Album Review: Ari Lennox, ‘age/sex/location’

Anyone that bothers to look beyond the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 knew that Diddy’s claims about the alleged death of R&B were wholly inaccurate and incredibly stupid. After all, this is a year that saw multiple R&B songs — Lucky Daye’s “Over,” Muni Long’s “Hrs & Hrs,” and Tems’s “Free Mind,” to name a few — soar to the zenith of popular culture. Nonetheless, the genre has been thriving outside of the mainstream as well. Albums from Kehlani, Syd, Steve Lacy, and Mary J. Bilge have delivered irresistible R&B offerings across myriad subgenres and tempos. With age/sex/location, her sophomore studio album, Ari Lennox evokes the hazy carnality of Erykah Badu and Jill Scott in a sonic journey towards total self-love that prioritizes her sexual desires and needs.

2019’s Shea Butter Baby was a part of a blockbuster summer for music. Ari’s debut album instantly latched onto the heartstrings of hundreds of thousands of people, and the success of singles like “BMO” and the album’s J. Cole-assisted title track proved Ari’s aptitude at crafting street hits. Neither song entered the Hot 100, but their hundreds of millions of streams and platinum plaques are proof that we were tapped in. Something similar happened with “Pressure,” the lead single for age/sex/location. That track, which eventually became Ari’s first Hot 100 entry, doubles as a new marker for her commercial success and the thesis of its parent album. With songwriting assists from Jermaine Dupri, Bryan Michael-Cox, Johntá Austin, and Bulletin Awards nominee Jai’Len Josey, Ari shimmies across a slinky sample of Shirley Brown’s “Blessed Is the Woman (With a Man Like Mine)” like the lead singer of a 50’s girl group. “Pressure” finds Ari crooning come-hither couplets that emphasize sex as a domain of her control and her pleasure. She’s functioning in a different space than Shea Butter Baby. In her own words, Ari described age/sex/location as a space that heralds “Allowing accountability and maturing. Allowing growth to happen. Allowing self-worth and self-love and inner work to happen.” And she’s exactly right. Ari’s new record is a testament to her emotional and spiritual growth over the past few years; why yearn for love from scores of mediocre suitors when you can just baptize yourself in love that comes from within?

The latest chapter of Ari’s oeuvre commences with “POF,” a stunning amalgam of muted piano, plucking bass, and a vocal approach that blends the ethereal idiosyncrasies of Erykah Badu with Lauryn Hill’s singular affinity for hip-hop rhythms. The song’s opening verse — “Independent, not dumbin' down everything that makes me grand / The nerve of you to think I was gon' sell my house to live in yours” — stands in direct opposition to the needy nature of Shea Butter Baby’s “Chicago Boy.” The mood of age/sex/location is immediately more self-assured and peaceful than the emotional volatility of Ari’s previous projects. After all, what’s the point of stressing over the alleged “plenty of fish in the sea” when they’re all lame?

Dreamville / Interscope

At every turn, growth, and the tenuous journey between different stages of emotional maturity, are the guiding lights of age/sex/location. “Waste My Time,” a sultry prelude to the delightfully horny “Pressure,” finds Ari evolving from her dickmatized state on “Ari’s Tale” from Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales. “No dick makin' me stupid” she proclaims on the drum-heavy Timothy Suby & LUXE-produced track. The song’s peppy tempo offers a welcome juxtaposition to the slow-burning lust of “Hoodie.” Ari’s approach to sex on age/sex/location is perhaps best described by way of the album’s bassline — a devil-may-care attitude tempered by nuances of tenderness and control. In the same way that the bass guitar drives Ari’s lofty melodies, she herself is in control of how she moves in her different relationships. It is this deeper understanding of herself that allows Ari to deliver three of the best duets of her career so far.

“Boy Bye” (with Lucky Daye), “Leak It” (with Chlöe), and “Queen Space” (with Summer Walker) complete a triumvirate of duets that mark new levels of humor, serenity, and sexual vulnerability for Ari’s canon. Lucky and Ari’s first collaboration, “Access Denied” from his Grammy-winning Table for Two EP, was a standout for that project. Nonetheless, “Boy Bye,” with its effervescent personality and hilariously corny bits of dialogue, is an undeniably more enthralling listen. In an age where so many duets feel empty and transactional, “Boy Bye” is anchored by duet partners that actually sound like they are aware that the track is, in fact, a duet. Ari and Lucky double their adorable quips with harmonic conversations that highlight the most flirtatious aspects of their buttery falsetto. The Chlöe-assisted “Leak It” is a perfect marriage of the “Surprise” singer’s Beyoncé-derived staccato and Ari’s more languid delivery. In fact, “Leak It” is easily the strongest song Chlöe has released as a solo artist. Like “Boy Bye," “Leak It” triumphs because of the intentionality each artist brings to their riff placements. These are the kinds of duets that have been lacking in the mainstream recently. “Queen Space,” which also appeared on Ari’s Away Message EP, marks the second collaboration between her and Summer Walker. Following “Unloyal” was always going to be a tall order, but the track’s conscious shift from its predecessor’s sax-laden semi-maximalism to a more sparse, atmospheric soundscape helps it emerge as it is own capsule of greatness. Unfortunately, the momentum of the album’s duets fails to transfer to some of the set’s other songs. “Stop By,” in particular, is quite forgettable, and “Outside” feels especially generic and faceless.

There are fewer obvious standouts on age/sex/location than there are on Shea Butter Baby, but Ari’s sophomore album is a more cohesive and consistent listening experience. At once familiar and uncharted, age/sex/location immediately rises to the top of 2022’s R&B offerings by way of its subtle musical diversity, vulnerable lyricism, and the warmth Ari’s twangy timbre casts over the whole affair.

Listen to: “Waste My Time” | “Leak It” | “Boy Bye” | “Mean Mug”

Score: 79