rihanna greatest hits chris brown album cover

Love on the Brain (2016)Īn anomaly even in Rihanna’s eclectic back catalogue, Love on the Brain delves into doo-wop and early-60s soul ballads, sampling Sam Brown’s Stop along the way. If you want an example of the diverse influences that have gone into Rihanna’s singles over the years, look no further: Where Have You Been draws on I’ve Been Everywhere, a 1959 Australian country song once covered by – oh dear – Rolf Harris, transforming it into a gleaming, joyous bit of pop-house. It’s a gutsy move to riff on an idea already used on the biggest-selling album in pop history, but Don’t Stop the Music’s borrowing of Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa – via Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Starting Something from Thriller – worked perfectly: an insistent presence in the background of a powerful dance track. Macca’s acoustic guitar drives the appealingly rough-edged and stripped-back FourFiveSeconds along, but it’s Rihanna’s vocal that makes the song come alive. The unexpected sound of Rihanna collaborating not merely with Kanye West but Paul McCartney. If not quite as spectacular as Man Down, You Da One’s attempt to meld dancehall and fluorescent 21st-century pop is still impressive, not least in the way it stirs dubstep into the sonic mix: the bass-heavy drop before the final chorus is genuinely exciting, shifting the mood of the track. Kiss It Better was nominated for best R&B song at the Grammys, but in truth it’s a diversion into potent power balladry – laden with distorted guitar, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Cher singing it on the deck of a warship – albeit one given a hint of left-field weirdness by the primitive drum machine ticking away in the background.

Rihanna greatest hits chris brown album cover