The last formal part of the album’s rollout was “ Away Message,” a five-track EP that arrived a little over week before the album’s release. After my first listen, I was worried that the album would largely continue with minimalistic production and a more generic style and sound for its content and delivery. The hook ended up getting stuck in my ear a bit, but it’s far from a memorable song in terms of quality. Nothing about it was bold, innovative or captivating for me. Sonically, the extremely mellow and minimalistic track plays as a B-Side, and not even the strongest B-Side at that. That’s not to say it was a bad song it just was absolutely not single material.

In the many months between, there was virtually nothing that arrived musically.Īfter an 11-month hiatus, we received “ Hoodie.” To be completely honest, I’m still confused as to why this song was positioned as a focus track to build promo for the album.

Unfortunately, that momentum was mostly lost over the huge gap between the first single and the second single (and thus the eventual release of the album). With drastically more versatility, energy and entertainment provided than nearly every other song on the tracklist, the lead single absolutely delivered, providing a fantastic hit record to build momentum. For better or worse, this song ended up being the highlight of the album. The lead single to the album, “ Pressure,” was released almost exactly a year before the project’s release date. The rollout for the album succeeded in setting up the aesthetic and theme of what was to come, despite the strange timeline over which it occurred. With this album, her nearly decade-long career finally created the opportunity for a well-deserved mainstream R&B release. A soulful, nostalgic voice and a historically fantastic ear for quality production have propelled Ari to be one of the standout artists from the Dreamville crew and of her genre. One of the better R&B singers in the modern era, Dreamville Records’ Ari Lennox finally returned in September with her much-anticipated sophomore album. Ari Lennox: “ age/sex/location” (September 9, 2022)

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