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Less than a year after "Russian Roulette" launched the Rated R album, Rihanna comes right back with the lead single from a forthcoming album allegedly titled Loud, and it looks like any of the profundity we enjoyed from the last album was thrown down and now lays shattered across the dirty, sticky floor of an after hours gay club.
On Rated R, Rihanna got real. She forwent all the silly vapid pop that had elevated her to a level of universal appeal, and opened herself up wide about how the events of her years with Chris Brown had affected her. And she dared to not only express the expected sentiments of anger and hurt, but also the love and tenderness she still felt through the more spiky emotions. Rihanna showed the world in a very unashamed way that abuse in a relationship is such a complicated thing, and admitted to the things you're not supposed to, like still loving the one who hits you, wanting to forgive and forget when you know you shouldn't, and that despite more common approaches, it is possible to walk away from a situation like that and still remember the better moments instead of just thinking that it all has to go up in smoke in order to move on. Admittedly it wasn't her most commercially successful album, it didn't really score a huge hit until "Rude Boy" dropped as the album's 4th and final domestic single, but it did go almost triple platinum over the course of the album's life, so clearly someone was listening. But rumor was that within weeks of "Russian Roulette" failing to make much of a Top 40 impact, work on a follow-up album began for fear that Rated R was going to tank and they wanted the momentum of all her media attention post-beating to continue to catapult her higher in the public consciousness. Say what you will about how Chris treated her, it was all the sympathy over that incident that really elevated Rihanna's fame. Before all that she was just another pop singer that a lot of people enjoyed, after that she became someone we all respected and wanted to get in deeper with.
So now we've got "Only Girl (In The World)," the next in the lineage of urban-pop-gone-gay-dance music, and what will doubtlessly be as huge a hit as "Disturbia" was as it follows a similar format. Produced by Stargate, responsible for Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" and Ne-Yo's recent [and similar sounding] "Beautiful Monster," as well as a long list of other urban-to-dance radio hits, "Only Girl" sounds like every club track from the late 90s and early 00s, and woke me up on the morning of its debut on Los Angeles' KIIS FM with the thought of "what the hell is my Thursday night youth doing coming out of my clock radio?" It's completely addictive, and essentially just fun Top 40, and a clear statement of "we're never doing substance again." Or at least not personalized substance. Maybe that's where the shock came from with Rated R — while she'd done controversial subject matter before, she'd never done her own controversy. When she released "Unfaithful," it was a bit shocking with its theme of infidelity from the perspective of the "cheater" not the "cheated on," as is the more common female vantage point. And for the life of the single she was playing the part of the bad girl, but no one actually thought "this is who Rihanna is," it was just a song and an idea. But had she actually cheated on someone in her own life and then released that single, it would've rocked the boat hard and made people really examine the words and justifications as it relates to how she handled the situation herself. And when she came back following the beating and media frenzy, comparing her being with Chris Brown to having a loaded gun to her head and spinning the cylinder, it jarred everyone because for the first time her music had relevance, not just hook appeal. The world knows how to appreciate music as music, but it's surprising how many pop fans have absolutely no idea how to digest music as statement and commentary.
No word yet on what else to expect from the Loud album, but if this single and current trends are any indication, it's pretty much a given that it's going to be loaded with club-sounding euro dance pop, and its success is already guaranteed.
Freak (Riva Starr Extended Vocal Mix) 6:20
Freak (Riva Starr Dub) 6:19
Freak (Riva Starr Extended Instrumental) 6:19
Freak (Michael Woods Remix) 7:03
Freak (Plastik Funk Remix) 5:57
Freak (Plastik Funk's Listen & Repeat Remix) 6:27
Freak (Extended Version Featuring Kardinal Offishall) 5:42
Freak (Disco Fries Remix) 4:48
Freak (LaCrate & Debonair Samir B-more Gutter Remix) 3:05
Freak (DJ White Shadow Remix) 5:42
David Guetta is the new Timbaland. 5 years ago no one could get enough of Timbo's formulaic hip hop, and every artist on earth was clawing at his door to produce or remix their track and guarantee their radio success. Then suddenly America decided that the dance sound that the rest of the planet has enjoyed for decades wasn't gay, it was just good. And after David Guetta madeover the Black Eyed Peas and spoon fed American urban radio a 4-4 beat and club sounds, suddenly what used to be Brussels sprouts became candy. Estelle first became something across the pond when Kanye produced her into domestic relevance with the literal crossover hit "American Boy," and she secured a place in our hearts as the proper English lass who wanted to make West her periodic US layover. But as the saying goes, sex sells, and after guesting on Guetta's album, it was time to step it up a notch and make herself tantalizing in a new way. By being a freak. "Freak" is a stark departure from "American Boy," employing the club stylings of Guetta, a perfectly placed portion of Soul II Soul's "Back to Life" and the painfully catchy chorus "I can be a freak/ I can I can be a freak/ Every day of every week." The ten track remix package includes refixes by Riva Starr, Michael Woods, Plastik Funk, Disco Fries, LaCrate & Debonair Samir and DJ White Shadow, and while the mixes are fun, it's still the original that hits the hardest. Most go in a chunky electro direction, which sounds far too abrasive for the vocals, but Disco Fries and DJ White Shadow do manage to reinterpret in appropriate ways. Overall, if this is the direction Estelle's going now, I think we're gonna be hearing a lot more of her.
