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

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