Rihanna - ANTI (January (???) 2016)

I've been more convinced that ANTI is an exercise in how pop stars don't need music to prop them up in the mid-2010s. This long-in-the-works album's first single — "Work," a collaboration with Drake that makes me wonder if she's been taking anti-enunciation lessons from Arianna Grande — is sort of bearing out that hypothesis!

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/rihanna-and-drake-do-work-on-new-collaborative-single-listen/

Billboard is claiming it's going to be out this week.

also drake is so yucky

the way rihanna's voice gets shifted from human to post-human on the pre-chorus is my favorite touch

pre-verse i mean

fun song

yeah i like this a lot.

sounds pretty lazy to me on one listen but then so did BBHMM

that song didn't have drake tho

only heard the snippet but i think it sounds good, if a bit half hearted. and i dont want to hear drake anywhere near it. like this pic though. i would pay for these headphones.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZknUtIUcAMJb80.jpg

eheh, great pic indeed !
it could almost be the cover of the album...

not liking the song, what the hell is she doing

she's being lazy and it's working for her, lol. The slackness is the song's main draw.
lol @ drake and the twin though.

i think it's cool that she's not trying to make pop music, seems like she's doing what she wants. i think the album will be good but the piecemeal song releases haven't really flattered the project so far.

drake's verse is pretty useless but apparently the "work" beat was created by drake's producers at drake's house and then sent to partynextdoor who wrote the track so i guess drake's involvement in it was a foregone conclusion

I like this song, it feels refreshingly low-key in a way I don't expect from her at this point. Like it sounds closer to an amateur-pop "Drumz" type of thing than a collaboration between two major superstars. Also it reminds me of one of my favorite #RihannaDeepCuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7mVL78-3j8

Rev's reference point is the first thing in this thread that's made me want to hear this

fun imo. not sure if built to last but eh who knows

shouldve just had mel forde wilding out for a few bars instead of drizzzz obv

nice to hear her drop the most patois ever in her career. "Her voice has a glossy wordlessness to it, but this is for sure some of her most subtle, expressive, and coolly thrilling shout-singing" lol ok pfork

https://vine.co/v/O2bPFqvaJMZ

ahahaha DYING

― r|t|c, Saturday, 13 June 2015 21:06 Bookmark

where your ass was at when we recorded in the bathroom

loll

so none of the singles ended up on this thing #2016

leaked

...on Tidal

which seems like a tree falling in the woods type scenario

ANTI - POPOVERDOSE EXCLUSIVE.zip

lol @ nuno's power ballad guitar on "kiss it better"

i really hope this is the end of tidal, what a disaster

ah man "higher" is that song she put on instagram like a year ago, it's so good

lolololololololololol "same ol' mistakes" is a tame impala cover

hahahahahaha

given how long she's been working on this album i really wonder if kevin parker gave her the song first and then just said fuck it and put it on the tame impala album when her album never materialized

lol @ nuno's acoustic power ballad guitar in "never ending"

anyway "yeah i said it" is a lovely slow jam

the first half i suspect was ruined by travis scott's influence, the second half is pretty good give or take how you feel about tame impala

yeah i'm really enjoying how corny "love on the brain" is

the second half is what i thought this record would be like... live instruments, a much more classic sound that showcases her vocals, which sound pretty great!

the first half is like the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

the first half is like the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

this is a major issue with "woo"

who knows though maybe i'll listen to this again

whoa rihanna's voice sounds like it's gonna curl up and die on "higher"

Not finished with the second half, but the first half has the obvious highlights to me so far. But this is all very good so far.

Wait, Higher is actively awful, literally who told her to sing like that?

assuming she's saying "fuck a tidal" in "yeah, i said it"

why is my favorite song on this 2:13

damn u rihanna albums

her vocals are so good on "higher" that it makes me doubly depressed about the rest of the record

yeah i'm in love with "kiss it better"

so syrupy

This whiskey got me feelin' pretty
So pardon if I'm impolite
I just really need your ass with me
I'm sorry 'bout the other night
And I know I could be more creative
And come up with poetic lines
But I'm turnt up off sess and "I love you"
Is the only thing that's in my mind

You take me higher, higher than I've ever been, babe
Just come over, let's pour a drink, babe
I hope I ain't calling you too late, too late
You light my fire
Let's stay up late and smoke a j
I wanna go back to the old way
But I'm drunk and still with a full ash tray
With a little bit too much to say

real

she's a better drunkdialer than drake

i wonder if this album has any vestiges of Kanye once being the touted executive producer aside from Travis Scott's involvement

"never ending" thru "close to you" fucking slays

like "james joint" "work" and "yeah i said it" fine

the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

...this describes like 2/3 or more of rihanna's entire career?

interested to hear it tho

I'm really into the first half of this album so far, so if the second half is supposed to be better I'm really looking forward to it.

shea taylor worked on "james joint" which is cool even if the song is only 72 seconds long. i've always wondered why he fell off the map after working on the best songs on 4 and channel orange.

"James Joint" sounds like KING o__O

SPEAKING OF KING THERE ALBUM IS ON NPR RIGHT NOW

THEY'RE*

SORRY I GOT EXCITED FOR A SECOND.

THEIR. FUCK.

