VertigoShtick: Video Review: Kelly Rowland "Rose Colored Glasses"

Video Review: Kelly Rowland "Rose Colored Glasses"

By David Salter

Kurt Bitter, Vertigo Shtick Contributor

I really wish the way that Kelly Rowland has interpreted her music. She`s jumped on the electro-dance-pop locomotive fueled by The Fame Monster`s seemingly endless supply of steam. (I wonder to myself whether or not Lady Gaga would have reached the same degree of renown had Britney`s Blackout received the care that it deserved.

To me, Blackout is very clearly an inspiration for The Fame Monster; had Britney`s personal issues not dominated the media during the months surrounding the album`s release - did you experience that the Associated Press wrote her obituary after her involuntary hospitalization? - the universal public would acknowledge that The Fame Monster is not near as subversive as Gaga would care for us to believe.)

Where was I? Oh, right: urban-electro-dance-pop. I use this condition to relate to dance-pop produced by people who traditionally work on hip-hop; examples include Danja and Britney, Darkchild and Gaga, or Pharrell and Madonna. I tell this character of medicine from dance-pop because dance-pop, to me, is lighter, happier, and has far less booty-bumping bass. I love hop-hop and pop music, but when the two merge I`m in heaven.

The beginning reason why I love Kelly Rowland is that she has begun to make this case of music. You may inquire if we actually do need another mainstream, radio-played female singer making urban-electro-dance-pop or dance pop in general. The solution might be no, but I want Kelly Rowland to stay. Amongst the females producing dance-pop I`d place her vocals at the top, above Britney and Wild and Mary and Kylie and Robyn* and Ke$ha.

The moment reason why I love Kelly is that she is yet in contact with her R&B/soul roots, which brings us to the level of this post. I am moved, quite possibly too moved, by a good power ballad. Celine Dion is the air that I breathe. Leona Lewis speaks to me. But neither create good dance pop. And conversely, how many female pop singers are good balladeers? Britney and Madonna don`t get the voice, and while Gaga may, she nonetheless sounds contrived in "Speechless." As far as I`m concerned only Christina can draw off both, but that discussion for another time.

Rose Colored Glasses is a song that I now fell in bed with. It`s a report that I take not heard sung before. Instead of dropping in love, the call is about falling out of love, starting with the little things, the things that no one else can see. The disagreements you get in private. Conflicting interests, unrecognized sacrifices. The look you get when no one is around.

A call as beautiful as this deserves an equally beautiful music video. I`ve found that exceptional music videos have caused me to get to love songs I previously didn`t like. Certainly Universal Motown Records knows this, right? It would be in their best interest to make a stunning piece of video art that would take a look to a sound that many know but few recognize, wouldn`t it?

Unfortunately this wasn`t the case, and the video I`d been waiting several months for turned out to be a dud. It`s a serial of shots of Kelly singing portions of the call in different outfits, in front of different backdrops. One of the shots has a bluish tint, and Kelly is sprayed with confetti in another. Several generic clips are shown throughout the picture of Kelly arguing with her lover. It`s uninspired. But more importantly, I look as though the picture would trivialize the song`s meaning to a hearer who hadn`t previously heard the call by itself. From an artist`s perspective I can`t conceive of anything worse.