Today, one song really jumped out of the radio. It puzzled me at first, because I could hear that it was Rihanna, but it sounded like nothing I’ve heard from her. And that’s keeping in mind that I know her to be experimental with her music anyway, so there is no one style you can link to her.
The mystery got cleared up later in the day. “Sledgehammer” is a ballad, which was recorded especially for the new Star Trek movie that’s coming up. Even though that did make sense - there’s no way you could miss the song is going to work great in a movie - Star Trek was the last thing I expected for it to be for. It almost reminds me of a song for a James Bond movie. It’s full of dramatic melody lines and contains the music that you know from the Bond songs.
To give you the bottom line about the song: It’s Rihanna like you never heard her before. She’s stretching her voice to the limits in some of the high bits of the song, which I’ve never recalled her doing before. You can hear her voice slightly thinning in those bits (losing its fullness in sound, meaning she’s reaching her max vocally).
The song also has something dark and dramatic about it, without it being as commercial and easy to listen to like “Take A Bow”. It’s risky. I love it! If I had to give it a critical note, I could only think of one: The song is written by Sia, who has a particular way of delivering her lyrics and using her voice. Once you know this, you can recognize the influence throughout the track, simply by the way Rihanna is singing it. It is exactly the way Sia would’ve done it. I, personally, like my artists to be unique and Rihanna has got so many things that make her unique, that it feels a little strange to me when she’s copying someone else’s lead.
Having said that though, I hope it inspires her to try this way of singing more. Rihanna is a strong vocalist, on record, and it would be amazing to hear more stuff like this from her, but I doubt that will be the case. The response from the public has been diverse, to say the least, and most people are very clear they like the usual Rihanna more or preferred this song to have been released after the summer (it’s too serious for the sunny days we’re having right now). I, myself, am putting on repeat. I think it’s refreshingly different (which you can kind of expect from Sia).
