[Official Video] Rihanna - You Da One

My lasting impression of Rihanna's Talk That Talk album was of a record that only just managed to paper over its deficiencies with the ample reserves of RiRi's sheer force of personality. The most remarkable thing was not that it was a bad record, because it wasn't - but that Rihanna, simply through *being* Rihanna, could turn something that was such a repetition of past successes into an LP with genuine merit. Despite the lingering sensation that we've heard it all before, Talk That Talk felt undeniably good.

And much can be said of new single You Da One too - its lilting slow-jam rhythms hit a heady mid-point between the cock'sure stride of Rude Boi and the sleek sensuality of What's My Name. It's classic RihannaPop (surely a genre in its own right by now), tapping in to her Bajan side to deliver a more mellow follow-up to balls-to-the-wall rave-athon We Found Love.

The video is pretty perfunctory - it's Rihanna, as always, doing what she does best: singing and looking hot. She gets to show off her new, rather fetching blonde haircut and does a bit of hip thrusting. Oh, and most of the video is in black and white - de'rigeur language these days for 'this is supposed to look a bit arty'.

In terms of Rihanna singles - You Da One falls short; again, not because it's bad, but because she's set the bar so high in the past. But if anything, it stands as proof of the all conquering pop behemoth she has become these days, that precision tooled creation that right now is leaving pretty much every other popstar for dust.

You Da One is released on the 2nd January.