AAAAAAAAA

drake is the worst btw

So did Tidal purposely put it up and then pull it?

who even knows anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QrWzsfghA

i mean.. that's 2016

useless drake disses rate ticking

its a free tidal download now apparently, which prob entails some tidal trial or something, which...gtfo tidal youre not real

yeah, seems like this perhaps tidal biggest opportunity. i subscribed just to get the album, might unsubscribe asap. first half is good. but not as good as the first 4 track promised.

feeling Same Ol's Mistakes

ANTI is a very good album at the very least

the fuck is "higher", her voice made me flinch so hard on that

she suits winehouseisms more than i expected on "love on the brain"

"kiss it better" and "yeah i said it" stood out but this seems as mildly unsatisfying a hotchpotch (with a few highlights) as any post-rated r rihanna album, dunno why it took so long to make

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

i switched this off and quit after 'woo' last night, maybe never to return tbqh

god imagine the whole rihanna team sat there as 'woo' played off "other producer travis scott beat tape vol 66" or w/e over some luxe full room system

DUN, DUN, DUN - "well guys i think we have a winner" - DUN

even the title of "woo" manages to convey a weary lack of enthusiasm

i bet it was all cobbled together in the last two weeks anyway

why the hell is she giving this away for free though?

"kiss it better" and "yeah i said it" stood out but this seems as mildly unsatisfying a hotchpotch (with a few highlights) as any post-rated r rihanna album, dunno why it took so long to make

otm. it feels flimsy and rushed and has some jams. it is a rihanna record

The hit-to-miss ratio seems higher to me than other Rihanna albums imo, so I'll probably still be listening to this after y'all have moved on. :)

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:57 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i switched this off and quit after 'woo' last night, maybe never to return tbqh

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:58 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

lol this one has writing credits from the-dream, travis scott AND the weeknd

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:57 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would not be surprised if somewhere close to zero of those tracks made the actual record

like, seriously, does anything about this album, its non-release, its eventual "release," its eventual unrelease, etc. come off meticulously planned and executed per plan?

(I kind of like it a lot!)

it's funny that the album had these pretenses of being a very serious artistic statement (the stuff about kanye exec producing, revealing the album cover in an art gallery) but it's about as slapdash as her previous records

sort of makes me question her taste level in the end i guess

I would not be surprised if somewhere close to zero of those tracks made the actual record

― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:58 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

take that back, looks like kenan williams won the lottery

there's a melodic phrase in "never ending" that reminds me of dido's "thank you" which pulls me out of the song every time

couple of these tracks bite tinashe's style haaaaaaard, particularly "needed me" and "yeah, i said it"

Honestly this album feels like the result of Rihanna just saying "fuck it, let's just put out what we have" and the end result is actually still pretty great. It's messy but it works.

this and that miley album seem to be starting a trend of sorts

katherine otm wrt camps

autotune/melodyne fingerprints all over this suggest they sometimes might have had only one vocal take to work with, giving the record the feeling of like, a diary of individual unplanned moments of spontaneous emotional engagement on the part of the performer

in the end, for me, the record being frequently unguarded and personal to the point of sometimes feeling voyeuristic makes for a pretty satisfying response to the last few years of castoffs like "chandelier" and "we can't stop" becoming omnipresent billboard hits. the riri hitmaking machine became so efficient that it essentially became sentient and started operating without her, so she turns around and makes a record based around messier human qualities that can't be faked or convincingly imitated by others

katherine otm wrt camps

autotune/melodyne fingerprints all over this suggest they sometimes might have had only one vocal take to work with, giving the record the feeling of like, a diary of individual unplanned moments of spontaneous emotional engagement on the part of the performer

― james brooks, Thursday, January 28, 2016 5:53 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I kinda feel like it's more "ok, please just record this thing, just one take please"

anyway here is my #take: it's instructive to compare "birthday cake" with "james joint" -- one is a barely 1:15 "song" that was blatantly unfinished and turned into a horrific tabloid monstrosity involving chris brown. one is a barely 1:15 song that's very pretty and feels sincere

rihanna's vocals have sounded one-take for years. she's often turned that hoarse scratchiness in her voice into a positive (BBHMM is a prime example) but very often it just sounds blarey and at times unlistenable (seriously "higher", WHO TOLD HER THAT WAS OKAY - rtc did you ever get beyond "woo"? you have to at least hear "higher")

though the one-take thing is evident even more in her (lack of) phrasing

a second listen has already changed my mind about winehouse being a good look for her

feel like putting "woo" in the rolling worst songs thread

it is so bad

"love on the brain" was the standout to me after one listen.

her vocals are so good on "higher"

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yeah idk

i love the tame impala cover and i'm dreaming about rihanna going through the entire tame impala catalog

i...assumed that was sarcasm :/

xp

also "kiss it better" is ingenious; i need a loop of it playing when my body is shot into space when i die

I actually like "higher," her voice suits the last-callness of it

people really seem to either love or hate "Higher" everywhere

"higher" is one of the only songs of hers i've ever connected to emotionally and a major reason for that is that i think there's a real rawness and authenticity to her vocals

"higher" would've made a helluva closer but alas

it works because she's essentially screaming into the void with no response which enhances the sense of isolation and melodrama, to have that dusty violin remain present when it was there the whole time, twirling in the air and keeping her company

i get it but it sucks to listen to

there are plenty of rihanna ballads where she's trying to sing "correctly" but obv doesn't have the vocal talent to pull it off. if you can ride with those songs i don't really get how you draw the line at a song where she's clearly singing raggedly as a way of heightening the effect of a song that's about being emotionally spent.

