Despite not being an homage to everyone’s favourite Ted Danson-starring eighties sitcom, Rihanna’s latest still has plenty of spirit (sorry). It’s a laid back ode to the simple pleasures of kicking it with some good friends and a refreshing beverage, making it the perfect antidote to the abortive summer many have just lived through.
To be fair, Rihanna could use a little downtime. She’s recently spent months on the road all over the world promoting her mega-selling album ‘Loud’. She’s also been testing her acting chops in the forthcoming movie ‘Battleship’, mystifyingly based on the popular board game of the same name.
Speaking to Kanye West in Interview magazine, Rihanna outlined the approach she took for ‘Loud’. “I wanted every song to have its own subject, its own story, its own look, its own sound-and I feel like we did a great job of accomplishing that,” she said. “I just wanted to create something that was timeless, that wasn’t locked into the moment when it was made. And I wanted it to feel really good. I just wanted to make 11 great individual songs that all made sense together.”
‘Cheers’ is the seventh single to be taken from the album, so thoughts are now turning to its follow up. Initial plans were to record additional songs for a re-release of ‘Loud’ but thankfully sanity prevailed and a brand new record is now the primary objective. Initial reports indicated that the album would be out before the end of the year, but there is still no official release date. While we may be thirsty for more information, we’ll just have to make do with ‘Cheers’ for now.
If you believe the predictions of the influential blog popjustice blog (and plenty of people do) you’d be aware that SoundGirl are set for big things. A girl group still in their early teens, SoundGirl have already supported the pint-sized mega star Justin Bieber and notched up a handful of blog-hyped tracks. Their first official single, ‘Don’t Know Why’, sees the band as their sassy best. Borrowing the chorus from Carly Simon’s summery cult hit ‘Why’, the track is straight up pop in the best possible sense. Comparisons to Sugarbabes and Rihanna are sure to follow – especially since the video for ‘Don’t Know Why’ was shot in Rhi-Rhi’s old stomping ground of Barbados.
To celebrate the release of ‘Don’t Know Why’ Shazam has two vintage Wildfox t-shirts to giveaway – much like the ones the band wore when supporting Bieber (see below). For those not in the know, Wildfox are a so hot right now clothing brand from LA sported by the the likes of Victoria Beckham and Halle Berry. Specialising in vintage-inspired printed t-shirts with statement cuts and draped designs, these T-shirts are guaranteed to make you stand out in the crowd.
All you have to do to stand a chance of winning the prize is email competition@shazamteam.com with your answer to this simple question. Read more…
It’s clear Kanye West has never heard the old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth”. His latest single sees Yeezy delve in to his rolodex to wrangle an unbelievably huge list of A-list collaborators: namely Alicia Keys, John Legend, The-Dream, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, Elly Jackson, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, and Rihanna.
On paper ‘All Of The Lights’ should be an absolute disaster. An oversaturated ‘We Are The World’ with all of the philanthropy sucked out. However, the record is actually a remarkably well thought out piece of work. Kanye arranges his arsenal of celeb vocalists as a choir giving him room to take the lead alongside Rihanna and one of the most guttural hip hop beats of the year. The ostentatious way the record puts multimillion selling artists in the background fits in perfectly with West’s own spend-money-like-it’s-water persona. Like when West got all his teeth replaced by diamonds last year, the number of singers on ‘All Of The Lights’ is totally over the top but you’re not surprised that West has gone that far.
The video, directed by hip hop film guru Hype Williams, has already caused a stir as the rapid fire lighting used has been cited as a possible trigger for epileptic seizures.
‘Rude Boy’ took all that’s great about Rihanna and placed it front and centre for all to see. With a quotable chorus that could almost rival ‘Umbrella-ella-ella’, ‘Rude Boy’ mixed Rihanna’s saucy persona with a swaggering dancehall influenced club beat to create one of the biggest radio hits of the year. The track saw the Barbadian singer rocket back to the top of the US charts after the relatively mediocre reception – at least by Rihanna’s high standards – of the ballad ‘Russian Roulette’. Poignantly, the record played to the singers strength for delivering up-tempo pop stompers and seemed to set the tone for Rihanna’s following electro influenced album, ‘Loud’, which has already generated two further number one singles in the shape of ‘Only Girl’ and ‘What’s My Name’.
The video for ‘Rude Boy’ also provided one of the pop year’s visual highlights. Although the video took more than a little influence form M.I.A. ‘Boyz’: seeing Rihanna don a gold lame body suit whilst riding a lion is probably going to provide a talking point whatever the year.
Rihanna is an R&B artist that’s at her best when she aims for the dancefloor rather than for schmaltzy ballad territory. It’s no coincidence that her most successful tracks – ‘SOS’, ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Rude Boy’ – are all guaranteed party starters. Her latest record continues that trend by heading straight for the electro-pop jugular.
Norwegian hit makers Stargate have been roped in to take care of the beats and maintain their recent run of form that’s seen them rack up recent hits for Ne-Yo, Flo Rida and Trey Songz. The results are not a million miles away from a ‘90’s pop-trance hit from Paul Van Dyk, or even a more recent Euro-dance effort from the likes of Cascada. However, no one said you have to break the mould to have a huge hit and the tried and tested formula of bangin’ dance beats and accomplished R&B performance is sure to go down well with radio. Add to this the fact ‘Only Girl’ is as catchy as hell and you have another sure fire winner for the Caribbean songstress.
Currently at # 1 in the US iTunes chart and the Shazam New Release Chart USA, ‘Only Girl’ is sure to be inescapable over the next few months. You can check out the teaser video for the track here.
