Rihanna - Music of the Sun (CD)

All Music Guide

Given the proliferation of young, beautiful, darkskinned urban dancepop divas dominating the radio and music video airwaves in 2005, it initially was tempting to discount Rihanna as yet another BeyoncéCiaraAshanti cashin. But like her Def Jam labelmate Teairra Mari another young, beautiful, darkskinned urban dancepop diva who emerged out of nowhere in 2005 Rihanna is winsome rather than wannabe, thanks in no small part to her producers. Just as Teairra Mari benefited greatly from irresistibly shrewd beatmaking on her debut album, Rihanna benefits from the knowing production work of Syndicated Rhythm Productions, aka Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, who together produced a laundry list of contemporary teen pop sensations during the prior decade. What these guys do that's so irresistibly shrewd is synthesize Caribbean rhythms and beats with standardissue urban dancepop: Caribbeaninflected urban, if you will. So while a song like "Pon de Replay" to pick the most obvious exhibit is driven... by booming dancehall/reggaetonlite beats and a reggae vocal cadence (and title spelling), it's a simple dancepop song at its core, with distinctly "American" lyrics and pronunciations as well as a can'tmiss singalong hook (and a glitzy, urbanstyle MTV video to boot). In other words, it's like a dancehall remix of Beyoncé that's not too dancehall. The best songs on Music of the Sun follow this appealing template, including the similarly catchy few songs that follow the aforementioned albumopening smash hit: "Here I Go Again," "If It's Lovin' That You Want," and "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)." As with most albums of this ilk, Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end of its 13song run and concludes on a fun note, with a remix of "Pon de Replay" featuring Elephant Man. The result is one of the more engaging urban dancepop albums of the year (and one of the most infectious summer jams, for sure), as well as a nice Caribbean primer for those not ready or willing to jump on the increasingly trendy dancehall and reggaeton bandwagons concurrently sweeping through America's more fashionable cities. - Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide Read more Less