also i think there's a richness to her voice on that song that she's actually cutting through, it works on both fronts

prediction: 50% of the people in this thread will come around to "higher" eventually and it'll probably be after 12 a.m. on that particular night

^^^

there's ragged singing that magnifies the emotions in a song and there's ragged singing that's still unconvincing and "higher" is def the latter

i've obviously never heard the tame impala original and am mildly disgusted that this cover exists, but in terms of both song and production it's really a standout, albeit by low standards

the tame impala original is the exact same thing, with kevin parker singing. i will say i prefer rihanna's voice

there's ragged singing that magnifies the emotions in a song and there's ragged singing that's still unconvincing and "higher" is def the latter

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, January 28, 2016 7:35 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

you're wrong but taste is taste

yeah i get that the desperation in her voice is sort of ~the point~ with "higher" but all the same i wish she'd done a second vocal take. everything else about the song (lyrics, instrumentation) i am very down with

welp already feeling this album on less than day one of hearing it, see you all here in six months

i've obviously never heard the tame impala original and am mildly disgusted that this cover exists, but in terms of both song and production it's really a standout, albeit by low standards

brad is correct that they are basically identical, which makes the kneejerk hatred towards the unheard original very amusing

a lot of people are reckoning with the fact that they like a tame impala song, yes

makes me wonder whether all those "let it happen" haters ever listened to it!!!!

(rihanna covering let it happen would be something to behold)

I don't not like Tame Impala. They mainly just never make any impression on me whatsoever. But I did find "Let It Happen" to be a test of my patience.

I mean I'm not a big fan of his but having one of his songs to get covered or for him to do production work for someone big has seemed inevitable to me since "Feels Like We..."

I foresee a lot of people acting like this is a huge new thing for rihanna, like, this is the person who built an entire song (drunk on love) around the xx before they fell off

you know what i think i'm a closeted tame impala fan and i'm not afraid to share this tidbit of information with y'all

hmm, is it just me/my system (entirely possible) or is the mixing of james joint fucking terrible

the riri hitmaking machine became so efficient that it essentially became sentient and started operating without her, so she turns around and makes a record based around messier human qualities that can't be faked or convincingly imitated by others

Love this

Is there any precedent for Rihanna's Tame Impala cover? I've never ever heard a pop act cover a song before by just singing over the original instrumental and calling it a day. At least not on an official commercial release anyway? Hilarious either way

tons of precedent I'm sure, though maybe not recently

I wish she'd just replaced Woo with Pose - it's everything Woo wants to be and then some. That being said, I like this more than I did yesterday, Thumbs up to Higher, too.

xpost
lol maybe this *is* Rihanna's dancehall album

Is there any precedent for Rihanna's Tame Impala cover? I've never ever heard a pop act cover a song before by just singing over the original instrumental and calling it a day. At least not on an official commercial release anyway? Hilarious either way

― MrExplorer, Friday, January 29, 2016 4:13 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I still think he just wrote the song for rihanna originally. he was writing for kylie and others, why not her?

according to pfork she asked for the song after hearing it on the tame impala record?

who knows though

OK I made it to "Woo."

Will check out the art show if it comes to town.

i think "stay" was a similar situation actually, just with a much more obscure artist who ended up making his continued presence on the song a condition of his giving permission for rih to record it

and what a career it sparked

help I can't stop listening to "Work"

lol at some of you trying to justify your approval for a Tame Impala track.

And it's a fucking lazy and needless cover. Drunk in Love was based on an instrumental so at least she had to work her vocals around it, this is Rihannas's Karaoke version.

so, like, you see, there's this thing called "demo tracks"

would've loved if nuno had recreated every part of "same ol' mistakes" on his guitar

^^^right, i mean, all her songs are kinda 'karaoke versions', we usually just haven't heard the originals.

xp

not only that but most pop artists' songs in general are "karaoke versions"

Already coming around on the needs-a-strepsil parts on "Higher". This has been a bit overshadowed by KING for me but I really like it generally, easily her best since rated r

tame rihmpala is great that's the hill i shall die on

In respect of the Tame cover being basically the original song just with a new vocal, first thing that came to mind was Robbie Williams' cover of the Pet Shop Boys' cover of We Are The Pet Shop Boys by My Robot Friend. literally the same damn thing aside from the vocal.

I apologize. Rihanna is a genius and can do now wrong. Tame Impala sucks.

But really this is not a cover, not even a remix. It's the exact same song with the exact same lyrics just a different vocalist. As a cover it's lazy and I feel it's unfair to call it a Rihanna song.

You can rationalize your hatred for tame impala as much as you want but this is still a tame impala song. Rihanna didn't do the slightest effort to make this song hers.

is it 'rockist' to suggest an artists needs to make a song their own before we can legit call it a cover?

^^^right, i mean, all her songs are kinda 'karaoke versions', we usually just haven't heard the originals.

xp

― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Friday, January 29, 2016 10:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the last part is crucial though? like if the "original" is already commercially released, it's the height of laziness to then put your version on your album as if that hadn't happened, and not even bother to make it distinct

and it's hilarious that anyone thought this particular song was worth it

well according to some ppl 'in terms of both song and production it's really a standout, '

well, compared with what's around it

haha yeah i know just couldnt resist

higher is great

work is good too, strikes me as an earworm-y summer jam imo. the drake vers is v bad tho h8 09 singsongy drake

The copy here is a little funny. I guess it's a shame people were anticipating her previous 8th album less than this one.

http://i.imgur.com/d5Il9fT.png

Why are some of you so dense? Tame Impala had released the song less than a year ago and they're not precisely unknown. They're headlining festivals around the world. Taking their previously released song and not adding anything to it is lazy however you want to put it. Had the song been written by Tame Impala and never released before I can get it, but this is not the case.

