Take a POLL: Best/Favorite Rihanna Single

http://ucarmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/rihanna3.jpg

torn between "Don't Stop the Music" and "If It's Lovin' That You Want," really kinda ambivalent about most of her singles otherwise

umbrella obviously

top 5 just because:

1. Umbrella
2. Disturbia
3. If It's Lovin That You Want
4. S.O.S.
5. Don't Stop The Music

obvs Umbrella will win but I cast my vote for Disturbia.

voted for 'unfaithful' accidentally.

lol

"Umbrella" for the MBV guitar fuzz on the chorus

She purty. Umbrella landslide.

i considered doing this a while ago, minus 'umbrella', because then it's a really interesting poll which could go any way. 'umbrella' is a titan of pop culture though, it's a really boring answer but it's still my favourite to hear.

1. umbrella
2. unfaithful
3. if it's lovin' that you want
4. don't stop the music
5. pon de replay
6. let me
7. break it off
8. rehab
9. disturbia*
10. hate that i love you
11. roll it**
12. sos
13. live your life
14. take a bow
15. shut up and drive
16. we ride
17. who even cares which is worse out of the maroon 5 single and the charity track

*video makes this better than it is. plus it's useful for mocking rihanna when she does something stupid.
**ha i never realised that shontelle pimped this out to so many people, it's on her own album too. this is kind of lame and patched-together compared to the alison hinds version, and excises the line about looking after your pickneys. still a good song though.

i'm lukewarm on everything below 'disturbia'...for all the GGGB singles campaign's endlessness, its quality has not been as great as it could've been. 'lemme get that', 'good girl gone bad', 'cry' and 'haunted' >>>> all the GGGB singles except ella-ella and 'don't stop the music'.

i considered doing this a while ago, minus 'umbrella', because then it's a really interesting poll which could go any way.

haha yeah ditto

"Pon de Replay" over "Don't Stop the Music"

Umbrella. But i'm not gonna vote for it either.

i considered doing this a while ago, minus 'umbrella', because then it's a really interesting poll which could go any way.

Trust me, I'm already planning on a follow-up poll when this one is over... :)

MBV guitar fuzz on the chorus

Huh?

"Umbrella
-lla
-lla
-lla"

Me, I'm partial to the version (my own) with most of Jay-Z's intro edited out and with excessive flanging and reverb added, as well as thunderstorm-effects during the bridge.

(Second-favourite: "Shut Up and Drive")

"Livin' A Lie" (unfortunately not listed) is her best.

(unfortunately not listed)

It wasn't a single... was it?

livin a lie is really good but nothing can top the tender futuristcal stylings of ellællælllaæææ

Anyone else?

1. umbrella (duh)
2. pon de replay
3. dont stop the music
4. break it off (crazy underrated)
5. hate that i love you
6. unfaithful
7. disturbia
8. sos
9. live your life
10. rehab

love all of these

rihanna singles vs. chris brown singles would be a good poll

SOS

"Unfaithful" because she nonchalantly equates infidelity with murder. Also when the music stops in the video and they all but have sex on the grand piano is o_0 great. I've always found Rihanna to be quite affecting when it comes to her melodramatic ballads - see also "The Last Time" and even the particularly ridiculous "Question Existing". She seems to have a knack in conveying heartbreak without having to go into melismatic hell. Having said that, this can be a weakness, "Take A Bow" and its snarkiness would benefit from more oomph and as a result goes nowhere despite being quite promising.

umbrella by a wide margin. plenty of v nice songs up there tho

I don't like as many of these as I thought I would. SOS and Pon de Replay are great - so would be Please Don't Stop the Music, except that there's something about the production that has started to really bug me.

But come on, you all knows Umbrella wins by miles and miles.

Definitely If It's lovin' that you want

And really surprised to see all the love here, I didn't realise it was such a fave, well, I suppose I'll wait to see the results before saying that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol

Surprised no votes for "Rehab," that one's fantastic.

We Ride (2006) 0

criminal... i like it equal to umbrella. but seriously other than the annoying 64th note omnipresent hi-hat programming this rules.

also she looks so great in video:

did i mention i saw her last week in hawai'i? yup. with lil wayne wtf.

Sorry, but that's one of the most nothing, black holes of a song, I've ever heard.

Yeah, keepin it positive...

this ain't 77. no obligations to kip here

can't stop watching video... yummmmm

this is really good, hadn't heard it before

i heard "shut up and drive" today on the radio and man it would be really good if it wasn't such a texturally ugly song - the guitars should be super clean and bright but they aren't, it's kinda disappointing

"we ride" is like "with you"

"shut up and drive" textures are definitely cheesy. not sure what it is.

"unfaithful" is the jam too

i looove unfaithful, except i think her vox kinda suck on it

the annoying 64th note omnipresent hi-hat programming

yeah i could never get past that aspect of it

it's like "take a bow" without even clever lyrics to prop it up

"Unfaithful" is really one of the most unholy unions of singer and song to have ever been a hit.

lol. they just didn't bother to cover up the annoying factor in her voice at alll

was referring to "we ride" xp

yeah i know, i was just respond to Surm's post without c&p-ing

"Take A Bow" has a bit of a dog-saying-hamburger quality to it, though

haaaaaaate 'we ride', depressed the shit out of me every damn time it sliced so dismally thru the radio waves

xp good meme btw

Well we know Charo's favorite Rihanna single now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiI2FzZIn80

charo otm

just heard russian roulette. seems good in a sort of portentous 80s phil collins/808s-style kanye kind of way, but not really what id expect from a lead single.

