ALBUM REVIEW: RIHANNA - 'LOUD'

After showcasing her dark side on ‘Rated R’, popular beauty Rihanna reemerges with her fifth album ‘Loud’, approximately one year later, to paint the world full of color with an album that she describes as “fun and raw energy”.

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

The 11-track set begins with “S & M”, a seductive jam on which she coons, “Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it / Sex in the air, I don’t care I love the smell of it”, before further exerting “chains and whips excite me”.

Produced by production duo Stargate, the expected third single marks a solid start to the project as she relies on her two greatest assets, her sexuality and her confidence, which is also true of the lead single “Only Girl (In the World)”.

She elects to infuse her Island heritage to “What’s My Name”, the second single and her eighth chart topper featuring Drake, as well as, the disc’s most traumatic moment “Man Down”, which was co-penned by Barbadian native Shontelle.

The strongest moments appear when she allows the words to convey the message, such as, the subdue, yet soaring “California King Bed” and the Eminem-assisted “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)”, produced by Alex Da Kid.

This, however, is not the case with the mid-tempo ballad “Fading”, where she tries to flex her barely there vocals, or the just as painful “Cheers (Drink to That)”, which samples Avril Lavigne’s 2002 hit “I’m With You”.

Other notable moments include the strained relationship ballad “Complicated”, the sensual “Skin” and “Raining Men”, which features hip-hop sensation Nicki Minaj stealing the spotlight just as she has with most of her features in 2010.

FINAL VERDICT

With ‘Loud’, her fifth studio album in five years, Rihanna delivers material that is brighter and has a more efficient shot at being commercially successful, but in the favor of hit singles, she loses the two things that made her fourth outing ‘Rated R’, the album of her career, a cohesive vision and artistic growth.

2½ OUT OF 5

CELEBRITY BUG’S KEY TRACKS
“What’s My Name”, “Only Girl (In the World)”, “California King Bed”,
“Skin” and “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)”.