Not wanting to start out too anti on ANTI, but where's the joyful bluster of last year's single BBHMM, the infectious romp of 2011's We Found Love or the upbeat sass of 2010's Only Girl (In The World)?
ANTI is Rihanna's eighth studioalbum and her first since 2012's Unapologetic.
It is an impressive collection of dark, musically intricate tracks that sounds as much like a Kanye album as anything else, with Rihanna's delicious drawl oozing across various beats and samples, a multitude of producers working with the executive producer/singer to create an urban sound that's distanced from the dance pop of earlier albums.
And there is a bit of fun involved - the usual references to drugs and alcohol on the pleasantly short James Joint and the extraordinary and also truncated Higher, on which Rihanna lets loose with the vocals.
Lead single Work, featuring Drake, is an understated yet catchy number, and Kiss It Better with its Prince-like lead guitar intro is a standout track, but the highlight and probably biggest enigma of the album is Same Ol' Mistakes, a psychedelic multi-layered trip though Tame Impala-land - the track a relatively faithful cover of that band's New Person, Same Old Mistakes.
Rihanna has changed - it's been a few years - but maybe that's not such a bad thing.
