Swan songs for civilization.
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In no particular order.
Rihanna - Anti
Anti, no more easy to pin down than its divinely self-assured creator, found Rihanna playing to each of her disparate strengths: savage sex symbol ("Needed Me," "Sex With Me"), hopeless romantic ("Love On The Brain"), boundlessly inventive vocal stylist ("Consideration.") In "Work," it gave us an instantly iconic pop love song perfectly attuned to its time — emotionally and psychically punctured, but still bobbing upstream.
Play This Now: "Consideration"
Westbury Road
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Ocean's long-awaited and dazzlingly layered return to music plays like a series of interrelated, impressionistic sketches on the profound and the profane. The preternaturally gifted songwriter uses ethereal organs, dreamy guitar, and a drawer-full of voice effects to conjure ghosts of longing and alienation — from his peers, from his romantic partners, and from his God. On Blonde's soulful highlights including "Ivy," "Pink + White," and "Self-Control," he's an unflinching excavator of his own conflicting emotions, turning the rawest of materials into luminous mosaics.
Play This Now: "Self Control"
Frank Ocean