Rihanna’s Anti Is Strong in Vocal Work But Like Most of Her Albums, Lack the Cohesion That Makes An Album A Great One
When I heard Rihanna’s “Work”, I was quite excited to hear the album that went with it. It was already her eighth studio offering, and at that point in her career, Rihanna was and still is considered one of the top female artists of all time. However, I admit I was a bit disappointed with her album Anti. I checked the writing and producing credits of most of the songs here and it showed a high level of involvement from Rihanna herself. I daresay though that even with more involvement from her side, she cannot still properly articulate the direction that her record wants to take. So, although the album has some great standalone tracks, the end product is like most of her albums, a hodgepodge of different musical styles, some of them interesting, some of them, you wonder, why there got approved in the first place. Anyway, Anti was still a successful album, producing three more US top 10 hits including another #1 song for her in “Work”. Also, I did enjoy her vocals this time, as she was trying different ways of showing off the songs she chose for this album. So, although my sonic journey through her album has its peaks and valleys, I still get great satisfaction from her vocals – which I think, is still her greatest asset. If only she finds THAT producer who can help her coalesce her targeted themes and musical tastes, because I know she can do it, being successful in the business for more than a decade now. I heard her next album is veering back to reggae. That would be an interesting album to check as she goes back to her roots. For now, I will talk about the songs I enjoyed here in Anti.