Rihanna just dropped her comeback single, “Work“, today and it had all her fans freaking out about her return to the music scene. The album got so much hype, we all knew a leak was bound to happen, and we were right.
Rihanna played it smart and decided to release the album in full as soon as the leak dropped in hopes of not losing out on some money. As big of a superstar Rihanna is, I am expecting some decent tracks, because the single wasn’t in line with her standards. She has decided to leave out “BBHM” and “FourFiveSeconds” from her final album tracklist, which probably comes from the decision that each track was released months apart and months ago, so they don’t really fit with the theme of this album.
Those who haven’t heard it, can download it for FREE, for some reason, HERE
After the jump, I’ll give you my full take on the return of Rihanna!
The album starts out strong with a SZA collaboration in, “Consideration”. It is basically your classic, hard hitting Rih track which is what we are used to hearing. Going in the classic Rihanna theme, she throws in tracks like “Desperado” and “Woo”. Each track is hard hitting production with the classic Rih flow.
Rihanna is known for being versatile with her albums, which is where we see her shine. Tracks like, “Kiss It Better” and “Love On The Brain” are easily her standout tracks on the entire album. “Love On The Brain” is by far my favorite track on the album. She gives this track a very soulful vibe to this track, and it is completely different from what we are used to hearing from her. Her vocals sound better than ever, almost in comparison to “FourFiveSeconds”.
Finishing out the album, we get “Higher” and “Close To You”. “Higher” follows more along the lines of “Love On The Brain”, it is raw and real. We hear Rihanna pour her vocals out with some impressive emotion. Finally she closes out the album with “Close to You”. There is nothing impressive about this track, it is just a nice, smooth transition to finish out the end of an album.
Alright, here we go.
Granted, I have only listened to each track about twice through. I am completely underwhelmed by this album. I didn’t gather a theme to ANTI has a whole, it is kind of all over the place. She has definitely given us something different which I can appreciate, but all I hear is heavy production with minimal Rihanna. There are no classic Rihanna anthems (“We Found Love”, “Umbrella”, “SOS”) it is just kind of filled with dark, slow moving tracks. Each track can almost be compared to a previous Rihanna track, but worse. I’m interested to see how her sales will pan out, the name Rihanna can only get her so far. I almost feel like this album should be an instrumental, and I would enjoy it way more. It is hard to listen to the lyrics because the production takes over.
It will be interesting to see her perform these tracks in a live setting, it is going to have to be very visual.
In short, if you are expecting a Rihanna anthem filled album, you are wrong. You have to take this album from a completely different take. This is one of her weakest albums to date.
Long Live Music 