The video for Rihanna's "Only Girl In the World" is quite pretty, but there's a lot in here that feels tonally off:
For a video with a color palate this cheery, you might expect that "Only Girl" would be a song about a love achieved. Instead, the whole thing's a request for the unnamed gentleman who's caught Rihanna's guy to make her "feel like I'm the only girl in the world," but it's not clear that she's going to get what she wants. Instead of the question, I think I found myself expecting a declarative statement: "you make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world."
But for a request, or plea, her voice sounds extraordinarily flat. I know the girl doesn't have much in the way of pipes—that's never been her strong suit. But she is capable of getting emotion in there with the metallic sounds: her voice doesn't sound that different here than it does on "Umbrella," but there's an intimacy in that promise that doesn't exist in this expression of hope.