Review Summary: Rihanna. Exactly as you would expect her to sound.
To say Barbadian-pop singer Rihanna found success with her 2007 release
Good Girl Gone Bad is a severe understatement. Spawning seven singles, including the "Disturbia" and the massive hit "Umbrella," as well as earning a Grammy. To follow up such an album was no easy outing, after a few years of crowing success, Rihanna was thrown into a media spiral with her much publicized physical dispute with then-boyfriend Chris Brown. During this dark time of her career, Rihanna found a weapon through the pain, using this drama as fuel for her 2009 album
Rated R. The album, very dark lyrically, was ultimately a large disappointment with only a few enjoyable songs including "Hard" and the magnificent, "Rude Boy." Rihanna spent no time waiting to record her next album
Loud, being released almost exactly a year after
Rated R. Shedding her dark image, she dyed her hair a flaming red and ditched the black and white album cover of the previous for a light, happy, and colorful image parallel the 2009 release.
Loud, while not the most unique pop album around, was large step up from
Rated R. From the excellent single "Only Girl (In The World)," with its powerful chorus and simplistic structure to the raunchy dance tune, "S&M," perhaps one of the best songs of Rihanna's career. With a chorus like "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but chains and whips excite me," she takes sex appeal with stride almost making jokes at the whole Chris Brown affair that haunted her past. Even the single "What's My Name?" could have been a good song if it did not have that horrendous Drake feature. Let's just be honest, he is not a good rapper. See the deluxe edition of Loud for a version of the song that is sans-Drake, featuring just Rihanna's part, a much more listenable rendition putting more focus on the infectious hook in the line, "Hey boy I really wanna see if you can go downtown with a girl like me."
Despite some decent singles, the album fails keep pace with itself, holding an unnecessary amount of filler tracks. From the forgettable attempt at an uplifting song with "Cheers (Drink To That)," and the incredibly bland ballad "Fading." Rihanna finds a hard time reaching individuality in this album, most notably with "Raining Men" featuring Nicki Minaj, sounding as expected, like an outtake of Mianj's
Pink Friday album, and "California King Bed" being nothing more than an attempt at a Taylor Swift rip off with its country-pop flair. Regardless, for what it is
Loud is definitely not a bad album by any means, holding more enjoyable tracks than bad. Even the second half of the album is held afloat with the song "Man Down," a Caribbean flavored track that lacks lyrical creativity, but holds a lot of emotion and catchiness resulting in a well rounded pop song that accurately represents an album that carries Rihanna slightly above the bar of crappy pop music.
