1. Formula (sound)
“Talk That Talk”, is safe to say that Rihanna finally knows what her sounds is and she’s improving on it. By looking at Rihanna’s entire discography, including her features on the songs of other artists, no-one can deny that Rihanna is one of the most versatile artists right now. The girl has given us Caribbean, Pop, RnB, Dance, Alternative, Hip-hop and we found out on “LOUD”, that she could be Taylor Swift’s only black cousin when we heard the country ballad, “California King Bed”. Look at all her eleven Billboard Hot 100 number ones and you will see exactly what I mean.
But why should she continue proving her versatility when she knows that she can do it all? I think Rihanna asked herself this very same question, because “Talk That Talk” doesn’t feature 7689 different genres. She now knows which songs work well together to create a formula for an album which is solid and consistent. Rihanna compiled her sixth studio album with the sounds that we all know and love her for. Like the dirty synths on “Talk That Talk” feat Jay-Z, the electro-pop smashes like “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” and her ability to fuse RnB with reggae and dancehall which can be heard on the majority of the album. I remember before the release of “LOUD”, LA Reid said that he was aiming for a Thriller type album for Rihanna’s “LOUD”: no album fillers just hits…well, I think “Talk That Talk” is Rihanna’s “Thriller”.
2. The Edge effect
Yes, yes, yes ! We all loved “LOUD”, it gave us “What’s My Name”, “Only Girl”, “S&M” and so much more but we cannot deny that it doesn’t stand a chance against “Rated R” which was dark, brash, gritty, boastful, pretentious but also honest. The era was dominated with a cocky and an unapologetic Rihanna. Her entire attitude was dripping with edginess which made us want her even more. “Rated R” boasted lyrics that were haunting (“Russian Roulette”), smug (“Hard”), risky (“Rudeboy”) and even honest (“Cold Case Love”, “Firebomb”). “LOUD” did give us some risky lyrics, “S&M” to be exact, but the album felt generic at times. Only some songs had the Rihanna signature on them.
To put it bluntly “Rated R” gave Rihanna critical acclaim and “LOUD” gave her commercial success. “Talk That Talk” is filled with sex, love, fun, promiscuity and more sex. She might not be rocking, a black and blonde Mohawk or huge shoulder pads for the TTT era, but let’s all get ready for a type of EDGE that succeeds “Rated R” and mirrors that of Queen Madonna.
3. Promo
I know what you thinking: “What Promo, Marcel?”. Let us ALL just recline in our wheel-chairs. (We are all in wheel-chairs after experiencing total body paralysis due to “Talk That Talk”). While reclining and trying to breathe…just know that “We Found Love” went number one without Rihanna giving a single televised performance of the song. “But how could this be, Marcel? Our favorites can’t do that” *they all sing*. It went number one because Rihanna adopted a viral internet promotional campaign that has never been seen before.
She know she is the Queen of Facebook, and used that to her sweet advantage. It takes 46 million+ likes to effect that successfully… not 13 million monsters followers. She will continue to promote her album online until its release. But just to keep it safe, let us not totally abandoned the aged old formulas. Rihanna gave two performance’s of “We Found Love” on the UK and US X Factors and also on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on the day of her album release, November 21st.
Talk That Talk in stores now. Discuss in the comment section and tell us what you think about Rihanna’s Talk That Talk album.
5 comments
I can’t find words to explain how much this gurl has worked hard and how much she deserves her success. So lemme start and stop by saying “Rihanna I LOVE YOU and may God bless you now and always”
I fully agree with you marcel! I love this article!!
AGREED!! RIhanna is now #1 in 21 countries!!
Rihanna is the queen!!!
by the way, we are not “followers” we are
Rihanna Navy!???
Rihanna I?You so much!!
No one can do it like Rihanna, she fills a gap that know one else in the industry can… I hope she breaks all the records in the books =) #RihannaNAVY #Barbados