Album reviews (Rihanna, Kid Rock, Led Zeppelin) | canada.com

Rihanna

Unapologetic

(Universal)

Tucked in the home stretch of her seventh album, Rihanna offers us the year?s most surreal moment.

Jaw-dropping in its cynical manipulation and hypocrisy, ?Nobody?s Business? features the singer in a duet with Chris Brown, the restraining order after he used her face as a punching bag seemingly a distant memory.

It?s not a big surprise, since the two had collaborated earlier this year on a remix of Talk That Talk track ?Birthday Cake.? Yet there?s something even more nauseating and sinister about this track, which is otherwise a pretty fair R&B smoker: its message. Incredibly, this second collaboration between abuser and victim is not just about letting bygones be bygones. What the two seem to want is for everyone to just mind their own business and leave them alone.

Seriously? If so, why make this demand on a no-doubt-platinum album? The not-so-hidden agenda of such self-mythologizing is to get people talking, listening and, of course, buying. This sanctimonious request for privacy comes off, paradoxically, as a publicity grab.

The rest of the album is pretty much the expected combo of tuneless dance-floor swill, Autotune assault, forgettable ballads and deeply dumb lyrics that celebrate little but partying, money and celebrity.

Unapologetic is more or less divided between an uptempo, surrender-to-the-beat first half and a more introspective, slower-paced second section. The David Guetta-produced opener ?Phresh Out the Runway,? all robotic whomp and f-bomb shtick, quickly establishes a melody-free, pedestrian turf. Things become slightly more interesting with ?Numb,? a decent duet with Eminem that takes a fatal turn with its wince-inducing, brain-dead words.

?I?m the butt police, and I?m looking at your rear rear rear/ But the odds are I?ma end up in the back of a squad car,? Eminem raps. Number of people sharing writing credits on the track: seven.

It?s a recurring problem as an army of writers and producers ? including the Swedish team Stargate, The-Dream and Future ? look for a cut of Rihanna?s inexplicable popularity and scramble to get their names on the disc. But there?s no doctoring this weak material.

For every tiny moment of hope ? the oddly intriguing production on ?Jump? or the decent first section of ?Love Without Tragedy/ Mother Mary? (in which Rihanna seems to be asking ?Mr. Jesus? to help her with those world domination plans) ? there are too many spirit crushers like the clubby cliche ?Right Now,? the instantly unmemorable slow-tempo duet ?Stay,? with Mikky Ekko and the aptly titled ?Get It Over With.?

In the end, there?s little here but look-at-me hype and factory-made, soulless product. With this disc, Rihanna most clearly defines herself as a triumph of marketing.

Rating: 1 out of 5

? Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News

(Want more on Rihanna? Check out canada.com?s review of her 777 Tour stop in Toronto.)

Kid Rock

Rebel Soul

(Atlantic)

He might have supported Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, but Kid Rock still seems to connect most closely with the little guy on his latest set of straight-ahead chooglers. If your idea of a great time is hanging out with friends, good, loud music and several pints, the Kid invites you to his Redneck Paradise on the singalong rocker of the same name (Of course, there?s no guarantee that things won?t get out of hand pretty quickly.) His un-rock-n?-roll politics aside, Rock?s musical heart is in the right place. Most of these songs are blue-collar, heartland rockers that stick close to the Chuck Berry canon as adapted by his fellow Detroit son Bob Seger. Seger, not surprisingly, is among the local legends name-checked in ?Detroit, Michigan,? a love letter to their hometown.

Unfortunately, there?s very little on this workmanlike set you haven?t heard a million times. Four-on-the-floor backbeats, handclaps, pounding piano and guitar fills, wailing solos and standard-issue, beer-soaked chord progressions all share the stage, in the service of Rock?s always-impressive pipes.

He goes off track on the Autotune-drenched, arena-ready epic ballad ?The Mirror? and the pedestrian hip-hop throwaway ?Cucci Galore,? but mostly plays it safe, using the bar-band instruction manual. The almost-seven-minute ?Mr. Rock n? Roll,? which tips its hat to a bunch of classic-rock staples, is his most engaging and focused moment.

In that song, Rock complains that the ?hip hop pop punk rock kids got no soul? and celebrates the eternal truths of blues-based rock n? roll. It?s a sentiment that will resonate with many, even though most of these songs will be too forgettable to grab their hearts as well.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

? Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News

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Led Zeppelin

Celebration Day

(Atlantic)

On Dec. 10, 2007, British rock giants Led Zeppelin reunited to perform a one-night-only charity concert at the O2 arena in London in honour of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Five years later the concert is seeing the light of day in the form of a movie, Blu-ray/DVD and album package that faithfully captures the spirit of the evening. On the album version the first couple of songs (?Good Times Bad Times,? ?Ramble On?) feel a bit shaky and uneven, but the concert properly takes off with classic ?Black Dog? and things only get better from there. With John Bonham?s son Jason behind the drum kit, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones tear through the essential cuts from their catalogue with nary a miss. ?It still feels pretty good up here!? exclaims Plant during ?In My Time Of Dying,? and indeed Celebration Day bears its name well. Every cut ? ?Trampled Under Foot,? ?Dazed And Confused? and ?Kashmir,? especially ? is gigantic, and what could potentially have been Zeppelin?s final gig is a faithful testament to the immensity of ?70s rock.

Rating: 4 out of 5

? Francois Marchand, Postmedia News

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Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/11/20/album-reviews-rihanna-kid-rock-led-zeppelin/

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