S.O.S - This Album Is Bland! (A Girl Like Me - Rihanna)

Member Name: GramiWay

Product:	A Girl Like Me - Rihanna
Date:	20/06/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

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Back before Rihanna brought a summer of rain with the worldwide smash 'Umbrella' and became even bigger with the massive 'Good Girl Gone Bad' album which spawned no less than 8 hit singles, she had to work hard to sell records past the odd big hit here and there and listening to her 2006 sophomore effort 'A Girl Like Me', it's not really that difficult to see why. Unlike it's successor this album lacks any spark and doesn't really showcase Rihanna's talent though this could be down to the fact that the talent and production that soaked up 'Good Girl Gone Bad' have been skipped from the album's recording process completely.

Rihanna kicks off in great style sampling Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' on the addictive slice of dance infested pop that is 'SOS'. You can hear the backing beats from the Soft Cell track thumping away in the background and although Rihanna's vocals are on the weak side, the melody is just so damn infectious that all is forgiven. The song takes on a life of it's own, mutating and whirling its way around your head. Sadly 'Kisses Don't Lie' is a rather rocky number with reggae influences that stalls before it even goes anywhere. On a lot of the tracks here Rihanna's vocals sound very whiney and boring and can be very of fputting to listen to. This is evident as well on 'Unfaithful', a dark and moody string led ballad deciphering the tale of cheating on your current partner and feeling happy with the 'other guy'. The piano parts are extremely relaxing though the lyrics are so cringeworthy it's hard to take the track seriously with lines such as 'I don't wanna be a murderer' being the icing on the cheese cake.

Things get worse with a lot of reggae inspired tracks that just don't suit Rihanna's voice at all. She has a very drawling and inconsistant voice that totally demolishes 'Dem Haters' whilst 'We Ride' is decent enough, radio friendly pop there's just something missing from the structure of the song and production sounds very dated. Rihanna seems to be filling this album with anything she can grab hold off as at the time she threw her first two albums out extremely fast - as of such her hypnotic and Barbadian themed debut hit 'Pon De Replay' and the very summery and laid back 'If It's Lovin That You Want' also find their way onto the tracklist to boost the album's 'hit quantity' and give people another reason to buy the record as her debut offering failed to set the charts on fire the previous year.

Those additions aside the rest of 'A Girl Like Me' dissolves into poorly structured ballads and the occasional upbeat moment that features Sean Paul amongst others. On the other hand, 'P.S [I'm Still Not OverYou]' has an odd redeeming moment to it until you place the beat back to Destiny Child's 'Emotion' and the song builds up into a strong chorus though this anticipation is doused as the result is just another watered down piece of music that Rihanna drawls all over.

Whether it's an experimental faze with rather Easy-Listening, soulful music or just total disregard for the album's content there is definitely not even half a dozen songs on 'A Girl Like Me' that warrant any sort of attention and the results is probably one of the blandest albums I've ever heard.

I would safely advise skipping this album and downloading 'SOS', 'Pon De Replay' and possibly 'Unfaithful' as everything else that has been slid together by Rihanna is just weak and lazy and all the highlights of this CD are bound to pop up again when the lady releases her greatest hits at some point in the near future. I put this album down to Rihanna still struggling to forge her own artistic style as she finds herself a constant 'puppet', something that doesn't really change but at least the quality of the songs she's churning out has.

Tracklisting:

01 - SOS
02 - Kisses Don't Lie
03 - Unfaithful
04 - We Ride
05 - Dem Haters
06 - Final Goodbye
07 - Break If Off [Feat Sean Paul]
08 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
09 - Selfish Girl
10 - PS [I'm Still Not Over You]
11 - A Girl Like Me
12 - A Million Miles Away
13 - If It's Lovin That You Want
14 - Pon De Replay

Summary: A disappointing album from one of the decade's biggest new talents