Rihanna - ANTI

[samo🦕]

I hope I can create this thread now, since ANTI was officially released 1 year and 364 days ago, and on Tidal exactly two years ago.
Also, I'll probably accidentally forget about making this thread otherwise, even though I love the album.

ANTI is Rihanna's eighth studio album, and one of her best (imo).

Release Date: 28th January, 2016
Release Date (on Tidal): 27th January, 2016
Peak (US Billboard 200): #1 (2 weeks)
Sales: US: 1,966,000 UK: 100,000
Certifications: US: 2x Platinum UK: Gold

Singles: (all chart data is for the Billboard Hot 100)
Work ft. Drake - #1 (9 weeks)
Kiss It Better - #62
Needed Me - #7
Love On The Brain - #5

I give this album an 8/10.
Best Songs: Close To You, Never Ending, Higher, Desperado, Kiss It Better, Love On The Brain
Worst Song: Woo

[Bwol]

Desperado is so good.

[samo🦕]

Honestly, if it weren't for the random piano flutter at the end, Close To You would have easily been the best song on the album.
Edit: Nvm, it's grown on me. CTY is amazing.

[Live Your Life]

This is such a bizarre album. What genre is it even? It had gone through numerous soundscapes throughout the process of her recording, but I don't think anybody expected the ending outcome to sound like this. This is her best album to date, no contest. I'm still unpacking it two years later. Excellent writing, production, conviction and emotion. I didn't even know she was capable of something like this. She gained so much respect in the industry and different music circles that she hadn't impacted before from this release.

Her post on Instagram on the 1 year anniversary was beautiful:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BP1FRMJgf9g

AllMusic gave the album 4/5 stars:

Anti existed as an album cycle before it existed as an album -- arguably long before Rihanna knew what form her eighth album would take, either. Work on 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. When Anti finally appeared in January 2016 -- three years after Unapologetic and months later than expected -- it bore none of these 2015 singles, a move that suggests a tacit acknowledgment that neither the curiously muted Kanye West and Paul McCartney collaboration "FourFiveSeconds" nor the unrestrained roar of "Bitch Better Have My Money" functioned as appropriate anchors for the album. Then again, neither would've felt at home on the cloistered Anti, the first of Rihanna's records to feel constructed as a front-to-back album. Such a sustained sensibility distinguishes Anti from its predecessors, records where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts. That's not the case with Anti. This is an album whose heart lies within its deep cuts. Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it's a subdued, simmering affair, its songs 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. 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.

Oh, and Tidal didn't exactly release this two years ago. More like leaked it by putting it up for like 10 minutes. Which is where the infamous 460 copies sold the first week thing came from. But hey, the album rollout was already an absolute disaster, so one more mishap was great!

[Dreams]

I thought it was a mixed bag then and I still maintain that now. IMO it contains some of the absolute best ("Kiss It Better," "Love On The Brain," "Same Ol’ Mistakes," "Consideration," "Never Ending," "Desperado") and absolute worst songs of her catalog ("Higher," "Work," "Needed Me," "Woo"...). In terms of visuals, which is something I value/look for with every Rihanna era, I wasn't a big fan either. I'll be really pleased if R9 is a lot different compared to Anti.

[samo🦕]

Jan 27, 2018 10:54:38 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

Oh, and Tidal didn't exactly release this two years ago. More like leaked it by putting it up for like 10 minutes. Which is where the infamous 460 copies sold the first week thing came from. But hey, the album rollout was already an absolute disaster, so one more mishap was great!

I know about the Tidal thing, I just needed an excuse to make the thread, since albums here have to be at least 2 years old. #TechnicalitiesFTW
Kind of sad that her best album got the worst rollout. :'( At least it turned out as great as it did, since Rihanna got to make the music she wanted to.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

This was a really good album. My faves are Kiss It Better, Same 'Ol Mistakes, Consideration, and Desperado. I need to listen to this album again.

[Deleted]

Still pressed that Consideration nor Desperado got to be singles
Otherwise the singles off this record were fantastic

The whole record though is sort of 75% with me, some of the songs didn't click with me at all

[samo🦕]

Since I wasn't on Pulse when the ANTI rankdown happened, I thought I'd post my ranking of the album.
1st: Close To You (Great)
2nd: Never Ending (Great)
3rd: Higher (Great)
4th: Desperado (Great)
5th: Kiss It Better (Great)
6th: Love On The Brain (Great)
7th: Consideration (Good)
8th: Work (Good)
9th: Needed Me (Decent)
10th: Sex With Me (Decent)
11th: Same Ol' Mistakes (Decent)
12th: Yeah, I Said It (Decent)
13th: James Joint (Decent)
14th: Woo (Meh)
15th: Goodnight Gotham (Bad)
16th: Pose (Awful)

[Ling-Ling]

The highlights on this album are so high, they make the album seem way better than it actually is. This has career-best material. But it also has career-worst. And that doesn't even address the songs that add up to absolutely nothing.

