Rihanna has fallen quickly out of my good graces over the course of a couple of years.
She peaked with Rated R, the dark and emotional follow-up to the hit-filled Good Girl Gone Bad. That album followed her assault by deranged lunatic Chris Brown and it was angry, defiant and featured her strongest material yet.
She followed Rated R up a year later with Loud, a more sexy and fun record that was as bright and surprising as the red hair she started sporting right before its release. Loud wasn’t as strong an album as her previous two but it had some memorable moments.
One year after that, in what was becoming her annual November release, Rihanna dropped Talk That Talk, a record with few memorable hooks and a lot of atonal come-ons that mistook dirty words for sophisticated provocation. Apart from the dance floor hit ‘We Found Love,’ I hear nothing to recommend on this album (including today’s SOTD).
This year, Rihanna’s devolution continued with Unapologetic, an album overshadowed by her reunion with Chris Brown (which has already run its course, if the latest reports are to be believed) and featuring none of the charm or sensuality of her early records. She is still producing hits (‘Diamonds’ was the major single off of Unapologetic) but she is no longer holding my interest.
I wanna go
Wherever you headed
Can you let me know
I don’t mind catching up
I’m on my way
I Just can’t take the thought of you miles away
And I know you’re going somewhere to make a better life
I hope that you find it on the first try
And even though it kills me
That you have to go
I know I’ll be sadder
If you never hit the road
So farewell
Somebody’s gonna miss you
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna wish that you were here
That somebody’s me
I will write to tell you what’s going on
But you won’t miss nothing but the same old song
If you don’t mind catching up
I’ll spend the day telling you stories about a land far away
And I know you’re going somewhere to make a better life
I hope that you find it on the first try
And even though it kills me
That you have to go
I know it’ll be sadder
If you never hit the road
So farewell
Somebody’s gonna miss you
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna wish that you were here
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna miss you
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna wish that you were here
That somebody’s me
And I’m gon’ try to hold it all in
Try to hold back my tears
So it don’t make you stay here
I’mma try to be a big girl now
Cause I don’t wanna be the reason you don’t leave
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna miss you
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna wish that you were here
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna miss you
Farewell
Somebody’s gonna wish that you were here
That somebody’s me
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, she never had my interest in the first place. I find Rihanna to be a product of crafty studio production over true talent.
I’m not sure why a craftily produced artist isn’t worthy of someone’s attention or interest? It seems such a product is the result of a lot of thought and planning, if not of genuine emotion. Perhaps, in some cases, such as some of Rihanna’s musical responses to what was happening in her very public life, they are products of both.
That’s not to say that I have been a huge fan of Rihanna (though who doesn’t sing “Under my umbrella…ella… ella,” when it rains?!), but I do follow (and sometimes appreciate) from afar the way she has navigated this whole Chris Brown debacle through her music – and her appearances (such as the red hair color). I like today’s SOTD well enough.