Hey, Rihanna. Mad much? Angry much? Dark much?Rihanna has a lot to live up to. Her last album, Good Girl Gone Bad, was a smash and a never ending hit parade: Umbrella, Rehab, Don't Stop the Music, Take a Bow, etc. etc. etc. Pretty amazy. Now, after a really hard few months and much unwanted tabloid attention due to her domestic abuse case against that douche bag, RiRi is back with the much darker, less club friendly Rated R. Starting off with a dark, scary sounding Mad House, a short introduction to the cd, we really get started with Wait Your Turn, a track that I featured the video for on here a while back. Sounding hard and using the F-bomb, Rihanna is clearly not focusing her attention on the tween crowd with this disc. This track is pretty good and has a nice chorus, but it has a midtempo beat that doesn't quite pull you in. The same can be said for Hard (ft. Jeezy), which sounds A LOT like Lil' Kim's Lighters Up with it's reggae-tinged sound. Stupid In Love softens things up a bit with a ballad, but the lyrics are still about an abusive relationship gone wrong, telling her lover not to "talk to me like I'm stupid". Wonder who that's about? This tune is a bit more like the Rihanna we know, hearkening back to Take a Bow and Unfaithful. Rockstar 101 is a guitar driven ride that features Slash from G-n-R to nice effect. Another posey, badass lyric with a midtempo beat. The pace is getting a bit draggy at this point, but the songs are still good. I need to dance a little though. Well, not yet because next is the very, very ominous Russian Roulette. This song is about as dark as you can get with lyrics about life ending and closing with the sound of a gun shot. We seem to really be seeing into her mind on this track. Fire Bomb slows us down again with a pretty, yet again dark, ballad comparing love to a car crash. Yikes! I'm starting to get depressed now. Rude Boy picks up the pace a bit. Sassy and sexy, Rihanna gives us a little breath of fresh air on this one, sexing a boy and getting aggressive with him asking him "can you get it up" and telling him to "take it, take it". So far, this is the closest to a party we've gotten, and I'll take it. Then BAM!! With the assistance of will.I.am, we go back to balladry. Photographs is a song about a past boyfriend who has betrayed her. Again pretty, again dark. Can someone get this razor out of my arm's reach? I am afraid of how it's looking at this point. G4L starts off with "I lick the gun when I'm done cuz I know that revenge is so sweet". This one is getting hardcore, complete with phrases like "gangsta for life" (get it? G4L?) and freely using the "n" word. A statement is being made here people!! It's hitting us over the head. This cd may kill you!! ON the upside, G4L is one other uptempo track, so you can dance, very angrily, to this one. Te Amo is a latin (duh) sounding track that really doesn't add to this disc at all as far as I'm concerned. Not dark enough to fit and not good enough to bring you anywhere else. Throw away. Cold Case Love...... ballad, dark, blah blah blah. Honestly at this point is doesn't matter so much how good the music is, you have to change things up a bit unless you are making a record that is SUPPOSED to depress you. This song IS good, by the way, but if you make it this far in one sitting, you will be wiped out. I am. The last song on the album, aptly titled The Last Song, is not going to lift your spirits. Trust me. Dark, moody, guitar and piano driven, the lyrics are about the last song you'll ever here. Way to cheer us up there at the end, RiRi!! Now, all this being said, there is some fine work here and a lot of great music, but when you have an entire album full of ominous chords and morose lyrics, it will take its toll on the listener. Taken one at a time, I think a lot of these songs have hit potential, but you should really only listen to the whole cd at once if you are mad at someone, or yourself, and you want to be angry for a while. Buy it, but don't put it on at a party.
Monday, November 16, 2009
REVIEW: RIHANNA - RATED R
Hey, Rihanna. Mad much? Angry much? Dark much?Rihanna has a lot to live up to. Her last album, Good Girl Gone Bad, was a smash and a never ending hit parade: Umbrella, Rehab, Don't Stop the Music, Take a Bow, etc. etc. etc. Pretty amazy. Now, after a really hard few months and much unwanted tabloid attention due to her domestic abuse case against that douche bag, RiRi is back with the much darker, less club friendly Rated R. Starting off with a dark, scary sounding Mad House, a short introduction to the cd, we really get started with Wait Your Turn, a track that I featured the video for on here a while back. Sounding hard and using the F-bomb, Rihanna is clearly not focusing her attention on the tween crowd with this disc. This track is pretty good and has a nice chorus, but it has a midtempo beat that doesn't quite pull you in. The same can be said for Hard (ft. Jeezy), which sounds A LOT like Lil' Kim's Lighters Up with it's reggae-tinged sound. Stupid In Love softens things up a bit with a ballad, but the lyrics are still about an abusive relationship gone wrong, telling her lover not to "talk to me like I'm stupid". Wonder who that's about? This tune is a bit more like the Rihanna we know, hearkening back to Take a Bow and Unfaithful. Rockstar 101 is a guitar driven ride that features Slash from G-n-R to nice effect. Another posey, badass lyric with a midtempo beat. The pace is getting a bit draggy at this point, but the songs are still good. I need to dance a little though. Well, not yet because next is the very, very ominous Russian Roulette. This song is about as dark as you can get with lyrics about life ending and closing with the sound of a gun shot. We seem to really be seeing into her mind on this track. Fire Bomb slows us down again with a pretty, yet again dark, ballad comparing love to a car crash. Yikes! I'm starting to get depressed now. Rude Boy picks up the pace a bit. Sassy and sexy, Rihanna gives us a little breath of fresh air on this one, sexing a boy and getting aggressive with him asking him "can you get it up" and telling him to "take it, take it". So far, this is the closest to a party we've gotten, and I'll take it. Then BAM!! With the assistance of will.I.am, we go back to balladry. Photographs is a song about a past boyfriend who has betrayed her. Again pretty, again dark. Can someone get this razor out of my arm's reach? I am afraid of how it's looking at this point. G4L starts off with "I lick the gun when I'm done cuz I know that revenge is so sweet". This one is getting hardcore, complete with phrases like "gangsta for life" (get it? G4L?) and freely using the "n" word. A statement is being made here people!! It's hitting us over the head. This cd may kill you!! ON the upside, G4L is one other uptempo track, so you can dance, very angrily, to this one. Te Amo is a latin (duh) sounding track that really doesn't add to this disc at all as far as I'm concerned. Not dark enough to fit and not good enough to bring you anywhere else. Throw away. Cold Case Love...... ballad, dark, blah blah blah. Honestly at this point is doesn't matter so much how good the music is, you have to change things up a bit unless you are making a record that is SUPPOSED to depress you. This song IS good, by the way, but if you make it this far in one sitting, you will be wiped out. I am. The last song on the album, aptly titled The Last Song, is not going to lift your spirits. Trust me. Dark, moody, guitar and piano driven, the lyrics are about the last song you'll ever here. Way to cheer us up there at the end, RiRi!! Now, all this being said, there is some fine work here and a lot of great music, but when you have an entire album full of ominous chords and morose lyrics, it will take its toll on the listener. Taken one at a time, I think a lot of these songs have hit potential, but you should really only listen to the whole cd at once if you are mad at someone, or yourself, and you want to be angry for a while. Buy it, but don't put it on at a party.
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