As Rihanna begins promotion for her upcoming seventh studio album, the Bajan chanteuse’s new single “Diamonds” has finally dropped, following a whole lot of buzz. The track, penned by Sia and produced by Stargate and Benny Blanco, ushers in a new era for the “We Found Love” hitmaker — but is it worth the hype?
Here are a few things that “Diamonds” isn’t: it doesn’t have much in common with the polished, minimalist house of “We Found Love,” the dark urban swag of “Cockiness” nor the warm acoustic guitars of “California King Bed.” Sonically, “Diamonds” marks a departure for RiRi. Built on a propulsive midtempo beat, the song’s instrumentation feels like it’s just enough, foregoing the cluttered sound of her sometimes-overstuffed production. Head below to hear Rihanna’s “Diamonds.”
Melodically, it’s one of Ri’s strongest efforts. The memorable “shine bright like a diamond” hook is an instant earworm, and the chorus has an elegant simplicity, as cleverly spare as a refrain like “we found love in a hopeless place.” Although as a vocalist, Rihanna has always been a chameleon, here her intonation more distinctively Bajan than ever as she sings: “So shine bright tonight / you and I were beautiful like diamonds in the sky / eye to eye, so alive / we’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky.” The beat has a pounding, hypnotic drive that works well with the song’s sparse lyricism — it’s subtly, rather than explicitly, tribal.
Overall, “Diamonds” is a surprisingly understated single from Rihanna — but after so much high-octane drama, it makes sense to scale back. What’s lost in big impact is gained in subtlety: “Diamonds” might prove to outlast all those other hits.
What do you think of Rihanna’s new single? Sound off in the comments, or let us know on Facebook and Twitter!
It’s not a bad song. It does grow tiresome towards the last minute, though.
While I’m glad she decided to ditch the sound that filled up her last two albums, I’m still on the fence about the song. I’ve been a fan since her second album (her first didn’t quite do it for me) and this song seems like it will grow on me. It doesn’t sound like a #1 hit (but then again most #1 hits these days are hit or miss), but maybe that’s her intention.
Much like “Russian Roulette” was an odd choice for a first single, I feel like that song was a better fit considering what was going on at the time….and while it does make sense to scale back and be subtle, in a way I feel like “Diamonds” is almost like “We Found Love” if that song wasn’t a pure dance /club song.
Rihanna is a lucky girl….I’ll just leave it at that. #goodsong
I Love IT… I Love This Rihanna!
Awesome song, but 2 things are sad
1. Auto-TUned voice
2. this slow song thing did Lana Del Rey but the song is not LDRish it kind of reminds me of Wynter Gordon DOLEO EP
i know what her auto tuned voice sounds like, and this is anything but autotuned. I don’t doubt that she used voice editing but I doubt that she used auto tune
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love it
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*have
Great song it’s different and totally what she needs
“as a vocalist” haha you can’t even call her a vocalist becase the bitch can’t sing
You can here that she has listened to a demo song by Sia… but that’s not a bad thing! Love the song!
good(:
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky !
I love very much this song ‘daimonds’
I like it :)
loveeeeeeeeeee it :)
Shine bright like a diamond
WE miss our Kyla
I love this song Diamond its nice song and i love u Rihanna i am your fan in the world u r so sexxxxxxz girl i want to meet u one day thats my dream to meet u….
jai hate de te voir
ca serait le fun a noel
jen veux une puff de ton joint diamand
u know