A Closer Look At Rihanna’s ‘#R8’ Album Era — What Is Going Wrong?

Bianca Gracie | May 1, 2015 6:30 am

“American Oxygen”

While the catchy hook of “BBHMM” was still fresh in people’s ears, Rihanna’s team thrown in another song into the mix for good (and confusing) measure — “American Oxygen.” Now, this song’s promotion is just messy. It was first streamed on Tidal (duh) on April 5 before hitting iTunes as a digital download on April 14. The accompanying video premiered on Tidal (again — duh) a day after it streamed on the music service, with the official video to be uploaded on Vevo for non-Tidal users two full weeks later.

“American Oxygen” definitely needs all the air it can take if it wants to stay on the charts! It’s currently hanging on by a thread at No. 78 on Billboard and No. 163 on the iTunes chart. The mistake was that the song was released too early with an uncertainty if it’s an actual single or not. We’re still digesting “FourFiveSeconds” and “BBHHM,” which has two completely different sonic vibes — so why overwhelm listeners even more with “American Oxygen”? To be fair, the tune is pretty new. So let’s see if it makes any impact in the weeks to come.

The Handful Of Instagram Previews & Leaked Snippets

This is probably the most frustrating part of the entire #R8 era, as I think the various teasers, snippets and previews off the upcoming album could potentially sound better than any full song that we’ve heard so far! Rihanna proved to be doing the most by releasing them without warning nor explanation. We received the first taste of the LP back in November with a looping and ominous hook: (“Ain’t none of this shit promised/Ain’t none of this promised). The next one arrived less than a month later with what the Navy has called “Kiss It Better.”

Rihanna then gave her fans even more of a headache by releasing the vintage-sounding, stripped “Higher” snippets (some of the best music yet) on March 5. Last month, a preview of the heavy-hitting Florence + The Machine-sampling “A Night” and the breezy “James Joint” interlude surfaced within one week of each other. At this point, Rihanna’s current era is just music overkill! But still…#JusticeFor Higher.

With this new era, it is clear that Rihanna has too many yes men around her (Kanye West included — don’t think we forgot). Sure, she is at the point in her career where she can take creative control (that is what Tidal is claiming…right?). Yet there should be a person on her team to keep her on track and says, “No, this is how we are going to do things!” We obviously can’t predict what the outcome of Riri’s new album will be until it drops (if it ever does), but at the rate that she’s going this may just be one to skip.

Do you think Rihanna’s pending #R8 era will prosper or crumble? Sound off in the comments below!

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