Music reviews: Ari Lennox, Lucinda Williams, and A$AP Rocky

‘Vacancy’ by Ari Lennox

★★★

Though Ari Lennox’s music “often nods to the past,” her latest album “feels more in tune with the zeitgeist,” said Steve Erickson in Slant. Newer stars such as Olivia Dean also favor throwback sounds, which helps. But it’s also because Lennox’s third full-length set “combines neo-soul signifiers with more modern flourishes.” This album is “far and away her most fun,” said Shaad D’Souza in The Guardian. While the 34-year-old D.C. native remains “one of contemporary R&B’s premier sophisticates, preferring a palette of lush jazz, soul, and ’90s hip-hop,” the opening run of songs “makes it eminently clear that tradition and wildness can coexist, with fabulously sparky results.” On “Mobbin’ in DC,” her vocals are all “lounge-singer coolness,” even as she delivers “withering” taunts. Whether Lennox is riding the “summery lightness” of the reggae-inflected “Cool Down,” comparing a lover to a werewolf on “Under the Moon,” or declaring her new outlook on “Soft Girl Era,” she seems fully at home. “Much has been made of Lennox’s struggles in the industry, but the sheer ease with which she performs on Vacancy suggests there’s plenty of road ahead.”

‘World’s Gone Wrong’ by Lucinda Williams

★★★

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“It’s the perfect time for a statement like World’s Gone Wrong,” said Jon
Dolan in Rolling Stone. From the title track’s tale of a working couple’s
growing anxiety to the “distress call” of “Something’s Gotta Give,” the 73-year-old’s 16th studio album “channels today’s angst.” And while Williams has weighed in on worldly woes before, “this is the most focused social commentary she’s ever delivered.” Her rootsy ballads summon empathy for stretched-thin Americans while tracks such as “How Much Did You Get for Your Soul” direct “searing rage” at the ruling classes. It’s not easy to make a listenable album from such grim material, but Williams and her backing musicians “more often than not find a groove that makes our shared downward spiral feel downright danceable,” said Matt Melis in Paste. Three guest appearances underscore the album’s message that listeners are not alone in their worries. Brittney Spencer adds “urgent” backing vocals to two tracks, Mavis Staples echoes Williams’ laments on Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble in the World,” and Norah Jones, finally, seconds a call for resistance on “We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Around.”

‘Don’t Be Dumb’ by A$AP Rocky

★★

The long gap between A$AP Rocky’s two most recent albums “isn’t
terribly surprising,” said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. Since the 2018 release of Testing, the Harlem-born rapper has busied himself with screen acting, fashion collaborations, defending himself in a criminal trial, a whiskey launch, and parenthood, alongside his partner, Rihanna. His return finds him on familiar ground, employing a wide range of musical backdrops, from the “exhilarating” throb of “Helicopter” to the “supremely catchy” groove of “Stay Here 4 Life.” But while “the sonic richness is easy to appreciate,” often, “there’s not much to latch onto lyrically.” Don’t Be Dumb needed to reestablish Rocky as “a force to be reckoned with,” and it has done that, said Andrew Sacher in Brooklyn Vegan. It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart and its big, booming trap songs “push the boundaries of what you might expect ‘big, booming trap songs’ to sound like.” High-wattage guests include Gorillaz and Tyler, the Creator, but it’s the appearance of folk singer Jessica Pratt on the closer, “The End,” that lingers longest. In fact, the song may “leave you speechless.”