We know Rihanna as the larger-than-life pop and rhythm-and-blues star that changes her hair as many times as her hits invade radio stations. But the singer gets up close and personal in her latest album, “Unapologetic,” and like she says in the album title, she doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Through her always insanely catchy tunes, Rihanna tells us how it really is.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty started her career when Jay-Z discovered the Barbadian beauty and signed her to Def Jam Records, quickly beginning to record her debut album, “Music of the Sun.” It wasn’t until she shed her innocent island girl persona on “Good Girl Gone Bad” in 2007 that she earned international fame.

Since then, the hits haven’t stopped coming as the diva released chart toppers like “We Found Love” and “Only Girl In The World.” They were not only musical triumphs, but showed off Rihanna’s feisty side.

Rihanna has built a career around having a crazy and chaotic lifestyle. Some may call her affinity for risque outfits and drug-praising, overly sexual lyrics the reason why she is an unfit role model. But as she told Vogue Magazine in 2011, she just wants to make music. Not surprisingly, her fun-loving attitude spills over in her latest album in songs like “Pour It Up.”

The hip-hop-sounding track gives nods to nights of popping bottles as she discards haters’ feelings and remembers the fact that she still has her money. The song has enormous party appeal, and the handclaps in the hook will make it a banger. It even features a run in the chorus that shows off Rihanna’s vocal range.

But when Rihanna’s party anthems stop playing, it is hard to forget about her tumultuous private life that’s made headlines. Anyone who has not been living under a rock for the past few years has heard about ex-boyfriend Chris Brown’s assault on the singer. However, the couple’s recent decision to get back together has made even bigger news.

And Rihanna’s rebuttal to the backlash, “Nobody’s Business,” features Brown. The song’s lyrics sample Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” and, not surprisingly, profess that their love is “nobody’s business but mine and my baby.”

The duet unfortunately does not play up either of the singers’ vocal ability and lacks the appeal to be a hit. The collaboration’s vibe is similar to Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston’s 1992 duet, “Something In Common,” and we know how that turned out.

Conversely, in “Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary,” she reflects on a broken relationship, which may or may not have been with a popular R&B singer that she went back to, saying that each of them took the best years of each other’s lives and finally crooning, “what’s love without tragedy.” The song shows a beautiful vulnerability as the track contrasts Rihanna’s soulful voice with a touch of her island accent. At the end of the track she says, “Mother Mary, I swear I wanna change/mister Jesus, I’d love to be your queen.”

Rihanna’s intentions may be unclear to the public, and in a few songs she proves that they are probably not what we think. In “Half Of Me,” which is probably the shining moment of the album, Rihanna says there is more to her than meets the eye. The mid-tempo track was written beautifully by British pop artist Emeli Sande, and features Rihanna effortlessly working her upper register in an emotional performance.

Personal lyrics like, “You saw me on a television/Hanging on my dirty linen/You’re entitled to your own opinion/Said you shake your head in my decision/I guess the kinda songs that I been singing/Make it seem as if I’m always winning” speak to all of her critics in the heartbreaking song.

“Unapologetic” is Rihanna’s inner monologue to the world. And she proves that she isn’t afraid to give us a glimpse of the real her while displaying the voice that made her the star she is today.

Published on November 27, 2012 at 1:57 am

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