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A TAV Curator's Pick.

Anti is the eighth studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on January 28, 2016, through Westbury Road and Roc Nation. The singer began planning the record in 2014, at which time she left her previous label Def Jam and joined Roc Nation. Work continued into 2015, during which she released three singles including "FourFiveSeconds", which reached the top 10 in several markets; they were ultimately removed from the final track listing. Anti was made available for free digital download on January 28 through Tidal and was released to online music stores for paid purchase on January 29.

As executive producer, Rihanna contributed to most of the album's lyrics and collaborated with producers including Jeff Bhasker, Boi-1da, DJ Mustard, Hit-Boy, Brian Kennedy, Timbaland and No I.D. to achieve her desired sound. The efforts resulted in a departure from Rihanna's previous dance and club music genres and created a primarily pop and R&B album, with elements of dancehall and soul. The producers incorporated dark, sparsely layered, minimalist song structures, with most of Anti's lyrics dealing with the complexities of romantic love and self-assurance.

The album was released to positive reviews from music critics and numerous publications included it on their list of Best Albums of 2016. It peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200, moving 166,000 equivalent-album units in its first full-tracking week, and after two days of its release was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as a result of Samsung purchasing one million copies of the album in advance that were then given away as a free download. It was promoted with four singles, including the single "Work", featuring Canadian rapper Drake, which peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 becoming Rihanna's fourteenth number one song on the chart. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on the Anti World Tour in 2016. – Wiki

“Anti is first and foremost an experience built on vibes. Where previous LPs were built around clear peaks, here the songs fit together into a fluid landscape of seamless transitions – check the flow on the excellent mid-album run of after-hours joints from "Desperado" to "Woo" to "Needed Me." Every song sounds like our collective fantasy of Rihanna: a carefree island girl lounging in a cloud of smoke, asserting a brand of independence that's wholly her own. On "James Joint," she assures us that she'd "rather be/Smoking weed/Whenever we breathe/Every time you kiss me" in her most dulcet tones. "You been rollin' around/Shit, I'm rollin' up," she asserts on the biting kiss-off track "Needed Me." Clearly, the stoned party goddess we've seen on Instagram and Snapchat is pretty close to the real Rihanna.” – Rolling Stone

“Anti is her best album for a reason so simple it's tautological—despite its supposed rejection of track-and-hook mechanics, it features catchier songs. True, the main time they really make me go woo is when she breaks into gibberish at the end of "Work." But then some German hands her "Love on the Brain," the best new doowop song in decades, which segues perfectly to a power entreaty avec drunk violins, after which the album proper goes out on a piano-enhanced coda that adds a nice sweetness.” – Noisey

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