Let's have a thread for Rihanna's LOUD

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F%2BFYxLb7L.jpg

Some previous discussion found here: rolling pop 2010

After hearing the album in a piecemeal manner of the past few days, it's nice to actually have it all in one place with proper finished recordings. Dare I say, GODDAMN! All together, this album is really working on me.

Oh hang on, I just got to "California King Bed"--which sounds like Taylor Swift? Weird move to MOR pop.

A regression after the awesome Rated R. Ugh.

(Judging from the few songs I've heard, at least.)

Oh hang on, I just got to "California King Bed"--which sounds like Taylor Swift? Weird move to MOR pop.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, November 8, 2010 5:38 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

the acoustic song on 'good girl gone bad' ("hate that i love you") is one of her best singles

i didn't like a lot of what i heard at first but "cheers" iz muh jam rite now

oh man i forgot "hate that i love you", that was a nice song

i'm gonna get sued for $1.5 million dollars for downloading like 6 fake leaks of this album

There's a real version of it around, but it's clean. Fuck that.

the acoustic song on 'good girl gone bad' ("hate that i love you") is one of her best singles

i thought the title track was the better excursion into acoustica on GGGB - the closing double-header of "good girl gone bad" and "cry" is one of my favourite sequences on her albums.

i expect i've downloaded a fake, oh well, not gonna get into it til tomorrow.

"raining men" with nicki minaj is pretty great, "cheers" has grown on me (reminds me of kanye's toast to the assholes for some reason) - would've been better if rihanna had just sung the hey-e-yeahs, avril's piercing voice doesn't quite gel.

i'm gonna get sued for $1.5 million dollars for downloading like 6 fake leaks of this album

i am turning you in right now for reward money.

great album cover btw.

Hate That I Love You is not a bit like California King Bed. The latter is a full-blown slick pop song with a Swiftian tinge of modern country. Like, if you played it for me w/o telling me it was Rihanna, I'd have no idea who I was hearing.

So is Stargate all over this, or just the three singles?

this album is really good -- i'm surprised

I'm particularly impressed with the one-two of "complicated" and "skin," would've liked if the whole album was like that! which songs are u feeling the most j0rdan

everything pretty much except "california king bed" i think

oh and not "love the way you lie pt 2" duh

someone wake me up when they're on part 200 and we're all dead

"california king bed" is a little too much like 4 non blondes for my taste i think

rihannanow.com/getloud

nvm sorry that's just samples

I guess my main complaint abt this album is that coming off of rated r it sounds a bit too slight and understated - it's not bad, but it's a little dull, I feel like the best songs on here ("man down," "skin," "complicated,") all sound like a continuation of what she was doing on Rated R in a way (though obv not as "dark")... the rest is just kind of there/doesn't really move me in any particular way... like, if rihanna is going to do basic pop records she should at least try to top Good Girl Gone Bad, this is kind of middling

but this is just off of like 1.5 listens so obv haven't really let it sink in yet... but nothing touching "cold case love," etc.

and yeah "california king bed" is lame power ballad :| sounds like the sequel to Fergie's "big girls don't cry" or some shit

diggin nicki's verse on this

It's raining men... FAT BITCHES is prob the best grocery bag line ever

man i've been outta the loop i haven't been checking for this at all, heard "only girl" on the radio a bunch but don't care for it much. am i gonna like this given my indifference to rated r?

on the real tho i don't think we need another rihanna album just yet - rated r came out what 13 months ago? kinda surprised this is coming out so soon given that rated r wasn't exactly a smash or anything? i mean i'd venture to guess "rude boy" blowing up after a minute there sort of prolonged its commercial shelf-life

i actually was kind of disappointed w/ that after how promising "feeding me my catfishes is"

i think the record scratch effect and pitch down to normal voice for REALLY REALLY REALLY wait really? is the best use of nicki's wackiness i've heard

i think "rude boy" came out far enough after 'rated r' and was so divorced from everything else that was put out for that album that it didn't really help that album's sales really which is prob why they rushed this one out to continue on that momentum

yeah that's probably right

yep, as expected, great album <3

where is the dirty, retail rip?

There isn't one yet, as I said upthread.

all you're missing out w/ the clean version is rihanna saying "nigga" twice and minaj saying "bitches"

Yeah, I guess. And it shouldn't be a hassle to download the dirty versions of the track/s to replace...

ok so both versions i've downloaded have weird mid-song fades and even the one that purports to be 320kbps sounds like ass, so i guess i'll wait for something that's actually adequate to emerge

think you'll be waiting for the follow-up if you want one that doesn't sound like ass.

This is pretty terrible.

This album is completely unnecessary. I mean, there was just a remix album released in May! Why is she allowing her label to rush her through her career with such unremarkable material? I think her red wig ate her common sense.

You dudes is harsh. I think there's plenty to like here. The only WTF moment is California King Bed.

i'm sure she's absolutely devastated at being forced to record and sell number one singles and platinum albums

it's pretty obvious why they rushed another album out by her, as i outlined upthread

Are you kidding me? The first single is hugely successful in the US and Europe, the second single is currently sitting at the top of US digital rankings, this album is more or less guaranteed to shoot her back into the commercial top tier. Common sense is exactly what this album is about, correcting the (hugely unfortunate) lack of mega sales for the Rated R campaign.

xp and as I wrote that Jordan made the same point.

