Rihanna

In a recent Slate.com article, in-house pop critic Jonah Weiner mercilessly attacked Rihanna’s success, questioning her substance and authenticity on and off her albums, and ultimately labeling her a “a one hit-wonder several dozen times over.” It’s a provocative (and mathematically dubious) comment that sounds a bit naive in a current pop climate that expects reinvention with every release. While the Barbadian pop princesss isn’t beyond reproach, the criticism seems more appropriate for her contemporaries, who drench themselves in glitter, create impotent alter egos or morph into cartoonish caricatures of themselves. But Rihanna’s aesthetic is more red lipstick than red meat dress. Talk That Talk, Rihanna’s sixth studio album, demonstrates that she does have the capacity to sound genuine, even if that means showcasing the overconfident missteps of a 23-year old celebrity.

Cementing Rihanna’s bawdy bad-girl reputation that she began with Rated R’s “Rude Boy” and continued with Loud’s “S&M,” Talk That Talk overflows with lyrics about love, sex and conflating the two. On the Europop-infused “Where Have You Been,” Rihanna is characteristically upfront in her desires, singing “I’ve been everywhere, man, looking for someone/ Someone who can please me, love me all night long.” She is similarly suggestive on “Watch n’ Learn,” a percussion-driven chant where Rihanna, in her sometime-Caribbean delivery, declares, “Imma do it, do it, do it on the bed, on the floor, on the couch/ Only ‘cause your lips say make it to my mouth.” Rihanna is at her best when she opts for love-drugged vulnerability or brazen sexuality, as shown in her cathartic, Calvin Harris-produced single “We Found Love” and the lusty deluxe addition track “Red Lipstick,” respectively. Her downfall, however, comes when she tries to stretch these emotions beyond believability. “Fool in Love” leaves Rihanna uncomfortably exposed in her reliance on affection, and “Cockiness (Love It)” is laughable in its attempt at wordplay—lines like “Suck my cockiness/ Lick my persuasion” sound contrived, as if she was using the wrong playbook.

On Talk That Talk, Rihanna is trying to establish a particular image that she occasionally explored on previous albums: She is raunchy, she is passionate, she is driven and, on her handful of standout tracks, she makes us believe her.