In reply to Lax.

Rihanna's Diamonds,,,,,
Mark my words: By the time she’s 40, Rihanna will have released 5,400 singles. In just a few weeks, she’s dropping her 7th album since 2005 (here’s a recap of her previous releases), which means we’ll be getting another batch of songs to make sure she’s perpetually in our ears.“Diamonds,” the first track from the new album, just appeared today, and it sounds like yet another smash.And here’s the best part: Unlike Ke$ha’s new song, which I dissed for sounding too much like her other material, “Diamonds” is a step in a different direction. Yes, it’s co-produced by Stargate, who have been delivering Rihanna hits since “Umbrella,” and yes, it’s got the electro sound that Rihanna herself helped popularize. But still, the song is not a lazy copy of what’s come before.
For one thing, Rihanna practically sounds like a different vocalist. She sings the song—about how she and her lover are pulsing like “diamonds in the sky”—in a low register she hasn’t used on any of her other singles. Her voice is so husky that she almost sounds like she has a cold, and it gives “Diamonds” a certain… sobriety? Calmness? There’s something moody about the vocal, but it’s more contemplative than seductive. This is a track for the middle of the night, when you’re a tired but still want to move.