NGL
NGL Album ∙ Pop ∙ 2025 JoJo “Here’s what I know: I’ve never been good at playing games, but I’m great at telling the truth,” Joanna “JoJo” Levesque writes in the introduction to her 2024 memoir, Over the Influence . She underlines that assertion on her energetic fourth EP, where she takes stock of her last two-plus decades in the pop spotlight and shows how her versatile soprano can take on any beat thrown at it. JoJo made a splash in 2004 with the petulant “Leave (Get Out),” an airy pop-R&B cut that showcased her preternatural ability to deliver real-talking lyrics in a candy-sweet fashion. In the 20-plus years since, through professional and personal struggles, the Massachusetts singer has only sharpened that talent, as this eight-track release appealingly proves. “Nobody,” the groove-forward track that opens NGL , is defiant, with JoJo declaring, “Nobody gon’ love me like me/Settlin’ don’t make no sense” over synth horns and a beat that recalls the most bounce-minded ...