Ari Lennox's album Shea Butter Baby: good lord

this album is SO good yall

(admittedly I could live without the chipmunked spoken interludes, but w/e they're ignorable)

Alfred to thread to wax eloquent--I'm in "this is ruling my life" phase and can't articulate why

good lord: what the hell is that sound on "Chicago Boy" that sounds like curls of smoke? a slide guitar? an electric violin?

another point in this album's favor: it's a female rnb singer with male rap features that do not make me want to die

oh shit i meant to listen to this last year but never did. think maura put me onto it (as usual)

I liked it a lot. I published a piece in December in a certain magazine you can google (I can't post now).

"Whipped Cream" rules.

is this the piece? http://www.citypages.com/music/in-2019-female-rb-artists-took-their-pleasure-seriouslyand-thrived/566119891

super otm there at any rate. God I love "New Apartment"

yeah!

Not my most conversation-sparking thread ever, but for the record, "Pressure" is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E604eZ81_YQ

📹

oops please ignore

antwayyyy… new song “Hoodie” sounds fantastic;
:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87lPrxJG3fg

anywayyyy…

v sweet. love the hand drums in the left channel

Sweet bass track.

Hoodie is v good

v sweet. love the hand drums in the left channel

Yes. Good stuff

more good to greatness, with Summer Walker this time:

“Queen Space”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZ1EKghyw0

just noticed it’s also part of a new EP, Away Message, which for some reason doesn’t include “Hoodie”

…but aiui, this is EP is just a teaser for the actual album, age/sex/location, which will be released on Sept. 9. well, this is definitely a case of More Better Baby

Although I've played "Hoodie" to death in the last month, I only noticed yesterday that she sings, "spread it like some queso."

mixing it with shea butter no doubt

For an amuse bouche this EP is pretty rich! There's not a bad track afaict, but I was really digging how much "Gummy" bumps. She crushes the Arrows-sampling "Bitter"

Just heard “Hoodie” for the first time this morn, and it’s on repeat now.

She’s doing album release events in DC and NY this week.

album age/sex/location is out now too. 12 tracks, including “Hoodie” ánd “Queen Space”, but not the rest of that amuse bouche EP

This sounded pretty rad this morning! She's sharp as a razor as always, and the production is deeply luxurious. I probably won't listen to "Boy Bye" too many more times—though someone should think about casting her in something, she has acting talent—but that was the only track I was iffy on. I even liked that there was one, brief helium-voiced interlude

oh wow -- Organized Noize produced a track.

ah I hadn't noticed that, but now that I know it's "Outside" it makes a ton of sense

Ari Lennox is on Jimmy Fallon show tonight Tuesday

I've been listening to this every day since Sept. 9