Let's have a thread for Rihanna's LOUD

How can you avoid reviewing the artist when the artist's album is frequently about the artist? Or when one consensus highlight is a duet with the dude who beat up the artist?

Well there's no escaping the artist. But you could at least try to say something interesting or perceptive about her, you know? You'd probably get by on that.

And the Numb-Power It Up-Loveeeeeeee-Jump stretch is pretty great imo. (Yes, I like Jump now.) Right Now is testicle cancer though.

yeah yknow i agree with jawnita, reviewing this on the musical face of it appears idiocy but then creatively it quickly transpires itself as the only option and an unlikely moral victory against music industry machination filth

soemone point me towards her masterpiece review when it arrives

future/coriander is a gr8 analogy btw

Also I don't think Get It Over With is 'awful' at all unless you reduce it to 'beat me up, please' - which is a pretty drastic critical move. If we're gonna read it as being about CB we should at the very least observe that it completely rearranges the weather metaphor from Umbrella, which I always (belatedly) thought was about them.

they didn't start dating until after "Umbrella" though

soemone point me towards her masterpiece review when it arrives

― r|t|c, Monday, November 26, 2012 3:07 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she's not going to make a masterpiece operating on an 8-month cycle

they didn't start dating until after "Umbrella" though

― The Doc Morbama (some dude), Monday, November 26, 2012 10:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not officially, but they met beforehand and he was on the remix: it was the first time they were on a song together.

and the-dream said he wrote the song about his mother. and...nevermind i give up

Was talking about this on twitter last night, and someone pointed out how hilarious someone taking this kind of rockist line on Future is when he's all about pure emotion over sounding pretty and how "blues" he is.

Also "Loveeeeeee Song" is one of the best songs this year. Thug luv duets 4 life.

xpost
...and The-Dream tried to sell it first to Britney and then it was going to Mary - but Rihanna heard it and wanted it and got Def Jam to put the pressure on. It's not about what the song is REALLY about. It's about what it means to her.

Also, yes. Loveeeeeee Song. So great.

yeah loveeeeeeee song (also i love the title, form reflecting content here) is one of the highlights for sure

Reviewing the music and the context isn't either/or, I guess you have to get the balance right which is what I tried to do? It would be weird to lean too heavily in either direction.

Really not down with just shrugging about Nobody's Business and acting like everything's OK but equally the professionally outraged don't come out well either.

Strictly musically it has its moments but as an album is patchy at best, it's not some kind of masterpiece that overrides its context. Future as dog being sick makes total sense, can't deal with dude after having to sit through Pluto more than once

Pluto is top 5 albums this year, fuiud.

Future as dog being sick makes total sense, can't deal with dude after having to sit through Pluto more than once

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, November 26, 2012 4:56 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you've mentioned

please tell us how you really feel about future, lex

he cant get through the album its so difficult because he sounds like a sick dog

lolololololooooveeeeeeeeeeeeeee

L-O-V-E-E-E AND AFFECTION

Is there some other thread where people are talking about Pink, IMO the superior confessional top 40 act?

no

Huh. Well, Pink is the superior confessional top 40 act, and I bet she can beat up Chris Brown.

there is this thread, i guess: U + Ur POLL: P!nk's Greatest Hits...So Far!!!

my bf just pointed me in the direction of Numb and i agree with Jordan that it is next level for sure

You saw me on a television
Setting fire to all the buildings
Yeah I guess you saw me stealing
But you've no idea what I've been needing

erm does "half of me" (written by emeli sandé) start off being about...the london riots? and then segues into celebrity gilded cage stuff without batting an eyelid? what a curious* song

*cack-handed

album is kinda hot

oh man, glad some people like "numb." couple friends of mine were complaining about it being one of the lowlights of the album

some real weird grim vibes there minus the kinda shitty em verse

i think i am the only person whose favourite song on this, by a very long waym is "phresh out the runway" :/

http://soundcloud.com/seanib-com/rihanna-in-the-jungle-seani-b

http://i.imgur.com/omzyn.jpg

kind of bummed that "Pour It Up" is pulling ahead of "Loveeeeeee Song" on urban radio

the victoria secret show performance of 'phresh out the runway' was really awesome

"phresh out the runway" is dope but "numb" is the real banger off this. i like "pour it up" more than "loveeeeee song"

numn when that man comes in on the chorus

chills

Stay video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF8BRvqGCNs

Mykki Ekko confuses me. Why is some completely random unknown moany white boy on a big Rihanna single?

Terrible song with or without him though

Yeah who is this guy?

He co-wrote/-produced it, I guess? I don't really have any problem with the song, seems like a weird choice for a single tho.

So weird, right? Songwriters singing and producing their own songs...ON A RIHANNA ALBUM?!! GTFO!

i think i like stay a lot, seems like a weird song to call terrible but i have to listen again i've only heard it like once

xp Terius should've been her duet partner (not really, but anyone other than Chris) on "Nobody's Business" at any rate.

I assume no songwriter as hitherto unknown (and unremarkable) as Ekko would end up with a featuring credit, a substantial vocal part, a video appearance and his song being pushed as a single if a big push in his own right wasn't being planned. Which is ominous, because on the evidence he's shit and this is nothing to look fwd to

perhaps i've developed a degree of paranoia after years of being comprehensively gainsaid by rih's fiendishly clever handlers but i think of 'stay' as kind of a muted trojan horse just to keep her name in the air until the (spring/summer)time is right and punters' patience is more temperate

contrary to what i had idly assumed it appears there is in fact a substantial difference between mykkis blanco and ekko. i'm actually looking at pictures of ekko now trying to see into his soul but all that comes to mind is "john mayer needs a haircut"

Found myself enjoying this on the radio recently which is more than I could say for Diamonds.

Still never heard Unapologetic in full.

Despite a couple barely forgivable moments it's possibly her best album? Which isn't saying a ton but it's good.

nah, 'good girl gone bad' is wayyyyy better

that's an out-an-out great pop album

I'd say they're on par. I haven't listened to GGGB in forever tho and should probably revisit.

seems like a weird choice for a single tho.

Seems pretty obviously an attempt to capitalize on some Gotye hangover. I don't think this will have a ton of top 40 success, but it's definitely one of those THIS IS DEEP AND MEANS SOMETHING TO ME songs for teenagers.

the whole album is pretty downtempo compared to other Rihanna records (maybe even Rated R?), so it kinda figures that this would be the time that they'd venture a piano ballad single for the first time since "Unfaithful" (which this is at least way way better than)

I was thinking Adele, rather than Gotye.