But hey at least some of you can finally enjoy a Tame Impala song!

I'm enjoying the fact that lex got tricked into liking a Tame Impala song tbh

Where can I hear this album?

only streaming on the rihanna plane

I don't see where "dense" comes in

Higher is written by the same woman who wrote BBHMM, right? I think I remember her saying that in some interview.

anyone have any edited ANTI tracklists???

1. kiss it better
2. kiss it better
3. kiss it better
4. kiss it better
5. kiss it better
6. kiss it better
7. kiss it better
8. kiss it better
9. kiss it better
10. kiss it better
11. kiss it better
12. kiss it better
13. james joint

otm

without reading any of the preceding comments i gotta say this album kinda stinks

460 copies sold http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/arts/music/rihanna-anti-chart-tidal-debut-sales.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

poor tidal.

well but

• she gave away 1m copies through a samsung discount, which didn't count in the tally
• the album was released on wednesday night to tidal, later to sale platforms, and the chart week ends thursday
• you can't buy albums via tidal?

basically this is one of those stories with an "OOH IM TELLIN MAMA" angle as long as you don't look at the entire picture

Probably the wrong thread for this but anyway

http://www.stereogum.com/1856262/if-rihanna-can-go-platinum-giving-anti-away-for-free-what-does-platinum-even-mean/franchises/sounding-board/

But hey at least some of you can finally enjoy a Tame Impala song!

I enjoed the last Tame Impala album and enjoyed the overly faithful cover, so stay mad I guess.

Albums sales don't mean anything and that's okay.

help I can't stop listening to "Work"

― The Reverend, Friday, January 29, 2016 4:57 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also this.

well but

• she gave away 1m copies through a samsung discount, which didn't count in the tally
• the album was released on wednesday night to tidal, later to sale platforms, and the chart week ends thursday
• you can't buy albums via tidal?

basically this is one of those stories with an "OOH IM TELLIN MAMA" angle as long as you don't look at the entire picture

― maura, Tuesday, February 2, 2016 11:22 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'm curious where those 460 sales even came from, because it wasn't sold on iTunes until Friday iirc. do stores have CDs yet? is it possible there were some stores that got it on Thursday and just put it right on sale? obviously a big reason most albums come out at the beginning of the sales week is to avoid this kind of embarrassing 2-day data getting twisted around by people, but i guess the Tidal leak was an accident.

i'm really at a loss as to how anyone thought this was a news story

You can buy albums via Tidal, but Tidal gave ANTi away for free, mp3s and flacs. So the sales are from a couple of hours worth of itunes sales, after 1.5 million people had already downloaded it for free.

some old reliables came through

https://soundcloud.com/funkystepzuk/work-funkystepz-mix

GET IN

love how they turn the lazy blahblahblah vocal take of the original into a strength

meanwhile i can't believe people are actually lapping up the "most personal artistic work yet" angle

"Work" would be tolerable at 1:50 and without Drake.

this is a pretty succinct summary of what led to ri's chart debut to those who are still confused as to what happened. the 460 units were purchases made from tidal after they inadvertently leaked it.

http://hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=299565

meanwhile i can't believe people are actually lapping up the "most personal artistic work yet" angle

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, February 4, 2016 2:51 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha what?

Someone wanna predict what single no. 2 is?

Tame Impala joint

This was really pleasant and enjoyable to listen to right up until Drake appeared and now, even though I like and appreciate the songs that came after it, I still have an overwhelming urge to set my computer on fire.

Is there any precedent for Rihanna's Tame Impala cover? I've never ever heard a pop act cover a song before by just singing over the original instrumental and calling it a day. At least not on an official commercial release anyway? Hilarious either way

― MrExplorer, Friday, January 29, 2016 4:13 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tons of precedent I'm sure, though maybe not recently

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, January 29, 2016 8:06 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Shakira's cover of "Islands" from 2010 is very close to being this. There are a few flourishes here and there to make it less xx-y and more like a Shakira song but it's very, very close to the original:

https://youtu.be/AI-lroM6i6g

Someone wanna predict what single no. 2 is?

― zbs, Wednesday, February 10, 2016 2:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Kiss It Better" is the only one i easily imagine or look forward to hearing on the radio

Looks like Yeah I Said It is the one they're trying to push atm

that's prob my 2nd favorite on the album so i'm cool with that

Xxpost: the Shakira cover re-recorded every instrument, she's not singing over the original instrumental.

There's many precedents but rarely from big pop acts. I've seen it done on those cheap 'best of' compilations that can't afford to pay full rights so they hire an unknown singer to sing on top of the original.

Jamaican riddim and dub culture is a more apt comparison imho, although they're not really covers rather a new song, adding original lyrics, melodies and sometimes new instruments. Rihanna herself had done it before on Pon de Replay which uses Diwalli riddim.