"Consideration," "Kiss It Better," "Work," "Desperado," "Needed Me," "Same Ol' Mistakes," "Love On The Brain," and "Sex With Me" are all pretty amazing. Just high quality sh*t.

The rest is eh. "James Joint," "Yeah, I Said It," and "Goodnight Gotham" are sketches that never build to anything interesting. "Never Ending" and "Close To You" are pretty, but have never truly grabbed me. "Pose," "Woo" and "Higher" are arguably the worst things she's ever put vocals to. "Higher" does work as comedy, but I don't use it.

This was an important album for her and the highlights are so amazing, I can overlook the fact that it's not as consistent as some of her other albums (namely Rated R and Unapologetic). So I have a hard time ranking it, but it's definitely up there near the top.

[Normi]

Most important album of my life. Not the best I've heard but definitely the most important after waiting so long for a new album.
When 'Consideration' started I knew I'd love it. It had so much more potential single-wise (aka DESPERADO AAAH). I'd rank it 3rd in terms of her albums as it's mostly solid to very very good material. Obviously, the singles, Sex With Me, Desperado, Consideration and Same Ol Mistakes are still on heavy rotation!

[NeRD]

Her best album by far.

[B-Boy]

This is her most experimental album to date and the stripped down feel suited her voice pretty well. The songs I play the most are "Needed Me", "Sex With Me", "Woo" and "Yeah I Said It". I think they're awesome from a production standpoint. Rihanna shows her assertiveness differently over them. I like her vulnerable side on "Love On The Brain" and "Close To You".

[Mayman]

This is a great album. I can't believe they let "Desperado" stay as an album track. "Consideration" would have made a good single if it were a little longer as well.

[Live Your Life]

Jan 27, 2018 10:54:38 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

This is such a bizarre album. What genre is it even? It had gone through numerous soundscapes throughout the process of her recording, but I don't think anybody expected the ending outcome to sound like this. This is her best album to date, no contest. I'm still unpacking it two years later. Excellent writing, production, conviction and emotion. I didn't even know she was capable of something like this. She gained so much respect in the industry and different music circles that she hadn't impacted before from this release.

Her post on Instagram on the 1 year anniversary was beautiful:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BP1FRMJgf9g

AllMusic gave the album 4/5 stars:

Anti existed as an album cycle before it existed as an album -- arguably long before Rihanna knew what form her eighth album would take, either. Work on 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. When Anti finally appeared in January 2016 -- three years after Unapologetic and months later than expected -- it bore none of these 2015 singles, a move that suggests a tacit acknowledgment that neither the curiously muted Kanye West and Paul McCartney collaboration "FourFiveSeconds" nor the unrestrained roar of "Bitch Better Have My Money" functioned as appropriate anchors for the album. Then again, neither would've felt at home on the cloistered Anti, the first of Rihanna's records to feel constructed as a front-to-back album. Such a sustained sensibility distinguishes Anti from its predecessors, records where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts. That's not the case with Anti. This is an album whose heart lies within its deep cuts. Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it's a subdued, simmering affair, its songs 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. 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.

Oh, and Tidal didn't exactly release this two years ago. More like leaked it by putting it up for like 10 minutes. Which is where the infamous 460 copies sold the first week thing came from. But hey, the album rollout was already an absolute disaster, so one more mishap was great!

AllMusic has recently upped their rating for this album to 5/5 stars.

[kcdawg13]

Such an incredible record, after seven albums of hits and filler Rih delivered a full on experience with ANTI. I still listen to it front to back here and there.

Desperado remains one of her best songs

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

5 years already....wow! Great album 4 sho and one of her best! I haven't listened to it that much since it was first released tho.

Most of the tracks were great.

My top 5:

1. Kiss It Better
2. Same Ol' Mistakes
3. Desperado
4. Work
5. Love On The Brain

honorables: 

Needed Me

[Caviar]

Kiss It Better deserved so much more.

[back2blk]

This is her best effort indeed and her best contribution to her genre. I wouldn't be mad if she just hangs it up after this, cause there's no way she's topping this.

[rnb]

absolutely love this