Rihanna ft. Ne-Yo - 'Hate That I Love You'
The accepted wisdom on Rihanna is that she's good for the big ticket pop productions like 'Umbrella', but her voice is a little thin and reedy to really cut it across a wide range of musical styles. Also, people seem to be agreed that she doesn't project much of a personality, so that she stands or falls on the strength of the song she has been given to sing (unlike someone like Madonna, who can really SELL a song, even when it's a bit rubbish).
The thing is, even though there's lots of evidence to support both of these points, and not massive amounts of evidence against...they're kind of wrong. I mean look back over Rihanna's chart career to date, we've had swing-inflected R&B ('Pon De Replay'), cutie-pie dancehall ('If It's Lovin' That You Want'), '80s-sampling frostypop ('SOS'), broken-heart guilt balladeering ('Unfaithful'), total genius ice-queen hug-pop ('Umbrella') and dodgy Carry-On-Up-Your-Exhaust-Pipe pop-rock ('Shut Up And Drive'). You can't say the girl doesn't have range.
Voice critics have more of a concrete point, in that Rihanna's delivery borders on the monotone from time to time. But even there, you have to admit there's something refreshing about a singer who doesn't stamp their voice all over a song like the stuff they are singing about is of less importance to the fact that it THERE IS SOME SINGING GOING ON HERE, PEOPLE! CHECK OUT THE VIBRATO ON THIS SCOOP-UP! WHOO!
All of which sounds like a deadly combination of faint praise and over-subjective cheerleading on behalf of Team Rihanna, but for the fact that all of the songs listed above (and this one too) are GOOD and NOT BAD. Which is kind of the only yard-stick which means anything when it comes to music.
What especially cuts through this time is that the melody never really resolves on an obvious note. Once you're past the breathless, tiny repetitions of the verses ("that's how much I love you / that's how much I need you"), the chorus takes off down what seems like an obvious, well-worn path, except it doesn't finish there. There are all these really nice held notes on unexpected (but sweet) chords which add a certain depth to proceedings. And having Ne-Yo do his pretty one-man-choir thing is just extra duck-down in the musical pillow.
And, most shocking of all, Rihanna's voice sounds neither thin nor reedy. Granted, she is no Mariah Carey (she's not even a Leona Lewis doing an impression of Christina Aguilera doing an impression of Mariah Carey, truth be told), but she does what the song needs, she PURRS.
Besides, you can't argue with a song which has ditched the traditional snare drum in favour of a mixture of handclaps AND finger-clicks. Hell that's only a tambourine/maraca-shake away from being the percussion equivalent of a home run.
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 5th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
I think this is all absolutely fair - it's easy to knock Rihanna, but she has turned out tons of great singles which is the most important thing at the end of the day. I still consider her to be the Rachel Stevens who actually made it, in that she makes an asset out of not having a particularly expressive personality and just lets the brilliant songs do the talking.
Having said that, I don't think much of this song and still think that 'Unfaithful' should've been sung by someone with a stronger voice. Sorry. :(
Well said, Mr Mc!
I must admit, the first time I heard this, I was a wee bit, ach well, never mind.
But as I too subscribe to the handclappin', finger snappin' school of percussion, this has been making a surprisingly large number of appearances round my way.
And anyone who says this is directly linked to the amount of time that Rihanna spends ambling around the video in her underwear is a mountebank and charlatan of the highest order.
At least when Mrs H is within hearing.
I'm convinced Ne-Yo does a *tiny* Britney tribute in this.
Or maybe I'm just nuts.
i absolutley love rihanna and think that she has an amazing personality yet she surpresses it in her songs.
This song, Hate That I Love You, is , I think, Rihanna's worst single to date....this is because of Ne-Yo's medeocore vobal performances.
If Ne-Yo was switched with someone else (maybe Chris Brown etc...) then this song would have been alot better.
oh and another final thing; i think Rihanna's voice is a little thin right now but she hasn't had much time in the industry and hasn't had song of them song that call for big vocal preformances as they are always being offered to a bigger name. eg: Umbrella was 1st oereed to Akon and Mary J. Blige.
I think this song was a bit to predictable for Rihanna and Ne-Yo