“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 new jack swing cuts. NGL finds JoJo unbound by others’ expectations; the anxiety-riddled “Too Much to Say” frames her declarations of being “imperfect but a real thing” in insistent guitar licks, while on the skittering “Porcelain” she explores her voice’s highest reaches as she notes how any troubles she’s had in the past have only made her more resilient in the present. The EP’s genre-shifting, which includes a stripped-down piano reimagining of “Porcelain,” shows how they’ve also made her more curious and confident as an artist. Once tied up in label red tape, she’s now free to use her voice in any context she deems appropriate, whether it’s the TRL-era throwback confection “Ready to Love” or the stretched-out sunshine-soul cut “One Last Time.” On NGL, JoJo is calling the shots with intention and honesty—as well as the pop savvy she displayed as a young teen on the come-up.