Loud

Rihanna’s fifth album pivots from the bruised mood of Rated R to a high-gloss, hands-up celebration. Cut between February and August 2010 while she toured and filmed Battleship, Loud reunites her with hitmakers Stargate, Sandy Vee, Tricky Stewart, The Runners and Alex da Kid, with Rihanna and L.A. Reid steering as executive producers. Guests arrive with purpose rather than clutter: Drake smoulders on “What’s My Name?”, Nicki Minaj fires through “Raining Men”, and Eminem returns for “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)”.

Stylistically it is pure pop efficiency with R&B muscle, splashing into Eurodance on “Only Girl (In the World)”, rock power ballad drama on “California King Bed”, and a Caribbean sway on the reggae-flecked “Man Down”. The songwriting is built for the dancefloor but keeps Rihanna’s bite intact, her vocals carrying both the flirt and the fight.

The numbers tell their own story. Loud opened at No. 3 in the US, topped the charts in the UK, Canada and Switzerland, and finished as the eighth best-selling album globally in 2011. Three singles — “Only Girl (In the World)”, “What’s My Name?” and “S&M” — hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Only Girl” taking the Grammy for Best Dance Recording in February 2011. A globe-spanning Loud Tour sealed the era.

Bright, sassy and relentlessly replayable, Loud is the sound of Rihanna choosing euphoria and making it chart law.