Send "Rihanna " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Rejoice: Rihanna is having fun again. If she's not spilling milk with Drake in a (impressively spotless) bodega in her "What's My Name?" video, she's playfully grabbing Nicki Minaj's ass at the American Music Awards or living out millions of karaoke dreams by singing "Livin' on a Prayer" with Bon Jovi during a recent show in Madrid. All the while whipping her neon-stop-sign hair and smiling and throwing up ridiculous devil's horns. All this just a year after Rated R, her spiked-out reaction to staggering emotional and physical trauma. And while that cathartic album provided an outlet for her frustrations and allowed her to claim some artistic bona fides, the actual songs were often plodding and weighed down by overwrought melodrama. Not so on Loud, which has the 22-year-old Barbados-born star picking up where 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad left off, doling out effervescent pop like it was her birthright."Life's too short to be sittin' around miserable," sings Rihanna with a shrug on future 2 a.m. staple "Cheers (Drink to That)". "People are gonna talk whether you're doin' bad or good." The lines sum up the general sentiment of Loud nicely. There's no grand statement here, no tabloid back story. And while Rihanna had a hand in writing most of the songs on Rated R, she's not credited with writing anything here. But she's more experienced, and unlike some of her early material, you feel like she's actually connecting with these tunes on more than a purely melodic level. In his review of Good Girl, Pitchfork's Tom Breihan wrote that Rihanna "comes off sounding like a robot programmed to impersonate Alanis Morissette." And the acoustic strums and mid-tempo drum beat-- not to mention the vocal sample of Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You"-- on "Cheers" are particularly Alanis-esque. But now Rihanna is capable of adding her own West Indian lilt and charisma to the tipsy track-- you can almost hear her smirk as she brings hashtag rap to pop&B: "It's gettin' Coyote Ugly up in here/ No Tyra!" After releasing five albums in as many years, the singer is closer than ever to becoming the complete pop package Jay-Z envisioned when he signed her the same day she walked into Def Jam during his tenure as president. Though gifted with runway-ready looks, Rihanna has improved in other areas through sheer perseverance. Her voice-- once fragile and shrill-- is now robust enough to take on songs like the delightfully Eurotrash pounder "Only Girl (In the World)" not only on record but at high profile awards-show performances. Her semi-scripted dance moves are sultry and spontaneous. She can be kinda funny (or at least genuinely excitable) in interviews. She'll never be as boldly talented as Beyoncé or freakishly engaging as Gaga, but there's still charm to be found in her (relatively) everyday affability. She recently said Loud was the first album she wasn't nervous about releasing, which makes a lot of sense. She's worked hard to get to this point....full text |
| Mbmusicblog |
| Rihanna Loud Album Review – Just few days before the official release of Rihanna’s upcoming CD called Loud (the album will be available on Nov 16th) snippets of the 11 songs that will be featured on it have leaked for your listening pleasure. Despite rumors stating otherwise, superstars like Lady Gaga, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry do not not appear on the CD. Rihanna has collaborated with Nicki Minaj, Drake and Eminem for what she hopes will be a mega hit on the charts....full text |
| Music |
| Outside of the obvious singles, much Rihanna's fifth album is unfortunately forgettable. Dub-influenced sleeper "Man Down" falls flat and some awkward vocal phrasing derails smoky ballad "Skin". For a celebratory song about forgetting your troubles, "Cheers (Drink To That)" drags along with a serious lack of energy. A tinny beat, electro-tinged backing vocals, and Nicki Minaj's odd, itchy flow try your patience on "Raining Men", which is a painful listen until the finally bass kicks in, before disappearing again. Ginger acoustic love song, "California King Bed" treads too close to Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry", but lacks the irresistible hook to make it stick in your head. Rihanna's vocals boil over to a scream on "Complicated", as she battles the jittery dance beat in the hook. The song actually sounds great when the light, plucky verses are quietly building to the hook, allowing her to sing rather than shout. Production team, StarGate, who produced hits "Take A Bow" and "Don't Stop The Music", strike again to deliver three of the album's best. The opening "S&M" finds Rihanna adding a little growl to her vocals in the hook, "I may be bad / But I'm perfectly good at it", amidst the roughed-up, thrusting synth on the sexy dance song. Gooey, club-ready plea for affection, "Only Girl (In The World)" is easily the best of the effort, thanks to its explosive, soaring vocals and thumping beat. Drake delivers a groggy opening rap on StarGate's third offering, "What's My Name", where the beat and effervescent synth are the real stars. Eminem stops by to drop an exclamation mark near the end of "Love The Way You Lie, Pt. II". The clattered beat is a bit overbearing, attempting to bury her belted-out vocals, but feels like a necessary evil on the morning-after heartbreaker with Eminem's fiery rap attached. Fans of the song will want to pick up the iTunes version of the album for the gorgeous piano-only bonus track version, where Rihanna's vocals really stand out....full text |
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