To label Rihanna a risk-taker is sort of the understatement – particularly by the point her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk, arrived, on November 21, 2011. Just a 12 months on from the success of Loud, Rihanna was able to proceed her pop reign. And, as along with her earlier releases, the quilt artwork set the tone for the album, with Rihanna staring defiantly again on the digicam, licking her lips just like the cat who received the cream.
Love, intercourse, repeat
Rihanna has all the time been a hit-machine, however Talk That Talk rolls these stand-out moments into considered one of her most cohesive albums: love, intercourse, repeat. Sure, it’s not a novel idea, however she takes you along with her alongside each stage of the connection. Bridging the hole between her previous and her current, the album opens with “You Da One.” a tune that seems like dreamy echo, a glimmer of her earlier file that was left enjoying till this one picks up.
Immediately from the opening verse, “Baby I love you, I need you here/Give me all the time,” you’ll be able to hear Rihanna experimenting along with her vocal supply and leaning into the trap-pop vocal that was simply beginning to emerge. In the accompanying video, she’s dressed a Droog from the 70s cult traditional A Clockwork Orange, and channeling the identical manic power of the movie.
Dissolving boundaries
On Talk That Talk, Rihanna continues to dissolve boundaries between R&B, hip-hop, and home music. She comes straight out of the gates with two EDM cuts, “Where Have You Been” and the lead single “We Found Love,” which might launch DJ and producer Calvin Harris into the stratosphere. Like “Umbrella,” “We Found Love” takes a deceptively easy hook and turns it right into a chart gold via repetition and Rihanna’s ecstatic vocal efficiency.
While most pop stars have been barely timid about embracing the rising wave of entice music, Rihanna absolutely embraced the style’s perspective and swagger, as will be heard on the album’s collaborative title monitor, which includes a visitor spot from her former mentor, Jay Z. At the identical time as hip-hop was embracing its delicate facet, Rihanna was suffusing her music with subversive sexuality and man-eating abandon.
A brand new sonic course
Sounding a bit disjointed in comparison with her often polished sound, “Talk That Talk” indicated a brand new sonic course for Rihanna. In truth, most critics have been jarred by the album as a complete, feeling that it was too uncooked and, maybe, too quick. In some ways, nevertheless, Talk That Talk was consistent with the way in which music is consumed within the trendy period. Even as a full-length album, it replicated the brevity of hip-hop mixtapes and EPs, finally foreshadowing the streaming tradition that may quickly dominate the panorama.
Rihanna leans into the specific wordplay on “Cockiness (Love It),” declaring herself “queen of your body parts”. That second is outdone by the interlude-length monitor “Birthday Cake,” which furthers the singer’s sexual agenda. By this time, Rihanna had amassed sufficient of a catalog to be self-referential: “Roc Me Out” performs as a solution monitor to “Rude Boy.” whereas “Watch N’ Learn” works as a dancehall name again to her early albums.
But for all her dancefloor outings, she throws in just a few curveballs on Talk That Talk, from the earnest, guitar-driven “We All Want Love” to the moody, The xx-sampling “Drunk On Love.” She ends Talk That Talk, with a bombastic send-off within the form of “Farewell,” however it was clear that Rihanna would have rather more to say…