Talk That Talk by Rihanna

Talk That Talk, Rihanna's sixth album, arrived on Def Jam in November 2011, barely a year after Loud, and it was never supposed to be a new album at all: it started life as a planned reissue of Loud and grew into its own beast, recorded on the run between February and November 2011 while she was out on the Loud Tour. Rihanna called the shots as executive producer and brought in a stacked bench, Alex da Kid, Calvin Harris, Chase & Status, No I.D. and Stargate among them.

What came out is a club-ready pop and R&B hybrid shot through with hip-hop, dubstep wobble, house pulse and a faint dancehall lilt, sung from the point of view of a lover who is reckless, romantic and frankly libidinous. "We Found Love" led the charge, topping the charts in 27 countries and holding number one in the US for 10 weeks, and "Where Have You Been" and the Jay-Z-assisted title track followed it out the door.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.