Talk That Talk

世界で最も愛されるディーヴァ。リアーナの6thアルバムがLPで登場。180g重量盤。

Rolling Stone (p.100) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Rihanna's sixth album is her tightest, most assured yet -- a relentlessly catchy and danceable pop album, with first-rate contributions from top songwrit er-producers." Entertainment Weekly (p.69) - "When Rihanna's not singing over Euro-friendly thumps, she's bouncing to a Caribbean melody, or dipping into dubstep..." -- Grade: B+

Despite sounding rushed to capitalize on fourth quarter sales, 2010’s Loud proved that Rihanna’s reign indeed would not let up. The album’s first three singles topped the Hot 100. A fourth one merely went Top Ten. Just as Loud was losing its grip, during the fourth quarter of 2011, Rihanna fired again with another number one single, “We Found Love” -- its success more likely due to the singer’s ecstatic vocal than Calvin Harris' shrill, plinky production. While Talk That Talk is built like another singles-chart-devouring machine, it’s both more rounded and less random than Loud. “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” -- the latter with a quote from Geoff Mack's “I’ve Been Everywhere” and echoes of the chorus from Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” -- function as place-holding dance tracks, and there are a couple empty anthems and ballads in the drippy “We All Want Love” and the bombastic “Farewell.” It’s the darker and dirty-minded material that tends to be most effective -- where Rihanna is more alive and believable, where her collaborators provide the most adventurous productions. In the Bangladesh-produced “Cockiness (Love It),” one of the most hypnotic and wicked beats of the last decade, Rihanna absolutely relishes the chance to sing-taunt “Suck my cockiness, swallow my persuasion.” Two of Stargate and Esther Dean's three contributions -- the desperate, xx-sampling “Drunk on Love“ (“Nothing can sober me up”) and the prowling “Roc Me Out” -- pack more sleek menace than Rated R's “G4L” and Loud’s “S&M.” The album’s best track, however, is the wholly sweet and flirtatious “Watch n’ Learn,” featuring a dizzying Hit-Boy beat -- rat-a-tat snares, swirling/swelling synthesizers, irresistible plucked melodies -- that is even more unique in the context of 2011 pop radio than his work on Kanye West and Jay-Z's “Ni**as in Paris.” Behind Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R, this is Rihanna's third best album to date. Minus the fluff, it's close to the latter's equal. ~ Andy Kellman

『Loud』から休みなく次のシーズンに突入したリアーナ。その幕開けとなるカルヴィン・ハリスとの“We FoundLove"も易々と世界中のチャートを制しているが、アッパーな多幸性トラックに退廃的なオーラを吹き込む術はもはや彼女の真骨頂だ(過去の恋を暗示したPVで破滅的な終わりを連想させるのも巧い)。そんなわけで本作は単純にポップ・アルバムとして機能する一方で、(コケたとされる)大傑作『Rated R』への再挑戦という意図もあるのではないか。“Rude Boy"の発展型となるバングラデッシュ製“Cockiness(Love It)"や、チェイス&ステイタスによるメタリカ使いのダブステップ“Red Lipstick"を聴けば、彼女があの美意識を諦めていないこともわかるだろう。本当にかっこいいアーティストになったと思う。
bounce (C)出嶌孝次