Album Review: Nicki Minaj, Rihanna

There were three releases I was looking forward to nearly all year, and they are finally all available at stores and available for me to ridicule. This review will just cover two, the females -- we'll get to the phenomenal Male release soon (it's just too good to lump in with this post). Honestly though, all three artists delivered, some more than others, but none of the albums were major disappointments.

Nicki Minaj "Pink Friday"

The "rookie" of the year Nicki Minaj has made a name for herself this year with her dozens upon dozens of features, most times bringing the only bit of life to the songs in her verses. Her animated and energetic bars were intriguing and exciting, but somehow when she's by herself on a full 3-4 minute song a lot of that excitement is lost. And that's the biggest problem with "Pink Friday", which is actually a solid Hip Hop/Pop Album, it just feels like the Nicki that we fell in love with this year is absent. It's a solid and standard Hip Hop album with club cuts, love songs, and diss tracks and really the only thing that sets it apart from other solid albums from the genre is the fact that she's a woman. There are glimpses of the uninhibited Nicki on clear stand out "Roman's Revenge" with Eminem, and also on "Blazin" with Kanye West and single "Check it Out" with Will.I.Am. Most of this album is spent on trying to prove that she can back up the hype, and for the most part she does a good job in giving her fans something versatile and introspective ("Dear Old Nicki"), and empowering them ("Fly" with Rihanna and "I'm the Best" which gives great commentary on females in the rap game and how she wants to help them). Unfortunately in doing this, she's exposed her short comings as a lyricist, for instance her rhyming "F-1" on 4 bars of "Did it On Em" . Though there are moments of greatness on the album (the Drake assisted "Moment 4 Life" and "Here I Am", and her actually singing a full song on the surprisingly subdued "Save Me"), some of it feels almost like wasted space. The good thing is the album overall is a good listen, by abandoning the rap style that got her famous we at least have something to look forward to on the second album, or future feature work. (Also note: you can get a taste of that Nicki on some of the bonus tracks -- check out "Muny" and "Catch Me", those are the best)

Rating: 4 Stars
Best: "Moment 4 Life" "Roman's Revenge" "Save Me"

Rihanna "Loud"

There's really not much to say about Rihanna's 5th album "Loud". She and her team are just undoubtedly gifted at selecting material that combines to make great Pop albums, and though "Loud" is a slight departure from her slightly more disturbed "Rated R", it plays as a culmination of her career up to this point. There are heavy traces of all of the different genres she's tackled in her short 5 year career, you have the dancehall/reggae sounds found on her first two albums in "Man Down" and the island tinged future Classic "What's My Name?". You get the genuine club sound that made her a worldwide star in first single "Only Girl (In the World)" and the unapologetic sexed up "S&M". You get some R&B ("Fading" "Raining Men") and some pure pop ("Cheers (Drink to That)" and the acoustic/rock ballad "California King Bed"). And more so than just treading paths she's already walked down, each song sound fresh and up to date and just elevated from where they were on previous efforts. Rihanna has become so comfortable with her voice and has always known how to sing with appropriate attitude, and this may be the best album to show off the sass and Diva swagger that has made her a star. Some of the album, with only one verse or no bridge, seems a little rushed at time and it's clearly not the Pop masterpieces that "Rated R" and 2007's "Good Girl Gone Bad" were, but it's a great place holder until her next album -- which given her discography should be pretty phenomenal.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Best: "What's My Name" "Complicated" "S&M"

Album Review: Rihanna, Lady GaGa

I Love the Internet. Probably my most anticipated release of the year leaked about two weeks early. And I'm so happy it did. Coming after the hugely successful "Good Girl Gone Bad" and the trio of singles released from it's re-release, Rihanna had a lot to live up to on her 4th album "Rated R" (officially released November 23rd). Not even going into her personal troubles, Rihanna was definitley busy this past year fine-tuning what is actually a pretty amazing album. This wasn't clearly evident late last month when she leaked 3 of the tracks off the album. On their own they were very underwhelming, and I lost some faith in the album.
Luckily it turns out that the songs she leaked are basically all the filler, as she left some really outstanding stuff for the album. In fact the album is sequenced so well, that the filler tracks sound alot better while listening to the whole album. The similarities between "Rated R" and "Good Girl Gone Bad" end at the fact that they both are very well put together and can easily be played from front to back.
"Rated R" has Rihanna continually evolving from a teeny-bopper Pop personality into a more edgy Rock Icon. The sound of "Rated R" is Definitley darker, edgier, more street and more mature, which is exactly what I love about the album. What made me fall in love with Rihanna in the first place was her personality and aggressive attitude she left on the tracks, this album takes all of that to a new level. Her voice and her vocally delivery have improved quite drastically on this album, the official first single "Russian Roulette" and the perfection that is "Cold Case Love" (masterfully produced by Justin Timberlake's production team The Y's) show her vocal maturity. And tracks like "Rude Boy" and "Hard" show that even when presented with material that might sound a little dated, she owns with the delivery of the lyrics which make the songs.

