Rihanna - Rated R

Rihanna’s latest album ‘Rated R’ is good in the sense that the songs are catchy, radio-worthy and overall appealing to the general population. Regular readers of this blog will probably know where I’m going with this.

The album is skilfully compiled, with a wide variety of well-composed beats and songs, ranging from pop, slow jams, hard-core hip hop and rnb, and even an ‘experimental’ rock song. However, the songs’ contents lack any real artistic merit and maturity, oscillating superficially between anger, remorse and self-pity. This is probably due to the fact that this album was Rihanna’s first professional attempt at song writing, and it shows.

In an interview with ‘W’ magazine, Rihanna says of the album, “It was really personal; it was from me in the most authentic way. It’s like a movie.” If this album was like a movie, then it was a very high-budget, low-substance type of movie; the kind where you put all the young Hollywood big names in a superficial storyline to get the teeny-boppers into the cinemas. The accompanying album photos, of Rihanna in various forms of violent erotica, cements efforts to appeal to a general populace who have been conditioned to find such ‘controversial’ images alluring.

The only song which sounded like it had any real, genuine, untainted emotion was ‘The Last Song’, the final track of the album. This song was perhaps the saving grace of the record. The chorus asks, “What if you wasted love and all of our time disappeared? And this sad song ends up being the last song you’ll ever hear?” It really did capture the emotional despair and regret of a love gone wrong.

Overall though, it is apparent that, other than being a weak expression of Rihanna’s psyche, the album’s main goal is really about selling records and captialising on her very public and personal break up with Chris Brown. Because in terms of harnessing such a traumatic experience into something artistic, ie. an artistic response, this album fails. It’s too polished, prescribed, and typical of ‘personal’ albums that still want to sound ‘pretty’ in order to sell. Compare this with Kanye West’s ‘808s’, where the artist was not afraid to channel his anger, frustration and overwhelming sense of loss into something confronting, uncomfortable and down-right ugly. That was a real, authentic, poetic response. Rihanna’s was simply amateur storytelling. [Image from http://rashaentertainment.com/]

Usher - Raymond vs. Raymond

Usher’s new album ‘Raymond vs. Raymond’ is fine. Yep, just fine. If this album was released, say, ten years ago, it may have been described in more complimentary terms, but now, it’s just fine. At this point, I do have to acknowledge that it debuted at number 1 in the U.S. charts, but of course, I’m usually a little more judgemental than your average consumer.

Basically, this album sounds a lot like his last four. It reeks of the over-sexualised narcissism that has come to characterise Usher’s public persona and his music. This may have been different and new in ‘My Way’, his first record in 1997, but after four albums it’s tiring, trite, contrived and of course fully predictable.

The album is formulaic and uninspiring, as Usher continues to sing about the same subjects he did 13 years ago, with lyrics such as “I’m not a player, I’m a pro” and “I’m guilty ‘cause girls always wanna show me love.” Puh-leese Usher, we all know you know you’re hot, you’ve told us continually. How about telling us something new? Not only that, but such eye-rolling lyrics are sung in the same manner and style, and to basically the same beats as those of the past – there’s no evidence of artistic maturity or development, it’s simply static. There’s nothing wrong with singing about sex – it’s ever-present in our overly-saturated pop culture, but since it is so ubiquitous, an artist of Usher’s supposed calibre should be attempting to explore it with more originality.

Granted, if one were to stick this album on in a club full of half drunken 20-somethings, no one would leave the dance floor. Of course, they would also just continue in the same generic head bopping and body grinding as they would do with any other song. It’s just fine.

The one exception to this is ‘OMG’, Usher’s collaboration with Will.I.Am, which is the debut single from the album and is currently all over the radio. It is a great song, with the kind of freshness and funk that has come to be expected of Will.I.Am. The beat is Black Eyed Peas-esque, but unique enough to stand on its own as a great beat accompanied by some pretty good lyrics.

Usher is a great singer; his vocals are awesome, which is probably what has sustained him for so long. But his lyrics and song style in general have been exhausted. It was time to try something new two years ago. Maybe he’ll finally work up the courage and creativity to go outside his own status quo for the next album. [Image from http://agentsmithfiles.wordpress.com/category/usher/]

The Auto-Tune Debate - Is it Cheating? by Pappa G, Krucial Komposers

Here's another perspective on the auto-tune debate from a more informed source than myself. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=491728499&blogId=533771242

Brian McFadden - Just Say So

Brian McFadden’s new song, ‘Just Say So’ is a great example of so many things that are wrong with pop music today. This is where the distinction between real musical artists and mindless vehicles of mass distribution is made.

First of all, the crappy and annoying dance/pop beat and the uninspired lyrics are modelled on nothing more than the myriad of cookie-cutter pop songs made to appeal to the masses without any attempt at something different or fresh. Not to mention the terrible ‘singing’. Every time I hear this song, before screaming and quickly switching off the radio, I get visual flashes of a really tacky Euro-pop or Asian-pop song where the singer, all dressed in white, lip-syncs and sways non-rhythmically against a backdrop of strobes and disco lights. The image is disconcerting to say the least.

What’s worse, though, is that McFadden’s song makes auto-tune look like the lazy man’s singing. His overuse of the newest innovation in music demonstrates that just because it’s new and available, not every ‘singer’ can or should use auto-tune. It still takes skill to properly distort one’s voice in this abstract manner and come away with something that doesn’t sound like a whining dog. Here, McFadden has somehow managed to use auto-tune to go back in time. This song is nothing more than a badly made 90s-type boy band song. McFadden used to be in a boy band, which obviously didn’t work out, so why he would be trying to relive this ill-fated path in what should be a solo direction, I have no idea.

The song is also a good example of the difference between skill and talent. Just because one can sing, doesn’t mean they’re an artist. Art isn’t just about having the skill, it’s more about having the originality and audacity to harness that skill to create something different, new, challenging, exciting; not to REcreate something that someone else has done before, and done better. McFadden has just badly copied the innovations in auto-tune and given its critics another reason to hate it. Just in case anybody is unclear, this is what you should NOT do with auto-tune. [Image from http://www.posh24.com/]