Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad: A catchy album that's really grown on me

I wasn't too interested in Rihanna when I first heard her music, but the second I heard Umbrella, I absolutely loved it. I decided to give her CD a chance and picked up Good Girl Gone Bad.

After my first listen, I was disappointed that none of the tracks seemed to hold a candle to Umbrella. After listening to it some more, though, I've grown to really enjoy the album.

I think the reason I like it is because it's just different. The beats have a different feel to them, and so do the lyrics.

There are a few formulaic tracks (like Hate That I Love You feat. Ne-Yo), but it's not your usual happy/sad, semi-sappy, codependent pop music affair. Rihanna makes herself sound like an independent woman and not the "lost without my boyfriend type." I would like to see Rihanna take on the kind of subject matter that the group TLC handled so well over the years -- fun but meaningful -- and I think she's off to a solid start. I do think she could benefit from better writing...some of the album's catchier songs just don't make much sense once you start really listening to them.

Rihanna's voice is also just different from most of what's out there. It doesn't seem quite as powerful as most of the pop and R&B divas, but it has more of an edge and is easy to listen to.

Some of my favorite tracks
Umbrella feat. Jay-Z: One of my favorite songs of the year. It's just incredibly catchy and fun to sing along with, and a solid verse from Jay-Z doesn't hurt either.

Shut Up and Drive: I got a little burnt out on this song after hearing it on the radio so much, but it's a fun song with a slight rock edge.

Lemme Get That: Rihanna takes a hint from mentor Jay-Z and drops some brand names. The beat of this song drove me insane when I first heard it, but it really grew on me. (It's a Timbaland beat, and a lot of his stuff has that effect on me.) Rihanna kind of overdid it with the way she sings this song...I couldn't understand half the words without looking them up.

Sell Me Candy: It's a little too much of a pop song -- heck, the first lyrics are: Sell me candy like the summer when it's melting in my hands/I know you're around like the ice cream man." But Rihanna pulls it off, and the production (Timbaland again) is clever, and I find myself singing along even as I roll my eyes a little.

Breakin' Dishes: Rihanna acquires a frantic pace and she sings of destroying an exboyfriend's stuff, and she certainly sounds like she means it.

Good Girl Gone Bad I think this is a great song. I had imagined the title track would be something really hard-edged, maybe like Janet Jackson's "If" or something, but it's actually more laid back and acoustic-sounding than much of the album. And I hate to say it, but most females can relate to the concept of having a boyfriend that pays no attention to them until it's too late. OK, maybe that's just me, but surely I'm not the only one. She sings the song with a resigned air, "Cause once a good girl goes bad/we gone forever."

The only song on the album that I really don't like is Please Don't Stop the Music. I didn't mind it at first, but the repetitiveness is mostly what kills me -- there are only so many times I can hear "Please don't stop the music..." repeated over and over before I want to scream. It's one of those songs that radio pretty much ran into the ground for me.

Overall, this is a great album that will stick in your head for days. However, when I listen to it, I think more of where Rihanna could go than of where she is now. Judging by how this album compares to her earlier, more pop-influenced music, I think she's headed in the right direction. With solid production and good writing, she can put out some great music in the future.