"This dead-feeling song may very well repulse you. I prefer it, however, to the bland redo of Brown’s “Turn Up the Music,” in which Rihanna gives an undeserved assist to an empty-headed club banger. That song plays out their relationship as normal. “Birthday Cake” presents it as pretty damn creepy. Which comes closer to the truth? We honestly don’t know, but I know which one I choose to believe, though it saddens and frustrates me. And can we leave it at that? I think so. It’s a hard-to-digest moment in an ongoing story that none of us who write about or listen to music can control. Maybe it’s time to search for other narratives. Put on Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” and scream along. Pick up the phone and call your sister and make sure she’s okay. Donate some money to your local women’s shelter. Recognize that pain and bad decisions are a part of life, and that those “role models” we pull from the ether of mass culture will inevitably fail us. They are only human, sometimes shockingly so."

An insightful piece not on just ‘Birthday Cake’ but Rihanna, Chris Brown, and domestic abuse.

Rihanna’s ‘Birthday Cake’: Reasons To Listen : The Record : NPR

(thx alexbaca)