Rihanna Unapologetic Cd

[Geralyn]

Towardthe end of her turgid seventh album, Unapologetic, Rihanna sings a grim rhetorical: "What's love without tragedy?" But the real question that she and her songwriters seem to be posing on Unapologetic is, "Who is Rihanna without Chris Brown?" The album is designed to engage our perception of Rihanna the Pop Star and Rihanna the Victim, and the source of its fascination is the dissonance between the two. Its narrative, about a woman's miserable obsession with a man we know to be her abuser, flouts expectation of the traditional survivor's tale; we want to see a woman learn from that pain and leave it, not rut in it.

It was already difficult to separate Rihanna the pop icon, whom we think we know from her glamorous image and her songs, from the "real" Rihanna, whom we think know from the bruised "Robyn F." of her 2009 LAPD police report. Unapologetic courts this confusion. We see the singer as self-possessed ("Good Girl Gone Bad"), a superstar isolated by her fame ("A Girl Like Me") who is full of sexual brio ("Rude Boy"). This constructed image of power doesn't jibe with her purported rekindling with Chris Brown, who is most notable for Top 40 R&B diarrheatics, a decent MJ impression, and, infamously, beating the living shit out of Rihanna.

Much has been made of the couple's duet, "Nobody's Business", which is, unfortunately, one of Unapologetic's high points. They pledge their eternal fealty, suck face in a Lexus, and let the world know that the love between them ain't nobody's business but theirs. MYOB is a tall order when your boyfriend once had to do an apology tour that included a stop on "Larry King Live" with his mom. The song's upbeat tempo makes it a shoe-in single with cross-platform playlists in its sights; she wants everyone to get the memo. But ultimately, it's a bubbly pop tune that conjures up historical memory of women defending men who have hurt them.

The rest of the album is a synth-pop slog that plays like the companion piece of Nan Goldin's "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency". She's frozen in a relationship with a bad person and tangled in a toxic situation that feels out of her control (SOUNDS FUN, RIRI!)-- themes that are mirrored in Unapologetic's surplus of minor-key treacle. The perfunctory Ibiza thump of "Right Now" reflects badly on both her and producer David Guetta while "Fresh Off the Runway" is capitalist braggadocio (nonsense grade) so static it borders on unmusical. The Auto-Tune on Future's "Loveeeeeee Song" feature calls to a mind a dog vomiting while Rihanna, in turn, sounds like she's been roused from a medicated slumber.

Rihanna's stature has been built on undeniable singles like "We Found Love" and "The Only Girl in the World", but tracks of this caliber are nowhere to be found. Lead single "Diamonds" mixes simile, clich, and metaphor, serving as a potent reminder that someone thought this was the best the album had to offer. O est ma "Umbrella"? On "Pour It Up", she sounds alternately robotic and narcotized as she sings about how she's so rich she can pay for a $100 valet service and a night at the strip club and doesn't need friends. Plaintive piano ballad "Stay" is Rihanna inhabiting the post-Florence pop landscape, all chiaroscuro and natural voice. It is pretty.

It's difficult to understand why Rihanna expects her fans to hang in this dark space with her (and Chris Brown). The album is unapologetic but it's also airless, nearly hookless, and exudes a deep melancholy. Given these qualities, it's hard not to wonder where else the album might have gone. Would it fare better if the topics were the same, but set to songs as combustible as "Don't Stop the Music"? If her pain and shame and can't-quit-you-babe motif was delivered with some humor? If she kept her personal drama to herself and sang about rolling fat joints on her bodyguard's head and did more duetting with the dude from Coldplay?

On one hand, it's tempting to give Rihanna props for broadcasting her all-too-real shortcomings. She's quite a distance from the tidy narrative we'd like, the one where she's learned from her pain and is back to doing diva triumph club stomp in the shadow of Beyonc. Unapologetic rubs our faces in the inconvenient, messy truth of Rihanna's life which, even if it were done well, would be hard to celebrate as a success. But the measurable failure is the album's music. On a track-by-track basis, the songs make for dull labor, not worth our time and not befitting Rihanna's talent.

