Rihanna does what she wants and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. That’s been her brand since 2007’s “Good Girl Gone Bad,” and she says as much on “Consideration,” the opening track of her just-released eighth album, “Anti.” She sings, “I got to do things/My own way darling/You should just let me.” It’s a cavernous, silky collaboration with SZA that kickstarts this beguiling, curveball-throwing project. This isn’t an collection of would-be mega hits, it’s just the 27-year-old Barbadian superstar unabashedly being herself—with her middle finger to the sky and with a blunt perpetually in-hand—and winning.
Though “Anti” doesn’t have a song like “Diamonds” or “Umbrella,” a potential chart-topper, it succeeds on Rihanna’s astounding, genre-warping versatility and fuck-it personality. The on-brand admission “I’d rather be smoking weed” opens highlight “James Joint,” which sounds like a long-lost “To Pimp a Butterfly” interlude (Kendrick Lamar collaborator James Fauntleroy co-wrote). On “Woo,” which boasts Travis Scott providing “Yeezus”-lite Auto-Tuned vocalizations, she belts out the kiss-off “I don’t even really care about you no more.” Add that with “Work,” the trap- and tropical house-flavored single with Drake, and the first half of this album is pretty seamless—even the electric guitar-heavy “Kiss It Better” is a grower.
During the second half, though, Rihanna experiments, with the acoustic meanderer “Never Ending,” which wouldn’t feel out of place on the slower side of a One Direction record, and the breezy, maybe too-nostalgic soul of “Love on the Brain.” While both aren’t slam dunks, they definitely aren’t duds. There’s a song called “Same Ol’ Mistakes,” which you can charitably call a cover of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes,” that is basically just Rihanna gratiuitously karaoking over the instrumental (as bizarre as it is, it still sounds good). However, the cathartic, boozy ballad “Higher,” possibly her rawest vocal performance yet, and the piano-led “Close To You,” which recalls “Stay,” end things on a high.
The way Rihanna toys with her sound on “Anti” isn’t totally surprising. She churned out a bonkers seven albums in eight years, from her 2005 debut to her last effort, 2012’s “Unapologetic.” Sure, that relentlessness made her one of pop’s biggest names, but it was unsustainable. With a refreshing break in her rearview, this album, in all its weird but rewarding charms, is pop’s most self-possessed star spreading out and enjoying it.
3 stars (out of four)
In concert: April 15 at United Center.
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