FEATURE:
Diamonds
Ranking Rihanna’s Eight Studio Albums
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WITH talk that there is…
PHOTO CREDIT: Instagram/Fenty Beauty
a ninth studio album could be coming from Rihanna very soon, I have been looking through her albums and hearing how she has changed and progressed through the years. The Guardian recently marked potential album news with a ranking of her singles. I am taking a different direction as I am placing the studio albums. I think that Rihanna is one of the greatest modern R&B/Pop artists - many of her albums remain underrated and under-played. From 2005’s Music of the Sun through to her most recent release, Anti, of 2016, I am deciding which are the ultimate Rihanna albums. I don’t think that the Barbados-born superstar has released a poor or average album, so it is hard deciding which are going to be in the lower placings – that is the challenge I have set myself. If you are a big fan of Rihanna or coming to her new, you might have your own say regarding the albums and which should be where. In each case, I am picking the key tracks from each album, where you can stream the album, which track is best, plus a sample review. Here are my placings of the albums of a modern-day Pop icon who remains…
PHOTO CREDIT: Craig McDean for The New York Times Style Magazine
SO loved and influential.
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8. A Girl Like Me
Release Date: 10th April, 2006
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: The Conglomerate/Don Corleon/Mike City/Poke and Tone/Jonathan ‘J.R.’ Rotem/Evan Rogers/Stargate/Carl Sturken
Standout Tracks: SOS/We Ride/Break It Off (with Sean Paul)
Review:
“Hip-hop and mall rock have all but replaced dance pop on American airwaves, but every once in a while a Euro-style club mash-up breaks through. Barbados-born emigre Rihanna's huge dancehall pop hit last year, "Pon De Replay," was savvy and sexy, and her new smash, "SOS," is even more so. Singing a snaky Destiny's Child-like melody around synth riffs and machine beats from Soft Cell's Eighties classic "Tainted Love," Rihanna proves America still appreciates clever pop when it hears it. Like her filler-packed debut album, this similar but superior follow-up doesn't deliver anything else as ingenious as its lead single: Lightweight dancehall and R&B; jams lack the single's ear-bending boldness. But the burning rock guitar of "Kisses Don't Lie" and haunted strings of "Unfaithful" help make A Girl Like Me much more likable” – Rolling Stone
Key Cut: Unfaithful
7. Music of the Sun
Release Date: 29th August, 2005
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: Dernst Emile/Full Force/Vada Nobles/Poke and Tone/Evan Rogers/Stargate/Carl Sturken
Standout Tracks: If It's Lovin' that You Want/You Don't Love Me (No, No, No) (ft. Vybz Kartel)/Music of the Sun
Review:
“Given the proliferation of young and beautiful urban dance-pop divas dominating the radio and music video airwaves in 2005, it initially was tempting to discount Rihanna as yet another Beyoncé-Ciara-Ashanti cash-in. But like her Def Jam labelmate Teairra Mari -- another young and beautiful urban dance-pop diva who emerged out of nowhere in 2005 -- Rihanna is winsome rather than wannabe, thanks in no small part to her producers. Just as Teairra Mari benefited greatly from irresistibly shrewd beat-making on her debut album, Rihanna benefits from the knowing production work of Syndicated Rhythm Productions, aka Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, who together produced a laundry list of contemporary teen pop sensations during the prior decade. What these guys do that's so irresistibly shrewd is synthesize Caribbean rhythms and beats with standard-issue urban dance-pop: Caribbean-inflected urban, if you will. So while a song like "Pon de Replay" -- to pick the most obvious exhibit -- is driven by booming dancehall-lite beats and a reggae vocal cadence (and title spelling), it's a simple dance-pop song at its core, with standard English-language singing as well as a can't-miss singalong hook (and a glitzy, urban-style MTV video to boot). The best songs on Music of the Sun follow this appealing template, including the similarly catchy few songs that follow the aforementioned album-opening smash hit: "Here I Go Again," "If It's Lovin' That You Want," and "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)." As with most albums of this ilk, Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end of its 13-song run and concludes on a fun note, with a remix of "Pon de Replay" featuring Elephant Man. The result is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year (and one of the most infectious summer jams, for sure), as well as a nice Caribbean primer for those not ready or willing to jump on the increasingly trendy dancehall and reggaeton bandwagons concurrently sweeping through America's more fashionable cities” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Pon De Replay
6. Loud
Release Date: 12th November, 2010
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: Alex da Kid/C. ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Ester Dean/Mel & Mus/Polow da Don/The Runners/Sandy Vee/Sham/Soundz/Stargate
Standout Tracks: S&M/What's My Name? (ft. Drake)/Man Down
Review:
“After releasing five albums in as many years, the singer is closer than ever to becoming the complete pop package Jay-Z envisioned when he signed her the same day she walked into Def Jam during his tenure as president. Though gifted with runway-ready looks, Rihanna has improved in other areas through sheer perseverance. Her voice-- once fragile and shrill-- is now robust enough to take on songs like the delightfully Eurotrash pounder "Only Girl (In the World)" not only on record but at high profile awards-show performances. Her semi-scripted dance moves are sultry and spontaneous. She can be kinda funny (or at least genuinely excitable) in interviews. She'll never be as boldly talented as Beyoncé or freakishly engaging as Gaga, but there's still charm to be found in her (relatively) everyday affability. She recently said Loud was the first album she wasn't nervous about releasing, which makes a lot of sense. She's worked hard to get to this point.
