was serious. Speaking to the Daily Star, she described "House on Fire" as "super out there and a bit sassy."
  • Webb wrote the uptempo breakup song with Pablo Bowman of the Manchester writing and production collective The Six (Louis Tomlinson's "Back to You," Marshmello & Anne-Marie's "Friends").

    Joe Housley, Ines Dunn, and Charlie Martin also helped with the writing of the track.
  • Canadian producer and songwriter Cirkut helmed the tune. Cirkut's other credits include Katy Perry's "Roar," Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball," and Ava Max's "Sweet But Psycho."
  • Of course, arson is a serious crime and Webb is just expressing her anger over her unfaithful boyfriend. Other songs involving arson include:

    "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" by The Beatles (a man sets a girl's house on fire after she won't let him into her bed).

    "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin (a woman burns her house down to escape her past).

    "Pyro" by Kings of Leon (about a guy with pyromaniac tendencies).

    "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads (David Byrne shouts out a series of phrases that fit the song's rhythm, many of which are to do with fire).
  • Pablo Bowman, Ines Dunn, and Charlie Martin wrote "House On Fire" at a writing camp in Manchester.

    "Pablo was playing the guitar and I think I started singing the chorus melody, and he was like, 'Oh, it sounds like you're saying, 'Set your house on fire,''" Dunn recalled to Songwriter magazine. "Then we were like, 'That's funny, let's just do that.' So then we started writing House On Fire."

    When Dunn's publisher pitched the song to Mimi Webb, she loved it. Webb added her own spin, adjusting the melody and writing an outro, transforming the song into the polished pop hit it became.

Comments: 3

  • Jeff In Tameside Uk from Ashton Under LyneDoes this song sample Coming Around Again by Carly Simon?
  • Music ListenerMy guy. It’s a play on words- ‘liar liar, house on fire’ dramatized and exaggerated to make the story of a song. Chill.
  • Firemansam from Pontypandy?A reckless and very female reaction. The guy cheated or something so she BURNT HIS HOUSE DOWN! What an example to be setting to our young girls. When my missus cheated on me and I found out, she just emptied my bank account, got me on the sex offenders register and had me buried in a field with a breathing straw installed opened briefly at 5 minutes intervals depending on her schedule, such a carer with a heart of magma. Why can't all women be so nurturing and forgiving. There need to be more women like these two. Men deserve extreme violence rather than just being dumped. Bravo to all the violent women out there taking their insecurities out on alpha males. And beta males. Yeah you heard. I consider myself a beta male these days. It's taken 40 years and a lot of make up cases which are bigger than tool boxes over the head while I sleep.
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