Justin's album would've been so much better as an instructmental in my opinion (unless sung by someone with stronger vocals). You can hardly hear Justin's vocals.

I never really got into Rihanna's old stuff, but I have and enjoy her latest album. She'd be a MUCH better singer if she would put more emotion into her songs. She kind of sounds like a robot at times, unfortunately.

elaborate joke or truth

hmmm...............

Well I think some of the songs she is singing could be realy good if they were sang by a person who has a nice voice!
I'm sorry to say that, I guess a lot of people who love Rihanna post in this thread but I think her voice is terrible and everything else but good or nice.
She destroys the songs with her voice.

I know I'm late here and everything but...someone actually listened to Umbrella and liked it?

I'm fucking confused.

Well I think some of the songs she is singing could be realy good if they were sang by a person who has a nice voice!
I'm sorry to say that, I guess a lot of people who love Rihanna post in this thread but I think her voice is terrible and everything else but good or nice.
She destroys the songs with her voice.

I...actually do kind of agree. I bought and enjoy her album, but one day I was reading some of the lyrics, and I thought, "these songs should've been much better than they were." Examples of this are "Breakin' Dishes" and "Rehab", which she completely destroyed.

I don't think her voice bad, though. I do think, however, that she puts NO emotion into her songs whatsoever. Her voice is so flat and boring, and it makes you wonder just what her true talent is. I'm pretty sure it wasn't her idea to change her look or her style of music (though this is much better than her old stuff).

And Umbrella is a good song. Her best one.

I dont even know half of the singles on that list. Umbrella is the only one. Unfaithful sounds really bad.

I definitely chose "Pon de Replay" because the only other ones I would choose were "Umbrella", "Shut Up and Drive", or "SOS" and I personally think that all of those songs were way overplayed. Plus I think that "Pon de Replay" has a nice beat to it.

Umbrella.... Hands down.

Christ, this thread is still active?

Anyway, re: JT and Rihanna, I'd be blown away if their next albums are as good as their most recent ones and honestly I expect to be disappointed.  But of course I hope I'm wrong.  If only one of them pulls through with a good follow-up I think it'll be Justin for sure, especially if he and Timbaland stay together.

It could just be that I'm back in school but off the top of my head I can't say I've really noticed any amazing pop this fall/winter.  Refreshing my memory with the Billboard charts I see nothing I really like.  I've been getting more into brands of metal I had largely left unexplored (post-metal, black metal, and drone metal mainly) and lately my pop interests have found satisfaction in J-Pop (I <3 HALCALI's first two albums, especially the first) and Shibuya-kei (Takako Minekawa <= rox).  2006-2007 were amazing for pop, though, and I'm optimistic for 2008.   

hey memoria this rihanna album kind of sucked other than umbrella!!!

Disagree.  The biggest problem with most mainstream pop/R&B albums is inconsistency; basically brilliant singles and dull filler.  Of the 12 tracks on the album, 5 are excellent (Umbrella, Breakin' Dishes, Shut Up and Drive, Lemme Get That, and Rehab), a couple are good but not  great (Sell Me Candy and Say It) and the others are pretty forgettable.  For a pop album that's pretty good.  Rehab is an especially fantastic track (thank you, JT and Timbaland); if Amy Winehouse didn't come out with her song first maybe they would've gone with it as a single.  Anyway, yeah, most pop albums are lucky to have 2 brilliant songs, this one has 5 and then a little bit.

also as far as pop goes have you heard the new Stars album (ollldddd but still) which I thought was way good, as was the sister release by The Most Serene Republic. also the new Los Campesinos rules, and if you are into dumb Russian shit, the new Gogol Bordello is pretty good.

if you mean mainstream, IDK, Girls Aloud's new album was the same as usual and they have fantastic production usually.

I haven't heard of any of these, but I might check them out, thanks.  (Yeah, by pop I typically mean like non-indie pop.)

That's not say that no good stuff has come out this fall/winter but there haven't been any new good pop artists and the dinosaurs seem to be hibernating.  Wolves in the Throne Room came out with their new album this past fall, I think, and I found out about the Cool Kids, who I'm excited about.  Also I didn't listen to M.I.A. until a couple months ago but I think Kala came out in the summer.  The rest of Kala is a bit meh, though, except for the Timbaland track.