‘Anti’ has been a long time coming. You know that. You probably read one, two, 10, 20 or 30 of the thousands of speculative articles penned about its long gestation. You watched the Bitch Better Have My Money video and read the accompanying thinkpieces. You tabled Rihanna x Kanye x Paul McCartney as a potential listening option and your brain responded with a tepid maybe. The reaction at large to an unprecedented lack of activity from one of the world’s genuine stars was an exercise in plugging gaps.
Scrub 2008 from the equation and between 2005 and the winter of 2012, when ‘Unapologetic’ arrived, Rihanna put out an album a year. Just under three years, then, is plenty of time for the rumour mill to have ground itself to a halt and been rebuilt several times over.
After the build up, ‘Anti’ is nothing if not a curveball. Hampered and helped, in almost equal measure, by a botched release, free giveaway and subsequent bout of angry gesturing through the medium of terse press statements, it’s an album that dispenses with the rapid-fire style that has seen Rihanna dominate charts worldwide for a decade.
The opening bars of the record, the SZA collaboration Consideration, owe more to the low hum of Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside’ than any sort of glitz and set the tone for an often hazy, unabashedly minimalist affair.
SZA spins a powerful hook, one of several that break through to the surface, amid barbed, frustrated lyrics. “I got to do things my own way, darling. Will you ever let me? Will you ever respect me? No,” she sings. “When I look outside my window, I can’t get no peace of mind.”
If there are a number of inconsequential moments - the James Joint snippet, the undercooked Woo and Never Ending - then there are others with real bite. Kiss It Better makes good use of a guitar line that should have gone out with the days of Simpson/Bruckheimer, with a wounded Rihanna spitting: “Man, fuck your pride.” Work, the lead single, is more at home here than thrust into the limelight solo, with Desperado and Needed Me adding muscular support to the top half.
A faithful cover of Tame Impala’s New Person, Same Old Mistakes (here titled Same Ol’ Mistakes) is a left turn that just about works in context, with Kevin Parker’s swirling arrangement given the slightest of twists to help pull together a second half that falters before a late rescue at the hands of the unvarnished, brilliant Higher and the effective ballad Close To You.
‘Anti’ is a sometimes difficult, often subdued record that will confound and irritate. There are thousands of fire emojis that won’t get to fulfil their destinies as a result of its almost total ban on radio-friendly hits, but here we see Rihanna branching out, scratching beneath the veneer and speaking of disappointment in a form that gives it the appropriate resonance. Repeat visits recommended. Preconceptions best left at the door.
Rihanna Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue June 14 2016 - COVENTRY Ricoh Arena
Thu June 16 2016 - CARDIFF Millennium Stadium
Sat June 18 2016 - SUNDERLAND Stadium Of Light
Tue June 21 2016 - DUBLIN Aviva Stadium
Fri June 24 2016 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Mon June 27 2016 - GLASGOW Hampden Park
Wed June 29 2016 - MANCHESTER Old Trafford
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