Nia Archives — Emotional Junglist

The honest counter-read: the room is loud on this one and the room is right. Bradford-raised, fifteen tracks, no samples on the whole record, Jorja Smith and Sampha in the building, and she said it plainly before release — it is not a jungle album. Spent five years carrying a genre; now she is building Up Ya Archives into a label so the next ones do not have to. Docked slightly because the guitar-forward turn is the part everyone will copy and almost nobody will earn.