Are you kidding me? Rihanna's first single from her upcoming album (which I believe will have a cover much like the "R" logo you see above) is with Calvin Harris? As dance music finally makes its well-deserved progression into the mainstream, artists like Rihanna are using its trademark beats and repetition to help their own music. However, is it too far of a misdirection for an artist whose sound has become as different as R&B/pop Rihanna? Read on for my review!
Since "We Found Love" is, at its core, a dance song, let's first talk about the beat. In one word, it's light. Compared to other dance songs that have become popular (such as "Hello", "Take Over Control" and "Stereo Love"), "We Found Love" has a beat that attempts to do more with less. Although the escalating pre-beat smash is quite interesting, it is left without a major climax, essentially losing any potential that it had.
The lyrics also fail to come across well. What's the chorus you ask? "We found love in a hopeless place." That's it. What does it mean? To figure it out, you have to look at the rest of the lyrics in the song, which the majority of people won't memorize and which also don't hold much meaning, besides the fact that Rihanna fell in love with someone.
Lastly, Rihanna's voice in this song is considerably higher than in her previous songs. Is this a good thing? Surprisingly, I think it is. Her voice seems to be stronger and carry more emotion than it previously did, which I am quite flabbergasted by. Although one could argue that Rihanna's voice holds more power in songs such as "Only Girl (In the World)" and "Umbrella", I would say that her voice here seems more perfected than ever.
With everything being said before, I would have to grade "We Found Love" just slightly above average. Why? Despite there being little positive to balance out with the negative (which, to be honest, there isn't much of anyways - this song is pretty far down the middle), the song is incredibly catchy, and I can't stop myself from wanting to hear it again. All in all, Rihanna gets a passing grade for her next album - although I don't believe that making dance-oriented music is the right way to go for Rihanna, her voice is able to carry the genre very well!
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| Rating: 3.5/5 |
Does this remind you a little of Leona Lewis' Collide? It kinda do to me. With the whole weird song structer.
ReplyDeleteYes, it does. Quite a bit, to be honest. However, I do have to say that the main difference between the two isn't the vocals; rather, it's how the dance track is showcased. In "We Found Love", it's left by itself for a long time after the chorus, where it falls victim to its sparsity. However, Avicii's track in "Collide" is used as a powerful backing beat, and because of that, adds depth to the song. That's why "Collide" sounds so much better on the surface to me; it does such a great job of evoking just about any emotion you can think of!
ReplyDeleteThe song lyrics have a lot of meaning. By far one of the better mainstream songs out there. So much symbolism involved
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