It’s been an interesting roller coaster of emotions the past few months as my current queen Rihanna has embarked on her sixth album era for Talk That Talk. Received critically and commercially well, the first single We Found Love has been perched on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for EIGHT weeks now (suck it LMFAO). Since its ascent, the entire album has released, bringing forth rave reviews from certain critics (and fairly positive ones from most others), however has been selling considerably less than desired in the US despite behemoth single to back it up.
It seems Def Jam wants to keep us in this glass case by releasing “You Da One” as the second single from the album, a Dr. Luke produced/Ester Dean scribed ditty that would have been better left an album cut or off the record completely in my opinion (replaced by the beautifully fluffy deluxe track “Do Ya Thang“). For the video they have brought in hit and miss visionary Melina to direct the video, which has its low and high points respectively. The video mysteriously apparated (yes, that is a sad Harry Potter reference) on Vevo last night around the very early morning hours, immediately trending WW on Twitter.
The video itself is classic Melina, a bit of a return to the Rated R style she had implemented for Rihanna in “Rude Boy” and especially “Rockstar 101“, for the which the latter could have served as a prequel to the YDO video. I love Rihanna, but she can quite frankly do better. I blame in part Melina who has been given more creative control this era after the success of the beautiful masterpiece that was the We Found Love video. Granted, I’m not sure what I would have been able to come up with for the single, especially when given an actress who quite literally filmed the entire thing on one hour of sleep (seriously Rihanna, get some rest). Rihanna is slightly more lethargic than normal, opting for crotch grabs every 2.5 seconds instead of any organized “choreography” or blocking, although I was very much in love with the close up scenes of her with the smoke and the really short blonde hair. I also really enjoyed the beautiful scenes on the floor with the shadow/light patterns projected on her, looking like some sort of gorgeous blonde space geisha (that’s a thing, right?)
As for the blonde hair, I LOVE it, even though I’m pretty sure a majority of everyone else doesn’t.
Ultimately though, it’s not a bad video per say, but it feels as if the single and video are severely decapitating the strong momentum We Found Love created. But who knows, maybe I could be wrong and Rihanna could be looking at another top 5 hit?
All I have to say is, it’s time for a new director for the next single, which BETTER be WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN. If that video isn’t the best of her career, I’m going to have a few choice things to say.
View the video below and see for yourself.