Yeah ok it's not "terrible" but it's not very good at all.

Also I don't buy the I'm-a-nympho stuff on here, asides from MAYBE "Skin." When I hear "Rude Boy," I still feel like Rihanna's going to punish me for being a bad, bad boy and it's great, but here it's not convincing at all.

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"

just sayin

k i havent actually heard this so bear that in mind but still. I think we rarely acknowledge on these threads the extent to which we are just vibing off a partic aesthetic. Like I think that surm was kindof primed to like this from the promo shots of her w/ the bright red hair. Ive had similar experiences, and i feel like that partic. *aesthetic* context of how shes pushing her visuals for eg. right now is framing the singles that is making me really responsive to them (xcept for girl in the world which come on is srsly blech)

basically i am telling you that i saw some pretty photos of rihanna and decided that i like that song w/ drake as long as u ignore drake.

srsly he just sounds like someone talking

The SNL performance of "What's My Name" was not a good introduction to that song; the recorded version is way way way WAY better and now I understand better why people are digging it.

I love love LOVE the "What's My Name" video - so cute!

thats really the extent of my criticism here

xp I actually really like Rihanna's image this go around as well (though I guess the Rated R era's dark/industrial/monochromatic theme was more my preferred aesthetic for her), it kind of gives me mid 90s club kid of vibes

well i think it kindof emphasises the increasing lushness of the synths (which thankfully havent gone all whooshy as a consequence)

i like most of this album, esp. "man down"

Man Down and Cheers are still my favorites, but I'm warming to S&M and What's My Name as well. Still like the whole thing, short of CKB (seriously, how did this song clear the threshold?).

xp I actually really like Rihanna's image this go around as well (though I guess the Rated R era's dark/industrial/monochromatic theme was more my preferred aesthetic for her), it kind of gives me mid 90s club kid of vibes

― The Brainwasher² = (The Brainwasher) X (The Brainwasher), Friday, November 19, 2010 5:47 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this is what i've been saying since the beginning - i love that sound.

Tape Store and i did some research. turns out it actually is a tyra diss in Cheers (sorry if this was mentioned already).

Tyra had Rihanna on her show once and asked her about jay-z sexy-times rumors, to which Rihanna replied that it was BS and that she and Beyonce had never even discussed it. Tyra said that if there was any truth behind, Rihanna would be makin a different record with a different label or something -- because B is a "very powerful woman, you know." Rihanna responded "You're very funny today."

it's gettin coyote ugly up in here, no Tyra
it's only up from here, no downward spiral

well-deserved diss, tho b4 i knew the story i was defensive for tyra.

the level of excitement i have 4 cheers right now is unparalleled. i got a jameson last night in her honor.

the first time i hear it at a bar i will kind of die inside

i forgot to be thankful for this album at thanksgiving. i will be thankful for it now.

It's strange how I have gone from actively hating Rihanna to reckoning she is actually quite OK.
She has probably been just as much pop as RnB from 2007 though, now has stylistically more in common with Lady Gaga than with Beyonce.

i know that justifying ur taste w/ weirdly racialised pseudo music theory is yr "thing" but that is not gonna fly

oddly enough, i thought a lady gaga song was rihanna when i heard it coming out of a bar once recently

u aiight geir

i'm on repeat w/ this now, the whole thing. the "you're not easy to love" hook in "complicated" is greatness. and "only girl" literally brought down the house at the holiday party i went to last night (not surprising).

ps i weirdly like s&m now. i always like it when my bf likes songs, and he was pulled in by this one. i just wish the lyrics were different.

s&m!??

funnily enough, California King Bed kind of gets me. it's like a soap opera, and sort of triflingly, hilariously (too) epic, but it's beautiful, too. that voice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBeobpTcmk&feature=player_embedded

Awesome.

i would respond to that but my stupid computer at work does not let me see video links for some reason (what is it?)

SKIN is so good!

and s&m is the perfect pace for walking in new york. i literally do not miss a beat.

It's a cover of "Only Girl" with a guy beatboxing all the parts of the song, and singing.

...except it may be more processed than the original

...except it may be more processed than the original

i'mma go get the papers

Yeah, but so what?

not to be picky but shouldnt you be rihanna rennavated my dick for consistency

Good call.

