Singin' in the Rain

With Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna has crafted a surprisingly good clash of 80's R&B, Pop, New Wave, Rock, and Dance. This is a perfect mainstream throwaway album that bounces from track to track, maintaining its consistent sound - a considerable achievement given the number of producers who worked on the project. And I'm not so sure Rihanna was heavily involved in orchestrating this album. She very well maybe a bi-product of fabrication concocted by Jay-Z himself. The Jigga-man serves as executive producer and appears on the album opener, "Umbrella" which was the "Crazy" of 2007. Maybe he deserves the majority of credit. No matter. Rihanna is easy on the eyes and has a voice that doesn't get in the way of the music like Mariah Carey has been doing on her last few albums. This type of music doesn't need vocal leadership. It's success depends on production and song sequence. The only mis-step here is the ballad, "Hate That I Love You", which is not a terrible song, but fucks up the flow. Fortunately the album quickly recovers with three quality Timbaland cuts.

This is Rihanna's third album, I believe. It's definitely her most successful. In terms of longevity, Rihanna will remain as relevant as the trends demand or her ability to stay as far a fuck away from Britney Spears as humanly possible.