Preview of Rihanna’s New, Depressing Album

Becky Bain | November 12, 2009 1:18 pm

A preview of Rihanna’s new album Rated-R has leaked online… and it’s obvious the singer’s going in a much more downbeat direction. Hey, can ya blame her?

After previewing a few tracks off a pretty shady looking Russian website (coincidence or clever marketing ploy?), the site’s servers kept crashing on us, so we found the above video (which will probably get pulled any minute now, so hurry!).

First impressions of the morbidly named album? Take Rihanna’s hit “Take a Bow” and bring it a few shades darker and slower. Think Kanye West going from the colorful Graduation to the melancholy 808s & Heartbreak or Kelly Clarkson releasing the harder My December right after the poptastic Breakaway. Rihanna’s really in no mood to dance. She needs to talk things out. Over slow, joyless melodies.

Some of the tracks, mostly opener “Mad House”, almost feel like Rihanna’s covering a Marilyn Manson song. Course there are a few songs you’ll most likely hear nonstop at the clubs and on the radio (“Rude Boy” is the best bet), but if most of these songs were blasted at top volume at a club, it’d probably just bum everybody out.

Your thoughts on Rihanna’s new tunes? Are you buying this opening day, or just playing “Umbrella” on your stereo for the forty-millionth time?

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