Justin Garner - Russian Roulette (The Intervention)

As those of us who don’t live under rocks are well aware, Rihanna‘s been a little troubled lately, and nowhere was her precarious state more evident than on Rated R‘s lead single Russian Roulette. On the latest leak off his forthcoming, DJBooth.net Presents: The White Labels EP, singer Justin Garner gallops in on his noble steed to rescue the tortured pop starlet by way of a musical Intervention. Rather than going the ‘duet’ route, like he did on his reader-acclaimed reinterpretation of Leona Lewis’ Can’t Breathe, Garner handles this revamp on his lonesome, delivering a line-to-line response to the original record‘s lyrics. Even if J.G. doesn’t manage to singlehandedly save Ri-Ri from emotional pain, the impassioned vocals he delivers over Chuck Harmony and Ne-Yo ‘s ominous boardwork should leave few in the Booth unimpressed. Does this track, like Garner’s take on Can’t Breathe, add up to more than the sum of its parts? If you think so, be sure and download a copy of his five-track EP when it hits our front page next Tuesday, December 15.