Side point: I really love the democracy in dub/riddims. I read somewhere that the culture started over aspiring singers not having the money to pay for studio time and thus producers started developing them for djs and singers to sing on top of them.

genuinely forgot about this album

do i have weird mp3s or is this album horribly produced (mastered? compressed? idk) to the point that the beats make your ears hurt?

xxp more like having them for people to sing/toast over at sound systems (or having different recorded versions as an exclusive during sound clashes)

dancehall version of "work" >>>>>

https://soundcloud.com/maloneyymwe/altek-maloneyy-work-bajan-remix-explicit

this album was p stupid

"me a kiss the epidermis"! <3

I bought a copy of this album (the Best Buy deluxe edition with three bonus tracks) for Cecil Taylor today.

i wish the bonus tracks on this were worth a damn, the Talk That Talk bonus tracks were gold

I haven't heard a note of the thing. But Cecil is a big fan (apparently has a photo of Rihanna hanging in the stairway in his house) so I bought it for him and he was very excited to check it out.

i like that this is a mess

it's quite exciting not knowing what's going to happen next

first two tracks, maybe three were great. thereafter…well, enjoy the ride i guess

i did not intend that post to rhyme

holy shit 'woo'

she's done it. she has achieved immortality.

this album rules.

Agree. Only track I don't really like is "Higher," but it's mercifully short.

the meme that's been going around of elmo dancing synced up to "work" has had me reevaluating the song entirely and now i quite like it.

i think it must have happened at least 3 times now where a rihanna lead single that initially underwhelmed grew on me quite a bit, i should just accept this as an inevitability from now on.

that meme was funnier in its original form as the visual for kevin gates' 'thinkin with my dick' imo

i missed that one, looool

after a few spins, I like this album (more than her previous ones since Rated R).
Especially the end : "Love on the Brain", "Higher" and "Close to You". "Consideration" and "Kiss it Better" are nice too. The rest I still have to work out (and indeed, the elmo video has made me like "Work" more !).
"Love on the Brain" is really good. My favourite ballad from her by far. it's surprisingly emotional (especially from her).
"Higher" is a strange beast. It was the first track I noticed on the album then I found the vocals over the top and annoying and now I enjoy it. I appreciate the idea of making it very short, like a demo or sample but I reckon it would have been better with maybe an extra verse sang lower/smoother to add some contrast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1UzIK-flA&t=

Elmo video has made me appreciate 'work' too.

"work" is always a lot of fun when it's stuck in my head, which is often, and then i listen to the actual thing and rihanna's delivery is so...joyless

It's work. She doesn't enjoy work.

i dunno i feel like she's having a lot of fun with the delivery. the overall song, with the drake part and all, i don't love, but it's a great rihanna performance.

Yeah I like the vocals too. She's having fun with it but part of what she's having fun with is breaking down the sounds as if she's as bored with them as she is with having to "work" I think. No one who was really bored would dare such a sloppy delivery on such an important song.

i think her delivery is more on point here than almost anything else she's sang on. it's a beautiful record.

shouldn't have said "almost." this is her best.

yeah i don't even think the delivery is 'sloppy,' she's just using her native accent on the song more vs. something like "Pon De Replay" where everything is really painstakingly enunciated to make it more palatable to American audiences

i saw a hard copy of this album today 1 of my coworkers had it

I love "Work" and her vocal on it too. It's the piano that takes it over the top though. Her (and Drake's) live performance of it on the Brits however...

i had avoided 'work' because, you know drake and yeah he absolutely torpedoes the track but at the moment i am all
http://nutbreath.tumblr.com/post/140235952802/when-yall-start-arguing-over-the-aux-cord-no

possible album of the year for me. i know it's early but i haven't re-listened to anything this much since black messiah.

tracks 1-9 anyway.

keep coming back to this record. "desperado" & "woo" are still kinda wack to me tho i've warmed to "desperado"

i love the mood of "needed me" & "yeah i sad it"

the lyrics of "needed me" are so good i wish it had any sort of hook

"desperado" playing after "work" has made me like it somewhat!

i dunno i like that cascading "ne-ee-ee-ee-eeded me" part

Robert Christgau raved about it.

Rihanna: Anti (Deluxe Edition) (Westbury Road/Roc Nation) The reason I like this record beginning to end has zip to do with whether it documents her sexual mood swings more proudly or soulfully. The presentational Rihanna is so unlike anyone I know that she can say anything she wants about her musical punany as long as she leaves Chris Brown out of it—with this artist, sex is figurative, symbolic, the mark of a pleasure taker turned pleasure provider. So Anti is her best album for a reason so simple it's tautological—despite its supposed rejection of track-and-hook mechanics, it features catchier songs. True, the main time they really make me go woo is when she breaks into gibberish at the end of "Work." But then some German hands her "Love on the Brain," the best new doowop song in decades, which segues perfectly to a power entreaty avec drunk violins, after which the album proper goes out on a piano-enhanced coda that adds a nice sweetness. Only instead of savoring this narrative arc, why don't you just proceed to the three bonus tracks, which top an M.I.A. move with none other than "Sex With Me"? A

christgau's writing style and persona seems so dated now, aside from "these are the catchiest songs of rihanna's career" being an insane opinion

and almost like, objectively wrong

... right down to "some German" handling her Love On The Brain. Sigh.

in RC's defense "Work" gets stuck in my head like no other prior Rihanna song

glad this thread has reached a more sane equlibrium on this album, though I actually forgot about lol Woo, I deleted it so fast. I made peace with "HIgher" by deciding it's a Tom Waits circa Small Changes homage. "Consideration" is kinda slept on itt

i always enjoy "consideration" when i put it on but i can never remember any of it afterwards!

