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

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