– A near-cover of Tame Impala’s six-minute psychedelic odyssey. Rihanna makes it her own by stripping the urgency and adding languid, auto-tuned regret. It’s a bizarre, brave closer for the standard album.
– The best 80s power-ballad Prince never wrote. A razor-sharp guitar riff, a vulnerable but defiant vocal, and lyrics about sex as emotional suturing. “What are you willing to do?” she purrs. It’s erotic and wounded.
– The most aggressive track. A distorted, trap-infused kiss-off to an ex. She sounds genuinely venomous: “You ain’t shit.” It’s ugly, petty, and perfect.
– The unavoidable hit. A dancehall-inflected loop that feels hypnotic and slightly annoying (intentionally so). Drake’s patois is laughable, but Rihanna’s detached repetition of “work, work, work, work, work” becomes a mantra for exhausting love. On the Deluxe, it flows into…
The production is intimate . There’s vinyl crackle (“Consideration”), muffled vocals, and space where a beat should drop. It sounds like you’re listening to a cassette tape in a dimly lit basement. This is not a stadium record. It’s a headphones record. 1. “Consideration” (ft. SZA) – A mission statement. SZA’s wounded yelp opens the track before Rihanna declares, “I got to do things my own way / Darling, you should know.” It’s a middle finger to expectations, set to a stuttering, militant drum line.
Artist: Rihanna Album: ANTI (Deluxe Edition) Released: January 28, 2016 Genre: Alternative R&B, Pop, Soul, Dancehall, Trip-Hop Label: Westbury Road / Roc Nation The Context: The Anti-Pop Star By 2016, Rihanna had nothing left to prove commercially. With eight consecutive #1 singles and a decade of relentless chart dominance, she could have easily released Unapologetic Part II . Instead, she made us wait. Three years after her last album, through false starts, scrapped sessions (including a rumored dance-pop opus), and a very public war with Kanye West over a sample, she delivered ANTI —a deliberately weird, unpredictable, and deeply personal left turn.
No. It’s indulgent, messy, and at times, frustrating.
– Slow, psychedelic, and explicitly sexual. A cousin to The Weeknd’s Trilogy . She’s in total control, whispering threats and promises.
The Deluxe edition adds three additional tracks to the standard 13, but more importantly, it completes the album’s thesis: freedom is messy, and so is this record. Gone are the EDM bombasts of We Found Love and the glossy Caribbean-pop of Work . ANTI is a grimy, sample-heavy, genre-bending collage. Executive produced by Rihanna herself alongside Jeff Bhasker (Kanye, Bruno Mars), the album pulls from 70s soul (Tavares’ “It Only Takes a Minute” on “James Joint”), trip-hop (a haunting interpolation of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” on “Same Ol’ Mistakes”), and gut-punch ballads.
– A Western-tinged escape fantasy. Sparse, menacing bass, and Rihanna playing the outlaw bride. “I need a desperado / I need a partner in crime.” This is the underrated gem of the album.
