A Second Take:The Wrath of Rihanna

Review Fix reviewed Rihanna’s new album last week before it was released, but we figured we’d give you another view from Editor David Guzman.

Rihanna’s got a very capable voice, which makes it all the more sad that it’s stuck putting out albums as flaccid as “Loud.” What’s worse is that the material’s not even the biggest problem – while there’s not a lot of potential in it to start with, it might’ve gone somewhere if she only knew how to take control of it. Instead, “Loud” plays like a St. Bernard galloping into the unknown, dragging her around because she doesn’t have it in her to let go of the leash. She wants to be dirty, but this beast gives her more than she bargained for.

“Dirty,” by the way, is a term that applies to more than sex. Even though “Only Girl (In the World)” has become something of a club anthem, Rihanna also turns up on the bar scene with “Cheers (Drink to That),” and goes behind closed doors with “California King Bed,” a ballad that’s more heartfelt than its title suggests. It’s a shame, then, that she handles it the same way as every other song – with energy that has no sense of occasion, and sounds just as jolly throughout the soul-searching strife of “Complicated” as it does during the giddy crime drama of “Man Down.” Does she put on the same outfit for funerals as she does for weddings?

A couple of other artists have guest spots, too, and although throwing different talents into a project can compromise its focus, they seem to know what Rihanna’s going for better than she does. When she builds upon last summer’s most infectious hook on “Love the Way You Lie (Part II),” it doesn’t develop another layer until Eminem raps a new verse. The same thing winds up happening on “Raining Men” featuring Nicki Minaj, who takes Rihanna’s speed-dating mixer and brings out the spirit at its center. It kind of makes you wonder what “Loud” could’ve been in the right hands.

Of course, Rihanna fans will eat this up, and will probably even get the deluxe edition, which comes with a short documentary on the recording of “Loud.” It’s a little shorter than the album, which clocks in at around 46 minutes. That might not sound like a lot, particularly since CDs hold up to 80 minutes, but after 46 minutes of whips and chains and liquor and matchmaking and heartbreak and getting even, you’ll get too much of a headache to want to hear the other 34.