Upon the release of the much anticipated movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” on Friday, the movie’s music track list featured a couple of songs from an artist whose fans have longed to hear more from since 2016: Rihanna.

A few days prior to the movie being released, Rihanna released “Lift Me Up” which was one of the main songs used throughout the film. Filled with a melancholic melody, the song was another outlet for Ryan Coogler, director of Black Panther, to express the grief of Chadwick Boseman’s (the original Black Panther) untimely passing due to cancer.

While this song fit well with the theme of the movie (which was overcoming the death of a loved one), there were other songs that perhaps weren’t as well suited to be featured on the film. To overcome sorrow, one must feel some happiness, however songs such as “Con La Brisa” by Foudeqush and Ludwig Goransson may have been the wrong choice. Without any spoilers, one of the characters begins exploring a new setting with this song playing in the background. It sounded a little childish given the context. Another odd song was “They Want It, But No” by Tobe Nwigwe and Fat Nwigwe. The song is fine by itself, but it just didn’t fit with the tone of the scene.

Perhaps Coogler wanted to emphasize the contrast between the intermittent feelings of happiness in a journey that is solemn, but it just didn’t come across as such. For this, I give the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By” album a 6.8/10.