Rihanna/Time

Seeing Time frontman Morris Day reduced to sideman duty would have been a crime of cosmic stature — so it's a good thing he got to play a few verses of ''Jungle Love'' with the reunited Time before Rihanna came out to keep things current. (Let it be known that Mr. Day's ability to check his gold-lamé-suit-wearing self out in a large mirror remains undiminished.) But Rihanna proved a much more lively singer than Vanity or Apollonia ever were, and her hits ''Umbrella'' and ''Don't Stop the Music'' sounded pretty terrific dressed up in all those Minneapolis synths. A-