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Unapologetic received generally mixed reviews from critics, with some reviewers describing its music as interesting, while others criticized its weak lyrical content and rushed nature. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2014 ceremony, while "Stay" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 238,000 copies, becoming Rihanna's first number one album on the chart and best-selling debut week of her career. The album also became the singer's third, fourth, and fifth consecutive number one album in the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland, respectively. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), it was the ninth global best-selling album of 2012 with sales of 2.3 million copies.[5] As of December 2014, Unapologetic has sold over four million copies worldwide.

The album produced six singles including the international hits "Diamonds" and "Stay". The former peaked at number one on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 where it became Rihanna's twelfth number one song, tying her with Madonna and the Supremes for fourth most number one songs in the history of the chart. Prior to its release, Rihanna promoted the album with the 777 Tour which consisted of a seven-date promotional tour in which she performed seven concerts each in a different city in North America and Europe in seven days. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her fourth worldwide concert tour, entitled the Diamonds World Tour.

In November 2011, Rihanna released her sixth studio album Talk That Talk. The album was rooted in pop, dance and R&B but also incorporated a variety of other musical genres such as hip hop, electro house, dancehall, and dubstep, a genre which was prominent on her fourth studio album Rated R (2009).[6] Talk That Talk received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics upon its release.[7] It was a commercial success and reached the top ten in over twenty national charts, including number one on the UK Albums Chart[8] and number three on the US Billboard 200.[9] The album produced six singles including the worldwide hits "We Found Love" and "Where Have You Been". "We Found Love" topped the charts in over 25 countries and sold over 9 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.[citation needed] In March 2012, Rihanna revealed that although she had not yet begun recording, she started "working on the new sound" for her seventh studio album.[10]

On 20 June 2012, Rihanna began recording her seventh studio album, working with Nicky Romero and Burns.[11] Rihanna and Burns booked three days in a studio in London while Rihanna was performing at Radio 1's Hackney Weekend.[12] It was also confirmed that Rihanna worked with Eric Bellinger, Sean Garrett, and Swedish House Mafia for her seventh album.[13] On 6 July 2012, Def Jam executive No I.D. revealed that he had begun working with Rihanna on the album saying "I'm going in next week for about a week".[14] On 10 July 2012, British singer and producer Labrinth revealed to Capital FM that he had been working with Rihanna on the album.[15]On 17 July 2012, it was reported that Rihanna would be working with R&B singer Ne-Yo and N-Dubz member Fazer. In an interview with Capital FM Ne-Yo spoke on working with Rihanna on the album saying: "I just recently went in to do some stuff for Rihanna, you know. She's the hardest working woman in showbiz right now. She's in the process of putting together a new album as we speak, I got in with Stargate and David Guetta and a few other people for that project.[16]

Sean Garrett confirmed in July 2012 that he had been in the studio with French DJ David Guetta working on Rihanna's album saying: "I was in the studio with David doing some stuff for Rihanna recently. He finds inspiration in the things I don't like, and I get excited by the things he doesn't like. He wants to be more urban and I want to be more international, so we push each other, I try to help Rihanna. She works hard and it's cool to write for someone who is so open-minded."[17] On 21 August 2012, American songwriter Claude Kelly said that he had been writing songs for Rihanna while she was performing in London. Kelly spoke on the songs that he had written for Rihanna saying: "Rihanna's a worldwide superstar at this point and she's performing in stadiums and arenas now, so I wanted songs that reflected her audience, when I was in London she was performing at a festival in front of like 30,000 to 40,000 people. So I didn't want small songs that only worked on radio, so I tried to do anthemic big stadium-themed songs."[18]

On 16 August 2012, British R&B singer-songwriter Angel stated that he had been writing for Rihanna's album. He said: "I love writing songs and it's good to pitch tracks to other artists. A couple of weeks ago I was doing some writing for Rihanna".[19] In September 2012, Ne-Yo confirmed his involvement the album saying "I did go in the studio with her, I know I got one or two on the album that she's definitely keeping."[20]

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