Let's have a thread for Rihanna's LOUD

listening back to "good girl gone bad" & it's actually better than i remembered

h8 phrases like "commercial top tier"

it may well get her back to that (though having assumed that, i'm...less convinced now i've heard it), but it's hardly a reason to care about the album in itself

I didn't say it was a reason to care about the album. It hasn't done anything for me after two listens, but it has definitely pushed her to the top of the charts. I say it's much better to get an album of half-decent'whatevers' quickly after a great album rather than her label forever mulling a strategy to strike back and THEN getting an album of average shit. At least now there's hope she does something crazy the next time around.

not crazy, interesting*

xpost
don't really wanna get into the sales=quality strawman again, but I hardly think the American public as of late is to be lauded for it's ability to discern between what's good or bad. The most likable thing about this album is when she puts her accent at the forefront(Man Down, What's My Name) two songs which I would actually listen to again. As someone else said, it's not terrible, but it leaves me feeling like, "Ok, I'm ready for the next album in 5 months." And yeah, her faux-nympho schtick is about as believable as her satan-fingers and 'rock star' stance.

Well I wasn't remotely close to suggesting sales=quality. On the other hand I was definitely saying sales = good business.

Yeah. I guess we both came to the party for different reasons :/

Yeah. I guess we both came to the party for different reasons :/

― dancing wit my palm in my pants (Spinspin Sugah), Tuesday, November 9, 2010 6:28 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark

well, no -- it was just a response to your post about the record company forcing her into recording another album

oh, hi there!

Haven't heard it yet but am I right in thinking this is the Circus to Rated R's Blackout?

In commercial/record company logic terms, anyway.

Pretty much - tho circus seemed very tight/regimented/controlled - to its detriment - whereas loud is (surprisingly) v ropey and slapped together

Circus was totally incoherent and cobbled together!

It seemed like quite a conscious attempt to recreate blackout to me, except w/o any of the panache or excitement? Whereas loud is "throw a bit of this and a bit of that at it, whatever"

Yeah but it also had things like Mmm Papi and whatever those awful ballads were called. It felt like sub-Blackout with a few other things thrown in that broke up all the coherence.

"What's My Name" rockets from 60-1 to nab the Billboard Hot 100 top spot. "Only Girl" is still at #4.

LOUD should be renamed BLAH.

Only Girl is a Beyonce song that Beyonce passed on. I don't like Rihanna on it, even tho I kinda like the song.

Around the time of Good Girl Gone Bad I tended to assume every Rihanna song had originally been written for someone else and rejected.

Only Girl is a Beyonce song that Beyonce passed on.

what?

beyonce has nevvvvver been on a song that... european

unless that is actual fact, that beyonce passed on that song, but that would still make tons of sense, because it would be absurd for her to be on that song

don't really know why the concept of beyeuro is making you clutch the pearls but vocally speaking it's always sounded absolutely like the song was originally meant for her.

beyonce has nevvvvver been on a song that... european

"radio", "sweet dreams", "telephone"? not to mention the sundry freemasons remixes which gained enough traction on their own to count, i think.

"What's My Name" rockets from 60-1 to nab the Billboard Hot 100 top spot. "Only Girl" is still at #4.

pleeeeeeeeease can we not turn this into the popjustice board where songs "rocketing" up the charts is considered an adequate defence of them

i don't think that was an argument for it? just stating a fact?

Yes.. I'll be sure to use a different verb the next time. However, Stargate certainly wouldn't have been given three singles if Rude Boy hadn't "rocketed" up earlier this year, so why not mention sales?

is it just me or do u.s. #1 singles "feel" less and less like #1 singles lately, whatever that means

it's like, i don't look at "what's my name" and think MOST POPULAR SONG IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW. i mean, sure, it had good first-week sales and has pretty decent airplay already, but neither is that outstanding. 235k is really not that tremendous a sum at this point, so it seems strange to me that a song could sell just that much and be just 16th in airplay and still be the #1 single. anyways this is less about rihanna than it is about billboard so i guess i'll stop.

omg what's my name is at no 1? imma throw a holiday

this album sounds very strong, and i enjoy many songs on it more than i have enjoyed songs in a while. i'm not in love with s and m, but that's about it.

surm, do you have any thoughts as to why your opinion of this album differs so markedly from seemingly everyone else's here?

I'm with surm, "California King Bed" excepted.

I don't have any deep thoughts about the album, other than I think it's a tightly wound collection of some good and some great songs (and one very, very dire musical disaster).

i do not have thoughts on that at the moment, r|t|c, but i will think about it. i haven't actually read the thread, but i didn't realize the response was that bad. it does pique my interest though -- because i find the piece as a whole more convincing than anything else upon first listen.

I need to fire up Soundforge and take a knife to this Drake verse, cause there's no way in hell I'm listening to it as much as I'm going to be listening to "What's My Name".

there are drake-less mp3s floating around if you google

Yeah, and it's so much better.

http://defpenradio.com/rihanna-whats-my-name-single-version/

single of the year, perhaps

Between that and Rude Boy? Rude Boy wins.

I'm not even sure about that. I do find it interesting that her two highest-charting hits this year are her most carribean-inflected since her debut, and not just that, but completely out of step with what else is popular this year (with the on-trend "Only Girl in the World" stalling at #3). I suspect there is a vacuum of demand for the sort of mid-00s style lite-carribean pop that Rihanna rode in on in the first place that only she has figured out needs filling.

solo hits, I should say

I'm not really sure they're pimping the Drake-less version. When I hear it on the radio the Drake verse is there.

I suspect there is a vacuum of demand for the sort of mid-00s style lite-carribean pop that Rihanna rode in on in the first place that only she has figured out needs filling.

this rings true - i remember how the dancehall-lite summer jam used to be a summer staple, even when it wasn't the years when sean paul was everywhere, and they were rarely from "name" acts - but the past 5 years really saw a drop-off there (i guess gyptian's "hold yuh" brought it back this year).

as well ive always loved the rihanna version of this style over pretty much any other artist of the 00s

(i guess gyptian's "hold yuh" brought it back this year)

which i'd never heard before this moment, so not sure how well it really did that. (this song is great tho)

yeah i thought that was just gonna be an underground hit but it appeared in the uk top 20 this week

(if you like it, check out lady chann's "feel calm" on the same riddim too!)

not that much of a fan of recent pop but cheers is definitely the best thing on this.

yeah, i'm pretty sure the comedy "don't let de bastuhds get u dunnn" number isn't the best anything on anything. think some of you need to double check what her old stuff actually sounded like before you congratulate her for hamming it up in 2010.

anecdotes anecdotes etc etc but that gyptian joint was one of the biggest radio joints in miami last year cross all contemporary stations -- swear i heard it like 3 or 4 times a day + DJs would drop other dudes going over the riddim during mix shows all the time

v good song

you may have noticed miami is much closer to the carribean than seattle is.

I KNOW -- i was just giving an anecdote -- i wasn't all "OH MY STARS HOW COULD THE REV HAVE MISSED THIS GYPTIAN JOINT"

those rihanna pictures are so beautiful!
like richard renaldi portraits, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117208/touching-strangers-richard-renaldi-surprisingly-moving

awesome

is Rihanna way taller than I realized?

Yeah, I had the same though. I'd always assumed she was kind of short(ish) for some reason, but perhaps not.

she's 5'8" and always in heels, so

orchestral "pour it up" <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLcjTzDsJnc