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[4.57]
Anthony Easton: From the first line of this, I was hoping for a dance remake of the Hank Snow original. That the words suggest one thing and the music suggests something much more profligate is the only thing remotely interesting about this track that is as pro forma as a movie made from a board game.
[3]
Iain Mew: I was going to ask what the reasoning was to releasing an imitation Calvin Harris production when you could get the real thing again, but then I looked up and found that he did co-produce this. The deviations from formula (it’s a bit less cheap sounding, if no less relentless) were presumably introduced by Dr. Luke. They still don’t provide enough novelty to that to make it any less dull at this point.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Phuckin, Ri-Ri declares. And lo, once again she is more easily satisfied by her producers and songwriters than her lovers.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: There are a hundred reasons why this is a better song than “Turn Me On,” mostly having to do with varied production and some measure of (relative — this is Guetta/Gottwald/Harris territory, after all) subtlety. Even so, I enjoy it significantly less, and sing Nicki’s chorus over top of about 60% of “Where Have You Been.” Suffice it to say that this sort of track requires longing and humanity, and there’s more of that in a song where Nicki goes all cyborg-Haley Joel Osment-in-A.I. than there is here. Once your delivery is capable of elevating a Drake single to the realm of the genuinely emotionally affecting, you can’t get away with phoning it in.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Thanks to Drake’s “Take Care” Rihanna actually showed up on EKG readings, and the casualness with which she delivers “I’ve been everywhere, man” are evidence she’s learning still. Then comes the chorus and stutterbeats, both of which are garbage. On a track that’s as much a cross-marketing scheme as a song she lacks the star presence to hold it together.
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: I’m not sure a slightly buzzier synth setting does enough to differentiate this from “Only Girl in the World” or “We Found Love.” Which is not exactly a problem for Rihanna, of course; it’s yet another massive raver in her catalog of massive ravers. But for any listener who would like to be anything but bludgeoned by her, that time is not yet.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: This is it: the best possible arrangement of 2012 urban pop. The dance buildup/breakdown was codified decades ago, but every handclap and strobe-light synth, every acoustic musing and skroinky breakdown practically comes with metadata. Rihanna’s team knows it really works when she sings “eh,” so she gets an entire verse of it. Someone also agreed with me that “Only Girl (in the World)” needed to soar completely, not tumble down on a fumbled chorus, and someone else involved — maybe Rihanna, who knows — understands how these things need emotional underpinnings, in this case the oft-dashed but everpresent promise that the club really will grant you someone if you just dance hard enough. It’s possibly the best song Rihanna will ever release. Now can she take a fucking break already?
[8]
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