Silence Is Loud

Silence Is Loud is the debut studio album by English record producer, DJ and singer-songwriter Nia Archives. Released on 12 April 2024 on Hijinxx and Island Records, the album constituted Archives's attempt at fusing jungle music with Britpop. Upon release, critics rated the album positively, and the album charted at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming her first album to make the main listing and the second to make the UK Albums Chart Update.

Background and production
In 2022 and 2023, Archives had released the extended plays Forbidden Feelingz and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, the last of which had charted at No. 49 on the UK Albums Chart Update, but had not made the end-of-week listing. She then began working with Ethan P. Flynn, who had previously worked with FKA Twigs and David Byrne, and spent five months that year working on the album, mostly at his Barbican Estate home studio. Her usual process was to write the songs during mornings, produce the drum patterns on her laptop, and then take her demos to Flynn, with whom she would make the songs in about three hours. Silence Is Loud represented Archives's attempt to fuse jungle music with Britpop, with Archives inspired by groups such as The Beatles, Blur and Oasis for the album's songwriting process; the album's title was specifically inspired by contrasting meanings of silence. Elaborating further on the topic during an interview with The Guardian, she said: "Jungle was the punk of dance music – it's rebellious. It's also Black British music. [...] I liked the loose link from jungle to Britpop. In the '90s, you'd have the Gallagher brothers hanging out with Goldie and Björk. That mismatch of people, like David Bowie going to the Blue Note on a Sunday night in Hoxton [to attend the jungle club night Metalheadz, nsp], I love that culture. [For me, Britpop is] a feeling of optimism. When listening to Britpop, there's a feeling of togetherness."

Promotion and release
Archives released the single "Crowded Roomz" in January 2024, about her experiences of being surrounded by people while touring but still feeling unable to be herself, which was accompanied by a music video which featured Maverick Sabre and Corbin Shaw. The following month, she announced the album's track listing, which included "Crowded Roomz" and earlier tracks "Forbidden Feelingz" and "So Tell Me...", which had previously appeared on Forbidden Feelingz and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall respectively. She also released its title track, a track about her love for her brother, which starts with a heavily distorted scream and uses a four-to-the-floor kick drum. The following month, she released the single "Unfinished Business", a track about a current partner's feelings for their past.

Silence Is Loud was released on 12 April 2024, alongside a video for "Cards On The Table". The album used a picture of Archives with a diamante Union Jack grill as its cover art; a limited edition of the album was pressed on "Union Jack vinyl". The album was released during a period where many artists were inspired by mid-1990s Britain, with Rachel Chinouriri's What a Devastating Turn of Events and Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism also taking inspiration from this period. Archives had sported a Union Jack diamond grill for a ES Magazine photoshoot the month before the album was released, and had performed in front of a large Union Jack flag at a launch party for issue 18 of The Face the month before that.

One track, "Tell Me What It's Like", featured a spoken word introduction from Goldie, and the last track, "Silence Is Loud (Reprise)", featured Archives singing to nothing but a backing synth. Many tracks lacked choruses, with most running for around three minutes and "So Tell Me..." running for almost four, and tracks discussed personal issues such as familial estrangement and unrequited love. Press promoting the album cited "gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore" as influences.

Critical reception
Silence is Loud drew generally positive reviews from music critics, earning a Metacritic score of 78 out of 100, based on 12 reviews. Paul Simpson of AllMusic wrote that the album's near-constant "anxiety and doubt [...] all goes down easily and thrillingly due to the winning combination of slamming breakbeats and Nia's charming personality, as well as the chiming guitar melodies influenced by samba and dreamy indie rock", though felt that her "always sincere" lyrics could "be a bit on-the-nose at times". Joe Muggs of The Arts Desk described Silence Is Loud as "a singer-songwriter record, unmistakeably made by someone raised in the 2000s era of Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse", complete with "the “junglist” hardcore rave momentum and soundsystem power of her early work". Robin Murray of Clash wrote that "as a mission statement, ‘Silence Is Loud’ – from its title down – [was] virtually perfect for the producer" and posited it as an "early Mercury tip", while Daisy Carter of DIY described the album as "jam-packed" without ever feeling "too much or too choppy", and wrote that "for all its referential nods and sonic variation, this is still a project that is cohesively, distinctly her".

