Rihanna releases albums the way Elton John did back in the Seventies. Every six months, you turned around and a new Elton album was out. As one of the artists who rules top 40 radio right now, and is better known for a string of hit singles than she is for her albums-this is probably the way she should be going (although 2 or 3 of her albums actually work as cohesive statements.)

Diamonds is the first single from Ri-Ri’s upcoming seventh (SEVENTH!!) studio album, due towards the end of the year, and it reunites Rihanna with Stargate, the production team behind a bunch of her earlier hits (“S.O.S.”, “Hate That I Love You”) This track is pretty interesting, although I’m not so sure I would call it good. It’s less dance-oriented than her most recent string of records-which at least makes a case for Rihanna as a musical shape-shifter of sorts. One thing it does have in common with previous Rihanna singles is that the hook is repeated loudly and OFTEN-as our own GG was quick to mention during our conversation about “Diamonds.”. Youll never forget the title of the song, that’s for sure.

I also like the fact that her Bajan accent is a little more pronounced here than it usually is. Without her usage of island syntax, she sounds like any other pop singer, I think.

Listen on Rihanna’s Soundcloud page