Similar to Beyonce's 4, Anti is an example of one of the biggest pop stars in the world subverting expectations by releasing an album of disparate styles, ranging from old-school soul and dancehall to funk and psych rock. Few tracks seem tailored to the radio. There's nary a Diamonds or Love the Way You Lie, let alone a Bitch Better Have My Money. Instead, Rihanna has made an album with a minute-long approximation of the most recent Thundercat record and a cover of a Tame Impala song not six months old. Some artists try so hard to act like they don't give a fuck that it becomes transparent. Rihanna is not one of them. Her flaunting of guidelines got her infamously banned from Instagram last year. She's a fashion icon, with every choice both baffling and supremely characteristic of her personality. She's carried that attitude to her musical work, making decisions about the songs on the album and its rollout so recklessly that they almost border on self-sabotage. Because she is Rihanna, she pulls it off, crafting a work where a Sam Cooke-style ballad can fit alongside a lurching, nocturnal electronic track co-written by The Weeknd and Travis Scott without tonal whiplash. The pieces may not fit together neatly, but Anti is clearly the album Rihanna wanted to make.
Tracklist:
1. Consideration
2. James Joint
3. Kiss It Better
4. Work Featuring Drake
5. Desperado
6. Woo
7. Needed Me
8. Yeah, I Said It
9. Same Ol' Mistakes
10. Never Ending
11. Love On The Brain
12. Higher
13. Close To You
14. Goodnight Gorham
15. pose
16. Sex With Me