I love "Kiss It Better" and will prefer to hear it 1000x times a day over the menace called "Work."

huh, "consideration" was the first track I really connected with, though its p structurally loose so I can see it feeling evasive. I like that it's a duet, plus it has a kind of Broadway meets Kingston feel to it.

is "work" a menace because it's an earworm or cuz of Drake? regarding the latter, I like to imagine that "who am I to hold your past against you?" is directed at him. he also comes bearing the good news that there's a campaign to end him

(a) the gibberish is an annoyance
(b) Drake

"Needed Me" sounded amazing on Hot 97 today. I hope they stick with it for the next radio hit.

i always enjoy "consideration" when i put it on but i can never remember any of it afterwards!

had the exact opposite effect on me.

"needed me" starting to get radio play over here too. it's been charting really well based almost solely on heavy streaming activity so it would appear the demand is there.

nah "Needed Me" and "Kiss" were both released as singles simultaneously

or you mean the streaming before the single release, yeah it was already doing pretty well.

I get consideration in my head all the time. I love the vocal line even though/because it reminds me of wendy vainity's "I am a cat" video

love this album, way more than i would have ever imagined. didn't trust my judgment at first, maybe i just really want to fuck rihanna right now, and was reassured by the xgau review until i read it and it was clear he just really wants to fuck rihanna right now. other than rated r i haven't heard any other entire rihanna albums, her pace kinda screams 'hits and filler' to me and i could get the hits from radio. what else do i need to check out?

rated r is her only album qua album masterpiece (and is weirdly the album anti feels like it's trying to replicate, but not as well)

i would probably argue for music of the sun as her second best album

I don't think anti is trying to replicate it but it's trying very hard to be a career changer - like rated r was. Only then she had some very good reasons for wanting to change her image/persona whereas this time it feels slightly forced?

Unapologetic is her best followed by Good Girl Gone Bad imo

Rated R, Good Girl Gone Bad, Loud and Unapologetic are all good albums, which is partly why the narrative about ANTi being her first ALBUM is so frustrating.

AOTY

it's a really good album!

i probably like Talk That Talk and Unapologetic best. Rated R and Good Girl Gone Bad are among the stronger ones but have stuff i don't like at all. Anti somewhere below those.

Anti has like 5 great songs and then stuff that doesn't work so much for me, about typical

anti may not be rihanna's first good album but it is her first *cohesive* album in quite some time

i was going to say it's certainly the one with the least "stuff that doesn't work so much for me" since rated r, but then i realised i never actually listened to unapologetic in full

have come to think of the first four tracks together representing the best and most true capsule suite of the full rihanna experience. impulsive/ thoughtful, messy/self-aware-calculated, sentimental/real, cheap/lavish, trite/evocative, and all of it sort of touching in its signature way ("i come fluttering in from neverland" perfect, she knows herself better than we do)

can be expanded to first six if cynical meta if necc cos 'desperado' is default ri album trash and 'woo' is cool junk

i still don't really bother sticking around for the rest, seems reiterative, duration of marination is a personal pref but doesnt add more flava

(westwood did teach me that 'sex with me' is the spring jammy jam though, pure temptay-shuun)

xgau rvw is great btw fuck the haters

ah, for me the second half(let's say from "needed me" to the end) is the best (although "consideration" and "kiss it better" are among my favourite tracks here).
I love the one-two punch "love on the brain"/"higher".
I have the impression her singing is more varied than before.
good album overall.

xp
Rihanna as Peter Pan to a culture of Wendys is so good: "I have to do things my own way darling"

p sure any configuration of her and us as peter, tink and/or wendy is arguable tbh

"Sex with you" is my favorite on the album tbh

to echo billstevjim it is indeed beautiful and does indeed rule, i couldn't love this more. can't recall a mainstream pop album i've liked as much since maybe Futuresex/Lovesounds. seems she's doing almost the entire thing on the tour dates too, or like 9 tracks at least each night.

I unabashedly love this album. Incredible songwriting, gorgeous production, really inventive, ballsy vocal performances.

Reminds me a lot of Channel Orange in its varied aesthetics, dream logic and vignette-esque storytelling. Also it's an album that feels oblique and impressionistic at first, but reveals itself to be incredibly openhearted after multiple listens. It's incredible.

Shame about this album's bungled release, though. The narrative around it should have been "holy shit this album is incredible," instead it was "lol Tidal."

agree on all counts

interesting that "needed me" is really taking off while "kiss it better" is looking like a pretty big flop

I feel like history will vindicate "Kiss It Better." Already acts are covering it (Miguel and Father John Misty, which yeah, I know), and that helps canonize a song. Shame it's not the hit it deserves to be, but I've gotta believe it'll eventually be recognized as something really special.

i don't really get the praise for this album, if anything there's a bigger quality gap between the singles and the rest than on a lot of her other albums

love on the brain tho

i don't really get the praise for this album, if anything there's a bigger quality gap between the singles and the rest than on a lot of her other albums

― a goon shaped tool (some dude), Tuesday, May 10, 2016

my man

it's her best singles run since GGGB tho...

i don't really get the praise for this album, if anything there's a bigger quality gap between the singles and the rest than on a lot of her other albums

― a goon shaped tool (some dude), Tuesday, May 10, 2016

i don't even agree with this statement but anyway it was a full three months between when the album dropped and when "kiss it better" & "needed me" became singles so you really got to live with those as "part of the album" so to speak

Yeah if anything I feel like there's less of a distinction between her singles and the album cuts, both in terms of tone and quality, than there usually is on her albums. To me it holds together amazingly well.

