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Rihanna "Talk That Talk" album

- Release date : November 2011 -

Talk That Talk is the sixth studio album by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, released on November 18, 2011 through Def Jam Recordings. The lead single from the album, "We Found Love" featuring Calvin Harris, premiered on Capital FM radio on September 22, 2011, and was released on iTunes U.S. the same day.

"Talk That Talk" album tracks and lyrics

"Talk That Talk" album reviews

Rihanna's sixth album is a blast of obnoxious, filth-fuelled pop. Coming only a year after Loud, everything has been turned up, then up again, from its steroidal Ibiza synths to the smutty innuendo – clearly she's decided that S&M's whips and chains were a little on the tame side. So there are exhortations to eat her cake (she doesn't mean cake!) and to lick her persuasion (she doesn't mean persuasion!), although sometimes the metaphors disappear with a laughable shrug, as on Birthday Cake: "Ooh, I want to fuck you right now." It works best when the music hall bawdiness is left aside in favour of bleak euphoria, of which there's plenty – the xx-sampling Drunk on Love and the absurdly banging Where Have You Been are particularly fiery, and show exactly why she's at the top of the pop game.

*** by Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian UK ***

When your album release schedule is as hectic as Rihanna's (six in six years, to be precise), most artists risk over-selling themselves to the point where even your nan is fed up of their ubiquity. While many would argue that exposure is in fact her art, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking that Talk That Talk is perhaps one RiRi album we could all do without for now.

That said, such feelings simply melt away after hearing 'We Found Love', the LP's wistful but relentless trailer. Produced by resident Scot DJ and part-time singer Calvin Harris, its touching lyrics about falling in love when you least expect it are what sets it strides apart from the plethora of generic club thumpers about the charts today. Better yet, the pair ramp up the formula a few notches further for immediate standout 'Where Have You Been'.

Thankfully, it's about as high as the BPM gets here. Opener and future single 'You Da One' is a vibrant midtempo number smothered in Caribbean spices and playground hooks ("My love is my love/ Your love is mine"), the title track sees her cooing label boss Jay-Z over a booty-bouncing riff that doffs its cap to 'Rude Boy', while the stormy 'Drunk On Love' reworks xx's 'Intro' with heart-tugging effects.

There's not nearly as much romp as is being purported, perhaps because she carries the LP's most explicit moments off with ease. "Suck my cockiness/ Lick my persuasion," she calls on 'Cockiness', before insisting: "I wanna f**k you right now" on clunky and aggressive "interlude" 'Birthday Cake'. Regardless, anyone questioning her motives need only hear ballads 'Farewell' and 'Fool in Love' to find out not only does she have a heart, but she's without doubt been putting all of it into these past six years.

*** by Robert Copsey, Digital Spy ***