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.
Anti proves Rihanna should play by her own rules more often.
Anti’s tracks combine to create a picture of Rihanna at her most relatable and enthralling.
ANTI is perhaps her most complete and confident record to date. Where she manages to take things from here anyone's guess.
This is Rihanna at her most strikingly self-assured and it’s wondrous.
Not every song is as outstanding as the next, but at points, Anti is incredibly satisfying and sufficiently distinct from her other efforts – very much worth the wait and the bizarre roll out.
While Rihanna has put out great records throughout her career, the focus has always been on singles, and as such full-length listens can feel disjointed. ‘ANTI’ is one that you can vibe to from beginning to end.
ANTI is folk music played in a video-drome circularly projecting a 360° image of sprawling, semi-wilderness on fire as a compassionate, loving apocalypse.
ANTI is a rich and conflicted pop record, at its most interesting when it’s at its most idiosyncratic. It’s not crammed with bloodthirsty, dance-oriented jams and feels distinctly smaller, more inward-facing than her previous records, as if it were intended as a kind of spiritual stock-taking, a moment of reckoning for both Rihanna and her fans.
Anti takes risks and disregards convention in a way that only a true superstar like Rihanna could pull off.
The sound is nowhere nearly as innovative as it could have been. This is Rihanna, and we all know she knows how to push envelopes, but this barely made it to the post office.
A carefully sequenced album rather than a collection of hook-stuffed attempts at singles. For exactly that reason, it's a considerably more pleasant listening experience than, say, her 2011 album Loud.
There’s a mission for musical cred here on her highly anticipated eighth album Anti.
ANTI is Rihanna’s first aesthetically personal album, and throughout its disorderly roaming, it remains revelatory in a strict sense; it’s a musical step sideways but an artistic step up.
Rihanna is still shedding some of her “Don’t Stop the Music” skin, which makes Anti a fascinating, if a bit rocky, portrait of a supreme pop talent on the possible precipice of a bold career turn.
After 7 painful years of servicing commercial interests, Rihanna sounds like a brand new person; nuanced, dynamic, and focused, Anti is Rihanna stripping herself of commercial obligations, finally taking flight.
Despite its missteps, ANTI never sounds fake. It’s driven by undertones and nuance – rather than undergoing a full reinvention, Rihanna has placed herself at a vantage point where she can flirt with a number of styles and sounds, reminding us that she never promised to be anything at all.
It is Rihanna without hits ... It is more an exercise in rebranding, transforming the hit girl into a serious artist.
Sometimes you get the frustrating sense that strong ideas are being deliberately short-circuited in the pursuit of a slightly self-conscious weirdness.
‘Anti’ features no crowd-pleasing dance-pop hits like ‘We Found Love’, preferring a murky blend of electronica, R&B and acoustic pop that clings rigidly to midtempo.
As a whole, Anti is a frustrating listen. It feels scrappy and unfinished – underwritten, under-produced and under-performed.
Pop and R&B singing sensation Rihanna returns with ANTI.
This collection of 13 songs ... draws back from the haunted rococo conceptualising of the teasers and offers up a product curiously divorced from its marketing; a star apparently chucking a wooden clog into the song machine.
Sadly, with Anti the intent and promise is more admirable than the end result. There’s a certain dreary joylessness to it that saps any energy the songs might possess.
easily the best rihanna has given us yet. there was some really dark and heavy production on this LP that was matched very well with rihanna's voice. some songs were really well done, went hard and are well rounded. but after track 9 this album lags a bit. the tracks get to be slower and more upbeat, very different compared to the first half. none of them are too bad, but they dont match the pretty articulate first half. not amazing, but a solid listen that gives rihanna a more refreshing ... read more
I think it’s really cohesive sonically but lacks standout tracks to me other than ‘Work’ of course. I remember not really caring for it before but re-listening this morning, it’s grown on me a lot.
Haven't heard this in full in a few years but this is still great. I neeeeeed new music though lmao
With some of Rihanna’s best songs and production to date (and even a Tame Impala cover), ANTI is truly a crazy listening experience.
01. Consideration 10/10
02. James Joint 7/10
03. Kiss It Better 10/10
04. Work 10/10
05. Desperado 10/10
06. Woo 8/10
07. Needed Me 10/10
08. Yeah, I Said It 10/10
09. Same Ol' Mistakes 10/10
10. Never Ending 7/10
11. Love On The Brain 10/10
12. Higher 10/10
13. Close To You 10/10
14. Goodnight Gotham10/10
15. Pose 10/10
16. Sex With Me 10/10
1 | Consideration 2:41 feat. SZA | 88 |
2 | James Joint 1:12 | 75 |
3 | Kiss It Better 4:13 | 90 |
4 | Work 3:39 feat. Drake | 73 |
5 | Desperado 3:06 | 84 |
6 | Woo 3:55 | 77 |
7 | Needed Me 3:11 | 86 |
8 | Yeah, I Said It 2:12 | 76 |
9 | Same Ol’ Mistakes 6:37 | 87 |
10 | Never Ending 3:22 | 77 |
11 | Love on the Brain 3:43 | 92 |
12 | Higher 2:00 | 85 |
13 | Close to You 3:57 | 82 |
#1 | / | Fuse |
#3 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
#4 | / | Idolator |
#4 | / | Noisey |
#6 | / | Cosmopolitan |
#6 | / | Digital Spy |
#6 | / | Passion of the Weiss |
#6 | / | Time Out New York |
#7 | / | Mashable |
#7 | / | The Guardian |