MUSIC REVIEW: RIHANNA - 'TALK THAT TALK'

New Strains of Pop From a Voice That's Stronger & Sexier Than Ever

By: Andrew Shaw

November 21, 2011

(Def Jam) Rihanna is solid pop. She is super-charged, prolific, and iconic. Talk That Talk is her sixth album -- her fourth in as many years -- and it's bigger, better, and certainly badder than anything that has gone before. Considering some previous suggestive album titles -- R-Rated, Loud, and Good Girl Gone Bad -- this latest release makes a very clear distinction between the girls that tease on the dance floor, using moves as metaphors, and those that cut straight to the business of the after hours. Rihanna, now more than ever, is straight to business. No longer the type of girl to bite her lip, Rihanna may just be biting a dancing companion.

If other albums have been explorations of character, searching experiments in music, and lyrical content, Talk That Talk is a collection of forthright confidence and musical ambition. With a band of producers, all known as big-swinging hit-makers, the sonic presence of this collection is formidable. Alex da Kid, Chase & Status, StarGate, and Rob Swire are amongst those who turn in big songs with fine tuning. Add vocal guests Jay-Z and Calvin Harris, who appear on the title track and “We Found Love,” respectively, and here's an album that displays a broad range of influences that unite to make a definable sound that is all 'Rihanna.'

This is a smart running order, as explicit, consensual behaviors explode with floor-filling beats and grinding, gyrating grooves mixed with some more sensitive passages of reflection and breath. It's energized, amoral, and good stuff, balancing the excesses of physical craving with internal emotional nourishment. A track like “Cockiness (Love It),” which treads the oiled line between erotica and something from an even higher shelf, plays with words and expectations of what the ear will hear and what the mind will use to fill in blanks. There are few blanks; this is up close and personal, if not openly intimate. “Suck my cockiness / Lick my persuasion” is a lyrical hook that tugs hard through the bump and grind. This track, detailing a graphic appetite, leads to an even more certain type of hunger in “Birthday Cake.” “It's not even my birthday / but I want to lick the icing off / I know you want it in the worst way / can't wait to blow my candles out” is the kind of verse that reminds that you're more than ready to eat, even if you weren't hungry before.

The seedier, stronger tracks of sexy exploits in clubs, bedrooms, and back-alleys are measured well against standard pop sounds. Acoustic guitars strum over simpler, more wholesome beats. In “We All Want Love,” there's a gospel-rooted feel of cleaner living and confession. “I can pretend that I'm not lonely / but I'd be constantly fooling myself.” The smartness here is that Rihanna changes tone of voice, but not personality. This is a constituent confession, the flip side of other activities, a vulnerability beneath the sass. So without judgement of how we sometimes enjoy ourselves, we're shown the contradictions of desires. No apologies are issued, no alter-ego is assumed. Like the rest of the collection, this is all Rihanna, with extended honesty and ambition realized across the board.

If Jay-Z's presence on title “Talk That Talk” invites a broad expression of hip-hop from his host as she sings melodic, adult promises behind a verse of grotesque and improbable behavior, “We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris, is perhaps pop single of the year. It's full of range and dynamism; it's brimming with action without being forcefully busy or tricked out with vocal treatments. For all other action on the album, this is the track that balances out all directions. It's simple, it's rich, it's uplifting and undeniable. Quality pop always sounds familiar but with certain flourishes that haven't been heard before; this track could have its portrait in the encyclopedic definition of its genre.

Talk That Talk is a self-determined album. It's influences are perhaps more diverse than previous releases from Rihanna, its content is certainly more explicit, and its openly sensitive moments have matured beyond the sentimental expressions, sometimes relied on in previous releases. There is genuine strength here; it has matured, grown in confidence, and has all the atmosphere of an artist who has dropped overuse of auto-tuning (clever though it was) and grown into her own voice.

Standout Tracks: "We Found Love," "Talk That Talk," "Cockiness (Love It)"

For Fans Of: Jay-Z, Calvin Harris, Beyonce