"Talk That Talk"

The inimitable artist Rihanna uses creativity as a weapon. She has been the most dependable pop star of the last 5 years. Recently, she became the fastest solo artist in history to have 20 Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Rihanna is close to ranking at the top of the charts near The Beatles. Her hit songs are released with no concern to style or mood. So, of course her voice has been extravagant on tracks belonging to different genres of music such as R&B, hip-hop, soul, rock and pop.

For the most part, her voice hasn’t been in one particular place over the past years. “Talk that Talk” her sixth album brings forth a new and altered Rihanna style. Her new album has placed her in the center of the pop genre and it complements her well. Many of the tracks on this album are dance music which is convenient enough because it’s the current and fashionable mode today.

 “Talk that Talk” is her cheery and most joyful album yet.  It says a lot and there are no signs of scarring from the violent relationship with Chris Brown. Track number 1 “You da one” which was the second single has the triumphant sounds of the drums. She sings “You da one that I dream about all day/ you da one that I think about always/ you are the one so I make sure I behave/ my love is your love, you love is my love. Another track “Do ya thang” is even cooler with the catchy drum breaks. It has this teenager-ish vibe and good natured tune. She sings “You know that ima do whatever I’m not goin leave/ this kind of love don’t come easy/ we don’t care what they think/ promise we’ll stay the same/ say that you’ll stay right here for me.

The album seems monstrous and powerful because she is trying to reestablish her position in the music culture. She expels the evil spirits of her demonic relationship with Chris Brown as she sings that she is in love with life. But it all seems to be rushed, I don’t know if everyone is ready for the whole 360 after the abusive relationship. The situation wasn’t shallow but yet Rihanna sings happily and tries to bring us to the party, when in fact some of us may not have recovered from that instance. The album has none of the dark wounded recent subtext of her more recent albums.

Her music is touching and it reveals that we all go through the same things.  On the track “We all want love”  she sings “Everybody want something/ gotta want something/ what are you living for/ we all want the same thing/ we all want love”.  After dark moods we do turn around and put on a smile. Most times after bad relationships we toughen up and are ready to party and find love all over again. Besides, who wants to stay depressed forever?