Rihanna is a postmodern artist that needs little to no introduction. She is a self-made billionaire with her own makeup company generating a large part of that revenue. First and foremost, however, she is a hugely successful contemporary artist who has made it big relatively speaking in the music industry. Her music has been played consistently over the years in public, with some earlier notable entries such as the extremely explicit Rude Boy. This album is her seventh studio album release, and one of her most loved, especially at the time of release. Let’s take a look back at this album and hear if it lives up to the hype to this day.

Phresh Out The Runway begins with a very retro sounding keyboard patch, Roland style sounds and Rihanna launches into a good piece of music with an excellent vocal. This is extremely explicit lyrically, and obviously panders to a very Rap sort of crowd. Despite that, this is a good piece of music that sounds really interesting, Poptastic and very 2012. A good song with some decent suspense, but the keyboard patch melody wears out its appeal after some time. A good listen, the music here is heavily indebted to EDM, Rap and the Pop music of the day. “Walk up on this bitch, like we own this hoe” is interesting lyrically and repeated throughout. A very good and interesting listening experience throughout, Rihanna obviously has a very good ear to match her amazing vocals. The song gradually wraps up with the instrumental backing track banging away. A good start to this album.

Diamonds is one of the main hit songs from this album, with over a billion hits on Spotify alone. It is likely Rihanna’s defining moment. It begins with piano, soft vocals and some deeply emotional singing from Rihanna herself. This song is the perfect piece of music to get married to. A really deeply emotional, sad and tearjerker tune for those who enjoy this sort of thing, it is melodically beautiful. A really excellent listening experience, this is a must-hear for those of you who are unaware of Rihanna’s music today. If you ever need to hear something moving, gorgeous and romantic, this should be a good tune to hear. A deep and meaningful piece of music, this does superbly. Fantastic tune, worth your ears. Towards the end, this song builds up gradually to a fantastic climax. Brilliant, a great representation of what female singers can do superbly. Worth your time 100%.

Numb features rapper Eminem. It begins with a strange, almost Middle Eastern melody. It quickly launches into a barrage of beats and melodies, and just sounds really cool. An interesting and awesome tune about drug use, this is another fairly consistent listening experience. An interesting listen, this does sound super quirky. This is a perfect tune for those who enjoy weed, music and romance along with it. Very warped and interesting listening, this is a very interesting listening experience. Eminem’s voice has seen better days, but he delivers well here. Both Eminem and Rihanna have made some great music cameos together over the years. Cool tune, worth hearing.

Pour It Up is a continuation of the previous song, more or less. Rihanna sings about strip clubs and puts a lot of raunchy imagery in this tune. This is one for male fans of the singer, and it is very dirty indeed. It is as though Rihanna is the stripper in the song, and her male fans are watching in deep curiosity at what she is doing. A really excellent listen, and something that is fairly underrated in her own back catalogue of songs. A really cool tune, this does sound like good raunchy RnB/Pop. It ends with some rather predictable progressions. A good song to drink with your crazy friends to.

Loveeeeeee Song features rapper Future. It begins with some liquid sounds, and spacey textures and launches into a simple tune that is a Rap piece that is very warm sounding. To be fair, this isn’t very revolutionary or great. Still, it works, just that this sounds like a song that has been done in a repeated formula in postmodern music today. A good piece of music, it really should be named Love and Affection instead. Regardless, this is good music to listen to, particularly if you dig some Rap/RnB styled Pop music. A joy to hear anyway, there are some guitar parts in the background towards the end as well. A fine listening experience for what it is. It’s not a hit single, but it does work. Good music, it ends with some more spacey textures.

Jump is not Van Halen. Instead, it begins with some repeated singular notes over drum rolls and other sounds, before launching into some interesting lyrics: “Tell me that you love me, When you know you don’t love me, but I guess, I guess, I guess it’s all good…” An interesting tune about an unfaithful lover, Rihanna certainly fights back at the person involved. Despite this, she lusts after said person and begs for sexual intercourse. The chorus is repetitive and somewhat catchy, if not a little annoying. Very out there, Rihanna does do some musical justice here, and she sounds explicitly sexual and like she wants to be working in the pornography industry. Some additional rapping is here as well, followed quickly by Rihanna singing the chorus again. Good music regardless, although this panders to unintellectual and sexist thinking. It’s okay but could be better. Catchy in its own way though.

