Nia Archives, with her debut Silence Is Loud (2024), managed to become one of the few artists to bring jungle into the Mercury Prize nominations. A devotee of Goldie and Roni Size, who took the prize in 1997 for New Forms with Reprazent, she has immersed herself in those beats that thrived before her own birth, which occurred in September 1999.
Her second album Emotional Junglist stays true to her style, as we can sense in singles like Danger, a rapid-fire track that explores sexuality and the limits of toxic love; or Vertical, one of her most direct productions, about the longing to lie in bed with someone again. “It’s an obsession / You open heaven,” she hums in one of her most memorable choruses.
There’s also the fact that it’s the first time in her career she has contributed a collaboration for an album. Jorja Smith appears on the successful Get Me Down after the two had previously crossed paths on a remix of Little Things. At that point in the record, the atmospherics and the recreations of an ambiance matter more—and she proves it, as the celestial Train of Thought demonstrates, a track that could have been signed by FKA twigs.
The essence of Nia Archives is there, though it’s increasingly notable how well she navigates other genres. Many of her references are 100% British. This Could Be… is one of her cutest songs, as is Dance With Me 2nite, tracks in which her faith in love shines through—and a timbre that evokes Lily Allen.
Where Nia Archives has truly won me over is in the honesty with which she discusses her influences in the Apple Music track-by-track. While other artists deny listening to other music (they lie… or they miss out), she consistently references her tastes. “This one feels very The Streets,” she says about Feelingz Go Numb. “This one I wanted to be a little Happy Mondays,” she says about Around the Bend. “This one is more Pulp,” she says about This Could Be…. “This one has the energy of Fugees,” she says about Almost Always. “This one has the Joy Division vibe,” she says about Lovers Grief. And so it goes with practically all of them.
It might be the way she does the heavy lifting for music journalists, or perhaps it’s how often she has recalled Saint Etienne as an influence (Vertical, Train of Thought), something very uncommon, unfortunately. But no. In the end, the best is how well she builds the songs. How the jangly guitar and the keyboards in This Could Be… convey the optimism of the lyrics, how Dance With Me 2nite tells a similar story from a moodier, more melancholic day, or how the album knows how to close with a bop like Boys In Blue. She wanted to bid farewell with something festival-ready, and who better than James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode) to produce that farewell to an album that aimed to be electronic, Brit Pop and indie at once.
