The wait for Rihanna's new album has been trying for most fans. There have been fake leaks, snippets of songs and even a single with Paul McCartney and Kanye West. Her second taste of music from the new effort, "American Oxygen," will run with promos for March Madness. RiRi spoke to MTV recently about the new LP and what her intentions were when making it. She wants her songs to be "timeless," but still no release date has been set.
"I've made a lot of songs that are just really, really big songs. From the jump, they just blow up," she said, teasing the album even more. "And I wanted to kind of get back to -- not that they weren't real music, but I just wanted to focus on things that felt real, that felt soulful, that felt forever."
So far in her career, she has had success at making pop tunes that stick with you. With the new album, Rihanna wanted to make music that will be appreciated for years to come.
"I wanted songs that I could perform in 15 years; I wanted an album that I could perform in 15 years," she added. "Not any songs that were burnt out. I find that when I get onstage now, I don't want to perform a lot of my songs because they don't feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless."
No official release date has been set for what may be titled R8. Perhaps the singer is plotting a surprise album drop that has recently worked wonders for Drake and previously Beyoncé.
RiRi's last album, Unapologetic, dropped in 2012 and went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts. The LP was driven by singles like "Stay," "Diamonds" and "Pour It Up." Reviews of the album were mixed.
"Unapologetic's stark, shadowy R&B is confrontationally honest and sung within an inch of its life, whether she's turning a strip-club anthem into a declaration of independence ('Pour It Out') or pleading at the piano ('Stay')," Rolling Stone wrote.
