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Music Review:
A Girl Like Me, Rihanna
A GIRL LIKE ME
1. SOS
2. Kisses Don't Lie
3. Unfaithful
4. We Ride
5. Dem Haters (featuring Dwane Husbands)
6. Final Goodbye
7. Break It Off (featuring Sean Paul)
8. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
9. Selfish Girl
10. P.S. (I'm Still Not Over You) 11. A Girl Like Me
12. A Million Miles Away
13. If It's Lovin' That You Want (Part 2) (featuing Corey Gunz)
JUICY TIDBITS
Although I’ve had Rihanna’s latest album, A Girl Like Me, sitting on my computer hard drive for the past month, it’s taken much self-discipline (and an unholy amount of gin) to prepare myself for the hour it would take to listen through the entire album. While “SOS” is a likeable sample, “Unfaithful” drives me absolutely batty. On the one hand, it’s a heartfelt ballad about the guilty feelings that cheating on a loved one brings. On the other hand, it’s a heartfelt ballad about the guilty feelings that cheating on a loved one brings. Here’s a hint: stop cheating. Or better yet: don’t cheat at all. When Rihanna screeches through the song and says, “I might as well take a gun and put it to his head, get it over with,” you’d think that she unknowingly had his family assassinated or some such tragedy, but no – she’s just stepping out on him and can’t seem to curb her raging hormones. “Dramatic” barely begins to describe the song, and “weak vocals” barely begins to describe A Girl Like Me.
Rihanna probably has the dream story we’ve all been longing for, or at least, that any contestant on “American Idol” has longed for. At fifteen, Rihanna, who had been singing all her life, was introduced to music producer Evan Rogers. Impressed with her “range,” Evans helped her record a demo that eventually made its way to Def Jam. Faster than you can say, “JoJo,” Rihanna was auditioning for Jay-Z and signing contracts on the spot. At sixteen, she co-wrote and released Music of the Sun (2005), and “Pon de Replay,” the first single from the album, went on to peak at #2 in both the US and the UK charts.
Not one to waste time or flashes in the pan, Jay-Z brought Rihanna back into the studio for A Girl Like Me, which was released less than a year from her debut. The quick turnaround time from studio to Amazon sales could explain most of the underdeveloped songs on here, as well as two remixes that appear in the already-scant thirteen-song compilation; this would suggest that at two records, it’s never too early to rip off your own stuff. (In all fairness, one of the remixes, “Pon the Replay (Full Phatt Remix),” only appears as a bonus track in the UK, Dutch, and Italian releases.) A Girl Like Me is boding better for Rihanna than Music of the Sun, with sales already doubling what her debut garnered. “SOS” eventually reached #1 in the US and Australia, and “Unfaithful” is already a solid top ten hit. Well, someone’s obviously buying her CD, so perhaps I’ve been hasty in my judgment.
But several listens through A Girl Like Me don’t do much to sway my hesitation of all things Rihanna. Let’s start with the good, since this probably take up all of one paragraph.
“Dem Haters” features Dwane Husbands and, with a light reggae beat that ultimately tapers out into a laid-back R&B vibe, is a pleasant track. Unfortunately, in this affirmative song about not letting others bring you down with their negativity, Husbands’ smooth vocals clearly outshine Rihanna’s warbled singing. Another duet, this time with Sean Paul in “Break It Off Boy,” also works wonders for skeptics like me. Against a heavily synthesized backdrop (recently resurrected by Nelly Furtado), Sean Paul raps at breakneck speed and basically makes the song. Rihanna’s succinct chorus and single verse actually don’t ruin the song as some (i.e. me) might expect. If Sean Paul is Jay-Z’s answer to speedy hits, whether the speedy hits are for current girlfriends or record mates, I’m not going to complain. “A Million Miles Away” is a straightforward ballad with a flowing melody of guitars. Unlike “Unfaithful,” the lyrics here are less exaggerated for the sake of dramatic music videos, and I can stomach choruses like, “It feels like you’re a million miles away as you’re lying here with me tonight / I can’t even find the words to say I can find a way to make it right / And we both know that the story’s ending / We play the part but we’re just pretending / And I can’t hide the tears.” I think part of the reason why this song speaks volumes to me while “Unfaithful” makes me roll my eyes is because I can relate more to the formers’ painted unhappy relationship than I can to being a metaphorical murderer. “A Million Miles Away” also happens to feature stronger vocals from Rihanna – and could feasibly double as one of Mariah Carey’s (pre-R&B hooker) ballads – which automatically makes this my favourite song off the album. “If It’s Loving That You Want (Part II)” features Corey Gunz and is a fun, club-ready hip hop track that almost redeems everyone who has ever been associated with this album.
“We Ride” is slated to be Rihanna’s third single, and Rihanna tackles this slow R&B track with softer vocals, which is easier on the ears than the trilling five-note voice break that she’s so fond of. It’s a very generic song with no distinguishable characteristics above and beyond the derivative R&B that’s already out there. It does present a very catchy mantra within its chorus: “You used to say, when we ride we ride, it’s ‘till the day we die.” Of course, this is a song about breaking up, so it shouldn’t be taken literally. “Final Goodbye” is a poppy, guitar-driven song with surprisingly sweet but simple lyrics (“Before we turn out the lights and close our eyes / I’ll tell you a secret I’ve held all my life / It’s you that I live for, and for you I die / So I lay here with you until our final goodbye”). What starts off sounding like an updated baroque melody evens out by the second verse with drums and back-up singers, but the song ultimately fails to register any excitement.
Another song that causes puzzlement is the pop ballad “P. S. (I’m Still Not Over You),” which eerily sounds like the title of an *NSYNC song circa 1998. The gimmick in this song is that Rihanna is singing like she is dictating a letter, hence the whole “P. S.” thing. “What’s up,” Rihanna begins her lovelorn letter-song. “I know we haven’t spoken in a while, but I was thinking about you…How's your mother, how's your little brother? Does he still look just like you?” she cordially inquires. After a while, she injects some self-awareness into this ditty with, “Excuse me, I don’t mean to ramble on.” But ramble on she does, and it’s boring. Likewise, the titular “A Girl Like Me,” an R&B track with Latin guitar influences, fails to impress or commit to memory. It’s virtually interchangeable with many of the tracks on here. “Kisses Don’t Lie” features a reggae rhythm and doesn’t annoy as much as the other songs, although Rihanna’s warbling low notes have been known to incite seizures.
Bonus tracks include “Pon the Replay (Full Phat Remix),” a solid retread of a decent song with newly added hip-hop influences. The song features screeching, high-pitched wailing effects playing in the background – and, for once, it’s not Rihanna’s voice. “Who You Gonna Run To?” sounds like a Beyoncé clone and would be an otherwise decent song if it weren’t for Rihanna’s need to over-sing every other note. “Coulda Been the One” has a distinct reggae vibe and goes along swimmingly until Rihanna decides to sing, “You made your bed, boy…but better know you’ll be lying there aloooooone!” The last word in the verse has about twenty different notes (some not discernible to the human ear), and a run that never quite takes off. But all in all, the bonus tracks are much better than half of the singles in the actual studio album.
This is the part where I normally say something nice about Rihanna, and then add a “but” and “with time and experience” to soften the criticism. While I do believe that Rihanna does have a natural singing ability and is capable of putting out a decent song, this rarely seems to happen in A Girl Like Me. The album misses the mark most of the time, and can’t stand much ground on its own. Give the girl some time to breathe, and she might come back with some much-needed introspection and recording savvy. Until then, Rihanna is better left on the shelf. ¤ C.Ho.
A GIRL LIKE ME:
(out of 5)