Fuckin skin ... And the fadin song ... some remarkable cuts

ayyy i love how even the shoddiest rihanna project will eventually be redeemed via the medium of dancehall remixes. "what's my name?" minus drake, plus vybz kartel!

http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2010/12/whats-my-name-federation-remix-f

love this album. nice counterpoint to the darkness of Rated R.

overall think her last two albums have been more consistent in quality even if I think Good Girl Gone Bad (the third re-release with Take a Bow and shiz on it) had higher highs like "Breaking Dishes" and stuff.

i need to give Loud another listen, i loved GGGB and Rated R but the new one hasn't clicked yet :/

i think rihanna's fantastic, but i haven't bought any of her albums yet. i need to change that asap

i'd rate them

rated r >>>>>> music of the sun > a girl like me > good girl gone bad >>>>>> loud

<3 <3 loud <3 <3

rated r >>>>>> good girl gone bad > music of the sun > a girl like me > good girl gone bad >>>>>> loud

apparently i need to get rated r!!!

um, YES

good girl gone bad has like 4-5 unfuckwithable singles, she's never gonna do that again :(

i don't think that's a sad thing. u can't really have more than 1 album like that, it's like a law of physics. but the 2 singles off this have been unfuckwithable in my mind.

riri: "oh nah nah what's my name"

drake: **mumblemumblemumble**

me: zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

if you fuck w/ rihanna but don't dig that chorus idk what to tell you

you kidding? it's like the most zzzz chorus she's ever done!

like, it's not actively offensive, it's just boring as fuck

i really like "what's my name"

i feel badgered by that chorus, it doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as irresistibly as "Rude Boy"

idk i think it flows perfectly once you can get over the "oooh-na-na" parts

it flows but i guess i feel like it's throwing me on a conveyor belt and i don't feel like going along for the ride?

i know what you mean -- that's how i started to feel about the "california gurls" chorus after a while

ew pls don't compare the 2, what's my name is like a majestic confection compared to the stilted bore that is the california gurls chorus

it doesn't roll the same way rude boy does but the slight tension in the melody makes it better for me

calling it the most zzzz chorus she's ever done is just plain Rong tho sorry to have to say it

lol

ramzi is the god

"what's my name?" is a catchy but boring chorus until placed in the context of that vybz kartel remix, where it's fully lovable

wtf is wrong with yall? "ooh na na na na" is the best part of that song!

gggb (really her only essential album) >>> loud > music of the sun > rated r > a girl like me

whats my name is one of her best singles

its like WMN/Hard/If its lovin that you want. i have weird favourite rihanna singles. i also love te amo like a lot and was p. surprised it wasnt a neyo song when i heard it first.

"hard" and "if it's loving..." are not weird favourite rihanna singles, they're both a+++

yeah well they are among her least successful commercially

p sure if its lovin isnt even on her vevo channel

we put up red lighting for a party at ours recently, and it looked like the new rihanna videos, and we played a lot of rihanna that night

"if it's loving..." was only her second single, back when even people who loved "pon de replay" kind of thought she'd be a one-hit wonder. "hard" was a US top 10 and afaik never a proper UK single.

"Hard" is ok but kind of a bad look

she does that early beyonce style of singing really well on it and the blacktop maybach hook has serious claws

way better songs than "Hard" on rated r

no hard is the best song on rated r

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/03/wrong-urinal.jpg

u r posting jpegs that describe urself

lol

"Hard" is dope but "Cold Case Love" is the best song on Rated R

they also describe tape store

"fire bomb" is the best track on rated r, but "hard" and "cold case love" are right behind it. it might be an interesting album to poll actually.

looks like the poll's up, then?

Rihanna - Rated R - poll

this album is happy and infectious, like the orange color of the sun in the only girl video

pretty sure "s&m" is the 3rd single rite?

a shame they shd just rls cheers now

yeah it's the single & here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdS6HFQ_LUc

Buy Doritos!

omg wtf is that video

the perez hilton inclusion is just... ugh, i can't.

perez hilton + perez hilton inclusions need to stop existing

but ppl seem to like this song! i wonder if it'll do well

well then

i find the choice of single confusing in general but *shrug* if people like it

maybe they just wanted to get all the stargate songs out of the way?

i feel like s&m was supposed to be the thematic carry-over from rated r, at the same time that it goes in a different sonic direction

like "i still dig pain but i'm happy now"

The songs they've picked as singles have been the songs it makes the most sense to release as singles.

otm

Gotta save "Cheers" for spring break imo

good call

this video is definitely hilar

ugh so frustrating tho cuz i rly do feel like with different WORDS this song would be Great

It's a new kind of golden era for Stargate, anyway.

Continuous diet of 'Are You being Served?' and 'The Benny Hill Show' finally has an effect on the US...

Yo guys, which tracks are censored on the clean version? I want to get dirty versions of the tracks that are censored.

this fading song is pretty good

a lot of this is pretty cool http://www.3030fm.com/2011/02/21/rihanna-kanye-west-2011-nba-all-star-halftime-show-rihanna-kanyewest/

ok "s&m" has battered me into submission now

NA NA NA COME ON

i do find that i'm a lot more amenable to foghorn fenty while in the midst of the post-run endorphin rush

SEXINTHEAIRIDONTCAREILOVETHESMELLOFIT

ok "s&m" has battered me into submission now

that's the point isn't it?

i didn't even intend that

i'm pretty sure it's just the endorphin rush but imma enjoy it while it lasts

yeah i still don't love it, but it's fine

and tbh i don't like the smell of sex in the air, i mean it's fine during but then afterward ur like get me some hot cocoa and a movie

i do like hearing britney say "i like it like it"

I was just coming to post how I thought "S&M" was alright at first but repeated exposure has revealed just how awful it really is.

