Rihanna has released the video for her chart-topping song ‘Diamonds,” from her upcoming album Unapologetic.

The video begins with a rather literal interpretation of the song title:  Rihanna’s hands raking through a pile of small diamonds.  From there, the whole thing gets über-epic.  You’ve got Rihanna singing in the shadows.  Stretching and writhing on a bed, in a room that appears to be blowing up in reverse.  Running away from something or someone, helicopters in the air, fires and unrest in the streets.  A man and a woman’s hands slowly pulling apart.  Singing in a blowing wind.  Roses burning like embers.  Horses – oh yeah, HORSES – rearing up, pawing the ground, nuzzling each other, running in the tide.  Rihanna exhaling copious amounts of smoke from her mouth.  A guy walking through the aforementioned unrest ON FIRE.   Rihanna floating on her back in some water, looking dead at first, but it turns out she’s not.

I won’t even begin to pretend I understand all of these seemingly disparate visuals.  Even though they’re sung in Rihanna’s signature monotone, the song’s lyrics seem much happier, mentioning newfound love.  Perhaps the scenes of disconnection and despair are intended to contrast with the words to the song.  It’s really hard to say.

The single ‘Diamonds’ was produced by Benny Blanco and Stargate, and written by Sia. The video was directed by Anthony Mandler.   Click through to give it a watch:

 

Photo: Rob Rich/WENN.com

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