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

lolololololololololol "same ol' mistakes" is a tame impala cover

hahahahahaha

given how long she's been working on this album i really wonder if kevin parker gave her the song first and then just said fuck it and put it on the tame impala album when her album never materialized

lol @ nuno's acoustic power ballad guitar in "never ending"

anyway "yeah i said it" is a lovely slow jam

the first half i suspect was ruined by travis scott's influence, the second half is pretty good give or take how you feel about tame impala

yeah i'm really enjoying how corny "love on the brain" is

the second half is what i thought this record would be like... live instruments, a much more classic sound that showcases her vocals, which sound pretty great!

the first half is like the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

the first half is like the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

this is a major issue with "woo"

who knows though maybe i'll listen to this again

whoa rihanna's voice sounds like it's gonna curl up and die on "higher"

Not finished with the second half, but the first half has the obvious highlights to me so far. But this is all very good so far.

Wait, Higher is actively awful, literally who told her to sing like that?

assuming she's saying "fuck a tidal" in "yeah, i said it"

why is my favorite song on this 2:13

damn u rihanna albums

her vocals are so good on "higher" that it makes me doubly depressed about the rest of the record

yeah i'm in love with "kiss it better"

so syrupy

This whiskey got me feelin' pretty
So pardon if I'm impolite
I just really need your ass with me
I'm sorry 'bout the other night
And I know I could be more creative
And come up with poetic lines
But I'm turnt up off sess and "I love you"
Is the only thing that's in my mind

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, too late
You light my fire
Let's stay up late and smoke a j
I wanna go back to the old way
But I'm drunk and still with a full ash tray
With a little bit too much to say

real

she's a better drunkdialer than drake

i wonder if this album has any vestiges of Kanye once being the touted executive producer aside from Travis Scott's involvement

"never ending" thru "close to you" fucking slays

like "james joint" "work" and "yeah i said it" fine

the record she'd want to sit around and smoke weed to but the songs themselves don't seem to be any good

...this describes like 2/3 or more of rihanna's entire career?

interested to hear it tho

I'm really into the first half of this album so far, so if the second half is supposed to be better I'm really looking forward to it.

shea taylor worked on "james joint" which is cool even if the song is only 72 seconds long. i've always wondered why he fell off the map after working on the best songs on 4 and channel orange.

"James Joint" sounds like KING o__O

SPEAKING OF KING THERE ALBUM IS ON NPR RIGHT NOW

THEY'RE*

SORRY I GOT EXCITED FOR A SECOND.

THEIR. FUCK.

AAAAAAAAA

drake is the worst btw

So did Tidal purposely put it up and then pull it?

who even knows anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QrWzsfghA

i mean.. that's 2016

useless drake disses rate ticking

its a free tidal download now apparently, which prob entails some tidal trial or something, which...gtfo tidal youre not real

yeah, seems like this perhaps tidal biggest opportunity. i subscribed just to get the album, might unsubscribe asap. first half is good. but not as good as the first 4 track promised.

feeling Same Ol's Mistakes

ANTI is a very good album at the very least

the fuck is "higher", her voice made me flinch so hard on that

she suits winehouseisms more than i expected on "love on the brain"

"kiss it better" and "yeah i said it" stood out but this seems as mildly unsatisfying a hotchpotch (with a few highlights) as any post-rated r rihanna album, dunno why it took so long to make

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

i switched this off and quit after 'woo' last night, maybe never to return tbqh

god imagine the whole rihanna team sat there as 'woo' played off "other producer travis scott beat tape vol 66" or w/e over some luxe full room system

DUN, DUN, DUN - "well guys i think we have a winner" - DUN

even the title of "woo" manages to convey a weary lack of enthusiasm

i bet it was all cobbled together in the last two weeks anyway

why the hell is she giving this away for free though?