lol @ "foghorn fenty" tho

i think alfred first called her that, on the jukebox

california king bed video out

it's pretty, still love that song

sorry i don't have a link atm

still love that song

Still the only song on the album I skip. I don't think I've heard it since the day the album leaked.

literally one of the dullest songs i've ever heard. just so blah

i like it a whole lot more than S&M, which is the one song i skip now

hearing "man down" a lot on the radio now -- sounds p good

^^yup

and now video is out http://videobam.com/ZdVwa?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4de5819110096b0a%2C0

"california king bed" has strong 2 non blondes overtones that i just can't get past

u mean 4 non blondes right? -- ugh i've felt that way about a couple of songs over the years -- it's such a funny thing!

the big one was that keri song off the first album

yes, yes i do

btw i've noticed that hot 97 looooves to put 'man down' on after that new chris brown song 'look at me now'

coincidence? i think not

lol definitely not

Kind of wish she'd do an entire album of Caribbean music. I thought "S&M" was the first song of hers (on the radio) that I outright hated. Sounded like the fifth single off a weak Britney record 8 years ago.

i disliked "S&M" at first but i appreciate how well Rihanna rips into the chorus after hearing Britney pathetically wimper it out on the remix

^^^^^

Kind of wish she'd do an entire album of Caribbean music.

YES

"Man Down" is my jam right now btw

Kind of wish she'd do an entire album of Caribbean music.

it's why I think her debut album is way underrated

^^^^ her best album imo

i think rated r is better, but yeah those two are definitely her best. (no coincidence that rated r draws heavily on caribbean influences too, albeit v different - mavado's jamaican gothic, dub(step)...)

the "man down" video is great - i wish the song had that level of detail and narrative and emotional focal point

Good Girl Gone Bad is eeeeeaaaasily her best. Music of the Sun is prob #2 tho.

^ GGGB is one of those "every song could be/should be/probably was a single" records, pretty much flawless

Rated R is excellent

i never got into the first couple or Loud, a few tunes aside

the "man down" video is great - i wish the song had that level of detail and narrative and emotional focal point

― the smoke cloud of pure hatred (lex pretend), Wednesday, June 1, 2011 11:46 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

i think too much detail and emotional focus would detract from the song tbh

I like the song...nice reggaeish beats for the summer. It's 13th on the US r'n'b chart now

Why hasn't this gotten a vinyl release? I guess this question could get broader or whatever, I find myself wondering what prompts a Nicki Minaj vinyl release but not a Rihanna, etc. Is it a label issue?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/06/30/137530847/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-hit-song

interesting piece on how much $$$ it costs to make a hit song. in all of that, apparently it took the songwriters 12 minutes to write the "man down" lyrics

IT SHOWS

I like the lyrics.

beyonce did her own vocal production on 4 unsurprisingly

that's awesome

i like the lyrics to man down lyrics a lot, i think simplicity can be the most effective strategy at times, letting other areas of a song breathe. simplicity is also embedded in the tradition of a lot of different styles of songwriting.

"cheers" is the worst song i have liked a lot in a long time

avril lavigne yelping, what a... totally great idea?

cheers sounds so good on the radio. so good.

so so so good

Oh, is Cheers finally a single? Yay.

yea, cheers for august

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR0v0i63PQ4

i think man down is the best song on loud

Yeah, although "Only Girl" and "What's My Name" aren't far off.

I still find it interesting that she put a country-pop song (California King Bed) in the middle of the album. I happen to love it.

yeah, it has grown on me even more. i watched the video the other day and enjoyed it.

i think it was easy to take this album for granted. it made a return to a more streamlined pop with deceptive ease and distinction.

I don't know if it's intentional, but she doesn't sound particularly confident in "Cheers" that drinking is going to lift her spirits. She sounds weary. It works, with Avril trying to get her in more of a partying mood, but I have a feeling that's not what they were aiming for.

with Avril trying to get her in more of a partying mood

Ha! I never thought of it like that. Now I can imagine Avril popping up over her shoulder singing the "Yeah-eee-yeah" parts.

love it

I'm a little slow in my old age. I love "Cheers"--snuck it in during student entry this morning, thankfully no one pays attention to lyrics.

with Avril trying to get her in more of a partying mood

Ha! I never thought of it like that. Now I can imagine Avril popping up over her shoulder singing the "Yeah-eee-yeah" parts.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, September 1, 2011 10:40 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

the video is a huge missed opportunity in that respect

no teasin
u waited long enuf
go deep
imma throw it atcha
can ya catch it
don't hold back
you know i like it rough
o i'm feeling it huh
o u likin it huh
why u standin over there wit ur clothes
baby strip down for me
go on take it off
don't worry baby imma meet you halfway
cuz i know you wanna see it

it's so weird how much i love "only girl" now

I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME
LIKE I'M A HOT PIE

most romantic line she's ever sung

completely ignoring any evidence or arguments that it's not actually the lyric because why would anyone want it to be "ride" kmt

I like your version much more.

"Only Girl" is prob her most forgettable #1, more than "S&M," more than "Disturbia," anything

take a bow???

ehhh maybe

"Only Girl" is prob her most forgettable #1, more than "S&M," more than "Disturbia," anything

― some dude, Saturday, November 3, 2012 3:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i don't agree w/ this at all

Deeply incorrect.

