User:Tomica/Sandbox10

Russian Roulette

 * http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11578-russian-roulette/
 * http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/singlesreviews/a185756/rihanna-russian-roulette.html
 * http://www.pluggedin.com/music/tracks/2009/rihanna-russianroulette.aspx ?
 * http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/rhianna-post-title-tk.html Her new slow-burn of a song “Russian Roulette,” written by Ne-Yo, is akin to the sleek, paranoid club pop of “Disturbia” and Kanye West’s last album. In any other year, it would be a noteworthy but not unexpected continuation of many of her favorite themes -- claustrophobia, psychological tumult, the sense of having lost control.If Rihanna’s career has been about noir, “Russian Roulette” is the moment in the novel where someone finally pulls a gun from a trench coat and changes everything. Lyrics like “I’m terrified but I’m not leaving / I know that I must pass this test” and “It’s too late to pick up the value of my life” pointedly allude to that event and a very bleak set of emotions accompanying it. Yet Rihanna purposefully avoids any hard statements about how (or if) the song relates to what she knows we’re all thinking. For music fans more accustomed to the upbeat revenge ballads of the Dixie Chicks or the stay-strong resilience of Mary J. Blige, Rihanna’s choice of metaphor in this song -- that she’s powerless before fate in a game of roulette for her life -- will come as a shock and, understandably, perhaps a disappointment to fans hoping for something more reassuring.
 * http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/rihanna-reveals-russian-roulette.html
 * http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/19/rihanna-cd-review the promo for Rihanna's single Russian Roulette is striking. It features the singer being gassed, shot, run over, drowned, and tearfully pleading with her captors in a torture chamber: "I'm terrified." This is interspersed with scenes of her curled up in a padded cell: at one juncture in the latter, she appears to be – and, given the provocative nature of the video, let us not be unduly coy here – masturbating. video
 * http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/listen-does-rihanna-s-russian-roulette-spin-you-around ?
 * http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13740-rated-r/ Rihanna's dourness for better and worse (see: the cartoonish tough-chick clunker "G4L"). Canned rock flourishes turn "Rockstar 101" [ft. Slash], "Russian Roulette", and "The Last Song" into instantly-dated missteps from a bygone era when a Slash feature was cool.
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/nqvh Rated R’s lyrics are its calling cards, however, glowering darkly in songs like Fire Bomb, Russian Roulette and Cold Case Love. Many hint towards her relationship with Brown
 * www.nme.com/reviews/rihanna/10985 Lead single ‘Russian Roulette’ sets the agenda. ‘Rated R’ is an LP about the balance of power and control.
 * http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/rated-r-20091123 Songs like "Russian Roulette" — a domestic-violence victim's confession whipped into soaring melodrama — tell us why: She was busy saying her piece in the studio.
 * http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20320917,00.html Here, the material is almost obsessively dark and mono-focused, from the not-difficult-to-parse metaphors in shuddering first single Russian Roulette to the self-lacerating balladry of Stupid in Love.
 * http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2009-11-23-rihanna23_ST_N.htm First single Russian Roulette is literally and figuratively about risk as she talks about love's uncertainties while potentially shocking fans with its chilling imagery.
 * http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/arts/music/23choice.html?_r=3&ref=music& The stark, suspenseful “Russian Roulette,” by Ne-Yo and Chuck Harmony, is paced by a heartbeat, a ticking clock and Rihanna’s fearful voice as she sings about playing the game, and it ends with a clear gunshot.
 * http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/11/20/rihanna_rages_on_rated_r/ The moody but far too deliberate “Russian Roulette,’’ also co-written by Ne-Yo, has a grab bag of evocative images but never quite jells.
 * http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112000295.html With a plodding beat and a forgettable hook, lead single "Russian Roulette" tries to salvage its wasted potential with a melodramatic finale: the sound of a single gunshot.