If anything, the record sounds too easy at times. "California King Bed" is a "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"-type power ballad genetically engineered to soundtrack a bi-coastal Kate Hudson rom-com. "Raining Men" is a shameless Beyoncé rip-off that would be quickly dismissed if not for the fact that it's a pretty-damn-good Beyoncé rip off with a characteristically scene-stealing guest verse from Nicki Minaj. Meanwhile, "Fading" copies Rihanna's own lightweight R&B formula so much it's redundant.
On the flip, "Man Down" takes her violent side to its logical conclusion as it finds her on the run after killing a poor guy dead, its reggae bounce matching perfectly with Rihanna's mesmerizing cadence. And "Skin" is her sexiest song yet, a haunted, near-dubstep stunner that wouldn't sound totally out of place on Massive Attack's Mezzanine. Her laissez-faire attitude toward hit-making on Loud can result in too-safe moves or semi-experiments that come off surprisingly great, but, at this rate, by the time she runs out of singles from this record there will be another one ready to go. More than a stocking stuffer but less than an idol, Rihanna has grown into one of the most reliable pop stars we've got” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Only Girl (In the World)
5. Good Girl Gone Bad
Release Date: 31st May, 2007
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: Carl Sturken/Evan Rogers/Neo Da Matrix/J.R. Rotem/Stargate/Christopher ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Shea Taylor/Timbaland
Standout Tracks: Don’t Stop the Music/Shut Up and Drive/Rehab
Review:
“The difference is, Rihanna’s now got three albums under her sequined belt, and her latest, Good Girl Gone Bad, finds the Barbadian singer perfecting the formula she’s been working out publicly over the last 18 months. In other words, she’s finally figured out that she’s a dance artist and the majority of the album is comprised of uptempo dance-pop numbers in the vein of her biggest hit “SOS.” “Don’t Stop The Music” is most closely related to that 2006 smash, a track that borrows heavily from a song that itself borrowed heavily from something else (this time it’s Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” which took its “Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa” refrain from Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makoosa”). The ‘80s is also the jumping off point for “Push Up On Me,” which draws on freestyle and post-disco Moroder for its concoction of “Planet Rock” laser beams and “Flashdance” synths.
That Good Girl is being led instead by the more urban “Umbrella,” which features Jay-Z, speaks to Def Jam’s desire to maintain Rihanna’s R&B status. That the song is just plain good, regardless of genre, proves that Jay and Rihanna, who’s already scored hits across several formats with a string of singles that couldn’t be more different from each other, are dedicated to producing quality hits—however frivolous they may be. This time around, the ballads are better suited to Rihanna’s limited vocal talents and age than the more adult-skewed material of her first two releases. It’s just too bad that Ne-Yo, who co-wrote and produced three tracks here, keeps writing the same two songs over and over: Unlike the cat-being-skinned-alive “Unfaithful,” “Hate That I Love You” and the title track maximize Rihanna’s range, and both could be formidable hits, but they’re lazy carbon copies of “So Sick” and “Irreplaceable,” respectively. (Not to be outdone, Timbaland, also a producer on the album, is quickly proving himself to be a repeat offender too.)
