Rihanna on New Album: ‘I Want It to Be This Year’
Singer touches on much-anticipated R9 in new interview, but doesn’t commit to its long-awaited release
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 12: Rihanna performs during Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show at State Farm Stadium on February 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES FOR ROC NATION
Rihanna briefly talked about her much-anticipated new album — but did not reveal any concrete plans to release her ninth LP — in the singer’s new interview for her Vogue UK cover story, which hits stands days after Rihanna’s career-spanning (and pregnancy-revealing) Super Bowl halftime show.
In the interview, seemingly conducted both before and after Rihanna found out she was pregnant with her and A$AP Rocky’s second child, Rihanna said of the now-mythic R9, “I want it to be this year. Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos… And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video to me talking.”
Rihanna only briefly touched on the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Anti, and didn’t provide any firm plans for its release, which could be postponed even further by her pregnancy.
Rihanna has reportedly recorded over 500 songs for the dancehall-flavored follow-up, and without getting to descriptive, likened listening to unreleased songs to “almost like trying to dress like you used to dress. It’s like, ‘Ew, no. I would never wear those again.’ Your taste changes, your vibe changes.”
“So I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that,” Rihanna told Vogue UK. “So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.”
From Rolling Stone US.
