Unapologetic???... Also Uninteresting and Unforgivable!!! -_-

Unapologetic (2012)

1. "Phresh Out The Runway"
This is kind of an auto-tuned mess of an opener. It's more chaotic noise than an actual song. Can't even really understand what Rihanna is singing about. I actually had to look up the lyrics that Rihanna is singing about being fashionable and flashy...but its very incoherent. One of her worst songs if you ask me.
(F)

2. "Diamonds"
Now THIS is a song! Thank you Sia for writing such a great song! It's catchy, has a wonderful melody and nice lyrics. This should have been the opener for the album, not that cluster f@#$ of none sense. This is the kind of music that Rihanna should do more of and it shows her fans as well as casual listeners love it as it went #1. A stellar track.
(A-)

3. "Numb" Featuring Eminem
Now, I'm trying to understand what "Numb" is about, considering it's a track so lackluster even Eminem's verse feels random and unnecessary. The lyrics are feel so...I hate to use this word, "basic" and simple minded. There is no meaning or depth to them. All I can say in the positive for this track is the beat is cool...that's about it. Next!
(D-)

4. "Pour It Up"
Awww, "Pour It Up". A song that is pretty much the stripper's anthem. It is a degrading song if you as me. Only to be surpassed by it's horribly unflattering music video with Rihanna leaving literally nothing to the imagination but it's to b expected with a poorly made song like this. I mean at least "S+M" was fun but "Pour It Up" isn't. We get it Rihanna, you're a freak, now let's move on to some good music shall we?
(D+)

5. "Loveeeeeeee Song" Featuring Future
Well, this song is just annoying from Future's auto-tuned gargling (that's what it sounds like to me so I'll call it that) "Loveeeee Song" just feels like clashing of beats and lyrics are decent but the production is surely lacking. Wow, I am not a fan of this album so far.
(C-)

6. "Jump"
We have dubstep right here and the beat is pretty cool, though the sample of Ginuwine's "Pony", just makes me want to listen to this song rather than this one. It's just more lust ridden lyrics over a heavy robotic beat, which Rihanna doesn't seem to be tired of but I'm starting to. It's just meh.
(C)

7. "Right Now" Featuring David Guetta
You know the last time Rihanna and David Guetta collaborated, they created probably one of my favorite EDM songs ("Who's That Chick?") But sadly this song (like most of the album so far) is quite subpar with lyrics that are forgettable and a beat that doesn't know what it wants to sound like. It's all just loud (no pun intended) noise that make a coherent sound. Oh well.
(C-)

8. "What Now"
Nope, nope, NOPE!! This is just an attack on my ears! Vocally and production wise, "What Now" is another mess of a song. Rihanna's voice has never been this poor since "Unfaithful" (*shivers*) "What Now" seems to be telling an emotional story with it's lyrics but the shrieking vocals from Rihanna and that thunderous beat that feels the producers forgot what they were doing have way through the song ruin the songs' potential meaning. It's all really a shame. Another major fail for Rihanna!
(F)

9. "Stay" Featuring Mikky Ekko
I honestly don't get this album's inconsistency. You have the other wreck that are songs like "Numb" and "Phresh Out The Runaway", then you have a song like "Stay". A song with deep emotional depth and well written lyrics as well as solid vocal work from both Rihanna and Mikky Ekko. Rihanna (or at least her team of writers/producers) know how to make a great song...yet all they have done is wasted precious time with terrible fillers and only have rare standouts like this song. This is a stunning ballad. Why can't the album be more like this?! WHY!!?? O_o
(A-)

10. "Nobody's Business" Featuring Chris Brown
Well their relationship make have ended violently but both Rihanna and Chris Brown seem to still have chemistry when it comes to their music. "Nobody's Business" has a fun, old school R&B feel to it that I can't help but dance to. The lyrics are sweet and may even symbolize Riri and Chris' relationship, a relationship that is complicated and doesn't deserve the scrutiny that it has garnered. It's their business and they will always have each others' back, which is a nice message.
(B+)

11. "Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary"
Well, this is quite the emotional song with Rihanna singing some emotional lyrics about love, her life in the limelight and the asking for some religious intervention. It's a bit saddening with Rihanna lamenting that she is even prepared to die. Some pretty heavy stuff for an album that has been pretty dull and light on substance. Looks like "Unapologetic" is on the up and up.
(B)

12. "Get It Over With"
Filled with rain and water metaphors, "Get It Over With" seems to be talking about an impending fight or something ominous that's about to happen. What that maybe is very vague, at least to me. Hard to critique it as a song as it's just kind of...there. Nothing good or horrible, just...meh.
(C)

13. "No Love Allowed"
Well, this just feels like filler doesn't it? A Caribbean beat driven track that sees Rihanna singing partly in Jamaican patois but the song is pretty dull even if the lyrics are detailing a pretty unsettling relationship. I'm pretty bored by it really.
(D+)

14. "Lost In Paradise"
Another track with a chaotic beat...another song that is rather flat in it's delivery. Nothing really bad, just a mixed bag. The title is nice though, but I'm just not a fan.
(C-)

15. "Half of Me"
Well, this a revealing song for Rihanna. I like it when she gets this vulnerable showing that her public persona is just a part of her and that the world doesn't get to see all of her. It's a good message to send out to her fan and other listeners that she has other aspects of her personality but at the end of the day is still a person. I like it and it is a nice bonus track.
(B)

As you can tell, I don't like this album!!! Compared to "Rated R" and "Loud", hell even "Talk That Talk" is feels severely sub-par in quality. The majority of songs like "Phresh Out The Runaway" and "Numb" feel like leftover from "Talk That Talk" that should have been left on the cutting room floor. I mean the album has it's moments don't be wrong, "Diamonds" is well written pop smash and "Stay" is the loveliest ballad that Rihanna has ever delivered but these moments of actual strong music are so few and far in between the filth that muck up this album. So the question went wrong??? One can imagine that the final rushed process of the album is what led to the album's severely poor quality. Let's look at the producers: The Dream, David Guetta, Chase & Status, Stargate,  Labyrinth and more!!! More than enough talent on the album to produce more hits off it that it did, but you have songs like "Numb" with absolutely no point to it besides a thumping beat and Eminem trying to save whats left of it. You have shrieking vocal delivery of 'What Now" against a nosier musical production in the background. Also, previous collaborations with producers that gave her hits, seemed so uninspired as "Right Now" has nothing to it besides an overproduced techno beat.  The album is more like non-sense than anything else and despite selling over 4 million copies worldwide there's not much to show for it.  It's no wonder that Rihanna took 4 years between this album and "Anti", a much more cohesive LP. Again, I don't like this album. I LOVE me some Riri but this one will never be on repeat outside "Diamonds" and "Stay".  The rest is such a waste of time it's not even funny. It's no wonder that only two songs of it became hits because they are pretty much the only songs that feel like hits off the album ("Diamonds" and "Stay").

"Rushing into the studio to record a record that more disappointing than dynamic, "Unapologetic" is a disposable album all around outside very few elegant gems.  The majority of the album is relentlessly lazy and annoyingly nosy pop fodder. A shame really!" 
(D)