Title: Rated R
Artist: Rihanna
Release date: 23 November 2009
RRP: 8.99


Rated R Review:

Forget Rated R , those widely circulated photos of Robyn Rihanna Henty after her assault at the hands of ex-lover Chris Brown were X-rated stuff. All of which adds a certain poignancy to her fourth album, and first release since unwittingly becoming a poster girl for victims of domestic violence--certainly her sadder songs now seem loaded with a previously unsuspected melancholy. The new empowered Rihanna is a saucy, scary minx, dressed up in dramatic fetish gear by German photographer Ellen von Unwerth, and a long long way from the Bajan beauty queen who charmed us with the sunny "Pon De Replay". A hit as huge as "Umbrella", its chart reign longer than a British winter, redefines expectations, and unsurprisingly Rated R is full of slick, expensive sounding contemporary R&B confections such as the single "Hard", featuring a turn by Young Jeezy, and the defiant "Wait Your Turn". More intriguing are ballads such as the unusually bleak "Stupid In Love" and the heartfelt "Russian Roulette", with its implicit challenge to a tormentor. "Rockstar 101" features Slash, to no great effect, but "Photographs", produced and penned by the astute Will.I.Am, sounds like another smash hit in waiting. Oddest of all is the corny flamenco of "Te Amo", where a Sapphic senorita proposes lady love to an unenthusiastic Rihanna. To be honest you'd think she might be off men for a while, but that would place Rated R in a totally different category.-- Steve Jelbert