As a regular reader of international charts, I know that global hits usually take a while to spread. They’ll catch on more quickly in some countries than others, and, of course, some countries don’t catch them at all. Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” comes to mind – this song, a longtime indie darling, not long ago broke onto the U.S. mainstream charts, and is in the iTunes top 10 of 19 – count ’em, 19 – countries. In any event, this took place over the course of months.
Not so with this track. A couple weeks ago, it seemingly appeared out of nowhere, toward the top of not one but several charts.
My first thought was, brilliant! European listeners have known and loved Calvin Harris since 2009, but he hasn’t made it across the vast expanse of the Atlantic ocean, musically speaking. But add Rihanna, and voila! Instant airplay. It’s almost too easy!
Since the U.S. seems to be cautiously embracing a bit of European-style house/dance music – see the recent success of Alexandra Stan’s “Mr. Saxobeat”, Afrojack feat. Eva Simons’ “Take Over Control” and, well, basically David Guetta’s whole album – the time seems ripe for Calvin Harris to enter the U.S. music scene. But some critics haven’t known quite what to make of this song: Rolling Stone opined, “It’s the worst single of Rihanna’s career. It will probably top the Hot 100 anyway.” NME stated, “Instead of re-inventing the pop wheel . . . this has a whiff of treading-water about it” Grantland described it as “a straight-up techno-as-all-hell Euro-pop song”. And Popjustice said only, “It sounds exactly like you’d expect a Rihanna and Calvin Harris song to sound.”
Perhaps there’s a grain of truth to all the reviews, divergent as they are. But I can’t help but think that those puzzled over the song’s simple lyrics, repetition and/or structure are overlooking the fact that it’s not a freaking pop song. Although one could argue that today, pop and dance music are mingling to the point that they’ve become interwoven (“I Wanna Go”, anyone?), I think that “We Found Love” is best understood as a dance song.
Put it this way: upon first listen, I was under the mistaken impression that was a Calvin Harris track featuring Rihanna, as opposed to the other way around. If you like “We Found Love”, I wouldn’t put my money on that you’d love the rest of Rihanna’s catalogue – that you’d enjoy other Calvin Harris tracks seems a safer bet.
That said, Rihanna’s vocals are lovely – she ably sings in a higher range (total 180 from “Cheers (I’ll Drink to That)”). Unlike singers on some dance/house tracks, Rihanna totally avoids blending into the background; not only does she sing prettily, but her voice is imbued with personality.
I’ve got to admit: the first time I heard this song, I kind of got swept up in the romance of those seven little words: “we found love in a hopeless place”. Ah! Isn’t that just every love story? It’s Wuthering Heights! It’s Gone With the Wind! Heck, it’s even Twilight! But this is only part of why the lyrics are genius.
I wondered what finding love in a hopeless place might look like. It might be finding the love of one’s life in a seedy bar. It might be high school sweethearts bound for geographically distant colleges. It might be living in poverty in a run-down part of town, yet finding something so special that makes your world look like it’s lit up by the bright lights of Times Square.
But the “hopeless place” might be more universal; it could apply to any two (or more) people in love. We are each different people from different circumstances and different places, with different obligations and different goals. As such, loving anyone could seem “hopeless”. Maybe that’s what makes love such a one-in-a-million, magical thing. It’s like if a beautiful butterfly were to land on your hand – a completely unlikely and unexpected occurrence. You’d stop what you were doing and stay still. You wouldn’t shoo it away.
Upon further listening, I considered a second interpretation, one with the emphasis on “hopeless”. Perhaps “We Found Love” is about a relationship in which the “place” the couple is in, geographically or metaphorically, prevents things from working out. Somewhere like, say, Hollywood, where the media hounds you and cameras flash at you constantly, where someone wants a piece of you virtually every minute of every day, and it’s not unheard of to get caught up it all. For example. And perhaps these seven words are actually about the quiet tragedy of lost love coupled with knowledge that in a different place, this just might have worked out. Someone wise once said, the saddest phrase in existence must be “if only”.
The verses, full of pretty imagery – yellow diamonds in the light, shadows crossing – don’t give much of a clue as to the song’s meaning. Remember how I said before that the lyrics were genius? This is exactly why: you can interpret the song either way. It’s a bright light illuminating a dark place, and it’s a light being extinguished by shadows. And who among us cannot relate to either of those? At any given time, who wouldn’t want to listen to either Etta James’ “At Last” or “Love Stinks” by J. Geils Band (in substance, not style)? It’s universal.
But don’t get me wrong; “We Found Love” isn’t going to change the world, much less the face of popular music. A week from now, overplay might make me cringe at its first chord. But right now, I’m getting a huge kick out of watching this electro-dance-pop collaboration go global.
Tuneiverse 