Spyke
So over the next few months I'm going to be reviewing each of Rihanna's albums. I can't think of another artist in my lifetime that has had such a speedy and successful output of music. Since 2005 we've received a new album (or re-release) every year! Becoming the youngest artist to score 10 US #1s and 5 UK #1s in consecutive years she has certainly come a long way since her debut. So I'll be reviewing the singles, misfires, missed hits and all.
The Singles
Rather surprisingly at this point I was really not a Rihanna fan; I thought that Pon De Replay was easily one of the worst singles of the year, with If It's Lovin' That You Want not far behind. There was just nothing in these early singles to convince me that she was anything but the latest in the string of Christina Milan, Ciara and Amerie's that were attempting to hit the chart. Incidentally two of the names in that list probably blame/resent Rihanna to some extent for their failed careers. (See the S&M video for some Ciara fan abuse and next month's feature to see which of the others turned down the wrong song - a bigger mistake than Leona saying 'No' to Halo!).
However it would appear that not everyone had the same opinion of the songs at the time as I did. Pon De Replay turned out to be quite the successful debut, hitting #2 in both the US and the UK. With Jay Z on board at this early stage he wasn't just going to continue to try and delve into this album which would have been completely dead in the water had they tried to get a third single out of it. If It's Lovin' That You Want proved a nice track to follow up the debut whilst Rihanna went straight back to the studio to work on finding another hit.
Highlights
Despite there not being a third single there is definitely one song on the album that holds a place in Rihanna's heart. Actually appearing on the set list for her most recent Loud tour, Let Me takes preference over the two singles from this album and even SOS! Listening to the studio version you may wonder why, but when performed live the song really takes on a life of its own. Below I have included the live version from the GGGB tour (which appears on the dvd Oli bought me for my 20th birthday!).
Overall
When Man Down was announced as a single, many critics referred to it as Rihanna returning to her Barbadian roots for the first time since her debut. There are essences of the track that would fit very well with this; but it does have tenfold the amount of production and finish of any of the album. Then again Man Down took 9 minutes to write and over a million dollars to market so you can see we're playing a very different ball game 6 years down the line. This album is filled with average to mediocre songs which aren't delivered with any of the swagger, passion and confidence that we see in every Rihanna performance now. I didn't like Rihanna at this point and for me Let Me is the only thing saving the entire project so for that I'm going to give this album...
Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
4/10
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