Review Summary: You may not like it, but Loud is the most authentic Rihanna album, and a proof that the Barbadian singer is a pop sensibility to keep an eye on...
In the past six years, Rihanna was pretty much everywhere you can be in the pop world. And, with a handful of albums, she always found a way to never repeat herself. Music of The Sun was essentially an island pop album. Girl Like Me was her first step into mainstream success on American soil. Good Girl Gone Bad consolidated her position as a popstar and produced half a dozen hits, including legendary "Umbrella", owner of the most celebrated nonsense verse of our century ("ella, ella, eh, eh, eh", really?).With her Chris Brown-related scandal on the luggage, Rihanna reached out for artistic credibility with Rated R, maybe her best record to date, with its experimental pop sound and dark themes. Now she turns it around again and makes a hell of a comeback with Loud, an upbeat, dance oriented and sexy album which will probably get along a lot better on the charts.
It was a chock, anyway, when "Only Girl (In The World)" arrived and was announced as the first single of her new album. It's a tailor-made clubber hit, and one that counts with Rihanna on the edge of her vocal performance. Especially on the apotheotic chorus, marked by producer StarGate's synth line, one to be rivaled only by Lady Gaga's. And while Rihanna claims for her lover's attention, you might really feel like she could be the only girl in the world. Almost symmetrically designed, "S&M", the album's third single, is not as successful. It is a frankly eurodance track, and features some good, edgy vocal work by Rihanna, singing about how "chains and whips" excite her, but it sounds so painfully over-thought it doesn't fit in an album praised by its fluidity and authenticity.
"What's My Name", the last of Loud's singles to date, it's the song in the album that most blindly trusts and depends on Rihanna's timbre and skill to carry out a vintage pop composition. As most critics noted, it's a softer version of "Rudeboy", and there's really not much for featuring artist Drake to do. Well, thank God for that, 'cause Rihanna's vocals are more nimble than ever on Loud. "Complicated" is the perfect example, a ballad of long notes in which the Barbadian singer's performance is the absolute highlight. And it is an atypical song for Rihanna, a piece that mixes her romantic vein and the dance pattern most of Loud's tracks follow. Second out of two ballads, "California King Bed" is a take on a pop-rock sounding style, with guitar solos and no trace of whatever R&B influence she showed off on past cuts like "Take a Bow".
Maybe that's Loud's biggest quality, one could say: it is a pop album like every pop album should be, managing to escape labels exactly because it takes a little out of all of them and put them all in the same basket, coming up with a tasty solution. Rihanna takes a turn on reggae on "Man Down", returning to some of the obsessions and styles trademarked by her on Rated R. She samples Avril Lavigne on groovy ode to parties "Cheers (Drink to That)", all piano, percussion and Rihanna's most appealing monotone. The only wrongs she makes come up when she goes back to vintage R&B on "Fading", an essentially forgettable song, and has the scene stolen by Nicki Minaj on "Raining Men", an irritating Beyoncé rip-off in which Rihanna sounds awfully uncomfortable.
Anyway, when the last notes of sexy-as-hell "Skin" go silent and "Love The Way You Lie (Pt. II)" honorably closes the record, Loud is pretty much the most authentic work by a chameleonic pop persona like Rihanna. In a purely critical analysis, Rated R maybe still Rihanna at her best, but if pop sensibility is about using influences and references to create an essentially personal work without letting pure entertainment behind, than Loud definitely shows a much more mature Rihanna. And it's always a pleasure to hear and watch her evolving that way.
