Rihanna dropped ANTI, her first album since 2012, on Jan. 27.
By Mario Williams
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In March 2015 while doing press for her animated movie Home, Rihanna was, of course, asked about the long wait for her eighth studio album.
She noted that sometimes when she’s on stage, she doesn’t want to perform her old songs because they “don’t feel like me.” Her new album, she said, would be “timeless” and “soulful,” “songs [she] could perform in 15 years.”
I was a bit upset when I watched this interview because, being a fan of hers for so many years, it felt like she was forgetting about what made her become so successful early on. It gave me the sense she didn’t care about such hits as “We Found Love,” “Take a Bow,” or “Umbrella.” Those were all timeless records in my opinion.
But when Rihanna surprised fans with ANTI on Jan. 27 through Tidal, I had to apologize to her. All my frustration from waiting three years for an album and nervousness about the sound went away after the first 48-minute listen.
ANTI is Rihanna at her best. It is the album this hit-maker needed at this time in her career. Rihanna’s albums have all been loaded with hits. Every album she has put out, at least one song has gone to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100. While her albums were always successful, hearing ANTI puts most of them to shame. None of them seem to be as cohesive as ANTI and Rihanna sounds better than she ever has in her career.
The opening track, “Consideration,” with a guest appearance from SZA, provides the perfect way to describe this album and how Rihanna is now: “I got to do things my own way darling, will you ever let me/will you ever respect me — no/do things my own way darling, you should just let me/why you ain’t never let me grow.”
I learned a lot from ANTI and the type of woman Rihanna is. She’s just as lonely as most of us on tracks such as “Desperado” and “Woo,” she still yearns for love, she’s a boss on the track “Needed Me.” And on tracks “Kiss it Better” and “Yeah, I Said It,” she knows what she wants from sex. ANTI takes listeners on a journey and a story. It’s lyrical-heavy with production I’ve never heard on any of her previous albums.
Rihanna slayed us all by having “Love on the Brain” and “Higher” as the 11th and 12th tracks on the album. Her voice is comfortable and mature. These two tracks are probably Rihanna’s best vocal performance yet. It blows previous ballads such as “Stay” and “What Now” out the water.
The two-minute ballad of “Higher” is my favorite, though. We hear Rihanna express that she’s intoxicated, regretting her love for someone. It’s simple, flawless, and right to the point. I’d pay any amount of money to see footage of her recording this song. She screams the lyrics, “You take me higher, higher than I’ve ever been, babe/just come over let’s pour a drink, babe, I hope I ain’t calling you too late.” The emotion in her voice (probably holding back tears, too) gives me goose bumps, and will probably happen to you, too.
RiRi flipped the switch on her die-hard fans, haters, general fans, and everyone else in the music industry. ANTI is the perfect album title to describe a perfect album that Rihanna wanted to make (considering she executive produced the album and co-wrote every song). It’s the album that most expected to have the general “Rihanna sound” or hits, but we don’t see that.
Rihanna wanted to do this album her way, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.