Right Now is also not Van Halen. Rihanna sings in a deeply emotional and moving way, although this is fairly close to club-based EDM. Regardless, this is definitely catchy, and it does sound like the EDM of the time. “Tomorrow’s way too far away, and we can’t get back yesterday. But we are young right now, so get right now, because all we got is right now” are a quite good set of lyrics for such a tune like this. It sounds very anthemic and has some DJ sounds galore from David Guetta that sound impressive. In any case, this is good, but very dated today. A catchy enough listen, even though this really only appeals to nightclubbing teens. An interesting song throughout, however.

What Now is a sad sounding piano ballad from the start. Rihanna sings about being depressed and lonely, and she articulates being depressed and lonely very well. More heartbreak and tragedy is here, and this is a song about being torn apart from a lover, yet again. A wonderful and deep listening experience, but this sounds extremely bleak. Again, the music isn’t the best on this album, and Rihanna comes across as someone making music for the sake of money, not anything else. Sure, it is a deeply emotional song with some great vocals but it falls flat with the backing track here. Good to hear though, but the appeal of the album wears off a little by this point. There is a strange AC/DC sounding guitar solo towards the end here in the background, along with Rihanna’s emotional vocals and some mediocre beats. Not really worth hearing this.

Stay features Mikky Ekko. It begins with some simple, yet awesome chugging piano that sets the mood. Rihanna sings beautifully and emotionally here, and this is a Pop gem. A really great tune to hear, Rihanna articulates true love and being in a romantic place here. Although it sounds rather predictable in its sound and progression, Rihanna nails the music and musicality. Mikky Ekko’s vocal part is also extremely good as well. This is the sort of Pop diva stuff that American Idol winners would sing to the crowd. Sure it’s not original in that context, but it is moving and does work extremely well. A gorgeous and simple piano ballad here, this does sound fresh and wonderful for what it is. This still sounds very good today, and although it is a very much studio Pop piece, it is moving. Nice to listen to.

Nobody’s Business features Chris Brown. It is an awful track from the beginning and is just bad electronic RnB. If you need to begin skipping tracks on this album, now might be a good time to do so. An awful Michael Jackson styled track, it isn’t precisely wonderful nor original here. The equivalent of musical projectile vomiting, this seriously drags down the album heavily. It is a pseudo-Disco track that hasn’t aged well at all. Disco influenced music has been done far better than this over the years, so do avoid this tune. Chris Brown sounds just like Michael Jackson himself, which is a bad example of a lack of originality. Weird, and not wonderful. Thankfully, you can purge this out of your music library, so do not hear this tune. Rubbish.

Love Without Tragedy / Mother Mary has some chorus guitar parts, which sound poorly mashed up together. Rihanna sings about rather selfish concepts here, and she is not really singing about religious concepts here at the start. In any case, this is a piece that lyrically sounds fairly image evoking lyrically. This is a longer piece of music at around seven minutes in length, but it does very well for what it is. Eventually, this leads into a guitar part breakdown with just the guitar here, and Rihanna sings, pleading to Christian icons. Hence the song title. This is something that appeals to those who are not overly Christian, but to those who share that faith. In any case, this is a good piece for 2012, but today it kind of falls apart individually as a song. Nonetheless, this does sound good. “I’m prepared to die in the moment…” refers to some deeply romantic and similar concepts abound. A good song, but not a great one. In any case, this does drag on a bit for its length, and it does pull the quality of it down somewhat. Some gentle editing would have benefitted this song for sure. This easily could have been four minutes long rather than seven minutes in length. It’s okay, but a bit of a drag towards the end. Good, but fairly forgettable and worth skipping.

