Username: Ghost-Quartet

Album: Pink Friday Roman Reloaded: Wow was it long. It’s almost gluttonously long, I’m glad we didn’t rate the Re-Up because that would have been way too much. I remember listening to this and liking it when I was younger (by which I mean a year ago) but more than the other two albums it’s aged.

Roman Holiday: 9 Memes aside this is a cool song, it’s not often a mainstream artist is willing to go this weird. Is it good? Not always, but it’s memorable and holds my attention like a vice grip.

Come On A Cone: 10 Probably my favorite song on the album, I love her lyrics here. It’s got the craziness of “Roman Holiday” but in a contained way where it’s focused but we can still see it bubbling beneath the surface.

I Am Your Leader (feat. Cam'ron & Rick Ross): 6.8 Eh, “Come On A Cone” did basically the same thing but better. Also sucking a dick is fun Nicki.

Beez In The Trap (feat. 2 Chainz): 7 It’s good but it makes its point and then keep going. I feel like this could have been an interlude.

HOV Lane: 8 Of the pure rap songs on this album this is one of my favorites, her lyrics are good and I think she sits really well in the production here.

Roman Reloaded (feat. Lil Wayne): 5 Um, a Columbine reference? And you’re gonna make fun of Raggedy Ann? Go back to retirement.

Champion (feat. Nas, Drake, & Jeezy): 6 Am I racist if I’m middling on this one? It feels messy. Like, this track is overstuffed. Good sentiment though.

Right By My Side (feat. Chris Brown): 3 At least Rihanna put Chris Brown on a good song.

Sex In The Lounge (feat. Lil Wayne & Bobby V.): 8.5 I weirdly like this song? The strings sound like they’re supposed to be elegant and the chorus is so smooth but then like, the chorus is just about having sex in public. The juxtaposition of the crass subject matter and the posh stylings is so funny.

Starships: 8 Finally… a pop song. This was clearly written to be pandering to the pop crowd and you know what? It worked, this slaps.

Pound The Alarm: 8 Sometimes being loud and being good are the same thing.

Whip It: 4 sometimes a song is just noise

Automatic: 5 I don’t know about this one… Nicki isn’t really a singer and usually she manages to get by on that but something about this dancefloor production just doesn’t work with her thinner vocals.

Beautiful Sinner: 6 At least it’s weird.

Marilyn Monroe: 6 She really made the Facebook meme into a song, huh? Of the two songs in this rate that are about Marilyn Monroe I would say this is the worse one.

Young Forever: 8.5 I’m always a sucker for this kind of “young love leaves a scar” song.

Fire Burns: 8.5 One of the more under appreciated of the pop songs on this album, this kind of more mournful production really suits Nicki. Like I know we all love it when she gets crazy but she really pulls off pathos very well.

Gun Shot (feat. Beenie Man): 8 An ambitious mix of crazy Nicki, emotional Nicki, and dance Nicki. It works surprisingly well!

Stupid Hoe: 9 Okay but if Lil Kim was so stupid how come she’s the highest selling musician on PayPal Music?

Va Va Voom: 7.5 It’s like, “Pound The Alarm” or “Starships” but not as iconic. Still good though.

Masquerade: 7 What a weird choice of an ending track. God this album was long.

Album: Unapologetic

Phresh Out The Runway: 7.5 When this first started I was like “ew what is this trashy mess” but then a minute later I was bopping. This is what every RuPaul song post-*Born Naked* is trying to be.

Diamonds: 8 My dad loves this song.

Numb (feat. Eminem): 3 It sounds like something that would play in the background of a club scene on a tv show while someone is having a drug trip. I totally get what she’s going for here with the weird vocals and verse/chorus structures evoking the feeling of numbness she describes, but just because she achieved her goal doesn’t necessarily mean it was the right choice to make. Also Eminem is corny and didn’t need to be here.

Pour It Up: 2 what was the point?

Loveeeeeee Song (feat. Future): 6 why does Future sound like a literal seal, just let Rihanna sing

Jump: 3 The verses feel like Rihanna just standing around while she waits for the drop to happen. A lot of the songs in this rate feel like products of their era but usually it’s charming; here it’s obnoxious. While I have nostalgia for this era of music songs like this remind me why we left it behind.

Right Now (feat. David Guetta): 6.5 All of the women in this rate have done a “we are young” style song and I think Rihanna’s is the worst, it’s kind of obnoxious. I like the bridge though.

What Now: 8

Stay (feat. Mikky Ekko): 7 I don’t know, maybe I’ve just heard one too many contemporary musical theatre songs that sound like this but this track doesn’t do all that much for me. It’s very well written but I think it hasn’t aged that well; it’s not dated but it feels like so much has happened since then that this isn’t as impressive as it once was.

Nobody's Business (feat. Chris Brown): 8 Of *course* Rihanna would serve us a slick Italo-house bop and then let Chris Brown ruin it. Of course. I’m not going to arbitrarily score this one lower because of his involvement, a rate is a rate, but I can say without bias that he underserves the song. His voice is too thin and scratchy, someone with a fuller, richer tone would have made a better match for Rihanna. The part at the end where they’re trading lines back and forth is maybe the worst vocal moment on the album.

