Track of the Moment

’Telle her she’s not dreaming

October 7, 2010 1 Comment

First, a disclaimer. Listening closely to Shontelle‘s “Perfect Nightmare,” the lyrics elicited a hesitation similar to the one I felt with “Love The Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna. Somehow the duo’s song of abusive love went to #1 this summer, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t embrace it knowing Rihanna’s still-recent personal history.

But “Perfect Nightmare” has a few things going for it make the song so much less discomfiting than “Love The Way You Lie.” One, a great dance beat arrives about a minute in (thanks to producer Rodney Jerkins) to perk things up, and two, I know next to nothing about Shontelle. So while she sings about a struggle to leave a toxic relationship, the 25-year-old Barbadian remains a total blank slate to me, even after the #13 showing of previous single “Impossible.” Because Shontelle brings no known real-life baggage to “Perfect Nightmare” (the less said about “Licky,” the better for all), I can enjoy the track on its own merits.

Anyway, Shontelle’s “Perfect Nightmare” is hooky as hell (try “No way, no way, no way,” ad infinitum). And yes, there’s no lyrical resolution to her relationship woes, but somehow the tune still manages to come off as quite cathartic. Still, girlfriend needs to wake up and get herself a better man:

Neither gender has an exclusive on these “bad romance” tunes, of course. The pain cuts both ways, as Ne-Yo’s “Beautiful Monster” shows, even if Shontelle’s “Perfect Nightmare” is an altogether better tune.

And proving that the mainstream music world is smaller than you might think, Shontelle and Rihanna are close friends. The two artists met back in high school, and recently collaborated on “Man Down,” a new song set to be included on Rihanna’s upcoming album, Loud.

Purchase Shontelle – “Perfect Nightmare” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.