Martyn Young of Dork found the album to contain "plenty of bone-rattling and hyped-up breakbeats here", and described Silence Is Loud as "an album of songs, frequently beautiful and affecting songs, in which the power of the beats amplifies the emotional resonance of her voice". Jordan Currie of Exclaim! opined that "her signature breakbeat [was] the ideal vehicle to communicate the chaos of being the overwhelmed girl in the corner of the party", though felt that her breakbeats were "often somewhat indistinct from one another", and Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times wrote that Archives had "turn[ed] jungle and drum and bass into pop music [...] with eclecticism and personality, in the spirit of jungle’s original nuttahs". Ed Power of the i described the album as "a spikily enjoyable mash-up of Blur-meets-Goldie, Liam-Gallagher-does-LJT-Bukem" [sic] and "the work of an artist with both a magpie’s eye for retro flourishes and a talent for bare-boned songwriting", and compared her "landfill indie-era confessional pop" to that of Nash, Allen, and Caity Baser.

Matt Young of The Line of Best Fit felt that the album was "better at hitting the mark than at other times", and singled out "Forbidden Feelingz", "Blind Devotion" and "Tell Me What It’s Like" for "lag[ging] in the album's core". Louder Than War's Banjo wrote that "taken as a whole, Silence Is Loud is a tremendous debut that surely marks Nia Archives' move into the spotlight of being a major act". John Murphy of MusicOMH compared her lyrics with those of Lily Allen and Kate Nash, though opined "the unbroken sound of chaotic DnB percussion can be become a bit wearying for someone unaccustomed to the jungle sound" and found that "Silence Is Loud (Reprise)", in which Archives sung to nothing but a backing synth, was a "welcome" change in sound. Kyann-Sian Williams of NME also spoke highly of "Silence Is Loud (Reprise)", describing it as the album's "biggest highlight" and the album as a "collection of tranquil tracks that showcase her ability to craft intricate songs beyond a hedonistic floorfiller".

Alexis Petridis observed "a certain colloquial snottiness to the vocals" and described her voice as "strong and appealingly unmannered", though felt the songwriting to be uneven, opining that it "ranges from slightly undercooked [...] to genuinely striking, even daring"; he did however favourably compare the album to Goldie and Noel Gallagher's "Temper Temper", and felt that the album was "impressive and bold enough to leave you wondering how she might develop, rather than worrying where she can go next". He also noted that Archives's choice to tether breakbeats to a four-to-the-floor kick drum "would have been absolutely verboten in 90s jungle". Kieran Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork described her sound as "the sound of 100 thoughts racing through your head when you realize your situationship lied to you" but felt that "many songs offer only vague sketches of emotional conflicts", and opined that "in the process of supersizing her sound, Nia has lost some of the subtle charm that made her early music so addictive".

Ben Jolley of Rolling Stone wrote that the album "boasts plenty of intense bass lines to keep jungle purists satisfied", and opined that "the record’s intricately detailed, narrative-driven songs make this a collection to be experienced in full, from start to finish". Noah Barker of The Skinny opined that the album played "like the record's runtime was set before material was allotted to the space, unleashing a high-octane sugar rush in a space fit to dilute it into the unbearableness of being palatable", and Charles Lyons-Burt of Slant Magazine compared Archives's vocals to Amy Winehouse wrote that the album "often sounds like she’s both narrating a scene and retreating back into herself", and felt that Archives was "ultimately unable to wring enough pathos from the narrative she presents". On the UK Albums Chart dated April 25, 2024, Silence is Loud debuted at number 16, becoming her first UK Albums Chart entry; the album also became her second entry on the midweek chart, and debuted atop the UK's Dance Albums Chart.

Personnel
Musicians
 * Nia Archives – vocals (all tracks), drum programming (tracks 1–3, 6–10, 12, 13)
 * Ethan P. Flynn – keyboards, synthesizer (tracks 1–4, 6–12); electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6–9, 11), bass guitar (1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12), synth bass (1, 3, 6, 7, 10–12), acoustic guitar (2–4, 7), organ (2, 3, 9), slide guitar (2), clavichord (3, 4, 7, 9), Mellotron (6), bouzouki (7), piano (8, 10–12), background vocals (8)
 * Nathan Boddy – programming (tracks 1, 4, 7, 9, 12)
 * Felix Stephens – cello (track 9)
 * Ed Thomas – guitar (track 13)

Technical
 * Nia Archives – production (all tracks), music production (track 4)
 * Ethan P. Flynn – production, engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–12)
 * Jakwob – production (track 13), mixing (5, 13)
 * Matt Colton – mastering (tracks 1–4, 6–12)
 * Foundry Mastering – mastering (track 5)
 * Stuart Hawkes – mastering (track 13)
 * Nathan Boddy – mixing (tracks 1–12); music production (1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12)
 * Lilian Nuthall – mixing assistance (tracks 1–4, 6–12)