Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad
Once you get over the Ne-yo shaped hump in the middle of the album there is still plenty to admire. I can't help wishing her people had been blessed with the foresight of how successful 'Umbrella' would be and to have given us a whole album in the same vein as Madonna gave us Confessions... one unending beat after the other. As it stands the opening hits u with full force and tapers of towards the end with some quite quirky tracks, about looking in the mirror 'Questions existing' and buying furniture 'Lemme get that'. She pulls off this pop quirkiness quite well though, with two of her best tracks being abut throwing dishes at a man and loving her umbrella, needless to say shes done good.
This weekend looks set to end Rihanna's run as the UK number one with 'Umbrella' the first single to be taken from this album. If i was marketing her id have 'Don't Stop the Music' all ready to hit the shops tomorrow. Cos with a little help from a Michael Jackson sample she could make it another 8 weeks at the top and prove herself the star of the summer- as if shes not already.
On first, listen the sixth track 'Hate that I love you' looks like it heralds the dying fall of the album- although this duet with Ne-yo just screams 'huge in America'. Recently though even this track is growing on me. Rumours abound that she will pull a Miss Furtado style releasing of different tracks in different locales. so hopefully we wont ever have to see this on the singles chart.
There's a run of single worthy tracks to open the album, 'Breakin' Dishes' and 'Don't stop the music' are both better than rumoured next single 'shut up and drive.' But I like this track too its just not quite Rihanna enough for me, although she flaunts that killer hair in her video. I don't like the last section of the video where she rocks out. Its far too contrived a la Beyonce's whole last album to be a crossover with rockier fans.
Once you get over the Ne-yo shaped hump in the middle of the album there is still plenty to admire. I can't help wishing her people had been blessed with the foresight of how successful 'Umbrella' would be and to have given us a whole album in the same vein as Madonna gave us Confessions... one unending beat after the other. As it stands the opening hits u with full force and tapers of towards the end with some quite quirky tracks, about looking in the mirror 'Questions existing' and buying furniture 'Lemme get that'. She pulls off this pop quirkiness quite well though, with two of her best tracks being abut throwing dishes at a man and loving her umbrella, needless to say shes done good.
If she plays it like Nelly she'll still be flogging this album this time next summer and deservedly so. One final note of concern...
Its nice to have a popstar not miming and both singing live and dancing, however judging by her Live earth Tokyo performance she's got to the top of her game a little to fast and she could really do with improving her live performances, her backing singers carry her far to much. Her good material can only go so far.
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