Personnel: Rihanna (vocals); Dwane Husbands, Corey Gunz, Sean Paul (vocals).
Rihanna's "Pon the Replay" was the jam of summer 2005, and with good reason: its Caribbean-flavored rhythms and infectious, singalong chorus made it nearly irresistible. The Barbados-born singer's full-length, MUSIC OF THE SUN, performed well on the strength of the single, and offered more of Rihanna's commercially tailored dancehall-pop.
A GIRL LIKE ME, Rihanna's sophomore release, is less overtly dancehall-influenced than its predecessor. Instead, the album makes a more straightforward play for mainstream R&B appeal. The album's lead-off single and video "SOS," for example, centers on a sample from Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love" (including the immediately recognizable laser-gun sound), making for a bouncy, sexy pop confection. "Unfaithful" is an R&B ballad that finds Rihanna in torch mode, and sounds like a hit in the making. While there's nothing quite as striking as "Pon the Replay" here, there is plenty to power Rihanna's rise up the charts. minimize