Erotique

Prudes look away NOW. Rihanna has done an album and she expresses her desire for sex continually THROUGHOUT. That’s right. If you thought “S&M” was gratuitous, tacky and degrading (and we didn’t, for the record, although our feelings were mixed), you’re going to hate an album that features lines such as “Suck my cockiness, like my persuasion”, “I love it when you eat it”, “I wanna fuck you right now”, “Let me grab my dick while you sit on top”, “yeah boy I want it, yeah boy I need it”, “on the bed, on the floor, on the couch”, “ooh baby, baby, just like that”, “middle of the day, give me what I want, it feels so special, it feels so good”, “I know you wanna bite this”.

On one song RiRi offers up a ‘dirty secret’, “I just wanna be loved”, which will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has just sat through the cavalcade of single, double and triple entendres, innuendos, euphemisms and extended sexual metaphors that have previously been proffered.

Following on from the bruised but unfashionable pop masterpiece, Rated R, and the cold, commercial genre jigsaw that was Loud, Riri has gone back to basics, or, at least, back to the bedroom. The biggest surprise is that it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and the very definition of effortless.

Perhaps it’s Ms. Fenty’s (still) startlingly unique vocal, detached but familiar, sensuous but strange, sinuous and brash. Perhaps it’s the distinct lack of overused current chart music clichés (aside from one heavy house big bass drop that, whilst deeply enjoyable, carries the faintest whiff of dreaded pop cunts LMFAO and some dirgey dubstep on a bonus track, “Red Lipstick”). Perhaps it’s that elusive pop star x factor? Perhaps the emperor’s naked (but probably not).

There’s still a fair amount of variety on here though, from the Caribbean flavoured “Watch n’ Learn” to the hip hop of “Cockiness (Love It)” via emotional pop/rock ballad closer “Farewell”.

Never dull, never samey (unless you think brazen sex lyrics are samey…) Talk That Talk probably won’t be remembered as Riri’s defining album era, but it’s competent and enjoyable enough, with the arrogance and flair to make it easily the breeziest, stompiest and most euphoric pop album of 2011.