This is a SHINING album. Up there with 'Born This Way' for best (and in a way only good) pop releases of the year.

 

'Birthday Cake' is the future of pop and I want the obviously existing full version to come into FRUITION IMMEDIATELY.

Cannot wait for a full version of Birthday Cake!

 

Also, cockiness is stuck in my head. :kink:

If Birthday Cake is the 'future of pop' then TAKE ME TO A BRIDGE and I will JUMP.

If Birthday Cake is the 'future of pop' then TAKE ME TO A BRIDGE and I will JUMP.

RiRi's ARCADIA moment *.*

I think this is her most consistent album yet :o

Loving Cockiness and Drunk On Love, and You Da One is growing on me as a new single. Birthday Cake should be about 5 minutes longer though :(.

For some reason Cockiness reminds me of Sweet Escape era Gwen?

OMG! Just got this thing finally!

 

Will be back in 49 minutes and 2 seconds. I have something to do. :wub:

After playing the album for a second time, it's a much better album; it just needed to sink in. I'm really liking 'Where Have You Been?', 'Talk That Talk', 'Farewell' and 'Roc Me Out' now, and I'm sure a few others will begin to grow on me! Definitely not as filler-heavy as I initially thought, although with the tracklist being longer than that of Loud's, I should have expected a similar amount of standouts (6:5)

Liked that a lot on one listen through. Definite highlights are the opening 5 tracks (Cockiness is great on first listen especially)

 

And Farewell is great as the RiRi ballad this era (which is what I'm guessing it is, will get accustomed to it)

 

So enjoying it. I will start to become obsessed as I listen to it more.

I'm waiting for my copy to arrive from Amazon - hopefully tomorrow!

so Birthday Cake IS just 1 min 18 secs long??? :huh:

Where Have You Been really grew on me. Sounds insane in headphones.

Rihanna

Talk That Talk

Def Jam; 2011

6.0

 

"We found love in a hopeless place." Over a frantic, Calvin Harris-produced, Guetta-meets-"Sandstorm" beat on her sixth record's lead-off single, Rihanna repeats these words almost 20 times. "We Found Love" ranks among Ri's best singles because it recognizes that there's not much more that needs to be said: in three and a half minutes, the line moves from being a great pop lyric to a triumphant mantra to something suggestive of a whole spectrum of unspoken emotion. The best pop music transports you to somewhere beyond words, and Rihanna's strongest singles are all seem to be in on this secret. Need I remind you of some of her most powerful hooks: Ella-ella-ella-ay. Oh-na-na. Ay-ayy-ay-ayy-ay-ayy.

 

But as anyone with a Twitter handle will tell you, these are chatty times, and in 2011, the pop landscape's fittingly caught between two maximalist extremes: the winking theatricality of Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry, and the dribbling confessional-pop of Drake, Kanye West, and (yes, they're more alike than they'd like to believe) Taylor Swift. Barbados-born, millions-selling, armfuls-of-awards-winning Rihanna has found staggering success (23 years old; eleven #1 singles and rising) borrowing a little bit from each of these tendencies. Her recent music videos have dabbled in trendy pop artifice (check out her neon-hued, irresistibly smiley turn in Guetta’s "Who’s That Chick?" or the David LaChapelle-aping-- literally-- "S&M"), while her brooding and personal 2009 album Rated R commented-- however obliquely-- on her public struggles. Rihanna seems more comfortable flitting between these two extremes than settling on either, but her past two albums have at least had some thematic cohesion. The same can't be said of Talk That Talk: Heavy on filler though it's only 11 tracks long, it feels not only slight but muddled, an assortment of half-baked ideas that never bloom. A stitched-together collection of club bangers, sleaze-pop missteps, and mid-tempo inspirational ballads, Talk That Talk feels at times like three different records, only one of which might have been any good.

