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

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."