Rihanna – Good Girl Gone Bad – Live
Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 106 August 2008
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Life after ‘Umbrella’!
Review: Sultry 20-year-old Rihanna is the latest artist to be churned out by the American R&B conveyor belt. However, last year’s ubiquitous hit single ‘Umbrella’ (the longest UK chart-topper since Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Love Is All Around’ in 1994) suggested that she has got what it takes to stay ahead of the pop pack and carve out some longevity for herself. That said, ‘Umbrella’ was a long time ago in pop terms, and this DVD seems like a product that has been designed to keep Rihanna in the public eye whilst she retreats to work on new material…
Last winter’s UK tour underwhelmed British critics, with a spate of cancellations and technical difficulty related delays spoiling what should have been a celebratory end to the year for the newly-crowned pop queen. This concert, filmed in Manchester, captures Rihanna at her best, in one of the few fulfilled stadium gigs. Bizarrely, considering her unremarkable R&B origins, Rihanna’s set actually owes more to abrasive cyber-rock than it does to slick R&B! Whether she is trying to steer away from the clean-cut pop-puppet stereotype is a plausible consideration, and on this evidence Rihanna seems hell-bent on confounding expectations. Her latest record was entitled ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ and the bad girl persona is clearly pushed to the forefront here. Kitted out like a sultry pop-dominatrix, Rihanna emerges onstage in thigh-high boots and a barely-there PVC get-up! Whilst this may have confused the kids in the audience, I’m sure it put a smile on their dad’s faces!
The unexpected stage-wear may be easy to get used to, but the industrial-strength backing music is slightly harder to swallow. Dancehall-inspired ‘Pon De Replay’ is an inspired choice of opener, and although the hits come thick and fast they are nearly all in possession of a shrill metallic edge that bludgeons you into submission. Equally, aside from the familiar hits, much of the music is strangely forgettable, blurring into a prolonged techno-fied pop-stomp. However, a strange run through Bob Marley’s ‘Is This Love?’ does offer a brief moment of respite before she kicks into gear again. Curiously, early hit, ‘SOS’, seems like it is trampled over in a rush to get to the inevitable acoustic section. Rihanna herself preserves her icy poise throughout, interacting with the audience only when strictly necessary. Inevitably the set ends with a crowd-pleasing rendition of ‘Umbrella’, which is happily absent of the metallic noise that tainted so many earlier tracks.
Where Rihanna goes from here is anyone’s guess, but with the likes of Jay-Z, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake firmly in her corner, her future looks assured for now. In the meantime this slick DVD allows you to play catch-up with her whistle-stop career. Jagged and bombastic with a big dollop of raunchiness smothered on top, this is pop, but not as we know it!
FILM: 6
EXTRAS: 3
DVD Info:
Certificate: E
Directed By: Paul Caslin, 2007
Distributor: Universal/Def Jam
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 95mins
Price: £19.99
DVD supplied by: Def Jam Press Office
Special Features:
Track Selection
‘Documentary’ Featurette
Tracklisting:
Pon De Replay
Break It Off
Let Me
Rehab
Breakin’ Dishes
Is This Love?
Kisses Don’t Lie
Scratch
SOS
Good Girl Gone Bad
Hate That I Love You
Unfaithful
Sell Me Candy
Don’t Stop The Music
Push Up On Me
Shut Up And Drive
Question Existing
Umbrella
