Has Rih been smoking too much pot?
Either way, her singing voice isn’t doing much work on this
new single, the latest to be taken from her highly anticipated new album ‘Anti’.
What begins as slurring soon just devolves into gibberish, “work work work work
work” becoming “wor wer waa wahhhhh wa”. Repeated listening is genuinely
hilarious.
Trying to decipher exactly what the song is about, then, is
a futile effort. But if Max Martin has taught us anything, it’s that great pop
music doesn’t have to have great lyrics – often a melodic hook is enough. And
after only one listen, that nagging “wor wer waa wahhhhh wa” hook is thoroughly
cemented in the mind. And that beat! This isn’t great pop by any stretch, but
with its infectious rhythms, dance-pop vibes and token Drake verse, it’s easy
to imagine us all slut-dropping away for the foreseeable future. The lazy vocal
delivery almost doesn’t matter.
The problem is that after so much Anti…cipation, Work was never going to live up to
everyone’s expectations. Perhaps she’s trolling us and the next single will be
the smash we all want and deserve. Or perhaps Work will make more sense in the context of the rest of the album –
we’ve only got days to find out.
So no, this Rih-Drake collaboration is no Take Care or What's My Name. And it's nowhere near Kelly Rowland's Work. It isn’t
a banger, but it’s definitely a bop. That’ll do for now.
3/5
Listen: Work is
available to stream on Tidal (LOLZ) or you can download on iTunes.