Lyrics are once again an Achilles’ high heel for Rihanna—something that should be a non-issue considering her contributions are minimal. When I first heard “Rehab,” I joked that it wasn’t any worse than a Justin Timberlake track. And then I found out he wrote it. Aside from the fact that nobody should even try to write a song called “Rehab” so closely following Amy Winehouse’s, the track is further evidence that JT is better off penning lyrics about sexy backs or dicks in boxes. Good Girl might have the most consistently hilarious song titles of the year (“Breakin’ Dishes,” “Shut Up And Drive,” “Sell Me Candy,” just to name a few), but the songs themselves just don’t live up to their campy names. Good Girl Gone Bad is far from a great album, but it guarantees Rihanna, who’s unequivocally a singles artist, at least a few more shiny hits to tuck under her belt” – SLANT
Key Cut: Umbrella (ft. JAY-Z)
4. Talk That Talk
Release Date: 18th November, 2011
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: Alex da Kid/Mr. Bangladesh/Calvin Harris/Chase & Status/Cirkut/Da Internz/Dr. Luke/Ester Dean/Gareth McGrillen/Hit-Boy/No I.D./Rob Swire/Stargate/The-Dream
Standout Tracks: Where Have You Been/Talk That Talk (ft. Jay-Z)/Birthday Cake
Review:
“Rihanna's sixth album is a blast of obnoxious, filth-fuelled pop. Coming only a year after Loud, everything has been turned up, then up again, from its steroidal Ibiza synths to the smutty innuendo – clearly she's decided that S&M's whips and chains were a little on the tame side. So there are exhortations to eat her cake (she doesn't mean cake!) and to lick her persuasion (she doesn't mean persuasion!), although sometimes the metaphors disappear with a laughable shrug, as on Birthday Cake: "Ooh, I want to fuck you right now." It works best when the music hall bawdiness is left aside in favour of bleak euphoria, of which there's plenty – the xx-sampling Drunk on Love and the absurdly banging Where Have You Been are particularly fiery, and show exactly why she's at the top of the pop game” – The Guardian
Key Cut: We Found Love (ft. Calvin Harris)
3. Unapologetic
Release Date: 19th November, 2012
Labels: Def Jam/Roc Nation/SRP
Producers: Benny Blanco/Brian Kennedy/Carlos McKinney/Chase & Status/David Guetta/Elof Loelv/Flippa123/Future/Giorgio Tuinfort/Justin Parker/Labrinth/Luney Tunez/Mex Menny/Mike Will Made-It/Mikey Mike/Mikky Ekko/Naughty Boy/Nicky Romero/No I.D./Oak/Parker/ Ighile/Andrew ‘Pop’ Wansel/Stargate/Terius ‘The-Dream’ Nash
Standout Tracks: Pour It Up/Jump/Stay (ft. Mikky Ekko)
Review:
“And so, Unapologetic rolls out with the grimy neck-snapper “Phresh Out the Runway” then gets to the radio killers — the stately Sia-assisted single “Diamonds” and chilly, Eminem-featuring “Numb.” Riri and Slim’s previous smash team-up “Love the Way You Lie” probed the impact of domestic abuse; this one features the line, “I’m the butt police, and I’m looking at your rear rear rear.”
Elsewhere, Rihanna sings about her unapologetic love of money (the moody, murky “Pour It Up”), her unapologetic love of love (slow-jam “Loveeeee Song,” featuring a gushy, Auto-Tune-warbling Future), her unapologetic love of living in the moment (winning David Guetta thumper “Right Now”), and most controversially, her unapologetic love of Chris Brown. Her onetime beau pops up on the record’s most gleeful groove, “Nobody’s Business,” a breezy throwback that interpolates Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.”
That the duo decided to inject their obstinate anthem with music by a man who was the victim of, and accused perpetrator of, physical abuse during his tormented 50 years on Earth is almost too much to unpack. But emotional baggage has become the key instrument in Rihanna’s arsenal, right next to her flat, thin, nimble, expressionless voice. As hard as Unapologetic tries to cast Riri as a Beyoncé-like balladeer on the dramatic “What Now” and “Stay,” the younger star’s vocals will never have the curvy fullness of her mentor Jay-Z’s wife. She isn’t a full-bodied diva; she’s a pointy provocateur. Her voice’s unadorned nakedness is its greatest strength. She can slither over a grinder like “Jump” (shout-out to Ginuwine’s “My Pony”), or perk up her patois for a reggae tune like “No Love Allowed.”
The now-24-year-old’s voice may be simple, but it’s distinctive — and as defiant as her album titles. “What’s love without tragedy?” she demands on the excellent, “Message in a Bottle”-esque “Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary” as Unapologetic winds down, sounding at once like a petulant teen and a world-weary woman. Everyone profiting off her ultra-successful career — including Rihanna herself — doesn’t seem to want to find out. Especially when going bad has been such good business” – SPIN
Key Cut: Diamonds
2. Rated R
Release Date: 20th November, 2009
Labels: Def Jam/SRP
Producers: Chase & Status/Terius ‘The-Dream’ Nash/Chuck Harmony/Brian Kennedy/Stargate/C. ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Rob Swire/will.i.am/The Y's
Standout Tracks: Hard (ft. Jeezy)/Russian Roulette/Cold Case Love
Review:
“The cover of the new Rihanna album features a severe black-and-white head shot of the star. She has her hand clapped over her right eye; her left eye, surrounded by a raccoon ring of mascara, glares back at the viewer. The context here is no secret: It is impossible to look at those eyes without remembering the images of Rihanna’s bruised face in the aftermath of her beating in February by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. Until recently, the singer has been quiet about the incident. Songs like “Russian Roulette” — a domestic-violence victim’s confession whipped into soaring melodrama — tell us why: She was busy saying her piece in the studio.
