Rihanna - Skin (News)

Of the multiple music critics who commented on the song, the majority praised "Skin"'s musical structure and Rihanna's vocal performance. Apart from writing about the song's composition, Daw called the ballad "smoldering" and compared the last minute of the song to Sade's "No Ordinary Love" for the song's sensual content, but noted that Adu's song is not as lyrically graphic as "Skin". Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that Rihanna's sensuality in the song is evoked though her use of sexually suggestive moaning and heavy breathing, adding to the "slow, torrid buildup". Colin Gentry of 4Music noted that Rihanna appears to be transitioning from singing songs about partying and dancing in clubs to singing about her sexual fantasies and desires, writing "Rihanna swaggers through the album as a woman on the prowl, taking her conquests from the clubs to the bedroom. Demanding to know 'why are you standing over there with your clothes on?' on sultry track Skin, the Barbadian clearly means business." Ryan Dombell of Pitchfork Media concurred with Stern with regard to "Skin" being the singer's most mature song to date, writing "'Skin' is her sexiest song yet, a haunted, near-dubstep stunner that wouldn't sound totally out of place on Massive Attack's Mezzanine." Ryan Burleson of Consequence of Sound commented that Rihanna's combines different emotions in the song to increase the level of provocativeness, writing "For its part, the Soundz-produced 'Skin' combines these emotions into a five-minute space-hop excursion into the boudoir, driving deep into the id with an austere, though undeniably potent amount of minor chords and bass." Andy Kellman of Allmusic chose "Skin" as one of the highlights on Loud, writing, "One song that sounds nothing like anything else in Rihanna’s past is 'Skin,' a contender for anti-gravity slow jam of 2010 – a match for Trey Songz's 'Red Lipstick' and Usher's 'Mars vs Venus." USA Today's Steve Jones also put the song in his list of tracks from Loud to consider downloading. Jerry Shriver of the same publication found "down-and-dirty-ness" in the chorus of the song. James Skinner of BBC Online said that the line "I like it rough" was a little "uncomfortable in the light of her personal history". Thomas Conner of Chicago Sun-Times commented on Rihanna's sex appeal in the song, writing "the art of her seduction is oh-so slow and merciless"..