Friday, September 14, 2007

Video: Rihanna "Shut Up & Drive"

Rihanna's follow up to her mega smash single "Umbrella" is "Shut Up & Drive" which follows the formula she first used on "SOS" of borrowing a musical foundation from a modern rock classic and creating a new pop r&b melody to form an instant hit. Given her previous success it seems like a no-brainer but the new song simply does not work. While "SOS" emphasised the strong points of Soft Cell's hit "Shut Up & Drive" does nothing right in playing up strengths of it's source material. When you think of New Order's "Blue Monday" you probably think of beats, beats, more beats, the distinct chill, the lead bass, that choir sound, the synth bass, the vocals and the beats. "Shut Up & Dance" has guitars rock out on New Order's familiar four bar chord progression and doesn't do anything else with the original song. Why even bother using the song if you're going to ignore what made the original work in the first place? Then there are the lyrics... I know that the double entente's show how Rihanna is a Good Girl Gone Bad but when such little imagination is used it just becomes silly.

As for the video we will let the youtube comments be our guide. "LOL...chicks who know's about cars" "she is so hot" "No girl in her right mind would work on cars in HEELS!" "yeah she's very very hot" What else could you need to know about the video?:



: In an unique turn Rihanna has a myspace page which allows you to preview some of her other music and read about her latest musical plans.

3 comments:

Brittle said...

Yes. It's almost more of a cover of Orgy's cover of "Blue Monday."

Daft Monk said...

Exactly!

j.elliot said...

one starving musician came by to say: Have you heard the new Paul Van Dyk CD 'In Between'?
Just wondering what you thought of it.

j.e.