Quit blinking!Rihanna took a brief detour from radio-ready pop last year with the darker, more adventurous "Rated R". With her new single "Only Girl (In The World)", she has pointedly returned from that detour. While I might have been interested in hearing another more experimental album from her, switching back to mainstream pop is definitely the better choice, at least from a commercial perspective. If "Only Girl" is any indication of the quality of her upcoming album, I can safely say it was a good choice artistically as well.
The most commendable aspect of this song is the sneaky modulation that occurs when the chorus begins, allowing Rihanna to shift her vocals up into a higher register, giving the chorus the extra punch it needs.
During said chorus, Rihanna asks the object of the song to "love [her] like [she's] the only girl in the world". Most of the song revolves around this idea, but, in a surprising turn, she also asks to be loved like a "hot ride" and held "like a pillow". Allow me to summarize:
Hi, my name is Rihanna. Please view me as a combination of the following:
Seriously, though, "Only Girl (In The World)" is a great high-energy club hit with a surprising amount of musical intelligence. Why can't all pop music be this good?
Yes. I like this. Good pictures. Women are complicated, Tim. You need to get over this. Naturally Rihanna is a combination of things that don't normally necessarily go together.
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