Rihanna | - Anti -deluxe- -2016-album-

The production is intimate . There’s vinyl crackle (“Consideration”), muffled vocals, and space where a beat should drop. It sounds like you’re listening to a cassette tape in a dimly lit basement. This is not a stadium record. It’s a headphones record. 1. “Consideration” (ft. SZA) – A mission statement. SZA’s wounded yelp opens the track before Rihanna declares, “I got to do things my own way / Darling, you should know.” It’s a middle finger to expectations, set to a stuttering, militant drum line.

– A 78-second weed-and-R&B interlude. Dreamy, wasted, and gorgeous. It sets the album’s hazy mood perfectly. Rihanna - ANTI -Deluxe- -2016-Album-

– The best 80s power-ballad Prince never wrote. A razor-sharp guitar riff, a vulnerable but defiant vocal, and lyrics about sex as emotional suturing. “What are you willing to do?” she purrs. It’s erotic and wounded. The production is intimate

– A cold, iconic takedown. Over a floating, synth-laced beat, she reduces a lover to a one-night stand. “You was just a nigga on the side.” The Deluxe version hits harder with its extended outro. This is post-breakup empowerment as quiet assassination. This is not a stadium record

– A near-cover of Tame Impala’s six-minute psychedelic odyssey. Rihanna makes it her own by stripping the urgency and adding languid, auto-tuned regret. It’s a bizarre, brave closer for the standard album.

The Deluxe edition adds three additional tracks to the standard 13, but more importantly, it completes the album’s thesis: freedom is messy, and so is this record. Gone are the EDM bombasts of We Found Love and the glossy Caribbean-pop of Work . ANTI is a grimy, sample-heavy, genre-bending collage. Executive produced by Rihanna herself alongside Jeff Bhasker (Kanye, Bruno Mars), the album pulls from 70s soul (Tavares’ “It Only Takes a Minute” on “James Joint”), trip-hop (a haunting interpolation of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” on “Same Ol’ Mistakes”), and gut-punch ballads.

– The most aggressive track. A distorted, trap-infused kiss-off to an ex. She sounds genuinely venomous: “You ain’t shit.” It’s ugly, petty, and perfect.