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.

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’