Alright, hey everyone, Boomthony Boomtano here, internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well, and it is time for a review of this new Nia Archives project, Emotional Junglist.

We have to talk about Nia Archives, the UK-based producer and songwriter who I have been covering on this channel for a minute now, dating back to her earlier EP Output Dayz where she had a raw but effective combination of production that was obviously very inspired by the '90s jungle and drum-and-bass scene – lots of breakbeats and the like – and then combining those with her vocal abilities, some pop sensibilities too, trying to take it in almost like a songwriter-type angle.

She crafted quite a few quality and enjoyable tracks in this way, and only went on to prove the validity of that blueprint with her debut album, where she leaned in even harder on this formula. Was this the most crazy and over the top and insanely produced combination of drum-and-bass and jungle for the modern era? No, not necessarily. But what this record may have lacked in avant-garde experimentation or envelope pushing, it more than made up for with catchy songwriting, with really interesting and enjoyable genre fusions, bringing in elements of alt-pop and R&B, and neo soul too.

And I think with Nia's follow-up record here, Emotional Junglist, she continues to expand on the groundwork that she laid for her past handful of projects. Not just in terms of the number of genres that you can kind of pick out in her productions on this record, but obviously the emotional range that's displayed across all of these tracks too, some of the storytelling in her lyrics as well. It's really her using the breakbeat and the BPM range of drum-and-bass and jungle as kind of a foundation, seeing how many different contexts they can be effectively worked into.

So even as Nia is kind of embarking upon different writing styles and different emotional angles for the 15 tracks on this record, the breakbeats and the pacing of these tracks kind of become this continual thread that bring all of these disparate songs together. So once again, the selling point for Nia on this record becomes the songwriting, but then also becomes how well she can craft a record that simultaneously seems so varied and so dynamic and so versatile. Just touching down on so many basses but, simultaneously, always kind of calling back to that, old-school jungle scene as a point of main inspiration.

This, of course, is made clear from the opening track on this record "Feelingz Go Numb," where you get these bustling, skittering breakbeats set to driving bass and Nia's yelpy vocalizations that are kind of chopped and spun around in different directions. It's a very good tone setter, but not necessarily formal in terms of a pop-type song structure, like many of the songs on this record fit into.

One of the first highlights on that front is the track "Danger." Like many songs on this record, it kind of deals in the highs and lows of love and relationships. And I love not only how instantly catchy this track is, but how breathy and fun and light and whimsical Nia's vocals are. And the way that the chorus of this track is built around kind of spelling out the word "Danger." Not only does this song spell out a word but it also spells out the craziness of this relationship, what kind of holds it together. This fear and hesitation and worry that something bad is going to happen, but also this intense sexual attraction, too.

Following this, "Vertical" is another highlight for me, mostly for the way it's able to twist a lot of these baseline elements into something completely different in terms of vibe as, production-wise, this track is going for something a lot more heavenly, a lot more atmospheric. Definitely something that reads like a 2000s-era art-pop album.

The next track "This Could Be..." doesn't lean as hard into the breaks as many other tracks on here do, but it does hit you with some really crispy percussion and a brisk BPM. And instrumentally, Nia goes for what feels almost like an '80s new wave and synth-pop cut, with maybe some The Cure vibes coming off of it. And to just really kind of spell out for the audience how obvious the influence is here, the very final moments of the track feature a beat switch where it just kind of goes 100% into a synth.

The following "Dance With Me 2nite" is Nia's attempt at bringing together breakbeats and the acoustics of a low-key, lovesick ballad. And that attempt is very successful, mind you. The vocals are intimate, the lyricism is sweet. It's just funny how she's able to take something that has this very groovy, very upfront, very in-your-face, you-must-dance-to-this kind of energy, and create a ballad with that backing that is so tender and so endearing.

Then, "Get Me Down" features one of a few vocal appearances on this record. This one has Jorja Smith on it, who is one of the more underrated vocalists out of the UK currently, and is also no stranger to singing soulful lead vocals over breakbeats. So of course, because of that, her and Nia are very much on the same page on this one, and they sound amazing on this track together to boot.

Like the opening track, "Train of Thought" features Nia breaking up her vocals and kind of fragmenting them once again, kind of laying them out in this soaring fashion over bustling, fast breakbeats. More heavenly atmospheres, too. This track isn't so much about the songwriting, per se. It's really more of an exercise in groove and production, and honestly, that makes it a very interesting middle point on the album. Almost like an interlude or a transition piece, but it's an incredibly enjoyable one at that.

Then, as we move into the second half, the highlights for me continue. I love the blissful, idyllic synthesizers all over "Superlust," and the way that Nia presents her vocals on that track in such a sweet, sort of dry, up-front way. It really lends itself to the intimate, romantic angle of the song. Meanwhile, this is contrasted with "There Goes Ma Head," which is more of a fraught, tense, and stressful cut, with darker atmosphere, some dour guitars, and a lot of lyrics that deal in sort of romantic paranoia.

Then, as this record moves into the final leg, Nia continues to show how expansive and versatile she could be with this style of music, with the writing concept of this record. You have the wonderful "Tender," featuring Sampha, another absolutely gorgeous vocal crossover on the record. And then in "Tha Darkest Hour," especially in the second half of the track, Nia does her best as a student of this style of music to kind of bring these breaks back to their dub-influenced roots, with some spacey, echo-drenched atmospherics and edits.

The track "Lovers Grief" sees Nia trying to take some of these breaks into a little bit more of a rock direction. It's not a highlight for me on the record but I could see why some may be attracted to it, almost maybe even see a bit of a Bloc Party appeal in it. Then the closing track, "Boys in Blue," is not only one of my favorites from the record, but one of my favorite singles of the year. It's a hilariously weird and strange cut, and is really about this relationship that I'm sure a lot of this album deals in, taking a turn for the worst, where Nia's significant other is essentially snitching on her to the cops in whatever was going on with their dynamic, getting the police involved, which, you hate to see it end that way.

But yeah, overall, I came away from this project even more impressed than I was with Nia's last. I will say there were a few aspects of the album that, to me, were kind of holding it back from absolute perfection. Some of Nia's vocal range limitations do lead to some of her performances feeling a little one-note across the album. Plus 15 songs, even if it is just kind of serving a 40-minute runtime, is quite a few. And there were at least a couple of tracks in this tracklist, either aesthetically or on the songwriting front, I don't feel like added that much to the overall album experience, were a little bit maybe forgettable in comparison with some of the tracks they were surrounded with, be it either "Almost Always" or "Around tha Bend," right out of the gate.

Still, Nia not being the strongest vocalist out there, and having maybe a couple of filler or redundant tracks here and there, was not enough to keep me from loving this album, which is why I'm feeling pretty much a strong 8 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano. Nia Archives. Forever.