You know how the old saying goes: “Another year, another Rihanna album”. It’s now 2010, and Rihanna has just released her fifth album in as many years, ‘Loud’. After a successful stab at credibility on last year’s critically-acclaimed yet generally-underrated ‘Rated R’, Rihanna is back to doing what she does best — making hits.
It’s never been possible to just pigeonhole Rihanna into simply one genre of pop, so across Loud’s 11 tracks, RiRi effortlessly hops from one style to another like a seasoned pro. She tackles europop on the album’s thrilling first single “Only Girl”, then slaps on the sex appeal for Only Girl’s similar-sounding electro counterpart “S&M”. The quirky “Man Down”, penned by fellow Bajan singer Shontelle, see’s Rihanna returning to the Island-vibe of her first two albums, while “Fading” is the type of emotional, radio-friendly R&B ballad that could’ve easily appeared on her 10 million-selling opus Good Girl Gone Bad.
RiRi doesn’t just spend the whole album rehashing the past, though: She tries something new on the acoustic, pop-rock power ballad “California King Bed”, which contains the best vocal performance of her career and screams future hit. More fresh ground is covered on The Runners-produced “Cheers (Drink to That)”, which blends together pop-rock and R&B with an Avril Lavigne sample and alcohol-soaked lyrics to create a completely cool, modern day pub anthem. However, Loud’s true shining moment comes from it’s second single “What’s My Name”, which somehow manages to be one of the best songs of 2010 without even appearing to try.
Of course, Loud wouldn’t be a commercial urban-pop album without an obligatory Nicki Minaj feature, which comes along in the hip-hop-flavored “Raining Men”. The song see’s Rihanna taking a page straight out of the Beyonce play-book, but whereas Bey’s hood anthems are usually a lot more crass and urban-orientated, Rihanna’s take on the style is much more playful, with a real sophisticated sass.
Producer Tricky Stewart steps outside his comfort zone to craft an interesting dance-pop ballad “Complicated”, trading in one-trick-pony The-Dream for “Rude Boy” writer Ester Dean, who has recently become the driving force, or pen, behind some of Rihanna’s recent hits. “Complicated” serves as the last uptempo moment on the boisterous Loud, which is closed with the smoldering and sexually-charged slow jam “Skin”, and the Eminem-assisted sequel to “Love the Way You Lie”, which surprisingly manages to go toe-to-toe with the original.
When describing Loud in pre-release promo interviews, RiRi has called it “the most true Rihanna album”, and she wasn’t lying. When you look at Rihanna, you don’t see the dark & twisted diva of Rated R: You see a fun, cheeky, carefree hit machine fearlessly conquering every genre of pop imaginable, and that’s exactly what’s served up on Loud.
Loud is more consistent and genuine than Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, and completely bypasses the melodramatic pretense of a Lady GaGa record. It’s certainly not rocket science, but that’s kind of the point. Rihanna’s a pop star, not John Lennon, and thank God she knows it. It’s Rihanna’s astute sense of self-awareness that makes Loud feel like a sincere, albeit safe step forward in the career of a true pop superstar, and not simply some contrived and cobbled together collection of hits that you may have initially expected.
Like it or not, but Rihanna’s here to stay. She didn’t amass eight No. 1 hits in five years for no reason, y’know.
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I agree 