 

Of course, what we're supposed to be talking is about how this is Rihanna's "dirtiest" album yet. Early blog chatter reported to lots of critics blushing in preview listening sessions and making questionably bold declarations ("The dirtiest pop album since Madonna's Erotica!") that suggested that they listen to very little pop radio, or that they have never been to an R. Kelly concert. Talk That Talk's raunchier moments should surprise no one: Rihanna's always been singing about sex-- she's just never shown such an unfortunate proclivity for cheesy lyrics and dessert metaphors. "Suck my cockiness/ Lick my persuasion," Ri commands on the embarrassingly literal "Cockiness (I Love It)", hoping the boldness of the delivery will distract you from thinking about what a clunky line it is (it won't, though Bangladesh's beats might). The Esther Dean-penned "Drunk on Love" features a weak chorus lyric and vocal whose bombast feels out of place in the track's laid back, xx-sampling atmosphere. Clocking in at a puzzling-yet-merciful one minute and 18 seconds, The-Dream co-produced "Birthday Cake" is even more heavy-handed (lots of icing puns). There are flickers of empowerment here, but mostly it proves little more than the fact that a female artist can be responsible for Jeremih-grade cheese, too. A Rihanna album has never been without the occasional lyrical misfire ("Sex in the air/ I don't care/ I love the smell of it" comes to mind), but at least on a track like "S&M" she sounds like she's having fun. For a record so preoccupied with passion and pleasure, most of Talk That Talk feels unsuitably robotic.

 

At least things start out strong. Talk That Talk's saving grace is its first stretch of tracks: the blithe and tropical "You Da One", "We Found Love", and the album's other Harris track "Where Have You Been", which doesn't stray much from the single's winning formula, a simple lyric of romantic longing that explodes into a club-ready beat. And though it's no "Umbrella", the Jay-Z reunion "Talk That Talk" is one of the more playful moments here, though I'll say that the patented H.O.V.-giggle doesn't feel entirely earned following a line like: "Had it by a bladder/ She like 'oh I gotta pee'."

 

I've read some comment-section conspiracy theorists who believe Rihanna is in single-minded pursuit of Hot 100 domination, and the rate at which she's pumping out albums (roughly one a year since 2005) is an attempt to populate the singles chart until the end of time. There might be some truth to this (her singles collection is going to be killer), and with "Death of the Album" prophecies ever looming it's worth wondering whether or not that's such a crime. But 2011 found plenty of pop artists still breathing new life into the format: Beyonce's 4 and Lady Gaga's Born This Way were probably the most solid examples-- two bombastic records that also explore the nuance of their respective artists' personas. Talk That Talk tries too hard to send a more one-dimensional message and ends up falling flat: Rihanna's obviously going for sexy here, but her music's at its most alluring when she's blissed out in her own reverie, not taking the time to spell it all out for us. - Pitchfork

Generous score tbh and 'You da One' remains awful. Strange how they have complimented 'Born This Way' multiple times but never reviewed it.

Generous score tbh and 'You da One' remains awful. Strange how they have complimented 'Born This Way' multiple times but never reviewed it.

 

It really does.

 

 

"(her singles collection is going to be killer)"

 

YES IT WILL

Hasn't really clicked with me yet. Talk that Talk is the only song I love..Need to give it a few more listens

 

Probably not a good idea to listen to this after Drake's

Didn't know where to post this so i'll just post it here, it's just silly trivia really! :P, when I was looking through the TTT tracklist I noticed there was a lot of title's including the word 'Love'. So I looked at previous albums and it turns out every Rihanna album has had a song with 'Love' in the title! :o

 

Music Of The Sun

If It's Lovin' That You Want

You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)

 

A Girl Like Me

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

If It's Lovin' That You Want (Part II)

 

Good Girl Gone Bad

Hate That I Love You

 

Rated R

Stupid In Love

Cold Case Love

 

Loud

Love The Way You Lie (Part II)

 

Talk That Talk

We Found Love

Cockiness (Love It)

We All Want Love

Drunk On Love

Fool In Love

 

13 songs, she could make a whole albums worth of this. :kink:

Rihanna - The Love Album

There's no 'love' word in If It's Lovin' That You Want.

so Birthday Cake IS just 1 min 18 secs long??? :huh:

It's longer but she didn't even have time to finish it. Shows you how rushed this whole thing has been.

I can't take anything seriously which tries to claim 4 is a great album.