Rihanna’s warm and authoritative tone guides us through her 8th studio album; ANTI, something that she’s been working on since leaving Def Jam in 2014. She leaves behind her old club and dance genre, progressing into something a little slower, more dark and expressive, but by no means any less memorable.
In her distinctive Barbadian accent over a heavy and disjointed beat on the opening song Consideration, featuring raspy vocals from R&B artist SZA, Rihanna sings; “I got to do things my own way darling”. These nine words encapsulate the wider theme of the whole album, ANTI is Rihanna’s freedom of expression, it is her way of announcing to her fans and the music industry that she’s sure of her genre change.
Although the album features new and relaxed work such as Consideration and the soulful groove heard in James Joint, her huge dancehall collaboration with Canadian rapper Drake, Work, reminds us of the Rihanna we already fondly know. The island vibes in this song mirror some of Rihanna’s earlier work, Rude Boy and Man Down, allowing us to retrospectively glance over the young artist’s entire career.
The most strikingly different song on the album, Love on the Brain, however could be confused with completely different artist. Deeply contrasting her usual contemporary style, the ballad can instead be likened to that of a hit record you’d expect to hear on the radio in the 1950s. Yet Rihanna still manages to stamp the song with her originality, as she does with anything else that she works on, confirmed by her own confident statements from another song on the album, Consideration; “Let me cover your shit in glitter, I can make it gold”. Again, another lyrical example, “What do I gotta do to get in your motherfuckin’ heart?” and “It beats me black and blue but it fucks me so good” featured in Love on The Brain coupled with the slow but passionate chord progression, allows her personality to radiate through an otherwise predictable and simple song.
ANTI serves as Rihanna’s most experimental album to date and while critics have described it as an ‘anti-climax’ following a huge anticipation before its release, the ultimate message tied in the lyrics is that Rihanna really couldn’t care less. Instead she asks a question, again from Consideration: “Why won’t you ever let me grow?”
Jael Moore 