I would suspect that it's the Rihanna song with the most on-the-dancefloor conversions though.

yeah i could be wrong? just don't feel like i've heard mini-Cher bleating "MERK MER FERL LERK ERM THEE ERNLY GERL ERN THERWERLD" much in the last 18 months and that "We Found Love" quickly took its place in her catalog

I think that might actually be right from a radio perspective but I hear Only Girl more than any other Rihanna song in clubs.

that's a shame, it's the kind of piece of shit that deserves to live on only in X-Factor audition hell

yeah that song is only okay

Its declaratory power is both important and distinct in a club context.

tim otm

very much so

"Please Don't Stop The Music" is her best club hit.

I think I agree, but "Please Don't Stop The Music" sounds amazing in pretty much any context whereas I didn't really appreciate (in fact was quite indifferent) "Only Girl In The World" until I witnessed (and participated in) its impact on a sympathetic dancefloor.

"don't stop the music" is great but it feels weirdly forgotten at this point

Not close enough to current dance pop to feel like a proper forebear but too close to feel like a missed/welcome counterpoint.

i do actually think of that album - and i guess specifically that song - as year zero for the dance-pop trends that followed, but like all early forebears it seems kind of quieter and smaller in comparison to what came

"S&M" is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call "forgettable" one of them.

was convinced she sang, 'want you to love me/like a hot guy' before this thread

i still refuse to believe otherwise

i'm happy with guy, i'm happy with pie

i'm not happy with ride

what kind of weirdo loves cars more than guys or pies anyway

um. don't stop the music was not forgotten?

i still hear it out in clubs semi-regularly. the soul makossa breakdown DESTROYS,

I mean, I hear Only Girl a lot also and have grown to love it on, as Tim said, 'sympathetic dancefloors' because when it works, it really works.

the only other songs that have had staying power are 'we found love' and 'where have you been' and even then, i have heard those less often after their peak than the other two songs.

oh, the funkystepz remix of birthday cake has gotten a lot of play too but that's specific to my own queer hip hop dance party social circles i expect.

I play that funkystepz remix when I dj and still swear it should have been the actual single not that chris brown abomination

Which clubs do you hear those at Alex? Just curious cause I'm in Mtl too.

mostly out at queer dance nights? playhouse, royal phoenix, the occasional fundraiser at espace reunion or il motore

only girl is definitely one of my all time favorite Rihanna songs. weird but accessible.

new song is kind of shit even tho it's kind of pretty

the only other songs that have had staying power are 'we found love' and 'where have you been' and even then, i have heard those less often after their peak than the other two songs.

uh "Where Have You Been" peaked what 2 months ago? i mean if we're talking about dancefloor impact of course the later overtly EDM hits are going to be heavy hitters but i don't think that necessarily means they have more staying power in a broader sense than "Rude Boy"

i cannot see where have you been having staying power, it's fine but a little bit whatever

tbh at this point i'm kind of sick of Rihanna for a hot minute (LOUD notwithstanding). i feel like her sense of self is a bit fucked. like yeah we get it, you're a fierce badass bitch (this was mostly spurred by the recent spread in vogue mind you)

she's got another feature with chris brown on this album

i'll tell you what won't have staying power is "Diamonds," which will seem pretty ancient by the time she launches the tour named after it next friggin' March

5. "Loveeeeeee Song" (featuring Future)

please let this be real though

so true about diamonds

tbh tho i still get into cake in a big way

"Birthday Cake" is pretty great in spite of the context in which it exists

i do actually think of that album - and i guess specifically that song - as year zero for the dance-pop trends that followed, but like all early forebears it seems kind of quieter and smaller in comparison to what came

I agree "Don't Stop The Music" played a part in bringing dance back on the US pop charts. Since the 00's, they had only been filled with hip-hop, r&b and rock. Save for some random novelty cover hits from D.H.T., Cascada, and DJ Sammy, dance was completely shut out. The US must be the only country where "Hung Up" didn't go #1 (it peaked at 7).

I would point at "S.O.S." from the year before, actually

she's got another feature with chris brown on this album

― prolego, Tuesday, November 6, 2012 10:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this song is called "nobody's business"

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

if it's nobody's business, maybe stop singing about it on your multiplatinum-selling albums

</kneejerk>

excellent point

word

I would point at "S.O.S." from the year before, actually

It felt more dancehall to me, tempo is still pretty slow.

not very dancehall but it's definitely kind of an early outlier of the 07/08 era 'shuffle beat' craze

1. Fresh Out The Runway
2. Diamonds
3. Numb (featuring Eminem)
4. Pour It Up
5. Loveeeeeee Song (featuring Future)
6. Jump
7. Right Now
8. What Now
9. Stay (featuring Mikky Ekko)
10. Nobodies Business (featuring Chris Brown)
11. Love Without Tragedy / Mother Mary
12. Get It Over With
13. No Love Allowed
14. Lost In Paradise
15. Half of Me (Bonus track)

as well as the obvious, THE GRAMMAR, OH GOD

maybe she means "the business of the general group of people known as nobodies"

oh god she's made an album about poor cassie and cici ;_;

nice that Mr. Eko from Lost is getting some work though

yeah who dat

My favorite typo was when she tweeted that the album was called #UNAPLOGETIC - she didn't apologize for it either.

