Rita Ora’s ‘Pheonix’ Has Been A Long Time Coming – But Is It Worth The Wait?
I can’t say album Phoenix comes fresh off the heels of the critical and fan success of Ora, because it doesn’t. Ora was made in 2012 – her debut album, which actually took three years to develop under label Roc Nation. To be honest, I first started to recognize Rita Ora on America’s Top Model in 2017, when she was the host, and I was like, where the hell Tyra go? I had heard a couple songs from her and thought they were pretty cool, and that she had an awesome, more R&B orientated voice for her Pop categorization, yet I never felt she was someone to write home about. Liked her – I’ll leave it at that. What I did notice is she popped up as a feature in that era’s EDM and Synth Pop scene often, and she had one heck of a siren’s call. Eventually, I listened to the album Ora, and thought it was a cool little mix of R&B and Pop, and so giving Phoenix a spin, I assumed it might be more of the same. I have to say, it is good in a different way, with some serious House related Dance Pop joints, front-loaded on the album, and some very palatable Pop ballads, any of which could compete with the top performers in the industry. Sure, it took some time for Rita Ora to bless us with some new music, but it was worth the wait. Not only that – she really mixes modernity with the Pop conventions of the last couple of years, so that there is ample stylistic coverage of trends and sounds to make everyone pretty much happy. And isn’t that what Pop is all about?