Rihanna is Back

• Josh Duboff

At some point over the past few months, it started to feel like Rihanna’s eighth album, Anti, would never actually arrive. With no release date set and an ongoing stream of rumors about when it would come out, we were not certain we were ever going to hear it, and that it might just forever remain a mythic entity . . . until Rihanna posted a selfie earlier this week captioned, “listening to Anti” (in which she was wearing $9,000 Dolce & Gabbana gold headphones, which immediately sold out, natch). Anti, it seemed, existed.

listening to ANTI 🎈 pic.twitter.com/AgqlhU0GEz

— Rihanna (@rihanna) January 25, 2016

And this morning, the first single from the album is—we know, let the initial shock wear off—here.
Titled “Work”—and featuring frequent professional collaborator and former romantic collaborator Drake—the song was released on Tidal (causing bloggers and Rihanna fans across the realm to finally give in and make Tidal accounts). It’s a light, airy track, which it’s easy to imagine playing in the background of a house party, a departure from last year’s more menacing single “Bitch Better Have My Money” or the anthemic “FourFiveSeconds” and “American Oxygen” (that Rihanna is calling “Work” the “first single” from Anti implies those three tracks—all released in 2015 as stand-alone singles—will not be appearing on the album). The video for “Work” is rumored to have been shot earlier this month, and Billboard is reporting Anti will be out this week—and, dare we say it, we now believe it. 

via