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REVIEWER: Rihanna's "Loud" is her "All For You"

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King Baby Advanced Member

King Baby

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Only 3 stars?

:whistle::whistle::whistle::whistle:

Loud

***by Sal Cinquemani on November 12, 2010

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After comparing last year's Rated R to Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope, Eric Henderson ended his review of the album by expressing hopes that Rihanna wouldn't follow up with something like All for You. At first glance, it appears that his fears were justified: Like Janet's last hit album, Loud is a decided step away from its über-personal, melodrama-drenched predecessor.

While that may disappoint critics like Eric and I, however, it's probably smart business. Lead single "Only Girl (In the World)" finds New York production duo Stargate co-opting David Guetta's inexplicably popular Eurotrash sound pretty effectively, but that song eschews the subtle West Indian flavor with which Rihanna and company have smartly imbued the rest of the album. The singer hasn't embraced—or exploited, depending on how you want to look at it—her Caribbean roots this much since her debut, and after hearing the entire album, her "loud" red hair and floral-pattern dresses make that much more sense.

That's not to say there aren't traces of the R-rated Rihanna here. The album opens with an ode to S&M that would make various parts of Janet's body perk up, and the inclusion of a new version of "Love the Way You Lie" shows that Rihanna isn't completely ready to put her much-publicized bout with domestic abuse behind her. The album's biggest highlight is "Man Down," a full-fledged reggae tune co-written by fellow Barbadan Shontelle Layne about a woman who shoots a man (her abusive boyfriend? Her abusive pimp? Or maybe she's simply the abuser). Either way, Rihanna sounds surprisingly agile in this genre and it's one of her finest, most confident vocal performances to date.

In the end, Loud really isn't Rihanna's All for You, but like Janet, Rihanna has always had trouble fitting into one genre (she has largely flip-flopped between dance, pop, and R&B, crossing over in a big way but meeting resistance in the urban market—a problem Janet would no doubt encounter if she were starting out today too), and for better or worse, Rihanna continues to stylistically branch out on Loud. "California King Bed" is a slushy acoustic ballad whose clever metaphor is all but suffocated beneath the song's cheesy production choices, and the same producers fill "Cheers (Drink to That)" with a sample of Avril Lavigne's yelp, an odd choice consdering Rihanna has contributed at least a couple more famous vocal tics of her own to the pop lexicon.

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DJ Y2K Malone™ Advanced Member

DJ Y2K Malone™

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Only 3 stars?

:whistle::whistle::whistle::whistle:

Loud

***by Sal Cinquemani on November 12, 2010

Jump to Comments (0) or Add Your Own

After comparing last year's Rated R to Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope, Eric Henderson ended his review of the album by expressing hopes that Rihanna wouldn't follow up with something like All for You. At first glance, it appears that his fears were justified: Like Janet's last hit album, Loud is a decided step away from its über-personal, melodrama-drenched predecessor.

While that may disappoint critics like Eric and I, however, it's probably smart business. Lead single "Only Girl (In the World)" finds New York production duo Stargate co-opting David Guetta's inexplicably popular Eurotrash sound pretty effectively, but that song eschews the subtle West Indian flavor with which Rihanna and company have smartly imbued the rest of the album. The singer hasn't embraced—or exploited, depending on how you want to look at it—her Caribbean roots this much since her debut, and after hearing the entire album, her "loud" red hair and floral-pattern dresses make that much more sense.

That's not to say there aren't traces of the R-rated Rihanna here. The album opens with an ode to S&M that would make various parts of Janet's body perk up, and the inclusion of a new version of "Love the Way You Lie" shows that Rihanna isn't completely ready to put her much-publicized bout with domestic abuse behind her. The album's biggest highlight is "Man Down," a full-fledged reggae tune co-written by fellow Barbadan Shontelle Layne about a woman who shoots a man (her abusive boyfriend? Her abusive pimp? Or maybe she's simply the abuser). Either way, Rihanna sounds surprisingly agile in this genre and it's one of her finest, most confident vocal performances to date.

In the end, Loud really isn't Rihanna's All for You, but like Janet, Rihanna has always had trouble fitting into one genre (she has largely flip-flopped between dance, pop, and R&B, crossing over in a big way but meeting resistance in the urban market—a problem Janet would no doubt encounter if she were starting out today too), and for better or worse, Rihanna continues to stylistically branch out on Loud. "California King Bed" is a slushy acoustic ballad whose clever metaphor is all but suffocated beneath the song's cheesy production choices, and the same producers fill "Cheers (Drink to That)" with a sample of Avril Lavigne's yelp, an odd choice consdering Rihanna has contributed at least a couple more famous vocal tics of her own to the pop lexicon.

:wub: :wub: :wub:

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DJ Y2K Malone™ Advanced Member

DJ Y2K Malone™

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this is from Entertainment Weekly

Last year was possibly the nadir of Rihanna’s young life, and it showed all over her aptly titled Rated R — a bleak, bullet-cased chronicle of a domestic-violence victim–turned–sonic vigilante.

Loud, the 22-year-old Barbados native’s fifth disc, comes almost a year to the day after R, and only scant traces of that wounded warrior remain. In her place is a rebooted pop vixen, a Caribbean-accented kitten with a whip. What begins with late-night-Cinemax naughtiness (see: explicitly carnal opener ''S&M'' and playful Drake collab ''What’s My Name?'') soon yields to the walk-away ballad ''Fading,'' a gorgeously synthesized moment of sweet defiance. The Jameson-swilling, TGIF-toasting ''Cheers (Drink to That)'' folds a left-field Avril Lavigne sample into a crunked party anthem, while the rum-pa-pum ragga ''Man Down'' burrows neck-deep in island rhythms. Lead single ''Only Girl (In the World)'' finds her playing the spiraling dance-floor siren, a role she carries through the airy ''Complicated.'' Even while telling a recalcitrant man how hard he is to love, she sounds almost buoyant, her newly expanded vocals eager to scale the song’s high-altitude house beat.

At times the album’s lurid sexuality can feel forced: kink as oversold diva commodity. What Loud showcases best, though, is a star undefeated by her worst circumstances — and finding redemption in exactly the kind of pop nirvana that made her famous in the first place. A–

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20440920,00.html

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Dee Advanced Member

Dee

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It's on sale at best buy for 4.99 for black friday

looks like she'll b making all her money on tour since she's a 'touring artist' that and her 'song writeing' are her strong points so the other girls better watch out:whistle:

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King Baby Advanced Member

King Baby

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He has a point. A deeply personal album representing growth and depth, followed by sexified dance-pop fluff that just doesn't compare. Janet will forever be supreme to Rihanna, it's not about measuring the two against each other. But within context, I definitely agree that this is indeed her All For You.

That would make "Good Girl Gome Bad" her 'janet.' which I agree with as well. :rolleyes:

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