Sure Would Be Sweet

Ari Lennox “POF”

“FOH” opens Ari Lennox’s second album like a thesis statement that she explores in every subsequent track, and while those facets get very interesting I find this song in which she just lays out all her questions the most compelling. Why does she keep getting involved with lackluster men? Why does she feel pressured to get into a serious romantic relationship as she enters her 30s, and why does that feel necessary if she’s happy with her current success as a musician? She doesn’t spell that out exactly, but her lyrics are plain enough that I’m only lightly paraphrasing her words. I hear a lot of Erykah Badu circa Mama’s Gun in Lennox’s phrasing and arrangement here, which is in and of itself high praise and reason to recommend this song, but there’s a bit more open hostility in her tone. A lot of this song is just understandable frustration and bile as she questions why both her expectations and realities have let her down. She finds some strength in this, but the beauty of this song is in the ambiguity of where she might go from this point where she recognizes the problem but hasn’t yet thought of a viable solution.

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