I'd agree that it's not a self-evidently Great Album the way maybe Beyonce's last few have been. It took a while to grow on me, but the songwriting is super strong throughout, so I just kept finding new material to connect with. I have a soft spot for albums that reveal themselves slowly like that.

Even the singles were slow-growers. "Work" was dismissed as lightweight at first, and maybe as a sign of an impending flop, but it stands up to a thousand repetitions. And not too many people singled out "Kiss It Better" as an obvious single, even though it feels like one in hindsight.

"Sex with me" deserves more acclaim& attention

this album def has its moments (not nec the singles) but it's no more satisfying an album-qua-album as anything else she's done since rated r, and the idea that it's some huge volte face away from a commercial sound to ~greater artistry is a bit ridiculous

And not too many people singled out "Kiss It Better" as an obvious single, even though it feels like one in hindsight.

I too love this album and mostly agree with your posts about it ITT, but I'm not sure this is quite right. For the post-BBHMM months of 2015 when we were in ANTi purgatory, "Kiss It Better" was hailed as THE song that was going to save the campaign. ATRL poster types were wetting themselves over a 10 second snapchat video of it being played back in the studio for months.

and xp idk about "~greater artistry", but I do think a lot of this - "Woo", "Higher", "James Joint", the tame impala cover - scans to me as fairly uncommercial.

Maybe I need to recalibrate my idea of commerciality but "This Is What You Came For" seems much more geared toward that than the album.

she's always had deep cuts that didn't sound especially commercial ("phresh out the runway", "love without tragedy/mother mary" etc etc) but i guess i disagree that anything about anti showcases a deeper side of rihanna as an artist, or that the album represents turning her back on pop. and "woo" and "higher" sound uncommercial because they're terrible, not because they're interesting or experimental

"Kiss It Better" was hailed as THE song that was going to save the campaign

but only by the kind of ppl who would base this off a 10-second snapchat snippet! most of the world didn't even know the song existed

well, sure, but most of the world probably doesn't have an opinion about rihanna album campaigns and what should and shouldn't be a single either

also i just researched matters more thoroughly and discovered that in fact rihanna posted about this song to instagram in 2014 and 175,000 people liked her post https://www.instagram.com/p/wZn2FQBMxx/

What are the odds of this getting a vinyl release?

Not good? Would be a first for Riri I think

this performance is fuckin great http://www.gossipcop.com/rihanna-love-on-the-brain-billboard-music-awards-video-bbmas-performance-watch/

xp I was wrong, both A Girl Like Me and Good Girl Gone Bad were released on vinyl (and a ton of singles on 12" ofc) but I still don't think it's likely we'll see an official Anti LP since last 4 albums were cd/digital only - there's an unofficial one though, if you just want big cover art https://www.discogs.com/Rihanna-Anti/release/8331284

but it is weird that a huge "urban" release like this isn't issued on vinyl (when the goddamn top gun soundtrack is reissued...), same thing w/ channel orange and nothing was the same

I feel like history will vindicate "Kiss It Better." Already acts are covering it (Miguel and Father John Misty, which yeah, I know), and that helps canonize a song.

haha it's SUCH a Miguel song. It seemed like the obvious non-"Work" hit single to me when I heard the album, but I guess I was wrong. "Needed Me" has never connected with me at all. Also, this album as a whole isn't in any way better than most of her work, although yes the opening run is very good.

Maybe this is just music-critic logic, but it feels different from her other albums, even if song for song it isn't necessarily better than those albums. It's got its own flow and logic, and it's just beautifully and thoughtfully sequenced. It holds together less like a conventional pop album and more like some of my fav R&B records from the last five-ish years: All I Want Is You, Channel Orange, Late Nights (the album/the tape).

All of those releases had this sort of abstract quality to them, kind of a puzzle logic. They were pieced together from vignettes and sketches but held together as a whole. They had this kind of cocky, understated confidence to them, and this record feels like Rihanna's own, highly individualistic answer to that. It's exciting.

I understand that a lot of fans get touchy when ppl suggest this is some huge leap for her, and implicitly knock her previous albums. But I don't think the praise is meant to be a matter of better or worse, it's just that this is a very different statement from those records.

Also vocally I think this is the best thing she's ever sounded. Her performances here are remarkable

Everywhere I go - Work work work work work. Passing cars, always on the radio. It's awesome.

I'm completely fine with people knocking her previous work. She just has never been a great album artist. I do agree she's singing better than ever though.

y'all are nuts; i like the vocal on "higher."

might cut the tame impala song by a few minutes, but I like this a lot.

This went longer and deeper than I possibly could've imagined when I clicked the link

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/rihannas-bitch-better-have-my-money-expanded-for-freelancers?fbclid=IwAR3q0oyYWF8AlZuey1U6jLKhgyQowL5Z9saN40njtjrxPW98n6QkZ-rnJ0c

feel like i was wrong about this record. i mean i refuse to check my comments upthread but iirc it felt too fragmented and disjointed and also i really hated "woo"? "never ending" still kinda feels like it doesn't do anything and lol @ retroactive dido credit but also whatever. i like the way these songs work together, even and especially when they feel like fragments forced together. "woo" would suck without rihanna but thankfully rihanna is on it, etc.

