Rita Ora has apparently found herself now. It’s only taken a few years. To recap: she was the hook singer for a couple Brits, the music-world equivalent of having taken British Lit 101, world history, bio and pre-calculus: a good start that determines nothing about your future career. Then she was some version of fellow Roc Nation artist and rather big deal Rihanna, with a dollop of either Jessie J (“How We Do (Party),” the “Domino” for those who prefer Biggie references to quickie domino metaphors) or Drake (“RIP,” which Aubrey cowrote.) Then, after people noticed and the tabloids turned it into an All About Eve story with harder partiers, she recalibrated a bit and became Rihanna if she’d gone darker, not sexier after Rated R.
This is a fantastic idea, and if Rihanna didn’t commit to it, it doesn’t matter; Rita Ora’s pulling it off shockingly well. Listen below.
“Roc the Life,” unsurprisingly, is a title-length advertisement for Roc Nation and a song-length advertisement for Rita Ora’s potential, or possibly prowess (it goes back and forth). “By way of London, Americana / the persona is prima donna,” Ora begins, and the rest of the track’s her brash elaboration of that. Everything about it–the steel-beam percussion, the guitars, the boasts and the backing vocals that frame them–took hours to seem this gritty. It’s like a warehouse soundstage for Rita to stalk safely through.
None of these are insults; they’re just what you do on your big introductory single. And between the prepackaged swag (reality-TV soundbites like “I can’t express enough how much I want it,” zillionaire and runway references that may well be putting out feelers) is ballsier stuff; there’s no way Rita and her team don’t know exactly what they’re doing when including “I wanna be infamous, notorious” after she built her major single around a “Party and Bullshit” reference.
More importantly, “Roc the Life” sounds great. It’s a loud-enough, rock-enough-in-context track, the sort that’s gone missing as the charts sound more and more like one overextended megamix of dance and ’80s mush. Rihanna almost tried it. P!nk did try it, on Missundazstood and Try This; she should probably be paying attention. Britney and Christina had one single each like this (“Stronger” and “Fighter,” respectively), and both are probably in their career top five. Ora’s debut album has yet to drop, and it’ll probably find her trying on dozens of musical looks. This, so far, flatters her most.
POPDUST SAYS:
Photo: Rita Ora
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