By now you must have already listened to Rihanna's eighth studio album ANTI. Or at least heard popular singles from it. Like Work featuring Drake, Kiss It Better and Needed Me, which all have videos on VEVO. The album released early this year had been in the works since 2014, and was thus a very highly anticipated one. But what we got on January was something none of us ever expected. At least not me.
Rihanna is known as the queen of pop and dance (remember We Found Love?) However this new album was quite a departure from her previous sound. And that is what shocked the world. She was singing about love and drugs in an R&B and soul style that we're not used to. And of course she also included some dance hall vibes as she is from Barbados, like in the hit song Work. And this begged a very important question in our heads... What was RiRi thinking?
After getting over the shock during my first listen, I finally began to understand it. What she was thinking. She was doing something new. Reinventing herself. Who would an artiste be if she always did the same thing year in and out? Boring and obsolete, that's what. So I applauded her. I applauded her for taking a risk. And for going back to her roots. You see, for a while now I had been complaining a bit about her music. Not that it's bad or anything, but I feel she forgot her voice. She focused on the hiphop and dance beats that she ignored the fact she can actually sing adlibs. The way she did in her first albums, in the 2006 ballad Unfaithful, Hate That I Love You, Take A Bow - the list is endless.
Recently I watched her performance of Love on The Brain (from ANTI) at the Billboard Music Awards 2016. And I was impressed. The old RiRi is truly back. She is taking her back her vocal talent and actually singing. There's nothing better than that to a music lover's ears.
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