I feel "Woo," and yes the vocal performance is like 95% of it.

I'm already sad about the strong possibility Anti will get bumped from most "best of the decade" lists.

"woo" & "desperado" & "never ending" are not really that great but this is still an amazing record in which nobody really saw the artist's vision until after they mostly agreed it wasn't a good album (guilty as charged)

I wish she'd just replaced Woo with Pose

I wonder how those who aren't into "Woo" feel about "Pose." I hear them as companion tracks -- about equally post-Yeezus and noise-pop. I usually consume Anti with its 3 bonus tracks and ending with "Sex With Me." The abrasive jams feel like a crucial part of makes this record special.

"sex with me" so amazing, but yeah i love all three bonus tracks, they feel indivisible from the record

Totally agree that Anti is holding up really well. I do still feel like the whole, "she's finally made a great album" response she received from a lot of critics wasn't fair considering how brilliant Rated R is. Good Girl Gone Bad to a lesser extent too.

Great album, and yes, much more of a piece than most of her other albums. Top 10 of the decade for me, for sure. Classic for “Needed Me” alone, what a song. Kudos to her and her team for going with that one as a single so early on in the album campaign* (even if it was perhaps half-heartedly - they had obviously earmarked “Kiss It Better” as the bigger hit). I think hardly anyone saw that song coming - in this (long) thread it’s only mentioned once (neutrally) before it was released as a single. I love how people itt are ever so slowly waking up to its greatness, just like it crept up on me back then.

*as noted in the thread, this decision might have been informed by its strong streaming numbers. A case of the public knows best?

(And yessss to “Sex With Me” - I discarded it for the longest time because I thought it was just too tacky. I was wrong.)

Same re: "Sex With Me." Huge creeper.

5 years! i think. either today or tmrw.

Album of the decade

feel dumb that this getting bumped actually got my hopes up for the mythical Next Album

Nothing yet, but there's been plenty of Fenty product announcements lol

the best album ever

i continue to be full of shit upthread as i now love "never ending"

such a bizarre & brilliant album... been putting it on again recently. that kid’s mash up of kiss it better & never too much put it back in my head. the four text remix of kiss it better is also great, could almost be a piece of the proper album

i can’t think of many albums where my love for it represents such a 180 from my initial impressions

she has a new… song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospQ06jJe-I

co-written by Tems
for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
will there be more? no idea
she’s in great voice tho if there was any doubt

It is basically a Tems song, karaoke'd by Rihanna, lol

"First new song in 6 years" is kind of nuts, right?

I <3 Tems and this is fine, but I doubt I'll ever play it again

the biggest headscratcher of a rihanna 'comeback' single since "fourfiveseconds" (which i'm still amazed ended up being a proper hit even after the initial hype wore off)

i like it but yeah i doubt i'll play it again lol. there's a video too that's kinda *makes jerk-off motion* imo. seems like the kind of thing i could come around to if it was played everywhere though.

i've grown to really like "fourfiveseconds" lol, maybe i'll eventually grow to like this? good singing, tho it feels like karaoke.

It’s no ‘Kiss It Better’

I couldn't give a flying fuck about the rest of her catalogue but the first three tracks of this album are so phenomenal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQnZgH0ZmQ

genuinely bizarre song, i really wanna know how this came about. it's got a total of three lines!

yeah this is pretty weird...maybe even good? hard to know what I'd think if I heard it outside of the smurf context lmao

When you have two small children (and a third on the way), you make music for Smurfs movies. Makes perfect sense to me.

the question isn't 'why did rihanna do a song for the smurfs?' (it's because she's voicing smurfette), it's 'why is this so comically half-assed?'

i don't think it's weird or half-assed at all, just a low key jam. it would sound great starting off a big pop house dj set.

i don't even know how to parse this kind of animation based on childhood ip though. this feels like a pretty cursed thing to say but uhh papa smurf is hot.

papa smurf is hot.

^^ post unlocked a memory for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpszfsl4TE

lol

I like this album, still loathe "Work."

i've been listening to only real lies for the last 24 hours so this song is slotting into my brain quite seamlessly, actually

haha makes sense

to me this is just more evidence of the fact that her taste level when it comes to music has finally been elevated to the same place as her taste level when it comes to like... everything else. like you compare something like this that could actually function in a DJ set at a real club to all her david guetta collabs or whatever

also it can't be discounted that rihanna releases perplexing songs for movie soundtracks in order to further perpetuate the culture of her fanbase begging her for music and her trolling them over it

tbh this is more like smurfing them over it

sick track tho i am absolutely deploying it in a mix

🍄

would go hard working into or out of one of those new debby friday tracks

This rules.

I like this track a lot

ilx party tonight, we're jamming this one loud, i'm taking some screenshots of papa smurf for a lil slideshow

having listened again I agree plus want to take mushrooms

Sounds like a post-Strawberry-Jam-pre-Merriweather Animal Collective live jam.

She really stepped up. I mean, she could’ve just redone “Work” and swapped in “Smurf.”

i’m loving the smurf banger

i don't think it's weird or half-assed at all, just a low key jam

otm

Happy ANTIversary to my favourite album of the last ten years. Ten years!

since then she's released the song from the black panther film, and the song from the smurfs film, and a couple of guest features