‘The wait is finally over’, according to Rihanna’s PR folk (although I’m a little confused though, as no one told me I was waiting on anything). In any case, Rihanna’s brand new single ‘Russian Roulette’, the first from new LP ‘Rated R’ (due November 23rd) made it’s worldwide premiere moments ago. As a sceptic of Rihanna’s artistry and longevity, I’d be lying if I said I went into listening to this expecting it to be any good.
Unfortunately, true-to-form, Ms. Fenty did not live up to her hype (which is surprisingly off-the-charts this time, for what reason I don’t know). The Ne-Yo penned track sounds as if it’s trying to sound ‘epic’, but falls kinda short. Ballads really aren’t her forte, so it baffles me why they didn’t go with something more her (i.e. uptempo, sing-songy).
In the interest of fairness, Ms. Fenty’s vocals, in parts, do sound better. Mind you, I’m not convinced we’ve heard the last of her sheep-bleating (I’ve still got many a prayer meeting to attend before that ever happens). That said, off the hype alone, I imagine this will do pretty well. Hell, I’ll probably be humming this one once the Def Jam promo machine is done (ever heard of the phrase: “eat sh*t enough times and you’ll begin to like the taste!”). Errr…welcome back Ms. Fenty…
Hit or Miss?
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Full album press release after the jump! (more…)