The Sadness of Revenge

The music video for Rihanna's third single "Needed Me" has been gaining a fair amount of media attention for its Tarantino-esque visual feast of nudity and violence - Rihanna seems to have resurfaced the 'gangsta persona' from "Bitch Better Have My Money" (which has been criticized for its explicit mysogyny). 

But what mainly drew my attention was the fact that the song doesn't serve revenge as a 'cold dish'; the DJ Mustard-produced track has a decidedly atypical melancholic undertone that underscores Rihanna's femme fatale lyrical persona with the poignancy of bitterness, betrayal and loneliness:

'You needed meOooh, you needed meTo feel a little more, and give a little lessKnow you hate to confessBut baby ooo, you needed me'

Source of lyrics:

Rihanna may refer to herself as a 'savage' and a 'bad bitch', but robotic, emotionless gun-blazing rampages are perhaps best left to the Terminator. With electronic flourishes and heavy bass tiggers, "Needed Me" appeals by evoking the bittersweetness of revenge, the messiness of interdependency, the vulnerability behind a facade of indestructibility, and the sour aftertaste of a bad romance.