At times the album's lurid sexuality can feel forced: kink as oversold diva commodity. What Loud showcases best, though, is a star undefeated by her worst circumstances — and finding redemption in exactly the kind of pop nirvana that made her famous in the first place.
If it weren’t for the grab bag feel it gives off in small measure, Loud would rival Good Girl Gone Bad without much argument from anyone. It’s a dynamic R&B and dance-pop record that feels neither tenuous nor overwrought, striking about as clever a balance as one can strike in today’s distracted music economy.
After responding to staggering emotional and physical trauma with the melodramatic Rated R, Rihanna returns to making effervescent pop.
Loud is perhaps the work that will put her back on the fast track, and since Rihanna is officially throwing up the Roc (another proud Roc Nation signee), perhaps she’ll make the official transition from Princess to Queen the next time around.
Whereas many of her prior ambitions may have felt impulsive, Loud fuses them together so that they all make sense.
Perhaps trying to distance it from the darker world of sexual violence that dominated Rated R, Rihanna has described Loud as "really sassy and flirty", though listening to tracks like the masochist drama "Love the Way You Lie" and the bluntly-titled "S&M", this seems somewhat disingenuous.
Like Janet's last hit album, Loud is a decided step away from its über-personal, melodrama-drenched predecessor.
At times brilliant, at others unlike anyone else out there and occasionally frankly a bit rubbish.
At a brief 47 minutes ... it's hard to see Rihanna fans walking away from Loud thinking she's anything other than the coolest girl in her field.
Ultimately Loud is a typical big budget pop album; nothing to sing about, but worth a dance.
Determinedly upbeat it may be, but Loud is a disappointing step backwards for RiRi.
Despite what she’s tried to convince us with her last few albums, that she’s a Good Girl Gone Bad, that she’s Rated R, that she’s Loud, she mostly just seems like an attractive, but not particularly adventurous or inspired pop star.
In anticipation of her Super Bowl halftime performance, I wanted to go back and listen to a few of her albums in full. I decided to start with this one because I am very very nostalgic for many of the singles from it, and upon revisiting it the whole album actually has held up pretty well.
One of the biggest pop albums of the last decade, ‘Loud’ is an effervescent mix. The theme is upbeat. Besides that, the tracks have no connection to each other and the record feels like a greatest hits compilation. The hits by the way are amazing, but the rest are fillers that give the album a rubbish quality.
Was in the mood for early 2010s pop bangers (don't ask why) And it definitely delivered on that wish
Loud is on one of the most popular and iconic mainstream pop albums of the 2010s, with it just affirming Rihanna as a huge driving force in the industry, along with that it has some of the biggest songs shes ever done, with the likes of: S&M, What's my Name (my favourite), Cheers, Only Girl, California King Bed and Man Down (and Love The Way You Lie too ig)
All of these hits made for this ... read more
Better than Good Girl Gone Bad however I feel you really only need to listen to the singles.
Only liked the singles except for man down which is her worst song it's seriously a mixed bag
1 | S&M 4:03 | 90 |
2 | What's My Name? 4:23 feat. Drake | 84 |
3 | Cheers (Drink to That) 4:21 | 70 |
4 | Fading 3:19 | 70 |
5 | Only Girl (In the World) 3:55 | 91 |
6 | California King Bed 4:11 | 80 |
7 | Man Down 4:27 | 82 |
8 | Raining Men 3:44 feat. Nicki Minaj | 63 |
9 | Complicated 4:17 | 67 |
10 | Skin 5:03 | 75 |
11 | Love the Way You Lie (Part II) 4:56 feat. Eminem | 78 |
#34 | / | The Guardian |