The World (Is Going Up in Flames)

"The World (Is Going Up in Flames)" opens No Time for Dreaming at 3:22, with the Menahan Street Band behind Bradley. Deezer's credits, which we did not open, list Bradley, Brenneck, Mike Deller and Leon Michels as writers; Wikipedia credits Bradley, Brenneck and Michels on most of the originals. It was first a Daptone 7-inch with "Heartaches and Pain", dated 2007 by one blog (which says it appeared on the 2007 compilation Ghettofunkpowerhour) and 2008 by Wikipedia, and was reissued as the album's lead single on December 14, 2010; it is also on Daptone Gold (2009). The studio and recording dates are not established.

We found no statement from Bradley on what it means. A blog reads it as a world in flames with no accountability, and PopMatters's Mike Madden called his vocal a desperate, Brown-esque near-shriek. The video, directed by Poull Brien in Brooklyn on rooftops, backdrops and subway stops, was added to HIP Video Promo on February 16, 2011; Brien met Bradley through it and later directed Soul of America.

Setlist.fm shows it as his most played song, 68 times, ahead of "How Long" (62) and "Lovin' You, Baby" (55). Live recordings include Later... with Jools Holland on May 4, 2012 (3:25), the Apollo Theater in December 2014 (3:19) and SXSW in March 2016 for NPR. An unsourced blog claims covers by Sharon Jones and Emma Donovan, which we do not use. We could not tell which recording our upload is.