Rihanna hit #1 with Anti

Anti Rihanna

Released: January 27, 2016 Peak: 12 US, 14 RB, 7 UK, 11 CN, 5 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.3 UK, 3.75 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Consideration (with SZA) (2/20/16, 38 RB, 88 UK) James Joint Kiss It Better (2/20/16, 62 US, 21 RB, 46 UK, 48 AU) Work (with Drake) (1/27/16, 1 US, 9 RR, 1 RB, 2 UK, 1 CN, 5 AU) Desperado (2/27/16, 36 RB) Woo Needed Me (2/20/16, 7 US, 1 RB, 38 UK, 25 CN, 44 AU) Yeah, I Said It (2/27/16, 41 RB) Same Ol’ Mistakes Never Ending Love on the Brain (6/11/16, 5 US, 9 AC, 7 A40, 3 RB, 22 CN) Higher Total Running Time: 43:36

Rating: 3.572 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Anti “began in the autumn of 2014 and proceeded in semi-public, progress being measured in Instagram posts and tweets, along with intermittent singles, each released to white-hot anticipation but none metamorphosing into massive hits.” AMG However, when the album was released, it didn’t have any of the singles released from 2015, which included “Four Five Seconds” with Kanye West and Paul McCartney and “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Neither “functioned as appropriate anchors for the album,” AMG which would be Rihanna’s first release “to feel constructed as a front-to-back album.” AMG After predecessors “where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts” AMG this made Anti “an ambitious album-statement” RS’20 “whose heart lies within its deep cuts.” RS’20 “On Anti, she recast pop as her own hazy playground, referencing Dido and hair metal, covering Tame Impala, and merging dancehall and torch ballads.” RS’20 “Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it’s a subdued, simmering affair,” AMG “brilliantly sustaining the tipsy two-in-the-morning vibe of this moody midcareer reinvention.” RS’20 Rihanna said, “I just gravitated toward the songs that were … the things I want to listen to…The things that I want to smoke to.” RS’20 The songs are “subtly shaded yet interlocked to create a vibe caught halfway between heartbreak and ennui. The latter has always been a specialty of Rihanna – her distance from her material was at once appealing and alienating – so hearing her lean into Love on the Brain and Higher is something of a revelation: her voice is hoarse and ravaged, yet she’s also controlled and precise, knowing how to hone these imperfections so her performance echoes classic soul while feeling fresh.” AMG “These songs come at the end of the album, after a series of songs that drift and wonder, the sound of an artist trying to figure out not only what her album is but who she is. By the end of Anti, Rihanna may not arrive at any definitive conclusions about her art but she’s allowed herself to be unguarded and anti-commercial, resulting in her most compelling record to date.” AMG Notes: “Goodnight Gotham,” “Pose,” and “Sex with Me” were added to the deluxe edition.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 4/23/2022.