Need You Now (Static Revenger Mixshow)
Need You Now (Static Revenger Club Mix)
Need You Now (Static Revenger Dub Mix)
Need You Now (Hott 22 Big Room Mix)
Need You Now (Hott 22 Deep Dub Mix)
Need You Now (Dark Intensity Club Remix)
Need You Now (Dark Intensity Dub Remix)
Need You Now (Dark Intensity Radio Edit)
Need You Now (Jason Nevins Rhythm Mix)
Need You Now (Jason Nevins Elektrotek Radio Mix)
Need You Now (Jason Nevins Elektrotek Extended Mix)
Need You Now (Jason Nevins Hands Up Radio Mix)
Need You Now (Jason Nevins Hands Up Extended Mix)
Gay guys get caught up in a huge steaming pile of bullshit. We have such a knack for convincing ourselves of the necessity of things that plainly aren't necessary. Call it overcompensation for the low self-worth a lot of us suffered from starting at a young age or just simple naivete and gullibility for luxury marketing, but that unawareness of what's right in front of our face, and what's just "enough" as is, is probably our biggest obstacle when it comes to love and self love. And leave it to a country love song to bring up all that.
Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" has become an international radio hit, winning over fans of all music genres, and continues to dominate Top 40 radio nearly a year after its first spin. Its beautifully painted imagery of two people still longing for each other after a split and finally admitting to themselves in the eleventh hour that they've reached the end of their resistance and can no longer convince themselves that they don't ultimately need each other is such a painfully romantic one, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone not moved by it. How many of us have been out at the bars, looking around the room for someone to stop our heart, when all the while there's already a picture in our minds of the man who stopped our heart before and who we're just trying to replace or deny. Then when we get home — drunk, tired and emotionally exhausted — we're faced with an empty apartment, a bed too big for one person and the nagging realization that what we thought was so valid a reason not to be with him, was really just our own fear of accepting what was in front of us as the ideal instead of some castle on a cloud. And that at that moment all you want in the world is his hot breath on your skin, his arms pulling you against him and the feeling that in that moment, you have everything.
In its original version, "Need You Now" is a mid-tempo country ballad, structured around four descending piano keys and a gentle electric guitar, and the vocals of Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley calling back and forth to each other, fulfilling everyone's fantasy that as you're longing for someone, they're also longing for you. The song was ripe for remixing from the very beginning, but as with many country songs, remixes aren't even conceivable until it becomes such a crossover hit that a need is generated for allowing the song to reach that niche market. Now, 6 months after the album's release, the official remixes of "Need You Now" have finally be released and the club goers can finally love the track in the way the DJ intended. Remixed by Jason Nevins, Hott 22, Static Revenger and bootleg-to-relevant production team Dark Intensity, the package is a well rounded one and gives you a number of ways to love the song all over again. The mixes are more straight house and progressive than circuit, as is more appropriate for the mood of the song. Hott 22 goes in the way of happy piano house, Static Revenger goes slightly harder but still congruent with the lyrics, Dark Intensity is more classic progressive trance NRG, but the cake goes to Jason Nevins and his tried and true remix formula of not reinventing the song, just augmenting it. His mixes come in three different flavors - Rhythmic (simple radio dance mix), Elektrotek (chunky electro-ish mix) and Hands Up (progressive house mix). Overall, very successful makeover and this'll keep "Need You Now" relevant throughout the summer. Eat it up. And call him. Really.
