230. Rihanna, "Anti"

 

Robyn Rihanna Fenty is, of course, a global phenomenon, a megastar, a probable billioniare (due in part to her fashion, fragrance, and other skincare ventures), and one of the best-selling music artists of all time.  She has sold oer 250 million records, putting her in a league with Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, Pink Floyd, and Michael Jackson.  This album sold only 3 million copies.  A crushing disappointment.

I was not prepared to like this album.  Despite her rarified status, I know almost no Rihanna music at all; in fact, she is the only artist with sales of 250 million or more that I could only name a couple of songs by ("Umbrella" and "Work," the latter of which was on this album.)  I gathered that she worked mainly in the  pop/dance/R&B arena, so I was surprised to hear this album which is just all over the place, and I mean that in the best possible way.

The record opens with "Consideration," a clearly dub-influenced lazy, langorous track (with guest SZA, whom we have previously seen) with a beautiful melody that dances up and down over the distorted drum tracks.  I knid of love it.  "Kiss It Better" is an 80's-style slow jam, followed by "Work," one of the singles and only song I recognized and found completely underwhelming compared to the rest.

I was really taken with three songs in the second half of the album.  I was listening to "Same Ol' Mistakes" and I was like "this sounds like Tame Impala" and then I found out guess what, it's a somewhat reworked cover of Tame Impala's "New Person, Same Old Mistakes."  A Tame Impala cover!  That's pretty dope.  The next song, "Never Ending," is almost folky and has a melody that I just knew I had heard somewhere before and that's because big chunks of it are lifted from Dido's "Thank You" (enough that Dido gets a cowriting credit) but the song is uniquely Rihanna's.  I really like this song.  After that is "Love on the Brain," an obvious nod to 60's girl groups that at first seems like a shimmery doo-wop nod until you listen to the lyrics:

Must be love on the brain
That's got me feeling this way (feeling this way)
It beats me black and blue but it fucks me so good
And I can't get enough

Even I recognize that this is an obvious reference to Rihanna's stormy, violent relationship with woman-beating piece of shit Chris Brown.  Yikes.

I don't usually talk about album art (and I probably should), but the cover art for this is also absolutely arresting.  It's a picture of Rihanna as a child, manipulated by Israeli artist Roy Nachum, splashed with red paint.  A really fascinating image.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Obviosuly there are going to be one or more Rihanna albums in the Top 500.  I don't know enough about her career to know which ones are the most important or "best," but I liked this album quite a bit so I'm going to say yes.