Like A Lily Upon My Thumb

Ari Lennox “Get Close”

Ari Lennox is very good at working humor and mundane details into music that is otherwise extremely sensual and sexual, and in doing so grounding that eroticism in regular life rather than idealized screen romance. In the case of “Get Close” she sets the scene with the opening line “New York pizza, my Coke Zero,” suggests an interesting personality dynamic with “you like Tupac, I like Janet,” and then gets a little juvenile by singing “I laugh at it, boobies grab it.” It’s vivid language that strips away the glamor implied by the slick slow-burning R&B arrangement, but the lusty atmosphere of the music is strong enough that it’s more of an interesting contrast than a vibe-killer. “Get Close” sounds like a song about two specific people in a particular moment, and I think that makes it sound a lot sexier than something more vague – it’s a window into actual intimacy.

Buy it from Amazon.