^^^ Was just thinking exactly this. Feels like a cred move. I like it, but more for the tense verses than the big choruses.

going phil collins is a cred move now? rappers and r&b singers have been channeling the collins/coldplay axis for years. plus it's not exactly new territory for rihanna herself, though very well-executed.

though yeah i hadn't really noticed that the bass is straight outta 808s.

I should note that I like the idea of rihanna shooting for credibility. I doubt this sound will carry through the whole album, but who knows?

i'm guessing it'll be the usual mixture of ballads and bangers?

idk i don't get how this is rihanna "shooting for credibility" particularly or even that much of a departure/curveball.

Argh I'm totally being unclear here. I have no problem with rihanna making another GGGB.

not too sure as of yet how it'll hold up but by virtue of ne-yo this strikes me as far superior and more engrossing than its preceding soundalikes. "you can see it through my chest" is grisly enough in its specificism to catch the chorus from faling into triteness, a la 'bleeding love'; "and then I get a scary thought / that he’s here means he’s never lost" is a nicely done bit of noir too.

Comparison to "Bleeding Love" reminds me that i was thinking this is like a better version of the OneRepublic guy's songbook.

Isn't the obvious point of lyrical comparison Ne-Yohanna's own "Unfaithful"?

err have internet people got some wires crossed or is this thing really produced by chase & status??

"S.O.S." was robbbed.

never had a bad thing to say about it but nor would i ever have picked 'rude boy' out for being a great song or for one day having a life of its own - now it's fast become a real fave somehow, and only really second to 'umbrella' looking at that singles list again. love it when this kinda shit happens.

moreso than anything it's just got this brilliantly fine utilitarian balance to it i think -- feel this is borne out by the cheap n cheerful remix culture springing up around it like it never left. (assassin's boardhouse reggae remix is especially dope.)

video is a fiasco, but perhaps still a meaningful one in its lame way.

i've been pimping "rude boy" since the album dropped -- i'm glad that it seems as if everyone digs it -- it's definitely one of her finest singles in a long time

& this still rings true to me (referring of course to "ride wit me")

altho during the bridge i always expect her to break into "i like those stylish clothes you wear"

― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Saturday, November 14, 2009 12:39 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark

another thing

i of course never quite put much of any thought into ester dean but she's been racking up some nice credits recently -- this is the best of the bunch by far, but also "sex therapy" (co-), "shakin it 4 daddy", "little freak" (which kinda sux but w/e)

tbh i find it kinda weird and bad-faithy to be calling dibs on it from the time of the album dropping, 4 me the whole unpredictable beauty is how it subconsciously snowballed in ppl's minds over time. like there's nothing really to the song to bug out over, yknow? yet this strange quality manifested itself.

sorry, i know this reads like i'm covering my ass for not catching it sooner or something but i feel like there's some numinous broad pop implication in there somewhere that i'm ineptly grasping for.

i didn't mean to dick-measure over my pimping of "rude boy", just more of expressing gladness at it coalescing into prob the #1 agreed upon pop hit of the year so far -- people in the 'rated r' thread singled it out as a sore thumb on the album & it definitely is, so i think it's a bit unique in that it was an album track for a while where if you were really digging the tone of the album you kinda just went "uh wtf?" and skipped it -- it makes much more sense in the context of a spring/summer single

ha ha, good thing you're not biased. That reads like "On the one hand I'm right but on the other hand you're wrong."

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 01:13 (4 years ago) Bookmark

the only man who ever really understood me ;_;

yeah ok i agree with all that i guess.

♫♪ woan woan woan is watcha woan woan woan, naah naaah nah nah ♪♫

Great song.

it took me a few days, but i figured out that the reason i had the "where sorrows melt like lemon drops and way up on the chimney tops" line from "somewhere over the rainbow" stuck mercilessly in my head was because i had been thinking about rihanna's "stay" and the line that sounds pretty much exactly like that one but with different words ("bla-de-bla-de-bla-de-bla but i'm the only one who needed saaaaaving...")

what a relief!

i think this song has buried itself in my brain and now it's there forever
it gives me goosebumps

feels weird that I never hear "Rude Boy" anymore

Na na na
Come on, come on, come on
I like it-like it
Come on, come on, come on
I like it-like it
Come on, come on, come on
I like it-like it (Na na na)
Come on, come on, come on
I like it-like it

that song rules too
hard to choose a favorite rihanna single tbh

it's not "Unfaithful"

closest we have to a rolling rihanna thread.

http://www.stereogum.com/1731414/rihanna-kanye-west-paul-mccartney-fourfive-seconds/mp3s/

huh

LOVING IT!!! This whole Paul plays and writes and the younger talent shine on the vox trend is one I hope comes to full fruition with an album soon. I'm not in the camp that thinks Paul has lost his vocal marbles, so I don't think this mixture is a crutch for Paulie--and I like Kanye and co doing their own music so it's not like they need Macca. But what I do think is that having a restrained, more traditional and masterfully played backing track really shows how good these young cats can be, no matter how far from their usual genre these Paul collabs are. The raw talent is shining through, leave it to Paul to pull back the curtains in such an interesting way!

Give us more "Only Ones" and "FourFiveSeconds"s!

lmao the new song is fuckin terrible

well it is intriguingly different for rihanna, that is probably the most charitable thing i can say for now

my friend said sth funny about it:

"It's just really corny but they're really srs about it so I don't really know whether I should take them seriously
Or the song seriously
I mean I appreciate how funny it must be that these people are fairly earnest about it and it's just kind of like a wiggles song"

her voice is so unpleasantly harsh on this. and kanye doesn't sound much better.