7. 'Music Of The Sun' (2006)
Rihanna's first album, 'Music of the Sun' is definitely her weakest to date, lacking a general direction or cohesiveness that even her most disjointed albums possess. While not necessarily a 'bad album', nothing much about 'Music of the Sun' stands out as being original, inventive or anything other than cheap and disposable. The album feels very much like a two-dimensional introduction and so the songs about partying and romance feel a touch uninspired and make for a debut album that fails to make a solid or lasting impression upon the listener. Songs such as the lifeless cover of Dawn Penn's 'You Don't Know Me (No No No) and the numerous reggae and dancehall-flavoured duets on the album do nothing much to save the album, and while 'If It's Lovin' That You Want' is pleasant enough, it too falls prey to the amount of filler on the album and fails to truly stand out against the array of generic dance tunes on offer, particularly in the case of 'Here I Go' and 'There's A Thug In My Life' which fade from the memory quicker than their actual song duration. 'The sole saving grace of the album is debut single 'Pon de Replay' which remains a catchy dancehall-pop number that is simple and effective in its repetitiveness and sunny demeanour and which allowed Rihanna to emerge as a new threat to the mid-2000s wave of popstars going through creative changes - Britney was a year away from her famed breakout, Christina was on top of her game but not making a huge aural impression, and Beyonce was only just breaking out of her 'Destiny's Child' bubble. 'Pon de Replay' positioned Rihanna as a distinctly un-American popstar who used her Bajan heritage and Caribbean roots to set herself apart from her pop contemporaries and so made her a fun breath of fresh air in the stale pop world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEauWw9ZGrA Unfortunately not even this one ray of light could redeem 'Music of the Sun', which looking back now seems rather like a postcard picture of the Bahamas, all invitingly shiny and sunny at first glance but nothing much beneath the surface.