Ranking the Best Rihanna Albums

September 30, 2021Edward Bowserbest of, music, Rihanna3

And now it’s time to hit No. 3 on the Most Requested Album Ranking List – your favorite Avon lady! With Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty show just hitting streaming, it seems like the perfect time.

Full disclosure: Longtime Soul In Stereo fans know I’ve been very vocal about Ms. Fenty’s music over the years – from criticizing the constant mislabeling of her music as R&B/soul albums (a genre that I’ve never seen her claim) to her endless array of overhyped but underwhelming singles, it’s safe to say I’ve never been a big fan Rihanna, minus a track here and there.

But I am an Unbiased Music Reviewer (TM) and Rihanna, easily one of the biggest stars of the past 15 years, deserves to have her work spotlighted as well.

So, I’m putting personal tastes aside to listen to every Rihanna album for the first time ever. That means there will be no nostalgia to lean on, no inherit biases to sway my opinion. I’m going in cold on this one.

And I’ll be honest with y’all. A couple of these albums REALLY surprised me.

Let’s see how the music holds up.

8. Music of the Sun (2005)

Soul In Stereo rating: 3 stars out of 5

Edd said: First time’s a charm … I guess. Listen, it’s obvious the Rihanna of 2005 was just a glimpse of what she’d become – what she lacked in polish she certainly had in presence. Building off the success of the endlessly played “Pon de Replay,” Music of the Sun continued to ride that dancehall wave. But it’s quite clear that her debut album was constructed around that one single, as everything else is pretty formulaic and lifeless. It’s an album filled with songs that would be No. 9 on the 106 & Park countdown – you know, the ones that were played for like 30 seconds before cutting back live for an artist interview. Better days obviously were ahead.

Forgotten favorites: “That La, La, La,” “There’s A Thug in My Life”

7. A Girl Like Me (2006)

Soul In Stereo rating: 3 stars out of 5

Edd said: While I wouldn’t call A Girl Like Me a sophomore slump, it certainly wasn’t much of an improvement over its predecessor. Once again, the dancehall elements are heavy, as are the bland array of cut-and-paste pop&B tracks. A couple of decent pop ballads give this one a slight edge over the debut but it was clear RiRi was in dire need of a reinvention. Spoiler: She reinvented herself on the next album.

Forgotten favorites: “A Girl Like Me,” “We Ride,” “If It’s Lovin That You Want (Pt. 2)”

6. Loud (2010)

Soul In Stereo rating: 3 stars out of 5

Edd said: That sound you just heard? Oh, that’s just 400 Rihanna stans screaming for my death in my DMs. By 2010, Rihanna was a legit star who was just featured in her first movie (… about a board game, but we all gotta start somewhere). Loud represents Rihanna at her pop peak, which is why nostalgia rings so strongly on this one. Problem is, most of those hyperactive pop songs that received endless replay just aren’t very good. While the album itself is much better paced than those before it, the actual songs are extremely uneven – ranging from intriguing at best to grating at worst.

Oh, and shout out to my boy in 2011 who rick-rolled me by creating a program that played “Cheers” over and over whenever I opened a file. I hate having tech genius friends sometimes.

Forgotten favorites: “Skin,” “Love the Way You Lie (Part 2)”

5. Talk that Talk (2011)

Soul In Stereo rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Edd said: Of all the albums on this list, Talk that Talk definitely feels like a period piece, even more so than Rihanna’s early LPs. It’s certainly filled with its share of memorable singles – “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” were absolutely inescapable. Even the “Birthday Cake” interlude laid the foundation for early meme culture. But many of those tracks, like the rest of the album, rode that early 2010s EDM train into the ground, a sound that quickly wore out its welcome then and feels even more stale today. Talk that Talk is an OK but uneventful pop album that sounds interchangeable with the dozens like it at the time.

Forgotten favorites: “Watch n’ Learn,” “Roc Me Out,” “Talk that Talk”

4. Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)

Soul In Stereo rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Edd said: Remember earlier when I said Rihanna was in desperate need of new direction after her first pair of meh albums? That’s exactly what she did with Good Girl Gone Bad. This album is all about evolution – she effortlessly sheds the watered-down dancehall and strained R&B of her past and goes full pop. Time has proven it’s a much better fit. “Don’t Stop the Music” and “Rehab” were the first Rihanna tracks I really enjoyed because they felt fresh and fully-formed, not cookie cutter. However, the album still suffers from unevenness throughout, hindering its potential. Still, it was a necessary step in the right direction.

Forgotten favorites: “Say it,” “Push Up On Me,” “Sell Me Candy”

3. Rated R (2009)

Soul In Stereo rating: 4 stars out of 5

Edd said: One track into Rated R and you can tell this is gonna be a different experience. It’s like someone gave Dirty Diana her own record deal and she was coming for MJ’s neck. Gritty, emotional tracks like “Russian Roulette” and hip-hop flavored offerings like “Rude Boy” (still one of the most fun tracks in her repertoire) are the best fit for Rihanna’s skillset, so she excels here. Best of all, it feels much more authentic than many of the assembly-line-like tracks we’d heard earlier. Rated R was a bold risk that still divides her fanbase today, but I think it paid off well.

Forgotten favorites: “G4L,” “Cold Case Love,” “Te Amo”

2. Unapologetic (2012)

Soul In Stereo rating: 4 stars out of 5

Edd said: An important thing I’ve learned about RiRi while binging her albums for this post: While most Rihanna singles gives me aches (toothaches for being too saccharine or headaches for being too repetitive), her album cuts are much more interesting and adventurous. That is why Unapologetic works. Off kilter and downright weird sometimes, Unapologetic lives up to its name. This album cycles through genres pretty effortlessly, with the last half of the album ringing especially strong. It proved that she could be more than just an artist who can pump out radio-ready music. In fact, she took that to an even greater level with the No. 1 album on our list.

Forgotten favorites: “Phresh off the Runway,” “Get It Over With,” “Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary”

1. Anti (2016)

Soul In Stereo rating: 4 stars out of 5

Edd said: Years ago I heard my wife playing “James Joint” and asked “I like that song, who is that?” She grinned and said “Rihanna.” “RIHANNA!?,” I screeched, in my befuddled Soulback Podcast voice. “Yes,” she replied. “If you gave this album a chance, I know you’d like it.”

Then I ignored the album for five more years until this post. I’m a great husband!

But back to Anti. I had been listening to Rihanna for a decade – thanks to radio and endless features – but I had never heard a Rihanna like the one on that random interlude. Soulful, yet distinct. And that’s what shapes Anti, a decade-long culmination of Rihanna’s storied career. It represents the best of Rihanna (the creativity, the energy and attitude) while weeding out her worst habits (the paint-by-numbers pop tracks and flat performances). From the much-improved writing to the creative risks, there’s true artistry here. Example: instead of trying (and failing) to stretch her vocals for a soaring ballad like her early days, she instead warps them into a drunken rasp on “Higher.” Anti far from flawless – it sags in spots and “Work” is so monotonous it’s like waterboarding your eardrums – but it’s by far Rihanna’s finest work and I wish I got on board sooner. If she never drops another album I’m cool with it. This is the perfect way to bow out.

Forgotten favorites: “Same Ol Mistakes,” “James Joint,” “Yeah I Said It”

Feel free to yell at me about Loud and your other favorite RiRi albums below.