Diamonds

Diamonds was inescapable for a stretch there—radio, streaming, weddings, funerals. Rihanna at her most crystalline, voice riding this minimal production like she’s just thinking out loud about lasting through hard times. The song doesn’t try to be complicated. It’s a ballad about holding on when everything’s fractured, and it connects because that’s the deal—you’re fractured too, sometimes. By the tenth time you hear it, you’re not rolling your eyes. You’re just sitting with it. That’s the test of a pop song. Does it still work when it’s everywhere? This one did.