After keeping quiet in the aftermath of her relationship crisis earlier this year, it is clear that Barbadian pop star Rihanna has saved her two cents for the release of Rated R, in which she finally channels her long-awaited revenge.
Rated R, Rihanna’s fourth album, was released Nov. 23, and is understandably her testament to the domestic abuse she faced from ex-boyfriend, rapper Chris Brown. The self-proclaimed “Good Girl Gone Bad” stepped into Hollywood as a naive teenager with a pretty smile, and has emerged as a jaded woman with a fierce sound and a story to tell. Rihanna has abandoned her faceless party anthems in lieu of blood-thirsty ballads etched with somber chords and dire personal accounts.
The entire album contains grim motifs of violence, pain, hatred and cheating. Her songs are a passive aggressive way of fighting back. Tracks like “G4L” in which she sings “I lick the gun when I’m done/cause I know revenge is sweet” channel her antagonism towards the situation. She is not so quick to just blame Brown though. In the plaintive “Stupid in Love,” Rihanna plunges into a confession and brands herself an idiot, as she recounts her stupidity for falling for a man who “screams and cheats.”
Rihanna’s vocal maturity is as apparent as her personal cultivation in Rated R. She rounds the notes with a denoted confidence and her voice is tinged with a newly-found power.
Though it is vocally unappealing, due to a dysfunctional symphony of pianos, violins and synthesizers, “Cold Case Love” is a track that embodies the album’s principle theme of love gone awry. As Rihanna sings, “I’m torn apart/And you know/What you did to me was a crime” the listener gets an unobstructed view into Rihanna’s pain. In tracks like these, it is clear that Rihanna is personally calling Brown out.
Rihanna refuses to let her guard down, even on her slower tracks. In “Fire Bomb,” where she is surrounded by an electric guitar, Rihanna chants over the soft melody, “Can’t wait to see your face/when your front windows break/and I come crashing through.”
Although her style has undergone a dark transition, Rihanna does not completely retire her party song pedigree. She steps up her sass in “Rude Boy,” an infectious girl power anthem with a Caribbean flair and “Hard,” a brazen track featuring Young Jeezy. Although they do not uphold the grandeur of her previous megahits like “Umbrella” or “S.O.S.,” they are sure to charm fans seeking the pulsing beats she is known for.
Her songs are rough around the edges this time and much less clean cut than her usual vogue. Truthfully, 13 tracks of uncensored anger can be a lot to handle, but overall Rihanna has exceeded expectations.
Rated R is far from being another quintessential pop-princess album, but rather a portrait of a young woman’s raw emotional healing. Rihanna has crafted her pain into a coming-of-age album which is certain to define her as an artist.
