5.14.2007

Rihanna - Umbrella

This is the lead single off of her 3rd studio album Good Girl Gone Bad. The original has the feel of an 80's pop ballad. It's a nice, simple track that almost got ruined with Jay-Z's rapping. It's really unnecessary. Remixes by Josh Harris (as Lindbergh Palace), Jody den Broeder and Seamus Haji with Paul Emanuel take this song to the clubs.

For all the mixes, it is worth mentioning that the vocals were sped up instead of being slowed down. The album version has one of those "dangerous" BPMs which could be very tricky when remixing. Some unofficial mixes have already contained a slowed down vocal because slowing down was easier than speeding it up. Rihanna has a lot of vibrato in her voice so that could cause some problems. But all the mixers handled this one very well.

Harris' mix has a lite 80's synth pop feel to it.

Den Broeder did two main mixes. The Deconstruction mix is very electro with lots of fun blips and beeps. Without the beats, it would sound like a slowed down drum n' bass track. The bassline is absolutely hot. And vocal effects on the "eh ella eh ella" parts are really creative. The Lush mix is a little more circuit, but it is also very electro with a hot bassline too. This also has the 80's kind of sound to it. The style of this one calls to mind some of the sounds of Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Eric Prydz.

And finally there are Seamus Haji and Paul Emanuel's mixes. Theirs are super electro. It's a little more underground sounding.

Overall, all the mixes in this package are really impressive. All of them should garner plenty of airplay and spins on the dancefloor.