Monday, September 13, 2010

Only Girl (in the World)

Song: Only Girl (in the World)
Artist: Rihanna
Album: Loud







You can partly blame watching the MTV VMA's last night (which continued my feeling of being OLD) for this Rihanna post... or that I've actually just been really digging this new song of hers.  I'm not really a fan, but you can't really deny a song like "Umbrella," and that album, "Good Girl Gone Bad" was a really great mix of catchy club-ish urban dance that I really liked, despite being bored by the girl's persona.  And then the Chris Brown thing happened, and then she released last year's "Rated R" which was dark, not particularly "pop," and flat out hard to listen to.  Despite my thoughts on the record though, the album got amazing reviews and spawned five singles, most of which went top 10, with "Rockstar 101" going to #2 and "Rude Boy" going to the top spot.  I guess I'm just totally out of step.

But, obviously miss Rihanna also had an inclination that she needed to reclaim her pop queen status, and despite commenting that she didn't want to "go back and remake Good Girl Gone Bad," first single "Only Girl (in the World)" is an urban-electro rave-up that sounds a lot like the pop from that third album.  And coming so soon after the last record... but I'm not complaining... this is what I dig from her.

It really does sound as if "Loud" will be her big pop comeback (despite not really having anything to come back from) as she's publicly said it's "sassy and flirty," "big" and mentioned that follow up single "Cheers" is "even bigger than "Only Girl." and "upbeat, happy, party music."  Noting that "listeners liked the dark stuff (of "Rated R") but didn't love it."

Regardless, the girl is getting attention no matter what she puts out.  And she's currently shooting a big role in the movie "Battleship" which is based on the board game... which sounds like it could either make her career blast-off or grind it to a halt.   But honestly, beyond all of that... I think "Only Girl" has some good pop legs to it.

Enjoy.

Only Girl (in the World)

1 comment:

mymusicmission said...

Sounds a bit like a leftover from Kylie or Britney's last album. I think she does better on track's like Rude Boy. She should stick to the heavy R&B sound - this lighter pop stuff doesn't play to her strenghs and she doesn't do it anywhere nearly as well as the Aphrodite herself.