Once A Good Girl Goes Bad…She Makes Rated R
album review, black eyed peas, disturbia, playing russian roulette, rated r, rihanna, singer songwriter, young jeezy
Backstage, Music
On November 20, 2009 singer-songwriter Rihanna released her fourth studio album, Rated R. Due to the fact that this album, is the first release since the highly successful Good Girl Gone Bad, it was highly anticipated. And in my opinion, Rihanna did not disappoint. The album is darker than Good Girl Gone Bad…picture Disturbia times thirteen without pop beats. On this album, Rihanna seemed to push herself more towards Rock music with a touch of Hip-hop and she definitely channeled her inner hood diva.
The album begins with the intro, “Mad House” which reminds me of the intro on Michael Jackson’s Thriller. This song puts you in an edgy mood and you immediately know Rihanna is no longer the sweet sixteen year old from Barbados. Rihanna then takes us on a journey through “Wait Your Turn”, and tells us she pitches with a grenade. Next up is “Hard” featuring Young Jeezy. This song showcases Rihanna channeling that inner hood diva, and she seems to swagger through the song instead of singing. This track is definitely hard in my opinion, and Jeezy is the completion of a swaggerific track.
For the fourth song, Rihanna slows it down with “Stupid In Love”. At first, I didn’t like this song, because of its repetitive nature. However, after hearing it several times, I realized that the repetition is done on purpose to emphasis the word stupid and how sometimes things that happen in relationships that seem stupidly repetitive but you continue to endure it, because, you’re in love.
Rihanna goes onto “Rockstar 101″ where she tells us the only thing she’s missing is a black guitar. This song is a nice mixture of rockstar headbanging and awesome guitar playing. “Russian Roulette” takes us back to Rihanna’s dark side & makes you hope Rihanna really doesn’t pull the trigger. “Firebomb” reminds me of a indie European rock song, and I love it!
“Photographs” features will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas, and the song sounds like a Rihanna song and a Black Eyed Peas song all-in-one. And surprisingly, it works. Both of them deliver on this track. “G4L” shows that chicks can be gangstas too, and for life. “Te Amo” is a cool song, it’s still not my favorite but I do like it. “Cold Case Love” is Justin Timberlake at his best. Justin produced this track and he really led Rihanna in the right direction with this one. The beat is sick and Rihanna sounds hot on it. The last song, is amply named “The Last Song” and is an amazing ending for the album. At first, I thought the title was stupid so it was hard for me to take the song seriously. However, Rihanna kills it on this track and it was an excellent way to end the album. Overall, I give Rihanna’s Rated R an A plus.
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