Rihanna struggles with a possible breakup in her newly-premiered video for rock-tinged ballad "California King Bed," which is anything but that softness comes across clearly. The video certainly looks stunning, set in an ultra-luxurious beach house that makes us wonder how the pop siren could possibly be blue amidst such gorgeous scenery. This power pop ballad about a couple who sleep beside each other in their California king-sized bed, but feel "10,000 miles apart, is the sixth U.S. and fourth international single from Barbadian recording artist's fifth platinum album, "Loud.""Loud" generally has more upbeat sounds. However, this is one of the slower tracks the 23-year-old Bajan singer recorded for the album. Rihanna explained: "The ballads on this album are really special. I didn't want to just put a bunch of ballads on the album, I actually wanted to keep it minimal with slow records. But there are really two powerful ballads. One is called 'Straight Up Beautiful' and the other one is called 'California King Bed,' which is one of my favorite songs on the album. It's probably going to be the biggest song on the album."
The innocuous soft jam, "California King Bed" is a wrenching ballad about the waking death of a relationship, the stage of limbo before the final crash; it's so well-delivered, in fact, that it's hard to hear. Rihanna explained the meaning of the song: "It's talking about being this close to someone yet feeling so far away, like falling out of love." As it is, the more interesting tracks are those with less salacious demands on her vulnerability, such as the big break-up power-ballad "California King Bed", which features her best vocal performance.
Like seemingly all the not-dirty Rihanna clips, there's lots of soft, gauzy shots of the lovely singer sprawled about in her undergarments in open fields and between the sheets, as she caresses and stares longingly at the hunky male model ostensibly lying next to her, yet feeling so far away. Set entirely in a gorgeously pink-palleted open air room overlooking the beach, the winds swirl and blow the curtains dramatically around the heart broken singer. In this video, Rihanna returned to nature as in her video for her previous single, "Only Girl (In the World)." Rihanna's just rolled-out-bed appearance is completed by the modest, cream-colored attire in the airy, light-filled clip.
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