Rihanna on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Saint Michael, Barbados on February 20, 1988, and was still in school when an American producer on vacation heard her sing in a hotel room. That was Evan Rogers, who brought her north to cut demos with his partner Carl Sturken and signed her as the first artist on their company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions.

The demo reached Jay-Z not long after he took over as president of Def Jam. He thought "Pon de Replay" was too big a song for an unknown singer, then invited her to audition anyway. She sang for Jay-Z and L.A. Reid in New York in early 2005 and waited in Jay-Z's office while the lawyers finished the contract.

What followed is one of the strangest catalogs in modern pop: eight albums in eleven years, each a hard turn away from the last, from Caribbean radio pop to arena rock to the slow, unhurried record that closed the run. She parted with Def Jam in 2014, took ownership of her masters, and put the last one out on her own imprint. Here is every Rihanna record we carry, in order, and where to start.

Rihanna - Music of the Sun

The debut landed in August 2005 on Syndicated Rhythm Productions and Def Jam, built mostly by Rogers and Sturken, with Stargate and Full Force filling in around them. Music of the Sun leans hard on Barbados and Jamaica, and it has the guests to match: Vybz Kartel, Kardinal Offishall and J-Status all turn up. It sounds less like the rest of the catalog than anything else here.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2005 debut, cut with Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, the pair who found her
• Holds "Pon de Replay" and "If It's Lovin' that You Want," with Vybz Kartel aboard
• The only Rihanna album that sits squarely in Caribbean pop

Rihanna - A Girl Like Me

Eight months later she was back with a bigger record. "SOS" had been cut for Christina Milian before L.A. Reid moved it to her, "Unfaithful" came from Ne-Yo and Stargate under the working title "Murderer," and "Break It Off" put her shoulder to shoulder with Sean Paul. A Girl Like Me is where the ballads arrive next to the island songs, and where she starts taking writing credits.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2006 second album, home to "SOS," "Unfaithful" and "Break It Off" with Sean Paul
• "SOS" was recorded for another singer first and handed to her by the label
• The bridge between the Barbados debut and the pop reinvention that came next

Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad

This is the pivot, and it is not a subtle one: the hair cut short, the island records gone, Timbaland and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart in the room. Good Girl Gone Bad reached American shops in June 2007 carrying "Umbrella" with Jay-Z, a song Tricky Stewart and The-Dream had pitched elsewhere before Def Jam bought it for her. If you are collecting the 2000s, this is the one.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2007 album that rebuilt her as a pop singer, led by "Umbrella" with Jay-Z
• Timbaland produced "Rehab," with lyrics written by Justin Timberlake
• Also holds "Don't Stop the Music," "Shut Up and Drive" and "Hate That I Love You"

Rihanna - Rated R

The darkest thing she has made. Released in November 2009 and executive produced by Rihanna with L.A. Reid, Rated R pulls Chase & Status and Rob Swire in from drum and bass, keeps The-Dream and Tricky Stewart from the last record, and hands the guitar on "Rockstar 101" to Slash. "Russian Roulette" opens it with a gun metaphor and almost no chorus.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2009 album, the sharpest left turn in the catalog
• Drum and bass producers Chase & Status next to The-Dream and Tricky Stewart
• Holds "Russian Roulette," "Rude Boy," "Hard" with Young Jeezy and "Te Amo"

Rihanna - Loud

Eleven songs kept from roughly two hundred written at the camp assembled for it. Loud arrived in November 2010 and is the most purely enjoyable record she has: "Only Girl (In the World)," "What's My Name?" with Drake, "S&M." Then there is "Man Down," a reggae murder ballad produced by Shama Joseph that sits in the middle of a pop album and refuses to behave.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2010 album, eleven keepers pulled from a writing camp of around two hundred songs
• Carries "Only Girl (In the World)," "What's My Name?" with Drake and "S&M"
• "Man Down" and "California King Bed" show how far she could stretch inside a pop record

Rihanna - Talk That Talk

The first of her albums to carry Roc Nation on the label line, out in November 2011. Calvin Harris wrote and produced "We Found Love" alone, and it became the record that defined her dance years. Jay-Z returns on the title track of Talk That Talk, cut over a Notorious B.I.G. sample, with Dr. Luke, Cirkut and No I.D. filling out the rest.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2011 album, the first released with Roc Nation on the label
• "We Found Love" was written and produced entirely by Calvin Harris
• Jay-Z guests on the title track, built over a Notorious B.I.G. sample

Rihanna - Unapologetic

Seven albums in seven years, and you can hear the pace. Unapologetic came out in November 2012 with the widest producer list of anything she has done, from No I.D. and Mike Will Made It to Labrinth, Naughty Boy and David Guetta. "Diamonds" is the ballad everyone knows, "Stay" with Mikky Ekko is the one that has aged best, and "Numb" is built over a Kanye West sample.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2012 album, the seventh in seven years and the last made with Def Jam
• Holds "Diamonds," "Stay" with Mikky Ekko, "Pour It Up" and "Loveeeeeee Song" with Future
• The broadest producer list of her career, from No I.D. to Labrinth to David Guetta

Rihanna - Anti

Then she took her time. Anti needed a year and a half of teasing, a Roy Nachum cover carrying a Braille poem, and a January 2016 release through Tidal to arrive, and it is the only album credited to her own Westbury Road alongside Roc Nation rather than Def Jam. It is slower and stranger than anything before it: "Work" with Drake, "Needed Me," "Love on the Brain" and a straight cover of Tame Impala's "New Person, Same Old Mistakes."

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Her 2016 album, the first on her own Westbury Road imprint after she gained her masters
• Holds "Work" with Drake, "Kiss It Better," "Needed Me" and "Love on the Brain"
• Closes with a full cover of Tame Impala's "New Person, Same Old Mistakes"

If You Like Rihanna

• Beyonce: the other pole of 2000s R&B, and the singer Rihanna was measured against from the first single on.
• SZA: sings on the opening track of Anti, and writes about wanting things with the same lack of armor.
• The Weeknd: the same late night pull toward gloom, over albums that never sit still either.
• Aaliyah: the blueprint for the cool, unhurried delivery the later Rihanna records are built on.
• Ciara: came up on the same radio at the same moment and never stopped making rhythm records.

There is more to chase once these are on the shelf: the 2008 reissue Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, which added "Disturbia" and "Take a Bow," plus the guest verses and one off singles between albums. Browse everything she has in one place in our Rihanna collection, dig into the wider shelf in R&B and Pop, or work the decade the last three belong to with 2010's Vinyl Albums.

It's all in GOOD TASTE.