Rihanna - Cheers

Even before Loud was released there were rumors that "Cheers" would be a single; after a ton of other songs we've finally got "Cheers" released as a single. And it makes it the fourth song by Rihanna on my blog, more than anyone else.

Rihanna is in a dangerous position right now. She's already pumped out a ton of singles from Loud and people are probably hoping for something fresh by now. On the other hand, "California King Bed" didn't quite reach major success, so being too different is also out. I'd say that she made a good decision with "Cheers" because it's got a signature Rihanna sound, party lyrics, yet has a different smoother style than her usual blaring vocals.

"Cheers" is more subdued than Rihanna's party jams which gives a nice feel of something that you can enjoy when you don't feel like going all out with dancing. Rihanna still blends in some of her familiar sound which all works together nicely.

But that she went into overkill mode... First off is the fact that she's sampling Avril Lavigne's "Yeah yeah yeah"s from "I'm with you," the sound is quite clashing and immediately creates a different mood to the song. The two voices have no blend at all and the "Yeah yeah yeah"s just come out of no where. Then there's the bridge which is a group of voices singing offkey. I can see that she's trying to create the party mood with that, but it really doesn't add anything to the song. It's weird and annoying and just slows down the song's momentum.

This song could have been super, but now it's just annoying. It'll probably still pull Rihanna out of her tumble with "California King Bed" and may even become a number one. After that we should be getting a break from Rihanna for a bit (she's only got like three songs left that haven't become singles.) But of course knowing Rihanna, it won't last long and she'll have another album out in no time.