NEWS & ALBUM REVIEWS
Despite sounding rushed to capitalize on fourth quarter sales, 2010’s Loud proved that Rihanna’s reign indeed would not let up. The album’s first three singles topped the Hot 100. A fourth one merely went Top Ten. Just as Loud was losing its grip, during the fourth quarter of 2011, Rihanna fired again with another number one single, “We Found Love” — its success more likely due to the singer’s ecstatic vocal than Calvin Harris’ shrill, plinky production. While Talk That Talk is built like another singles-chart-devouring machine, it’s both more rounded and less random than Loud. “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” — the latter with a quote from Geoff Mack’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” and echoes of the chorus from Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” — function as place-holding dance tracks, and there are a couple empty anthems and ballads in the drippy “We All Want Love” and the bombastic “Farewell.” It’s the darker and dirty-minded material that tends to be most effective — where Rihanna is more alive and believable, where her collaborators provide the most adventurous productions. In the Bangladesh-produced “Cockiness (Love It),” one of the most hypnotic and wicked beats of the last decade, Rihanna absolutely relishes the chance to sing-taunt “Suck my cockiness, swallow my persuasion.” Two of Stargate and Esther Dean’s three contributions — the desperate, xx-sampling “Drunk on Love“ (“Nothing can sober me up”) and the prowling “Roc Me Out” — pack more sleek menace than Rated R’s “G4L” and Loud’s “S&M.” The album’s best track, however, is the wholly sweet and flirtatious “Watch n’ Learn,” featuring a dizzying Hit-Boy beat — rat-a-tat snares, swirling/swelling synthesizers, irresistible plucked melodies — that is even more unique in the context of 2011 pop radio than his work on Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “Ni**as in Paris.” Behind Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R, this is Rihanna’s third best album to date. Minus the fluff, it’s close to the latter’s equal. By Andy Kellman – www.allmusic.com After the huge commercial and artistic success of his last album, Thank Me Later, Drake threatened/promised that his next album would be a straight-up R&B record that forsook rapping for vocals. The plan fell through, but his 2011 album Take Care has the feel of a late-night R&B album, full of slow tempos, muted textures, impassioned crooning, and an introspective tone that is only rarely punctured by aggressive tracks, boasts, and/or come-ons. For the most part, increased success hasn’t done much to improve Drake’s mood, as he details his failures at love, his worries about living a hollow life, and his general malaise. Drake’s longtime producer/partner Noah “40” Shebib did most of the production work, and he surrounds Drake’s voice with murky beats, layers of dusky synths, and moody guitars that fit Drake’s voice perfectly; the two work together to create a thick mood of melancholy. When other producers take over, there is a definite shift in mood. Boi-1DA gives “Headlines” a jaunty synth line that Drake matches with his strongest rap, T-Minus brings some booty bass to the thoughtfully sexy Nicky Minaj feature “Make Me Proud,” Just Blaze builds “Lord Knows” around some majestic samples that let Drake brag like a boss, and Chase N. Cashe take things one step further toward R&B by creating a late-night after-hours club feel on the bittersweet “Look What You’ve Done” (which features a phone message left for Drake by his grandmother). The album’s most unique track, “Take Care,” features Jamie Smith of the xx working with Shebib on an (almost) uptempo, (almost) danceable song that has a typically great vocal from Rihanna. The super-moody collaboration with the Weeknd on “Crew Love” is another highlight, though it does point out the problematic fact that the Weeknd beats Drake out in the vocal department. The collabo with the predictably brilliant André 3000 and Lil Wayne also point out Drake’s shortcomings as a rapper. Though he drops the occasional line that dazzles (“All my exes live in Texas like I’m George Strait”), Drake is a middle-of-the-pack rapper at best. His true strength, as Take Care proves over and over, is his willingness to delve deeply into his emotions and the ability to transmit them in such a simple and real fashion that it’s easy to connect with him even if your life isn’t filled with glamorous exes, hangs with Stevie Wonder (who adds some harmonica to “Doing It Wrong”), and gold owls. It’s an important achievement, and his success might mean that the world was ready for the first emo rapper. Thank Me Later hinted at it, but Take Care makes it plain. And while Take Care’s charms may be a little more hidden, with a couple exceptions, than Thank Me Later’s were, repeated plays reveal a record that is just as strong and more powerful emotionally. Don’t play it at your next house party or DJ night; save it for later when you need something to get you through the rest of the night. By Tim Sendra – www.allmusic.com
Rihanna: Talk That Talk
Drake: Take Care