Get It Over With is dreary from the start. It has a melodramatic string section that sounds discordant, and Rihanna sings from a very dark place. Again, the appeal of the album fizzles out a little by this point. Not really an amazing listen, although Rihanna tugs at heartstrings, not brain strings. Anyway, this tune is okay, but clearly not a highlight of this album. It’s a good tune but nothing really brilliantly impressive or memorable, even for postmodern Pop music. A very sad listen, having said that, its simplicity is rather boring, however. Something for that dreary rainy day, sitting alone inside at home by oneself, this is not a euphoric nor happy listen. It’s just ordinary. Not terrible, but not great either.

No Love Allowed is a Reggae influenced piece of junk. Seriously. It does not have appeal or interest as a piece of music. Rihanna sings over some absolute trash here and even tries to sound like a Reggae singer. This is absolutely ordinary and appalling. Nothing worth your time, ears or listening motives, this is a good example of how overhyped and overpromoted albums can end up being stinkers musically. Quite likely the worst song from this album so far, there is also the use of the n-word, amongst other rather ordinary lyrics and music, which sounds awkward. Extremely difficult to listen to and enjoy, this is genuine trash. This is, quite simply, wannabe Reggae with some muted guitars, Rihanna singing about breaking up in a relationship and a terribly pretentious piece of music. Pathetic.

Lost In Paradise is more of the rather ordinary EDM-influenced music. It has a 4/4 beat kick drum, ordinary Electronic sounds and a piece of music that sounds trashy. This isn’t a million miles away from Princess Of China, but only far worse than that song. It is pure trash and just doesn’t cut it musically. In any case, this album likely can be stopped right here and put into the trashcan of overhyped albums in the history of music. Nothing exceptional here, Rihanna is the case of another artist who sounds great vocally but does not have songs that match. In any case, this music is okay at best but needs a serious rethink. Skip this one as well, it is not worth hearing. Fortunately, it is short at three and a half minutes long.

Half Of Me is another piano ballad that has Rihanna hitting Adele mode. A good listen, and better than the few tracks before it, it is a decent listening experience that is much more enjoyable than what has come before. This is aimed at an ex-lover who deserves a bit of revenge, at least from Rihanna’s point of view. A sad tune that is a nice extra track that is a great additional listen here. Good to enjoy, although this is typical Pop diva stuff of today. Still, it is a great listening experience that sounds inspired for what it is. A good additional track that is quite good to listen to.

Diamonds – Dave Aude 100 Extended is a joint effort featuring Dave Aude and Kemal Golden. It is essentially a remix, but one that sounds great from the start. It has some great and danceable beats, sounding somewhat New Order-ish. A very good listen, it quickly shifts melodic elements of this song into play, followed quickly by Rihanna’s vocals. A good remix present, this is a very interesting listen and in many ways, is a more party-based remix that sounds clever and catchy. A great club tune that should be featured in a House DJ set out there, this does sound very neat and catchy. Great and brilliant music and listening here. Rihanna’s original vocal take is matched by banging beats, church bells and a very much club atmosphere here. A really excellent listen, this is a good alternative to the original. Wonderful, in many ways. This is a refreshing improvement over what has come before on the album, it ends with a great bass and beats section, before concluding. Awesome.

Diamonds – Gregor Salto Downtempo Remix features Gregor Salto and Tzvetin Todorov as guests. Of course, this again is a remix. It begins with a moody string section and launches into a more tripped-out version of the original Diamonds. A great and lovely remix, this sounds gorgeous for what it is. It is more suspenseful than the remix before it, but it does lack the catchy nature of the remix before it. Rihanna’s vocal is addictive and irresistible, and this sounds very pretty and euphoric in its own way. This does get fairly pointless after a bit unless you are a huge fan of Rihanna. In any case, this does have a nice psychedelic breakdown which is really cool. Awesome music that is nicely mashed up here, this brings the album to a dramatic close. Rihanna shows promise, although with little substance. Interesting music, however. It ends with an extended beat mix for DJs to use.

This is a fairly average album that follows the traditions of postmodern Pop and RnB. It does have moments, but it is really not worth hearing today as it hasn’t aged tremendously well. Yes, there are some decent and wonderful songs here, particularly Diamonds, but there are also some stinkers present as well. Should you give this a spin? Only if you feel like listening to an earlier Rihanna or a 2012 release. Otherwise, it’s not really worth it. Good, but lacking.

One of the stereotypical Pop diva albums.

5/10