If by some accident of fate, or maybe record-company cynicism, the new Chris Brown album has arrived at the same moment as his ex’s. The resultstempt a reviewer to talk in terms of moral victories, but the real triumphhere is artistic. Chris Brown has made a bland, occasionally obnoxious, proforma R&B album. Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year.
Brown mostly ignores the elephant in the room, churning out punchy dance-pop songs full of club-ready beats and Casanova gestures. He gloats about “the cars and the girls and the cribs.” He promises ecstasy (“Gonnamake you bloom like a flower,” he tells the girl in “Take My Time”). There are also lost-love ballads, delivered by Brown in his nasal wisp of a singing voice. But as unfair as it sounds, the Rihanna incident has made it impossible to hear him in the same way; the sweetness that animated songs like 2008’s “Forever” is now a hard sell.
With Rihanna, singing has never been in doubt. The question has always been personality: Is there a flesh-and-blood woman lurking beneath the big voice and model looks? On Rated R, she answers the question emphatically. There are a couple of engaging up tempo tunes. (The Star Gate-produced “Rude Boy”is smutty fun, with a Caribbean bounce.) But this is an album with a grim theme: love gone horribly wrong. “What you did to me was a crime,” Rihanna sings in the slow-boiling “Cold Case Love.” Elsewhere, she is bent on vengeance. “I lick the gun when I’m done,” she cries in “G4L,” “because I know that revenge is sweet.” The songs are etched in somber shades and minor chords, with Rihanna belting over synths and booming beats. The results are a musical match for the black-on-black CD cover — goth R&B.
No single song approaches the grandeur of Rihanna’s 2007 megahit,”Umbrella.” But even the most sprawling power ballads here have an intimatequality. In the plaintive “Stupid in Love,” Rihanna turns the blame inward.”My new nickname is ‘You Idiot’ . . . /That’s what my friends are calling mewhen they see me yelling into my phone.” Such introspection is evidently beyond Brown. On “Lucky Me,” he turns his troubles into an occasion for self-congratulation: “Even when my world’s falling down/I still wear a smile.” A simple sorry might have made a better song – or at least made Brown a better guy” – Rolling Stone
Key Cut: Rude Boy
1. ANTI
Release Date: 28th January, 2016
Labels: Westbury Road/Roc Nation
Producers: Boi-1da/Brian Kennedy/Chad Sabo/Daniel Jones/DJ Mustard/Fade Majah/Fred Ball/Hit-Boy/Jeff Bhasker/Kevin Parker/Mick Schultz/Mitus/No I.D./Robert Shea Taylor/Scum/Timbaland
Standout Tracks: Kiss It Better/Desperado/Love on the Brain
Review:
“Anti existed as an album cycle before it existed as an album -- arguably long before Rihanna knew what form her eighth album would take, either. Work on Anti began in the autumn of 2014 and proceeded in semi-public, progress being measured in Instagram posts and tweets, along with intermittent singles, each released to white-hot anticipation but none metamorphosing into massive hits. When Anti finally appeared in January 2016 -- three years after Unapologetic and months later than expected -- it bore none of these 2015 singles, a move that suggests a tacit acknowledgment that neither the curiously muted Kanye West and Paul McCartney collaboration "FourFiveSeconds" nor the unrestrained roar of "Bitch Better Have My Money" functioned as appropriate anchors for the album. Then again, neither would've felt at home on the cloistered Anti, the first of Rihanna's records to feel constructed as a front-to-back album. Such a sustained sensibility distinguishes Anti from its predecessors, records where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts. That's not the case with Anti. This is an album whose heart lies within its deep cuts. Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it's a subdued, simmering affair, its songs subtly shaded yet interlocked to create a vibe caught halfway between heartbreak and ennui. The latter has always been a specialty of Rihanna -- her distance from her material was at once appealing and alienating -- so hearing her lean into "Love on the Brain" and "Higher" is something of a revelation: her voice is hoarse and ravaged, yet she's also controlled and precise, knowing how to hone these imperfections so her performance echoes classic soul while feeling fresh. These songs come at the end of the album, after a series of songs that drift and wonder, the sound of an artist trying to figure out not only what her album is but who she is. By the end of Anti, Rihanna may not arrive at any definitive conclusions about her art but she's allowed herself to be unguarded and anti-commercial, resulting in her most compelling record to date” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Work (ft Drake)