Rihanna’s new album is shaping up to be the most artistically acclaimed of her illustrious career. Here’s just a tasted of what the critics are saying…

ROLLING STONE (4 STARS)

“The real triumph here is artistic…Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year…With Rihanna, singing has never been in doubt. The question has always been…: Is there a flesh-and-blood woman lurking beneath the big voice and model looks? On Rated R, she answers the question emphatically…The songs are etched in somber shades and minor chords, with Rihanna belting over synths and booming beats. The results are a musical match for the black-on-black CD cover — goth R&B.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES (4 STARS)

“A complex and fascinating portrait of a young woman’s emotional process … Rihanna is exceptionally brave on “Rated R,” exposing the wide range of emotions and impulses… Rihanna has given those young fans for whom she feels responsible the greatest gift art can give: a portrait of lived experience that doesn’t step back from what’s hardest to admit.”

PEOPLE (4 STARS)

“Rihanna had yet to make her big artistic statement. She has now. Rated R, her gritty 4th album, is her coming-of-age manifesto, her Control…it’s deeper and darker, harder and heavier than anything you would have expected…Brava.”

NEW YORK TIMES

“a bleak, adamant album that’s both brave and skillful. Its love songs are about breakups and passion’s destructive power… The songs on “Rated R” make the payoffs of being a lover and pop diva sound like compulsions rather than pleasures, with perseverance as the own and only reward… In the multimedia whirlwind of a 21st-century pop career, Rihanna simply couldn’t have made an album of lovey-dovey ballads or simple dance songs. “Rated R” does what divas do: leverage personal troubles into music. And with it, Rihanna never lets her sorrows overwhelm her musical craftsmanship or the determination behind it.”

USA TODAY

“on her fourth album in five years, Rated R (* * * out of four), released today, she’s not asking for sympathy…She’s serving notice that the drama has left her unbowed… Bolder and often explicit lyrics and more assured vocals reflect a growing confidence and artistic maturity… To her credit, she doesn’t exploit or even explicitly address her unfortunate circumstances. This is about her coming to grips with her stardom, her hurts, her competition and her critics.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“The Barbados native, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty 21 years ago, has graduated from the light dance-pop of “SOS” and “Umbrella” that helped her sell 12 million records to a sound a good deal darker and harder… Rihanna personalizes most of these songs in a way that suggests she had a much greater voice in this album than any of her previous efforts… she turned regret into powerful and moving art.”

CHICAGO SUN TIMES

“”Rated R”… is by far the best, most layered and most heartfelt effort of the 21-year-old artist’s career… her vocal range has never sounded more convincing or deserving of the pop spotlight…(Rated R) makes this listener eager to hear how much more she may grow in the years to come.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Rihanna may still have her umbrella (ella, ella), but all offers to stand under it are off. If 2007’s multiplatinum chart beast Good Girl Gone Bad was her gleaming pop opus, Rated R is a defiant middle finger to all that — a posttraumatic diary built on furious bravado… it’s a raw, often unsettling portrait of an artist who is, she insists, no longer a Girl at all.”