i wonder who she's voting for

My favorite typo was when she tweeted that the album was called #UNAPLOGETIC - she didn't apologize for it either.

maybe it's secretly a tribute to the Black Eyed Peas

Mikky Ekko is a guy with a nice voice who is Clams Casino's new favorite muse.

http://poponandon.com/rihanna-unveils-unapologetic-track-listing-snippets/

on "jump" she just sings the "pony" chorus before some crazy skrillex breakdown lmao

kinda hot tho

Tracks aren't loading for me. ;_;

yeah they stopped working for me halfway thru for some reason

album sounded kinda good tho

My favorite typo was when she tweeted that the album was called #UNAPLOGETIC - she didn't apologize for it either.

maybe it's secretly a tribute to the Black Eyed Peas

― banana hammock unitard (DJP), Tuesday, November 6, 2012 2:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or maybe to the Palestinian Liberation Organization?

jordan if u had to give me 3 adjectives what would they be

Here's the track Mikky Ekko did with Clams Casino: http://soundcloud.com/mikkyekko/pull-me-down

My favorite typo was when she tweeted that the album was called #UNAPLOGETIC - she didn't apologize for it either.

maybe it's secretly a tribute to the Black Eyed Peas

― banana hammock unitard (DJP), Tuesday, November 6, 2012 2:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or maybe to the Palestinian Liberation Organization?

― flopson, Tuesday, November 6, 2012 9:12 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If we're lucky, there's an interpolation of Method Man's PLO Style somewhere on the album.

Don't like this Mikyy Ekko guy, even the Clams beat is kinda ehhhhhh.

https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/256411509171822592

she misspelled "fuck" too

pretty hilar that it's dropping so soon

well she turns into a pumpkin if she goes 18 months w/o a new album or at least a deluxe edition

https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/256411509171822592

she misspelled "fuck" too

― GOOD LUCK USA GANG KILL THEM ALL (some dude), Tuesday, November 6, 2012 9:31 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I must say that that attitude is why I love Rihanna though. And as misguided as it undoubtedly is, Birthday Cake is one of the hardest "fuck you" songs ever made.

oh drat the chris brown cut is dope

http://jams.to/rihanna-feat-chris-brown-nobodies-business-preview/

really tho

long-running celeb meta version of "abused wife bails husband out of jail"

lord save me but 'jump' kinda slays imo

'numb' ft eminem (shockingly not a dreary piano dirge) might be p good too

'loveeeee song' disappointing, fake 'birthday sex' vibes

i thought all those sounded good... my stream broke right before the guetta track but until then the album sounded pretty r&b to me

http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/42768076/file.html

can't find another working stream but here be a rar fwiw

i'm proud to announce that i've yet to reach the point in my life where i'm downloading a .rar of snippets

that did cross my mind too but then i realised i was probably only gonna listen to the full version 90 seconds at a time anyway so

the 78-second version of "Birthday Cake" is one of the best tracks of her career so i wouldn't mind if she just started doing songs that short

hah i just assumed 'jump' really was skrillex but of course it's actually stargate, those implacable scamps

while i'm checking the credits for the first time now i might as well add 'nobodies business' is a terius & los bit of genius in case no one knew

god i can't wait to see an album back cover with "Nobodies Business" printed on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMDYACE5yM&feature=youtu.be

aka BANDS A MAKE HER DANCE. like the mike will made it track tho

link broke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMDYACE5yM

let's try again

"my fragrance on and they love they smell"

ha reminds me of dre pushing his headphones in that kendrick song

i like it

don't really care about that one

Sounds like something Ty$ would write. Did he?

man she is just a lost cause at this point

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/woman/fashion-beauty/rihanna-i-wanted-face-tattoo-16237261.html

she just starts singing "pony" in the middle of this album

i think "phresh out the runway" might have been properly great though

you forgot to mention THE DROP that follows the Pony interpolation

the piano and the double-tracked vox on the chorus of "nobody's business" had me fearing the worst about how it would turn out to be amazing but luckily CB smearing himself all over it is aesthetically as well as morally repugnant so i'm just annoyed that it's a potential amazing song gone to waste

"love without tragedy/mother mary", also los/terius, is probably the best thing she's done in years

love "pour it up" btw

"loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee song" is the most ridiculous fucking title

it's not even that good

overall the album at least sounds like more than two seconds of thought went into it. maybe five seconds. the vocals sound kinda rough, like she just used the first take or had a sore throat or something.

i like the future song! "jump" is awful tho

LOL at the final sound on this album being that corny voice going "bass slap!"

is that chris brown rapping on "jump"?

or is that asap rocky? i can't tell...

kanye, right?

maybe it is asap. i thought it kinda sounded like kanye

no that's def not kanye

probably a$ap -- rihanna taking him as an opening act on her arena tour is an even stranger act of charity than MMG letting MGK open up their arena shows

also lmao at police "interpolation" on "love without tragedy"

