Let's just get something out of the way. Rated R is one of the finest pop albums of this century's first decade, and most certainly Rihanna's best. It featured epic (in the sense of grandness and enormity, not epic as in "amazing lulz!") ballads mixed in with genuinely fierce stompers, with songwriting which reflected her personal life and thoughts while managing to be both artistic and commercial in nature. It had a consistent theme and concept which was about as high brow as a pop album's concept could get, and which spilled over into one of the very best stage shows we've witnessed. In a nutshell: it was always going to be tough to top - or even meet. A year later, Rihanna has injected a bit more colour into her palette and has presented a very good collection of dance pop, with throw backs to her 'roots' (hate it when people say that, but sometimes it's gotta be done) yet still very 2010. We don't want to compare Rated R and Loud - well we do, because it would be exceptionally easy to - but it's not fair. Rated R was a mammoth accomplishment, which arrived three years after an almost equally huge album (Good Girl Gone Bad) - Loud is due to be released under a year after it's predecessor. So that's it now. No more Rated R mentions. This is going to be hard.
The album opens with the very interesting "S&M". It's basically just RiRi getting her filth on - "Sticks and stones won't break my bones / But whips and chains excite me" - but makes an amazing opener. It would be cracking to open a live show. Lots of... whips and chains? "What's My Name" somehow blends a very relaxed, dance-hall vibe (oh my god we sound like journalists we mock) with the Tiësto late 90s trance sound that seems to be en vogue in RnB at the minute. We didn't really like it at first but... it's a grower. A highlight of the album: "Cheers (Drink to That)", featuring the return of the amazing Bajan accent/lilt and an Avril Lavigne sample. Yes, you read correctly. A dreary, boring, grey rock ballad from 2001 has been dissected and the best bit has been slapped on top of a mesmerising beat. As the other half of S&N noted, the song is basically "I Got a Feeling" for pubs, bars and beaches. Euphoria turns up and rears its gorgeous head again in "Only Girl (In the World)", a song everyone has heard by now, marked by one of the Best Choruses of All Time. It really is a throw-your-arms-in-the-air moment.
Baby-RiRi, Shontelle, wrote "Man Down", the most Caribbean-influenced song Rihanna's sung since her first album. We're not traditionally the hugest fans of music from that region of the world, but this song is actually very very good and makes for repeat listening well. Not massively impressed with "Raining Men", despite it featuring Nicki "Amazing" Minaj, but maybe it's a grower. "Complicated" is another highlight. The intro is a bit B*Witched circa whenever B*Witched were around, but as soon as the vocals start out and the shivers begin... to be honest, the vocals are a highlight. Her vocal cords haven't stretched this far since "Cold Case Love" or "The Last Song" (both from that album we're not mentioning in interests of fairness), so that is all quite pleasant. "Skin" is a bit of filler, and we're much bigger fans of "Love the Way You Lie Part II" than the horrendously overplayed original. The verses are pretty and make the subject matter far starker than Eminem's ugly voice can portray.
So that's the album song by song. We would discuss in further depth how amazing "Who's That Chick" but as it seems to be a Doritos promo only, we can't really slap it onto Loud. But yeah - that is an amazing song, and video. Should be the second single if you ask us. But no one will ask us. Loud is a good three-and-a-half star album. It's got some brilliant tunes and an enormous lead single, but nothing else on the album really defines 'spectacular'. It's got good repeatability and we think some of the music will translate well to a live show. A concept to tie it all together would've been welcome, but maybe the easy-going, simplistic dance pop is the theme. We can go with that. She's got enough in her and producers around her to knock out another masterpiece or two before her time in pop world is over, so we're not disappointed. Just waiting.
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