**Background**

"Loud" was a chance for Rihanna to regain her composure as a Pop star. Artists like that are meant to go through their rough patches and "Rated R" was album to summarise all of that with a response record to the madness which occurred in 2009. 2010's "Loud" - which was characterised with the "Only Girl" single - was the Barbadian artist's fifth album and allowed her to get her sexy on, while she was breaking out into a blazing phase of her career. It was preceded by some of her best promo tunes up to that time and its content was due to continue that high calibre of catchy Pop material.

*Good Points*

It's the ideal Rihanna album. By this point, you'll know whether or not Rihanna's for you, so you've got no reason to stumble upon "Loud" and suddenly decide that Ri-Ri's not for you. The album is exactly what she's about, so from the undervalued content like "Skin", to the much-celebrated "California King Bed", it's put together as if it's a masterpiece. Her voice might not be able to do extra special acrobatics, but she's able to shine when her aim is merely to set scenes. For that reason, even tunes like "Cheers" feel like valuable elements to make it tick.

*Bad Points*

The only criticisms to an album like this could be if you genuinely don't like Rihanna. You have reason to feel that she goes a bit too raunchy then "S&M" is going to be an immediate turn off. Further into the tracklist, "Only Girl" is an all-out celebratory track which can be perceived as one of the cheeriest, cheesiest tunes around, so will be off-putting to some, but those people aren't in touch with the Pop music of today, so it doesn't matter that much.

**Overall**

"Loud" is a glory album for Rihanna. It's true that she may not be the most rounded artist and her vocals may not be up to par with others, but "Loud" is a true representation of what Rihanna's done for Pop music and her position within the industry. She might have taken a step down with a rather average-sounding "Talk That Talk", but the powerful content on this one is what's important. It has loads of killer tracks to boast so if you're a sucker for "S&M", the chances are that you'll fall for "Man Down" too. If you like that one, there isn't a single reason why you'd turn down "What's My Name". If that Drake-featured tune is up your alley, you'll have to do some explaining to say why "Raining Men" isn't too. She injects that little bit of R&B in most of the tracks to give them that broad appeal as possible, while keeping commercial viability at its core.

Rihanna's made one of the most solid Pop albums of recent memory. .