"kiss it better" and "yeah i said it" stood out but this seems as mildly unsatisfying a hotchpotch (with a few highlights) as any post-rated r rihanna album, dunno why it took so long to make

otm. it feels flimsy and rushed and has some jams. it is a rihanna record

The hit-to-miss ratio seems higher to me than other Rihanna albums imo, so I'll probably still be listening to this after y'all have moved on. :)

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:57 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i switched this off and quit after 'woo' last night, maybe never to return tbqh

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:58 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

lol this one has writing credits from the-dream, travis scott AND the weeknd

lol yeah i love being all like "yah this is cute i guess zzz w/e" with riri album trax knowing like four hundred songwriters died in roc nation concentration camps making each one

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:57 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would not be surprised if somewhere close to zero of those tracks made the actual record

like, seriously, does anything about this album, its non-release, its eventual "release," its eventual unrelease, etc. come off meticulously planned and executed per plan?

(I kind of like it a lot!)

I feel "Woo," and yes the vocal performance is like 95% of it.

I'm already sad about the strong possibility Anti will get bumped from most "best of the decade" lists.

"woo" & "desperado" & "never ending" are not really that great but this is still an amazing record in which nobody really saw the artist's vision until after they mostly agreed it wasn't a good album (guilty as charged)

I wish she'd just replaced Woo with Pose

I wonder how those who aren't into "Woo" feel about "Pose." I hear them as companion tracks -- about equally post-Yeezus and noise-pop. I usually consume Anti with its 3 bonus tracks and ending with "Sex With Me." The abrasive jams feel like a crucial part of makes this record special.

"sex with me" so amazing, but yeah i love all three bonus tracks, they feel indivisible from the record

Totally agree that Anti is holding up really well. I do still feel like the whole, "she's finally made a great album" response she received from a lot of critics wasn't fair considering how brilliant Rated R is. Good Girl Gone Bad to a lesser extent too.

Great album, and yes, much more of a piece than most of her other albums. Top 10 of the decade for me, for sure. Classic for “Needed Me” alone, what a song. Kudos to her and her team for going with that one as a single so early on in the album campaign* (even if it was perhaps half-heartedly - they had obviously earmarked “Kiss It Better” as the bigger hit). I think hardly anyone saw that song coming - in this (long) thread it’s only mentioned once (neutrally) before it was released as a single. I love how people itt are ever so slowly waking up to its greatness, just like it crept up on me back then.

*as noted in the thread, this decision might have been informed by its strong streaming numbers. A case of the public knows best?

(And yessss to “Sex With Me” - I discarded it for the longest time because I thought it was just too tacky. I was wrong.)

Same re: "Sex With Me." Huge creeper.

5 years! i think. either today or tmrw.

Album of the decade

feel dumb that this getting bumped actually got my hopes up for the mythical Next Album

Nothing yet, but there's been plenty of Fenty product announcements lol

the best album ever

i continue to be full of shit upthread as i now love "never ending"

such a bizarre & brilliant album... been putting it on again recently. that kid’s mash up of kiss it better & never too much put it back in my head. the four text remix of kiss it better is also great, could almost be a piece of the proper album

i can’t think of many albums where my love for it represents such a 180 from my initial impressions

she has a new… song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospQ06jJe-I

co-written by Tems
for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
will there be more? no idea
she’s in great voice tho if there was any doubt

It is basically a Tems song, karaoke'd by Rihanna, lol

"First new song in 6 years" is kind of nuts, right?

I <3 Tems and this is fine, but I doubt I'll ever play it again

the biggest headscratcher of a rihanna 'comeback' single since "fourfiveseconds" (which i'm still amazed ended up being a proper hit even after the initial hype wore off)

i like it but yeah i doubt i'll play it again lol. there's a video too that's kinda *makes jerk-off motion* imo. seems like the kind of thing i could come around to if it was played everywhere though.

i've grown to really like "fourfiveseconds" lol, maybe i'll eventually grow to like this? good singing, tho it feels like karaoke.

It’s no ‘Kiss It Better’