After filming the 2006 hit film Dreamgirls, Beyoncé admitted that she had some pent-up emotions from playing the character Deena, the songstress stuck in her husband’s shadow. So Beyoncé left the movie set and headed straight to the studio to record “Ring the Alarm,” which appears on her second solo album, B-Day. The song, about a woman who is fed up with her cheating beau, features a blaring siren over a synthesized — and furious — chorus. The anger she spits out is due to the man’s wandering eye and her desire to leave, and also the thought of having to give him up to some unworthy woman. The lyrics exhibit the confusion she feels: “I been through this too long/ But I’ll be damned if I see another chick on your arm!” Critics had mixed feelings about the song, which was a marked departure from Beyoncé’s previous material. Chris Richards of the Washington Post called it “riveting” but noted that “without a knockout refrain, she doesn’t sound particularly invested in the role.” Meanwhile, Pitchfork called the track “genuinely (and marvelously) incoherent.” In the end, what it does show is that Beyoncé will have her way.