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Just a week after the single release of “Russian Roulette”, we can all see the official album cover for Rihanna’s Rated R shot by photographer photographer Ellen von Unwerth:

Von Unwerth goes on to say that Rihanna is “so beautiful, sweet and tough at the same time — and a pleasure to shoot,” adding that she’s “fantastic to work with — very giving, very creative, very involved in every aspect of the shoot, and ready to push the boundaries.” [SOURCE]

The cover is decent; very dark natured and reflects “an edgier, almost angrier Rihanna.” We would have rather the camera zoom out instead of such a tight shot of her shoulders and face. Hopefully there’s an alternate image for the Deluxe version or somethin’. As much hype as we bring along with each post about Rihanna or her album we can truthfully say we aren’t buying into our OWN hype. Reason being, this whole dark and edgy Rihanna makes us think aggressive, hi-energy, powerful beats, etc… not melancholy and depressive. Her ballads just don’t do it for us despite them being so successful on the charts. But once we hear some of her uptempo material that shall change.