Incorporating a base core of R&B and pop music, Talk a Good Game was influenced by the likes of Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder among Rowland's other idols.

The album was also preceded by the release of the lead single, a Mike Will Made It and Marz production called "Kisses Down Low", which peaked in the top-thirty of the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

[citation needed] On its release, music critics commended the album's cohesive sound and themes throughout, often noting Rowland's most personal and vulnerable lyrics as well as the strength of her vocals.

Talk a Good Game entered the US Billboard 200 at number four, selling 68,000 copies in its opening week, and was Rowland's third top ten album.

[5] In August 2011, the producer Rico Love told Rap-Up magazine, "While she's on tour, I'm gonna be writing records for her new album.

[20] Then comes "Kisses Down Low", an R&B and electronic track written by Marquel Middlebrooks, Timothy and Theron Thomas, Rowland, Mike Will Made It, with the latter producing the song.

[23] Harmony Samuels produced the "base-heavy" and radio friendly "snapping" beat which features a prominent sample of "Big Yellow Taxi", a 1970 single by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.

Over a "snaky but sweet" production from T-Minus Rowland sings "I don't think I can take another broken promise / Why do things the hard way when you can just be honest".

[20] "Dirty Laundry" was co-written by Rowland, Carlos McKinney and The Dream, and is an R&B "confessional" ballad, containing "R&B jam spools" and a piano-led melody.

[28] The song is a "brutal" chronicle of the last ten years of Rowland's life, covering her envy of Beyoncé's solo success and the end of an abusive relationship.

Amongst the lyrics, Rowland sings "Kinda lucky I was in her shadow / Phone call from my sister what's the matter / She said, 'Oh no / You gotta leave' / I'm on the kitchen floor / He took the keys.

She sings about how "chasing fast money takes precedence over self-improvement"[31] atop a mid-2000s pop music production,[23] built around layers of hand drums and horn stabs.

The lyrics then continue on to speak about the current problems society is facing, "the recession ate me alive / Tryin' to get where the breeze is nice / So I can breathe.

The simple production and lyrics include the lines "You just do it / Mean it / Prove it"; Hampp of Billboard wrote that one could expect to hear the song at weddings.

[20] On October 10, 2012, Rowland announced on her official website that the album would be called Year of the Woman, and wrote that it "is one of my greatest pieces of work and I cannot wait to share it with you guys!".

"[13] During a back stage interview at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Rowland revealed that working with so many producers inspired her to rename the album Talk a Good Game.

[37] In March 2014, Rowland confirmed that she had left Republic Records in search of a "fresh start" and that she had already begun work on her next studio album, signalling the end of the Talk a Good Game era.

[38] In June 2012, it was announced that the Sean Garrett-penned song "Ice", which features rapper Lil Wayne, would serve as the album's first single.

[48] On April 30, 2013, it was confirmed that Rowland would be co-headlining a US concert tour with The-Dream, who produced two songs on Talk a Good Game.

Speaking about the tour, Rowland said: "To be able to work with [The-Dream] in this capacity and have the opportunity to showcase our new music to our fans live and in person is going to be extremely rewarding!

[64] Kyle Kramer from the Chicago's RedEye entertainment newspaper called Talk a Good Game a "fantastically bold re-introduction for those who haven't checked in on Rowland in a decade."

He noted that although at times Rowland experiments with adult contemporary music (on "Gone" featuring Wiz Khalifa) the majority of albums sits "between post-Drake R&B and "high energy highlights".

[73] For AllMusic, Andy Kellman wrote that Talk a Good Game was a similar make-up of pop and R&B music to Rowland's releases.

Apart from "Dirty Laundry", which Farber called "a tad desperate" as the message gets lost in the melody, he thought the album "has a focused sound, based on the slow grind.

"[74] The Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman agreed that when people looked beyond "Dirty Laundry", the album "reflects a better balance of sound and sentiment".

Commenting that "Rowland is still grappling with how to create an authentic artistic identity", Galvin concluded that "Talk a Good Game's standout tracks prove that she's closer to carving a niche for herself than she has been on prior efforts that suppressed rather than addressed that difficulty".

Talk a Good Game is her realness in full flower, an album that balances world-weariness about relationships with infectious dollops of sexual agency, tackling the vagaries of love almost exclusively and offering anthems for experiences that every woman has had (or will have) at some point.

"[20] Vibe's Kathy Iandoli also agreed, saying that "Talk a Good Game sets her far apart from the status quo of mass-produced R&B... Kelly finally knows who she is and how she'd like to sound.

"[76] "Rowland finally hits her stride," is what Robert Copsey wrote in his review for Digital Spy, where he also called the album "a collection of classy and sophisticated R&B".

[79][80] However, on the UK Albums Chart, Talk a Good Game failed to match Here I Am's peak position of forty-three, only managing to debut at number eighty.