Composition
What key is "Set Fire to the Rain" written in?
Set Fire to the Rain
"Set Fire to the Rain" is the fifth track on Adele's second album "21". It was written with producer Fraser T Smith. It is written in the key of D minor with a tempo of 108 beats per minute, following the chord progression of Dm–F–C–Gm–Dm–F–C–Csus4–C, and Adele's voice spans A3-D5. The song describes the contradictory elements of a relationship, and the impossibility of letting go which is displayed in the lyrics "You and me together, nothing gets better/But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew/All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true/And the games you play, you would always win." One of the most pop-influenced of the album, the song is characterised by John Murphy of MusicOMH as a "power ballad". In contrast to the understated production of most songs on the album, the song features lush instrumentation and a swelling string arrangement over a mid-tempo rhythm, creating a wall of sound for the singer's mourning vocals. Dave Simpson of "The Guardian" in an article revealed that Adele got inspiration for the song "when mah lightah stopped workin'" in the wet.