Here lies Rihanna’s least successful power-piano ballad, tacked onto a sci-fi epic that doesn’t fit it. (Do they even have pianos in the future? Or sledgehammers?) To be fair, it contains many of the same elements that have garnered Rihanna amazing results elsewhere: As the song opens, her vocal is throaty and compelling and the lyrics moody and confessional, with a magnetic, building tension. But nothing in its emotional or lyrical content justifies the will-to-bigness of the pounding chords and nearly shouted chorus. Even Rihanna seems a bit distant from the galactic importance she’s placing on this song. If the titular weapon was chosen to embody blunt power, the motif that actually stays with you is Rihanna wailing, “I hit a wall! I hit a wall!”—conveying the unfortunate impression that this song was a cry for help from her writing team. –Edwin “STATS” Houghton

Listen: “Sledgehammer”