3/5?I got to do things my own way darling,? announces Rihanna on the opening track of her long-awaited eighth album, Anti. So, are you ready for Rihanna?s experimental phase? She has been the plastic pop queen of the last decade, the malleable, sex-pot superstar whose role was to lend her potent vocals and sassy charisma to hits crafted by teams of top writers and producers.
Read: Rihanna, Anti, track by track
But she tells them where to stick their song submissions on the opening track ?Consideration?. ?Let me cover your s*** in glitter, I can make it good,? Rihanna coos rebelliously, laying her original undiluted Barbadian accent on thick. ?Why you will never let me grow?? she demands.
The answer to that part may lie on the second track, a two minute jazzy tumble of electric piano and scat singing which opens with the woozy declaration: ?I?d rather be smoking weed? and continues with the kind of wayward melodic and lyrical development that suggests that may have been exactly what she was doing while she sang it.
Rihanna on stage in LA last year
Rihanna on stage in LA last year
It is amusing to imagine the response of her record executives and corporate backers when she came in with that. Would you want to be the one to tell your biggest star that the songs she has spent the best part of three years writing and recording may be lacking in some basic elements, like verses, choruses, melodies and hooks?
Samsung have just paid her 25 million dollars for the rights to brand her next tour and album. I doubt they were expecting tracks like Woo, four minutes of breathless emoting dragged out over a tunelessly clashing guitar/keyboard sound, with the only apparent motif being some ghostly backing vocals going ?wooo?.
Up until now, Rihanna has been notorious in the business for not being particularly involved in the creation of her own records, something which has enabled her to keep up an incredible strike rate in her career, releasing almost an album a year from 2005 to 2012, whilst touring incessantly. Since being talent-spotted as a teen by an American producer on holiday in Barbados in 2003, she has been groomed as the ultimate pop front-woman, backed to the hilt by her biggest mentor, hip-hop mogul Jay Z.
Teams of top writers and producers would be assembled to contribute their most commercial prospective hits. Rihanna?s job was to provide sparkle and charisma, coming in at the last minute to lay down a finished performance over guide vocals recorded by session singers.
Rihanna was so in demand that she often recorded her parts in hotels and makeshift studios set up whilst on promotional duties around the world. She has proved her worth to the hit factory time and again with a raw, warm, sassy vocal presence that can brighten any track by several hundred watts. The difference between a catchy demo and a blockbuster hit has often been Rihanna herself. At least, it would seem that is what Rihanna has come to believe.
Sooner or later, every manufactured artist turns against their creators, from the Monkees (with their self-immolating psychedelic opus Head in 1968) to Miley Cyrus biting the Disney hand that had fed her for years by stripping off and twerking. Anti is Rihanna?s overdue bid for some kind of artistic independence and critical credibility, and despite its lack of obvious commercial appeal it might turn out to be a smart move.
The girl can sing, indeed, and on Anti, all of the focus is on that voice and her appealingly wayward personality, singing about sex, love, drugs, desire and frustration as if her life depends on it. Without all the practised song-craft that usually knock the wind out of listeners, what she has come up with is atmospheric, sexy and strangely disturbed, tapping into the kind of distorted beats and chilled tempos that burble through progressive hip hop.
The cerebral, moody influence of Canadian rapper Drake is apparent, and he shows up to duet with Rihanna on the lead single Work. Even that doesn?t exactly sound like a banging pop hit but at least it tugs at the ear and gets under the skin, and in so doing, adds interesting dimensions to Rihanna?s established image.
The cover art for new album Anti
The cover art for new album Anti
This album is all about depth and texture.The prevailing rhythm is mid tempo. The mood is surly, as she affirms her right to do exactly what she wants. This is about establishing the notion that Rihanna is an artist in her own right, not just a glorified glove puppet.
I suppose it was inevitable that Rihanna would start to want to take the reins herself. She?s still only 27 and has been in the limelight since she was 17. She has had song writing credits before, using her real name Robyn Fenty, but this time she is credited on every track but one. There are lots of other backroom talents cited but none of the established hit teams that have powered her career. There is no Stargate, Dr Luke, Max Martin, Calvin Harris or Sia Furler, all of whom submitted songs over the three years of the album?s gestation only to have them rejected.
Rihanna at a charity gala last year
Rihanna at a charity gala last year
The one writer-producer who has been allowed to do his own thing without interference from the star is Australian psychedelic indie-rocker, Kevin Parker, of the band Tame Impala. Rihanna covers his song, New Person, Same Old Mistakes, a dreamy six and a half minute space groove from the critically acclaimed 2015 album, Currents.
This, for better or worse, is clearly the music Rihanna likes: leftfield, stoned and strange. It is Rihanna without hits. This strange album, released without warning over the internet for free, may well be a reflection of the fact that not even her own backers really expects this to be a commercial blockbuster. It is more an exercise in rebranding, transforming the hit girl into a serious artist.
It will satisfy the appetite of fans and the curiosity of the internet for the moment but poses interesting questions about what happens next. Because being cool and credible is all very well. But what, really, is a pop star without hits? Rihanna might be about to find out.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/rihanna-anti-album-review-rihanna-without-the-hits/