I'm guessing Kevin Cossum? He's in the credits.

ok i lied i love "jump"

the thing with "jump" is that it's good enough that just singing the entire hook of a very famous song feels like an unnecessarily desperate cop-out

I really like this new album.

is there anywhere to tlak about the rihanna plane

as some of you might've already surmised, the rihanna plane is one of the funniest things ever to me

I like to imagine the Rihanna plane as an irl Sex House

rihanna plane = life

I like to imagine the Rihanna plane as an irl Sex House

― paula boradwell (crüt), Monday, November 19, 2012 5:36 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i had the exact same thought

haha

i was supposed to be on rihanna plane

WHAT

A party plane circling the globe is some sort of perfect metaphor for Rihanna. A party island would be even better. I'm amazed at her pace. She's like a perpetual singles machine, though I have trouble caring enough about any of them to hear them played as much as they are. The "Pony" sample is hilarious, however. Kind of like, you like this song fine, huh? Well them I'm just going to go into "Pony."

Well it kind of makes sense if you've got your eye on the djs, who get an excuse to make a transition from a classic song to your contemporary hit or the other way around. That being said, the transition isn't the smoothest in this particular case.

ugh that is always the most hackneyed dj move

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1697777/jay-z-rihanna-love-song-future.jhtml

"It was amazing."

"get it over with" is amazing

I actually really like this new album. The ballads are surprisingly strong especially Stay, What Now and Mother Mary. The production is pretty great too.

yeah i only like a handful of songs but a lot of them fail in interesting ways, like "what now"

i adore "love without tragedy" so much that when it turns into "mother mary" it's a bit of an anticlimax

"phresh out the runway" and "pour it up" are my keepers though

yeah "pour it up" is fantastic. i actually like "right now" a lot

right now lyrics sound kind of stupid to me. if i have to hear one more song about how we're young right now or how we have to live our lives like we're dying i'm gonna vom

what now i think i liked though

the platitudinousness is kinda what's appealing about 'right now', undemanding in a sea of ugly lies

(uglier, at least)

i don't think platitudes are really what rihanna's missing right now.

if it's nobody's business how about not posting a photo of chris brown topless in your bed on your fucking instagram

I believe Pitchfork didn't enjoy this too much.

confused about this part:

Unapologetic courts this confusion. We see the singer as self-possessed ("Good Girl Gone Bad"), a superstar isolated by her fame ("A Girl Like Me") who is full of sexual brio ("Rude Boy").

none of these songs are on the album afaik???

There's a lot of confusion in there. However, comparing Future's contribution to "a dog vomiting" was the thing that really got me mad.

In context, she's saying these previously released songs paint a powerful image that's already difficult to disentangle from Rihanna's personal life and Unapologetic doubles down on this blurring between fact and fiction by explicitly evoking and heavily trading upon the battery incident that has become the defining fact about "the real Rihanna".

i thought that it was a bit confusing too

i don't really rate "loveeeeee song" at all, i'd agree that future is a bit OTT on it

"A bit OTT" is what Future does in general, though? "A dog vomiting" is just insulting. I definitely find a lot of the posturing on the album to be questionable to say the least. But Hopper goes out of her way to say that the album sounds like shit and it doesn't.

nah on loveeeee song it really does sound like he's in the process of getting sick

heaven forfend we insult future

Future is God. Pluto 3D is his second coming. Sulphurous pits await those who dare to compare His works to a dog's vomit.

I'm only half-joking.

tellin jokes, tellin not-jokes at the same damn time

Setting aside whether you or I like the album better than she does, I liked Hopper's review just fine. I always find it interesting when pop stars straddle the personal and the impersonal, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This review falls on the "not" side, which I understand if the results are indeed a mish-mash of confessional, confrontational and dutifully by the numbers. Read like she mostly said Rihanna herself sounded like shit.

Is " I pray that love don't strike twice" a literal-minded reference to getting beat up by Chris Brown? If so, that's brazen.

Is " I pray that love don't strike twice" a literal-minded reference to getting beat up by Chris Brown? If so, that's brazen.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, November 26, 2012 7:54 PM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think that one is taking it a bit too far. In general, I'm open for a review such as the one Hopper was going for. I just think she's too imprecise here, the nuances get lost. She just kinda comes storming out the gate, bat in hand, from her first sentence on and doesn't stop beating at it until she thinks the critter's dead.

imprecise how? if anything, she seems to go out of her way to specifically call out everything she disliked about the album, down to the summation

She just kinda comes storming out the gate, bat in hand, from her first sentence on and doesn't stop beating at it until she thinks the critter's dead.

Yep, pretty much like everything else Jessica Hopper ever writes.

Imprecise in that she has an ax to grind and everything on the album ends up chop suey. There are some interesting analyses to be made with this album but all her conclusions seem foredrawn. She just carves her way through all of the offending quotes without stopping to think.

but her takeaway seems to be "if this album didn't sound like shit, it might be worth analyzing"; given that conclusion, she appears to be making exactly the right supporting argument?