Love Without Tragedy / Mother Mary: 7.5 This song is immediately striking for the pathos and the unusual structure, but unfortunately a general lack of focus and ending fatigue keep it from delivering on this promise. Still, there’s a lot of good there, and she gets points for trying something different.

Get It Over With: 9 I really like this one! It feels like something I’d lie in my bed listening to moodily while staring up at the ceiling.

No Love Allowed: 10 High-key this was my favorite song on the album. She’s obviously a queen of dance music and I’m fully aware that this sounds crazy but Rihanna has always given me a bit of a country singer vibe. Like a lot of country singers she doesn’t necessarily have the best singing voice but she’s good at creating a mood and telling a story, so story driven songs like this (and “Man Down”) really work for her. Something simple but effective is a good sound for her, I love the unassuming chorus and Rihanna’s voice sounds good without her having to sound nasal or like she’s doing a Sia impression. I’d love to hear more from her like this.

Lost In Paradise: 8.5 The clashing electropop sound really works here, I think this has the best drop on the album.

Half Of Me: 7 I like the idea of this song, especially given Rihanna’s image at the time, but the lyrics leave a little something to be desired.

Album: Warrior: My favorite Kesha album, and one of my favorite albums of the 2010s. I don’t think Kesha really got enough credit for how she explored the dark underbelly of 2010s party culture. Everything is so trashy and soaked in booze but there’s this underpinning of fear and explosion of love lurking underneath and she exposed both so beautifully.

Warrior: 9 Kesha albums always have great anthems as title tracks and this album is no exception. The drop should feel dated but it’s “subdued” enough to still sound good, and Kesha takes no prisoners with her vocals here. I love the “call to arms” feel of the track, it’s easy to write off Kesha’s party girl persona as pandering and empty but it’s clear on songs like this that she always had a strong idea of who she was speaking to with this music and she had a lot of fondness/respect for them.

Die Young: 10 The “stripped” version is particularly chilling as well.

C'Mon: 10 This was one of the first pop songs I really fell in love with and the one that convinced me to give Kesha a chance. The song feels so wrong but so right, it should annoy the annoy the hell out of me but it’s so charming in its stupid earnestness that it just makes me smile. It’s good clean fun, too silly to be truly obnoxious.

Thinking of You: 8.5 This is the “You’re So Vain” of our time. [I can’t trust any of you to link the iconic thread so here it is](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/9q6yre/is_keshas_song_thinking_of_you_released_in_2012/)

Crazy Kids: 6 A lot of the songs on this album teeter on the edge of being annoying and I think this one verges the furthest into that territory. It just feels kind of rushed and the rapped chorus is too stupid for me to like.

Wherever You Are: 8 I love the sentiment of this song. One of the things I appreciate about this album is how it captures the spirit of different aspects of being young, in this case the way that people come and go from our lives so quickly but leave big impacts. It’s not a mournful song, it’s celebratory, and as someone who’s really bad at keeping track of friends I like that idea.

Dirty Love (feat. Iggy Pop): 7 I have a soft spot for this song even if objectively it’s kind of trash. “Only Wanna Dance With You” does basically the same thing sonically but is cuter.

Wonderland: 7.8 This is like “Wherever You Are” with pathos rather than euphoria, it’s such a sweet little tribute to her past. It takes on a decidedly more morbid tone given everything that’s come out about Kesha’s life but just as a song it’s always moved me.

Only Wanna Dance With You: 7.5 This is a cute little throwback to the pop-rock era, I’m bopping.

Supernatural: 5 The writing is decent but the production on this one is a real stinker. The Deconstructed Mix sounds way better.

All That Matters (The Beautiful Life): 6.5 Add this song to the list of “songs that are way creepier knowing about the Kesha/Luke situation.” Personally I’ve never been a huge fan of this one, the message and the desperation of the song are powerful but it kind of just sounds like screaming.

Love Into the Light: 10 The thesis of *Warrior*, and a really strong one at that. There’s just something so poignant about placing this song at the end of an album devoted to exploring the mindset and motivations of the 21st century youth, it’s like, only now that we really understand her can she impart this important message onto us. It’s like, we as a society really made fun of Kesha during her “Ke$ha” days, but all along there was a human being there who needed our love and support just as much as anyone else. It’s hard for me to put into words because it seems so basic but like, why are we so mean to each other? When did love go out of fashion? There’s so much hate in this world and it feels like a lot of the time even the people who should be friends are fighting each other, and rather than being kind to the people who are different than us we shun them. Anyways, this was a mess but the point is I really like this song, it has beautiful lyrics and gorgeous non-Dr. Luke production,

Last Goodbye: 5 I think the biggest problem with *Warrior* is that after a point it starts to feel repetitive. Like, sonically some of the songs tread very similar ground, this is cute but it sounds like a mashup of the themes/sounds of like four other songs on the album.

Gold Trans Am: 7.5 This is so trashy but I’m having fun so I’ll allow it.

Out Alive: 7 I remember when I was a kid my sister told me that everybody was partying because the world was ending and that was making it end faster and that scarred me. This song is borderline scary.

Past Lives: 11 This is THE Kesha song for me, I love this song so much. It’s so gentle and sweet, I don’t believe in soulmates or whatever but it’s such a lovely sentiment. Two people falling through time towards each other, shaping history just so they can be together, it’s a beautiful idea. Kesha loves this idea so much she resisted it on “Finding You” on *Rainbow*, another great song.

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