 * http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2009/11/album-review-rihanna-rated-r-.html “Russian Roulette” was a gutsy choice as a first single; it compares a relationship to a potentially fatal game of chance. Rihanna’s voice is a delicate instrument, often the least interesting element in her productions. But on this track, she’s squarely in the center of the action. A sparse piano-and-synth backdrop plays out over a heart-beat bass line, framing her story. She gives it a dramatic reading worthy of its jarring conclusion: an audible shiver followed by the sound of a gun shot.
 * https://consequence.net/2009/11/album-review-rihanna-rated-r/ Lead single “Russian Roulette” is a worthy centerpiece. The pulsating beats, affecting vocals, and brilliant refrain are all the hallmarks of a brilliant pop song. It stands out from the other tracks as proof that Rated R was a cathartic process for the singer.
 * http://www.avclub.com/articles/rihanna-rated-r,36042/ Titles like “Cold Case Love” and “Russian Roulette,” the latter climaxing with tinny gunshots, extend the public drama with harrowing scenarios and tremulous vocals.
 * http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/albumreviews/a188423/rihanna-rated-r.html
 * http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/rihanna-rated-r/1919 "Russian Roulette," the morose leadoff single, is a little bit more abstruse in its you-or-me dialectic, and the initial reaction has been predictably confused. Backed by a spare piano-and-bass drone, embellished only by the sound of rolling dice, "Roulette" is the recalcitrant flipside to the finality of "Fire Bomb." In the video, Rihanna at one point literally wears her heart on her sleeve—or thereabouts. And if the song's wavering admissions of being "terrified" are conveyed vis-à-vis the ultimate in "out of my hands" metaphors, well, it may also be the song that cuts closest to the mark. Any objectors can take solace in the fact that the two songs are sequenced in satisfactory order on the album: first comes the guilt of "Russian Roulette," then comes the retribution of "Fire Bomb.
 * http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-rihanna-rated-r-mercury-1828345.html Which is somewhat difficult to square with the edgy undertow of violent inferences lurking beneath the album's surface, from the Grace Jones-esque leatherclad-dominatrix cover image and references to pain and flagellation, to inflammatory song titles such as "Russian Roulette" and "Fire Bomb" as metaphors for the state of relationships.
 * http://www.ok.co.uk/music/view/16303/Review-Rihanna-Rated-R/ Recent single Russian Roulette is a downbeat way to return to chart action, although it definitely grows on you.
 * http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1624241/rihanna-plays-russian-roulette-on-new-single.jhtml awesome for composition
 * http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-11-24/music/sympathy-for-lady-vengeance-rihanna-s-rated-r/full/ It's a lot of fun. But pure fun is rare here, and pure unease far more plentiful, nowhere more so than on "Russian Roulette," a spare, suspenseful, violent torch song (the title is extremely literal) that makes for profoundly (and intentionally) unpleasant listening. "It's too late to think of the value of my life," Rihanna howls climactically. It ends with a single gunshot. Brrrrrr.
 * http://www.michigandaily.com/content/rihanna-review Several of the album’s collaborators have stated that the singer requested a darker edge for her new album. This moody feel is evident on the album’s first single “Russian Roulette,” a somber, beat-driven ballad that is strikingly different from any single Rihanna has released before. Chuck Harmony, who produced the track, said the two purposefully pursued "something a little darker, something a little edgier, something a little more morbid” for the lead single. The ballad, which employs reckless gunplay as a not-so-subtle metaphor for a troubled relationship, achieves its seemingly morbid intent but in turn sacrifices the singer’s knack for easily digestible dance-pop anthems. While it’s likely that Rihanna released the track as a bold attempt to both shock fans and introduce them to her newer, darker sound, the single is more likely to push away devotees from her “Disturbia” era than to welcome new listeners into the fold.

Accolades
"Diamonds" received the Billboard accolade for Top R&B Song at the 2013 award ceremony held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. At the 2013 BET Awards, the song was nominated for the Coca-Cola Viewer's Choice accolade, however, it lost to "Started from the Bottom" by Drake.