Victoria Monét ended the deluxe version of her breakout album, Jaguar II, with “The Greatest (Lovenotes Outro),” a montage of congratulatory voice notes from loved ones. Amid well wishes from aunties and a sweet message from Monét’s daughter Hazel (“Dear God, thank you for praying for my momma good”) are heaps of praise from collaborators. “It’s your moment for a long time coming,” gushed choreographer Sean Bankhead. “You got the game on lock.” If anyone deserved such a thorough gassing up on her own album, it’s Monét, who made the jump from secret-weapon songwriter for artists like Ariana Grande and Fifth Harmony to statement-making solo artist so masterfully that it snagged her a Best New Artist Grammy at the age of 34.
How to follow up such a feat? On Frequency of Love, Monét stretches out, pushing the boundaries of the sophisticated, retro sound of her previous album and finding some surprising new angles to her songwriting. Swoony midcentury ballads? Mysterious interludes with Technicolor vocal harmonies? A dead-serious slow jam about the prioritization of your orgasm that references the Brandy song “Almost Doesn’t Count”? It’s all here. The Jaguar records portrayed Monét as a fount of superhuman confidence, a woman espousing a “ladies is pimps too” lifestyle who would rather die than let anyone stand between her and her dreams; with executive production from Camper (an R&B producer who has recently worked with Tinashe and Doechii), Frequency applies that confidence to a sprawling exploration of the thrills and pains of capital-L Love.
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“I don’t like to fight with my emotions,” Monét sings near the beginning of the album, and that’s an understatement. The feelings are free-flowing here, often delivered in clean statements that repeat like Sunday morning prayers: I will always come back to you. I can’t help it, I want you. You’re all I need to get by. This is a softer side of the singer, who previously played the part of a mischievous party girl who left her objects of affection on read just because, and now appears as a true romantic, occasionally struck with doubts, but overall quite ready to apply her powerful devotion to the right person.
