Entertainment
Music Review
An Aggressive Tone
On New Album, Rihanna’s ‘Loud’
By STEVE JONES
USA Today
LOS ANGELES--Rihanna is a good girl who went bad a couple of albums ago, and she keeps getting naughtier all the time.
“Loud’s” pulsating opener, “S&M,” makes it clear from the jump where she’s headed as she acknowledges that “chains and whips excite me.”
She never retreats from that sexually aggressive tone as she shakes off the dark cloud of domestic violence that veiled 2009’s “Rated R.”
On her fifth album in five years, she is on a freaky, flirty, fun trip. The edgy music, which leans heavily toward dance and island sounds, fits well with her less than blissful romantic romps.
On more than one occasion she makes it clear that she likes her men complicated and that they can expect her to be the same.
Eminem puts in a cameo on “Love the Way You Lie (Part II),” which extends, but doesn’t really add, to their earlier hit about a tortured relationship from his “Recovery” album.
Better is “Raining Men,” a duet with Nicki Minaj, on which busters feel the blast of the vamps’ ire.
Rihanna is not only loud, but full of drama.
