Review
Considering the extremely short space of time in which Rihanna has had her most recent album penned, recorded and produced, her fans could be justifiably concerned as to the quality of its content. However, Talk That Talk, albeit not Rihanna’s best LP to date, hits home with a set of tracks which is, overall, strong. The album offers different tones for different moods; cool, romantic and, most obviously, sexual, and the Bajan beauty adds her characteristic ’je ne sais quoi’ to almost each and every one of them.
In many aspects, the album feels like a second part to Loud, the previous offering from Rihanna. The anthemic ‘Farewell’ shows off Rihanna’s strong vocal ability, which is often forgotten about, and feels extremely similar to the successful ‘California King Bed’ from her last album. Equally, the edgy and confident ‘Roc Me Out’ asks ‘I been a bad girl, daddy / Won’t ya come and get me?’ and will draw some extremely strong comparisons with Rihanna’s hit single ‘Rude Boy’. ‘Fool In Love’ also takes a lot of the drama and build-up from previous Rihanna hit ‘Russian Roulette’, albeit with slightly less drama and a more commercial beat to its verses. This repetition of style and music is not necessarily Rihanna running out of ideas, but honing the same, previously successful, blend of flavours and sticking to them for this album. In our opinion, here, it is a recipe for success.
‘Red Lipstick’ uses an instrumental that has been floating around online now for a long time, originally a ‘leaked’ demo that Nicki Minaj had allegedly written for Rihanna. ‘Saxon’ went on to become associated with Nicki, leaving many thinking Rihanna would never touch it. It is interesting to hear the instrumental on Talk That Talk with completely different lyrics. Whether it was worth including so long after its instrumental surfaced, and whether or not it is better than Nicki’s version, is a matter of opinion. We personally prefer the original version.
Other tracks which make up Talk That Talk are worthy of a listen in their own right, such as the playful and cute ‘Do Ya Thing’ and the equally romantic ‘You Da One’, which has the most Caribbean influence of the bunch. Rihanna only collaborates once on the latest album, on title track ‘Talk That Talk’ with Jay-Z, and it does not disappoint. The two work well together on the understated but slick dance number. The fact that this track is so far removed from their last joint effort on ‘Umbrella’ really helps to highlight the versatility of both performers. Calvin Harris track ‘We Found Love’, which has already received 46 million YouTube views and achieved number one success around the world, is most definitely one of the strongest songs on the album. Additionally ‘Where Have You Been’, Calvin’s second of two contributions to Talk That Talk, brings Rihanna to the dance floor in a slicker and slightly filthier track that will get each and every one of us dancing in the clubs.
After this, what is left is pure and utter sex, literally speaking. ‘Watch N’ Learn’, ‘Cockiness (I Love It)’ and interlude track ‘Birthday Cake’ include lyrics such as ‘Just because I can’t kiss back doesn’t mean you can’t kiss that’, ‘Suck my cockiness / Lick my persuasion’ and ‘I know you want it in the worst way / Can’t wait to blow my candles out’. Talk That Talk (and Rihanna’s material in general) has constantly come under flack from the press for its sexual overtones, whether because it is deemed inappropriate for younger listeners or because it drains any kind of credibility or meaning from her material. Again, this might be down to preference, but there is no denying that Rihanna makes a strong statement with this sort of material. ‘Cockiness (I Love It)’ is not yet a planned single but has already received a huge response from listeners online.
There are, however, tracks that fall flat on Talk That Talk. Personally, we found that ‘We All Want Love’ and ‘Drunk On Love’ failed to leave a lasting impression, the former sounding dated and the latter neither an endearing slower song nor an enticing faster one. These are the only obvious fillers on what is already a fairly short album.
Overall, Talk That Talk is a strong effort from Rihanna and will no doubt receive deserving chart success. The bombshell has once again proven she is a force to be reckoned with and, at just 23 years old, has already produced an impressive and influential back-catalogue of pop hits. Rihanna draws in influences from all sorts of genres and experiments with different styles, whilst her distinctive character remains embedded in everything she does. Rihanna is raw, honest, real, sexual and deep – this is clearly a recipe for success. The question now is, how long will it be before we are reviewing yet another album by the prolific artist?
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