The album also contains subtle dancehall influences while its lyrical content and themes revolve around a nihilistic, romantic, and lascivious lover.
"We Found Love" became Rihanna's eleventh number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in twenty six additional countries.
A remixed form of "Cockiness (Love It)" (featuring rapper ASAP Rocky) was released as the sixth and final single from the album.
"[7] In an interview with Mixtape Daily, songwriter Verse Simmonds, half of the duo The Jugganauts, who wrote and produced the reggae-infused song "Man Down" from Loud, revealed that the singer was nearing completion of her sixth studio album in August 2011.
[8] On September 15, 2011, Rihanna confirmed via her official Twitter account that recording sessions for the album were indeed underway, tweeting "I can't wait to start filling u guys in on some details!
[10][11] Upon the unveiling of the standard edition's artwork, both James Dinh of MTV and a reviewer for NME commented that Rihanna looks "seductive" in the image.
Due to this, recording sessions for the album took place in various countries including France, United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
[19] James Lachno of The Daily Telegraph cites Talk That Talk as Rihanna's "most club-ready album to date",[19] while Robert Christgau calls it "pop without shame—her hookiest and most dance-targeted album, decorated with a thoughtful assortment of suitably titillating blats, noodles, dubs, groans, hiccups, boom-booms, cut-ups, speed-ups, xx samples, and spoken-word bits.
[18] Music journalist Greg Kot observes that, along with droning electronic sounds, "Caribbean and Eastern touches from past Rihanna albums get recycled into bombastic dance tunes.
[28] The tenth track, "Watch n' Learn", features a flirtatious and playful hip pop melody with grinding synths.
"Red Lipstick" is described as a "dark 'n' twisted" dubstep number which was written by The Dream and Rihanna and produced by the two along with production duo Chase & Status, who first worked with the singer on her fourth studio album, Rated R (2009).
"Fool in Love" is a rhapsodic[32] ballad which incorporates acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, and drums, and has received comparisons to Britney Spears' "Criminal".
[36][37] The music video, which premiered on October 19, 2011,[38] depicts the singer as a drug abusing thrill seeker in a relationship that quickly spirals downward into addiction and violence.
"We Found Love" debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, eventually reaching number one, giving Rihanna the record for a solo artist to have amassed twenty top ten singles in the shortest amount of time in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Cockiness (Love It)" was released as the sixth and final single on September 7, 2012 in a remixed form of the original version and features rapper ASAP Rocky.
The song debuted on the South Korea Gaon International Chart at number 62 on November 26, 2011, with sales of 6,918 digital downloads.
[54] On February 12, 2012, Rihanna performed "We Found Love" at the 2012 Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles,[55] followed by her duet single "Princess of China" with Coldplay for first time.
[61] The performance of "Where Have You Been" featured an aesthetic similar to that of the music video; the SNL set was decorated in a One Thousand and One Nights fashion.
[61] Rihanna and her backup dancers performed a highly choreographed dance routine, the same as the music video, and they wore Arabian inspired outfits.
In the viral video Rihanna takes the cameras back stage on the last day of the Loud Tour, to the studio whilst she talks about the track listing and to Barbados with her family.
[76] AllMusic's Andy Kellman dubbed it Rihanna's "third best album to date ... behind Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) and Rated R (2009)," and stated, "Minus the fluff, it's close to the latter's equal.
"[2] James Lachno of The Daily Telegraph called it "an adrenalised behemoth of a record which reasserts her position as one of pop's most compulsive pleasures".
[19] Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian called it "a blast of obnoxious, filth-fuelled pop" and felt that "it works best when the music hall bawdiness is left aside in favour of bleak euphoria".
[71] In a review of its deluxe edition for MSN Music, Robert Christgau complimented the songs' carnal lyrics and stated, "I prefer it to her earlier albums because I find its many porny moments titillating.
"[20] In a mixed review, Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times expressed dissatisfaction with the themes of the album and stated, "The singer works that NC-17 territory, but the sauciness sometimes borders on shtick.
"[18] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune panned its "double or single entendres", and felt that it gives the impression of "a chintzy soft-core porn movie.
[77] Pitchfork's Lindsay Zoladz wrote that the album "tries too hard to send a more one-dimensional message" than other pop artists in 2011, adding that it "ends up falling flat".
[17] Priya Elan of NME found it "annoyingly safe" and wrote that it "leaves us with the impression Rihanna has spread herself so thinly that she doesn’t have time to record a cohesive album.
[82] On December 9, 2011 the album was certified two-times Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 600,000 copies in the UK.