That's not what I get from this. Her critique of the sound is pretty shallow imo - she puts nearly all her energy into the "contents". At the very least this is an interesting album sonically from a pop diva - very different from her last. To me, Rihanna's main narrative for a while now has been/is that she's desperately trying to avoid ending up as "the victim" in the Story of Rihanna and CB, and rather than making a sensible analysis of how her manouevers are deeply problematic in this regard, Hopper seems intent on putting her back in that role, as the victim.

She is the victim? Or does that make her a strong woman for taking back a former abuser?

she gives some background to the album, talks about the "problematic" duet and says it's one of the best songs on the album, spends two paragraphs talking about how most of the songs at the end sound like shit, then talks about how weird and tortured the songs at the end are, wrapping up with:

On one hand, it's tempting to give Rihanna props for broadcasting her all-too-real shortcomings. She's quite a distance from the tidy narrative we'd like, the one where she's learned from her pain and is back to doing diva triumph club stomp in the shadow of Beyoncé. Unapologetic rubs our faces in the inconvenient, messy truth of Rihanna's life which, even if it were done well, would be hard to celebrate as a success. But the measurable failure is the album's music. On a track-by-track basis, the songs make for dull labor, not worth our time and not befitting Rihanna's talent.

The "and it sounds like shit too"- trope is embraced by moralist critics everywhere, always. People said that about Efil4zaggin and they said it about Naked Lunch. Unapologetic obv isn't that good, but the principle remains. It's the sound of the critic washing her hands.

heaven forfend we insult future

― THAT IS ONE BIG PIZZA (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Monday, November 26, 2012 1:48 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf that song is completely awesome

xpost That's fair, to a degree. If it "sounded good," would the review have moved beyond the Chris Brown stuff?

I think it sounds good. Not AOTY good, and not stuffed with hot singles, but it's an interesting album sonically. Even stuff like Jump, with its Power Ballad goes brostep goes genderbending pony interpolation, which admittedly is a huge mess, is very interesting.

im not familiar enough w/ the album to say whether or not she was letting her overarching problems w/ it blind her to what may have been a more complicated record in the interest of a pan but i definitely felt that way about how she described the track with Future which is think is a much more impressive track than shes giving it credit for. ppl who dont get Future are like ppl who hate cilantro

too much cilantro is a bad thing

that edit you posted on tumblr of the future song is >>> the original tho

There can never be enough Future.

too much cilantro is a bad thing

― J0rdan S., Monday, November 26, 2012 2:54 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

luckily this song is balanced w/ nicely subtle production & a really genuinely interesting performance from rihanna

it helps that it works as a song independently of the CB/R narrative imo

D-40 OTM

the one track off this album that i super fuck with is "numb," eminem's butt police line included

included?

damn

i dont like all Future songs or something. But I think the rihanna track ranks w/ his best of the year certainly.

the best thing about "numb" is that it barely even feels like a song

it's like a really good random soundcloud production

subtweets

@jawnita
Reviewing the artist vs. reviewing the album = go to therapy my dudes!

Yes.

retweeted by edward droste

jesus only 2 months in nyc & i already know who that is

jk, in case whiney was going to call me out on hipster faux naif-ness

RT and fav by edward droste AND fav by grizzly bear account *strokes chin*

can we create an indie maginot line & figure out who's on what side

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.

I'll put Music of the Sun up with GGGB and Unapologetic. It's kind of a perfect Caribbean-pop trifle in a way.

A little of both maybe? The duet reminds me of Gotye, the accompaniment is all Adele.

yeah i get nothing Gotye out that other than 'for the first time ever, white boys can help Rihanna dominate pop radio'

out of that

yea as far as downtempo goes Stay is leaps and bounds ahead of Diamonds and Unfaithful jeez louise

both of those songs are like jackhammers in your brain

'for the first time ever, white boys can help Rihanna dominate pop radio'

please

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjFam_dQL85wCHZVi3jd-TCcUxhtItAFozAI5Of2W9AdByjbiEtA

eh i meant as performers obv

lol

well idk i kinda like this song actually, it sounded 'right' when i first heard it on the radio on a cold night

totally

One thing I've noticed about Rihanna as a singer is that she has started emoting more convincingly as she's gotten older; I cringe to think of what she would have done to this song had it come out at the same time as "Unfaithful".

it would have been very sad :(

and yes i've heard people comment similarly about her recent performances

she's pretty fantastic on "Loveeeeeee Song" imo

ur pretty fantastic

ur pretty

thx surm happy valentine's day

blushin

favourite riri album for me is a tossup between GGGB and Rated R, Loud and Talk that talk both had shining moments but felt tossed off and lazy. Everything I read about this album made it sound even lazier + i guess i still find the whole chris brown thing pretty icky, but then I listened to "stay" about four times yesterday so now i don't even know.

vin diesel is feeling "stay"

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4256755106383&set=vb.89562268312&type=2&theater

haha wtf

totally come round to "pour it up" now, her delivery is fucking amazing

i want a video asap

she sounds so...sober

I don't know where this should go, because there a million Rihanna threads, but this is so good I have no problem linking to bu**feed.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/a-rihanna-meet-greet-vs-an-avril-lavigne-meet-greet

yeah that was pretty hysterical

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