Although the career of nineteen-year-old Rihanna performing mainly R&B and pop started only two years ago, there is hardly a person in the world who has not heard at least two of her songs – like for example top hits SOS and Unfaithful. After the debut record Music Of The Sun (August 2005) and sophomore effort A Girl Like Me (April 2006), it became clear that Rihanna had set her mind to conquer the world R&B scene and evidently her plans are to be crowned with success. Many are convinced that the young star is at the back of the pack with Beyonce, and her being signed to Jay-Z's Def Jam Record only confirms this opinion. Whether it is true or not, Rihanna is not wasting time and keeps on working in the given tempo: it's only a year after her last album, and she releases a new material again, with a name that speaks for itself, Good Girl Gone Bad. Recorded with the participation of Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and of course Jay-Z the album demonstrates the singer's desire to sound more provocative and defiant and has already become a candidate for the best R&B and pop album of the year.
The main change of Rihanna's style is from slow reflective compositions towards danceable mid-tempo and up-tempo songs, which are at the same time sensual and deeply heartfelt. Rihanna experiments with the sound throughout the album expanding the style limits to reggae, soul and even rock. The first single off the album Umbrella performed with Jay-Z is the opening track here which leaves in the past all the previous works and presents the new Rihanna. Uptempo composition Push Up On Me is not devoid of techno elements and infects with its amazing beat, as well as the following Don't Stop The Music, a danceable track. A song which many will consider a real masterpiece is called Breakin' Dishes – it has all the merits to become a single, that is witty lyrics, great arrangement with a flavour of rock and a catchy melody. The actual second single Shut Up And Drive does deserve to be one – another up-tempo rock song with Rihanna's powerful vocals. Naturally no good album can do without ballads: Ne-Yo joins the singer on a beautiful love song Hate That I Love You, while Say It finds her reflecting on life and relations. One of the most sensual numbers is slow R&B compositions Sell Me Candy, and Rehab, featuring Justin Timberlake, surprises with the depth of thought and power of feeling expressed in it. The album closes with the title song, whose message is meant for all women of the world, leaving you with the feeling of elation and a pleasant exhaustion.
No matter how much time has passed since we last heard from Rihanna every time she offers something new and more mature. The same goes about Good Girl Gone Bad. Yet the difference between the first two albums was not that evident and striking as that between this one and the others. Being so young the girl demonstrates remarkable wisdom and concern about the role of women in the modern world and the power of men which she neither accepts nor believes it sensible to be accepted. On every single track she expresses a special idea, all of which united form a certain atmosphere of the album – that of firmness, decisiveness women's solidarity. Good Girl Gone Bad is as if telling: Rihanna is not a girl to treat badly and at the same time she can be soft, gentle and sensual. Yet the record's merits are not connected solely with lyrics but also with the great production and the singer's command of her vocals, due to which Good Girl Gone Bad is sure to become irreplaceable on the dance floors this summer. And Rihanna's obvious professional growth and stylistic variety of the new album only strengthen her hand and make competition with Beyonce more construcrive.
Talk That Talk
Loud
Rated R
Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
A Girl Like Me
Music Of The Sun
Seventeen Days 2005
Away From the Sun's Southern rock flourishes have been broadened to create an album that's purely American, built from meaty power chords and everyman lyrics that search for redemption in plain-faced terms.
