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With Vacancy<\/em>, her first album in nearly four years, D.C. R&B singer Ari Lennox<\/strong> (nee Courtney Shanade Salter<\/strong>) continues her personal neo-soul musical journey\u2014something she\u2019s been doing since she began uploading her music to the internet in 2009. Keeping up with the originators of the genre, Erykah Badu<\/strong> and Jill Scott<\/strong>, Lennox doesn\u2019t merely mimic the masters. If anything, she shows with this release that she\u2019s one of the few artists of her generation who understands the history of the genre and its potential for where it could go musically. Opening with a muted trumpet on \u201cMobbin in D.C.,\u201d Lennox sings, \u201c2 a.m. on the \u2019Gram feeling crazy\u201d (who hasn\u2019t been there). Thus launches Vacancy<\/em>\u2019s 15 tracks (all of which were cowritten by Lennox) where control is the general theme. (Whereas Janet Jackson<\/strong> opened up her 1986 blockbuster album, Control, <\/em>stating, \u201cThis is a story about control,\u201d Lennox\u2019s version would be \u201cThis is me realizing I can have control.\u201d) Control of relationships. Control of her music. After battles in both her personal (a newfound sobriety) and professional (new record label) life, the 34-year-old has seemingly found her footing in these areas and this album reflects that. On the title track, Lennox offers a man the comfort of hot cocoa and Etta James<\/strong> but since he\u2019s there, she sings, \u201cGot some walls that need painting rearranging\/ See them legs on the table kinda shaky.\u201d Basically, make yourself useful in more ways than one. \u201cUnder the Moon\u201d contains an interpolation of the Flamingos<\/strong>\u2019 \u201cI Only Have Eyes For You,\u201d while Lennox practically bays at the night sky while singing, \u201cUnder the moooooooon\/ With yooooooooou\u201d over a soft shuffle beat. \u201cHoroscope\u201d runs down problems with each sign of the zodiac, the funniest being \u201cSagittarius are some fuckin terrorists\u201d (as a Sagittarius, I can neither confirm nor deny this allegation). With the remainder of the album being a collection of assured musical statements with the confidence of a woman who is coming into her own, Vacancy<\/em> fills a vacuum that is currently missing in the neo-soul genre. Vacancy was released on Jan. 23. <\/em>soundcloud.com<\/em><\/a>. Ari Lennox plays on May 30 at the Theater at MGM National Harbor. <\/em>livenation.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>\u00a0\u2014Christina Smart<\/strong><\/p>\nCryptid Summer, Where the Earth Has Teeth<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n