Probably the three stand out cuts on this album are the aforementioned "Cold Case Love", which is such a great production in that it builds, her vocals and the great lyrics are at the forefront throughout most of the song and than it builds up to a grand finale. Truly an epic track. The same can be said for "Firebomb" a perfect Pop/Rock mashup, almost reminiscent of a Leona Lewis or Beyonce track, but the producers take it to a rougher edgier level. This song also has great lyrical content. Finally "Rock Star 101", an infectious track and her Swag is at 110% on this one. The rest of the album flows really nice, there are actually a bunch of great songs I could name, "Stupid in Love" "Hard" "The Last Song" "Photographs", even the one I like the least are undeniable. I was worried, but I don't have any doubts that this 4th album will establish Rihanna as a force in the industry that is definitley here to stay.

Now if you follow this blog, you might have seen my "Love/Hate" article about Lady GaGa. And I was on the "Hate" side at that time. I felt like she was getting alot of undue praise for being just average. Since than, a bunch of Lady GaGa songs have ended up becoming guilty pleasures and I have seen her turn in a few outstanding live performances. So when her "The Fame Monster" leaked, I got it. And boy am I shocked. Let's just clarify one thing first, "The Fame Monster" is going to have a bit of a complicated release on November 23rd. There is a Deluxe Edition that will act as a re-release of her debut "The Fame" and including the 8 new tracks she's recorded for the "Monster" portion. And you can buy the "Monster" portion by itself, it will still be titled "The Fame Monster" even though it won't include "The Fame".

Okay all of that out of the way, "Monster" is actually a really great set of dance material which subtly shows GaGa's growth as an artist. Listening to the album, it's like each track is a different form of Dance music. Unlike her debut, which I felt was a majority of uninspired and generic dance beats, this one ventures into everything from straight up House tracks, 80's Freestyle, Industrial, New Wave, Funk and even some R&B. The track "Speechless", reminiscent of "Brown Eyes" from her debut, actually is heavily (and obviously) inspired by the Beatles and the hook recalls "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, though her vocals make the song all her own. Which can be said about every song on this album actually. At certain points, there is a MAJOR Madonna sound ("Alejandro" "Dance in the Dark") but on first single "Bad Romance" and album closer "Teeth" it's 100% GaGa. She can even hold her own against powerhouse Beyonce who is featured on the Rodney Jerkins produced "Telephone". I'm not fully on the "Love" side for GaGa, but my ears and eyes are open and I think maybe she could become a bit of a force in the music world.

Music Video Review: UPDATE! Kanye West "Paranoid"

Last week I was on Youtube and came across, what I'm assuming, the final cut of Kanye West's "Paranoid" video. It was from the official label Youtube page, so I'm guessing what I reviewed a few weeks ago was a rough version. Kanye typically does release videos with multiple versions ("Jesus Walks", "Heard Em Say", "Flashing Lights"), and this version is superior to the other versions I've seen so far if that is the case. This one really makes sense. Matching the song with images similar to an old fashioned horror flick. Smart. It has a weird Michel Gondry, Tim Burton vibe as well (The video is directed by Nabil Elderkin). Appropriately creepy for a song that's about being creeped out. Plus Kanye's presence is in this far more than the previous version which was basically all Rihanna (I'm not mad at that by the way). I give it high marks, and it another great video in both their already pretty awesome Video-graphies.



I also want to add something I didn't mention before. If you don't have "808's and Heartbreak" (you suck first of all. I Keed! I Keed!)you probably wouldn't notice that the sung vocals on the song are credited to a new Kanye protege Mr Hudson. And He actually has one of my favourite songs right now in "Supernova". His album "Straight No Chaser" (there are actually two other singles from his upcoming album on his imeem page) won't be released until October, and there's still no official video for this single. I'm thinking it's a teaser and something will come along late summer. Anyway point is, I'm checking this guy out and hoping he doesn't suck. I like his style and his whole Dave Gahan phrasing mixed with the Chris Martin whiney vocal thing he has going on. We'll see.

Music Video Review: Kanye West "Paranoid" (Starring Rihanna)

SMART MOVE!!!!
This is a really good look for all parties involved honestly. Let me not get ahead of myself though... okay, so last week L.A. Reid premiered the new Kanye West video at some sort of Def Jam/Island conference. He also played Mariah Carey's possible new single "Hate U", and Youtubers caught a bit of it... but the Kanye video is what had the internet buzzing the following day. And somehow, Rihanna became the star. His video for "Paranoid" is similar to his previous videos for "Stronger", "Flashing Lights" and "Goldigger" where the attention is placed on the female eye candy. And the newly hailed Pop Princess Rihanna is definitley where all the attention is placed in this really awesome video. And to be honest, if it wasn't Rihanna this video would be really boring because literally nothing happens. It's just 3 minutes and 48 seconds of Rihanna doing what she does best, oozing loads of sex appeal and... well... just being Sexy as hell. I mean it's shot very well, I love the camera work and the bit at the beginning with her on the bed was a cool technique. But it's really all about Rihanna and this is, like I said before, a really good look for her. She gets her name out there and her face back on MTV without having to do anything (Although I do hear rumors that she added her vocals to a remix of this song, but I haven't heard anything official). And for Kanye, it's a good look because this will get the buzz behind his Excellent "808's & Heartbreak" album starting back up.

And than maybe they'll go on tour together again.

Well that's probably my wishful thinking... anyway, check out the Mad Sexy Rihanna with her Mad Crazy Sex Appeal on this Sexy video. (say "sexy" again...)