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New Reviews: Rihanna Becomes Pop's Bad-Girl-in-Chief on 'Talk That Talk'

Also: Stream new music by the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, Yelawolf, Guided by Voices and more

November 22, 2011 11:50 AM ET
New Reviews: Rihanna Becomes Pop's Bad-Girl-in-Chief on 'Talk That Talk'

In this week's slate of Rolling Stone reviews, Jody Rosen declares that Rihanna has become "pop's bad-girl-in-chief" on her latest album, Talk That Talk. The disc, which includes her dirtiest songs ever, is also "her tightest, most assured yet – a relentlessly catchy and danceable pop album." Also, Monica Herrera digs the dark side of Yelawolf's Radioactive, Will Hermes praises Mazzy Star's first single in 15 years and Bryant Kitching hails the evocative sexual frustration on Los Campesinos' Hello Sadness.

ALBUMS

Rihanna - Talk That Talk (stream one song)

R.E.M. - Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage (stream one song)

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls: Deluxe Edition (stream one song)

Mary J. Blige - My Life II...The Journey Continues (Act I) (stream one song)

Yelawolf - Radioactive (stream one song)

Lady Gaga - Born This Way - The Remix (stream one song)

Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness (stream one song)

Angels and Airwaves - Love Part Two (stream one song)

Peggy Sue - Acrobats (stream one song)

Mr. Gnome - Madness in Miniature (stream one song)

Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning (stream one song)

Greg Ginn and the Royal We - We Are Amused (stream one song)

SONGS

Guided by Voices "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" (stream)

Nada Surf "When I Was Young" (stream)

Far East Movement "Jello" (stream)

Mazzy Star "Common Burn" (stream)

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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