Critical Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Boston Herald | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (C) |
| The Jamaica Observer | |
| New York Post | |
| The New York Times | (mixed) |
| PopMatters | (5/10) |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine | |
Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic praised Music of the Sun and awarded it 3.5 stars out of 5; Birchmeier commented that the album presents Rihanna as "winsome rather than wannabe," as well as how she managed to set herself apart from other dance-pop artists such as Ashanti, Beyoncé Knowles and Ciara. Birchmeier further stated that "Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end ... the result is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year." Chantal Jenoure of The Jamaica Observer gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5, and praised the dancehall and hip hop composition on several of the songs, including "Pon de Replay", "Rush", "Let Me", "Music of the Sun" and "That La La La", writing that they make the listener feel "happy" and "carefree".
Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times gave Music of the Sun a "mixed" rating; Sanneh praised Rihanna for combining dancehall and reggae genres with that of more popular and mainstream ones, noting that the combination between dancehall and pop resulted in " one the summer's biggest and most seductive club tracks." However, Sanneh noted that Rihanna sounds "stranded" when there is not a beat to sing along to. Liam Colle praised the album and its Caribbean infused beats and gave Music of the Sun a rating of 5 out of 10. Barry Walters of Rolling Stone rated it 2.5 out of 5 stars and described the album as lacking the replay value, ingenuity and rhythm of the single with "generic vocal hiccups and frills" of US R&B inflecting upon her "Caribbean charm". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine awarded the album 2.5 stars out of 5, describing the album as a "glut of teen R&B chanteuses" and described the lead single "Pon de Replay" as "a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé Knowles' "Baby Boy". Evan Serpick of Entertainment Weekly was critical of Music of the Sun and rated it as a C grade album, writing "The 17-year-old's vibrant vocals lift tracks like 'That La La La' and 'Let Me,' but this bland dancehall/R&B debut is filled with chintzy production and maudlin arrangements that block out the Music of the Sun."
Read more about this topic: Music Of The Sun
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