ARI LENNOX - Vacancy

Between silk sheets and the glow of a phone screen reflected on her face, a woman spends her evenings in her own bedroom. She's beautiful, grown and independent, but alone. Her heart is free again, eager to get tangled up in the colors of life, in love and all its possible pitfalls. The dramas of the past? Water under the bridge, because life, in the end, is nothing but a continuous cycle of mistakes to be repeated until you learn something. And while you wait, you might as well hang that sign on the door announcing you're ready to get back in the game: "Vacancy".

If the cover photo already hinted at intimate, sensual content, the third album by Ari Lennox, real name Courtney Saulter, thirty-four years old from Washington DC, unabashedly chases the revival of the hazy, faintly anodyne long player that was the prerogative of Brandy, Monica and Ashanti at the turn of the Millennium. The listen arrives wrapped in thick, purple-red drapes of lounge elegance, buttery keyboards, mid-tempo rhythms and love lyrics at various stages of infatuation - a sonic blend once known as quiet storm. Even if she occasionally loses her bearings, as was perhaps inevitable over fifty minutes of music, Ari manages not to drown entirely in the syrup thanks to her stage presence and a few production touches above the average of generalist streaming playlists.

Singles such as "Soft Girl Era", which revisits a popular internet trend of women aspiring to a life of ease, and "Under The Moon", which flips the concept of being "horny" on its head, capture the idea of a hazy but carefully crafted listen well - the first echoes a playful, Mariah Carey-style r&b, the second sways over an elegant "diet" dub.

But "Vacancy" has plenty of empty rooms; only at the opening does "Mobbin In DC" get accompanied by a sharp thread of jazz trumpet, while the following title track enlists the hand of a resurrected Jermaine Dupri, with a beat not by chance positioned between r&b and hip-hop like Janet Jackson in the Nineties.

Sure, the acoustic "Pretzel" drags on pointlessly around an eyelid-heavy pattern, and the same could be said of "High Key", were it not for Ari's voice, which this time soars above the instruments with rediscovered passion, delivering the kind of performance that SZA and Kehlani have been promising for years but still haven't delivered.

Amid the well-crafted beats of "24 Seconds", the soft electronic ideas surrounding "Cool Down" and the nods to the Sixties Chess Records sound of "Horoscope" and "Hocus Pocus", the listen doesn't surprise or challenge the casual listener, but it offers plenty of reasons for interest to anyone well-versed in the so-called adult contemporary landscape.

Granted, something more was needed, especially for a third studio album tasked with raising the artist's profile beyond her circle of fans. Ari clearly has taste, a truly great voice, and knows how to work her sensuality in the social media era, but anyone who, back at the time of her debut "Shea Butter Baby" (2019), somewhat fancifully glimpsed the seeds of a new Aaliyah will have to keep waiting, since that futuristic push capable of turning the record alone into a small event able to shake the scene's foundations is still missing.

No matter; the immaculate lovers rock production balance of "Deep Strokes" shows just how little it takes for Ari to lull the listener, while "Wake Up" radiates the streetwise, somewhat pissed-off energy of Lianne La Havas, because beneath the boudoir elegance lies a roaring, decidedly unshy soul.

Let's hope Ari Lennox doesn't stop here; like fellow artist Sabrina Claudio, it would be a shame to see her endlessly recycle the same ideas that are currently in vogue among singers of her caliber. At its best moments, "Vacancy" shows she has far better stuff in her.

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08/02/2026