Four of the most anticipated albums of 2009 came out today (rather than on the traditional Tuesday release day) as the labels got an early jump on Black Friday. Leading the charge is Rihanna’s Rated R, the “Umbrella” singer’s first LP since she was assaulted by Chris Brown in February. Rihanna didn’t open up to the public before she began promoting her album, and found an outlet for her emotions on Rated R, an album that scored a four-star review from Rolling Stone’s Jody Rosen.
“The songs are etched in somber shades and minor chords, with Rihanna belting over synths and booming beats. The results are a musical match for the black-on-black CD cover — goth R&B,” Rosen writes. With Rated R, Rihanna proves she has the personality to match her voice and model looks, as she “has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year.” There’s nothing on here as immediate as “Umbrella” or “Disturbia,” but there’s an intimacy on Rated R tracks like “Stupid Love” and “Russian Roulette” that those previous hits lacked.
Just an hour after Adam Lambert’s controversial performance on the AMAs, the Wild Idol’s For Your Entertainment hit the streets. The Idol runner-up indulges his love of glam and big ballads on For Your Entertainment, however, “the songs sound great but feel strangely stuffy — Entertainment seems like a disc that was overthought,” Rosen writes in his three-star review of For Your Entertainment. Still, with contributions from some of the biggest producers in music and songwriters like Lady Gaga, Rivers Cuomo, Muse and the Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, Lambert proves he only needs music and not controversial dance moves to get people talking.
From Glambert to Gaga, today also sees the release of our Hot Diva’s The Fame Monster, a reissue of Lady Gaga’s The Fame with eight brand new tracks (the new songs are available as both part of The Fame or standalone tracks). The Fame is already considered one of the year’s breakthrough albums, and Gaga adds flourishes to that LP with the Monster, a collection of mostly on-point songs that earned three-and-a-half stars from RS. “Half the disc is Madonna knock-offs, but that’s part of the concept — fame monsters needn’t concern themselves with originality,” Jon Dolan writes in his review.
Today also brings the domestic release of Shakira’s She Wolf. Already a hit here and abroad thanks to singles like the title track and “Give it Up to Me,” She Wolf is Shakira’s “most blatant overture to American fans yet” thanks to six tracks produced by the Neptunes and many more of our local hitmakers. “Shakira is the strangest of all international pop titans,” Rosen writes in his four-star review of the former RS cover girl. “As soon as you dig beneath the surface of her sexed-up divatude, things get kooky.”
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