Album Review: Rihanna — ANTI
Among the biggest of the current wave of pop stars, Rihanna stands as something of an enigma. She has had more number 1 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart than Michael Jackson, is internationally recognised and admired, and like all pop behemoths of the 2010’s she has her every move carefully documented online (both by herself via Instagram and Twitter, and by the gossip-hungry media). However; she doesn’t quite inspire the kind of near-universal adoration that say Beyoncé does, nor does she appeal as the kind of down-to-Earth girl-next-door type that you might hang out with, a la the biggest pop star of them all — Taylor Swift.
Some of this subtly diminished standing surely stems from how Rihanna comes off on record. Whether delivering dance floor anthems, or more introspective heartbroken numbers, she often seems to be at an arms-length from her material. This distance is not necessarily a bad thing, as in fact some of the appeal of her biggest and best hits comes from this detached, “do I really care?” vibe.
ANTI is Rihanna’s eighth studio album, and her first in four years. It was prefaced by a long pre-release cycle of rumours, commercially successful, albeit not particularly critically well-received singles (the most prominent of which - Four-Five Seconds - seemed like a something of waste of getting Paul McCartney and Kanye West together in a studio), and a creeping sense that the Barbadian singer was somewhat lost at sea during the whole process of trying to bring the record to life.
This slight sense of aimlessness was cemented further when the record was accidentally leaked online in January of this year, causing Rihanna and her record company to a rush release ANTI mid-week, only on Tidal initially but subsequently to all other platforms. Given its seemingly troubled genesis, what’s most surprising about ANTI is how carefully considered in its construction it seems to be. Every other Rihanna album has contained some measure of filler, but ANTI moves from start to finish with a clear ebb and flow.
Missing in action are all of the singles teased prior to the album release, and what remains are a number of often sparse, skeletal and moody compositions. After the first half of the record closes out (including the singles and clear highlights Work featuring Drake, and Kiss it Better) the album winds down into a series of gradually quieter, and increasingly introspective moments. When things suddenly open back up again, it’s not in the manner you might expect; but rather via a pair of classic soul inspired numbers - Love on the Brain and Higher — which are raw, uncommercial, and among the very best things Rihanna has ever cut.
Rihanna sounds looser and more human than ever before on these tracks, but as tossed off as they seem, these are clearly a part of the overall concept of ANTI - where the slightly sombre overall mood allows these moments to shine through brightly. And ultimately that’s the point with this record — as great as these individual moments can be, the real pleasure of ANTI is how it reveals more and more with each listen - summing up as Rihanna’s best long-player, and comfortably the best RnB album of 2016 so far.
