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Photo by Maxine Bowen

With a doctor as a father you’d suppose it’d be easy for NERIAH to diagnose bad boys, bad lovers and bad deeds, but it didn’t come easy, and the ailments compounded. Possibly self-sacrificial behavior – because her fanbase rabidly consumed her forays and follies – the heart heaving and wrenching that leads to a very familiar part of new romances: the reason to hate you. On her EP of that same name, NERIAH gives us more reasons to love her, pivoting greatly in scope and lyrical content, evolving beyond the procedural variations to her earlier work where we worried greatly about her love interests, to one where we see an independent, driven woman, stitching prior wounds with mellifluous effect & perspective.

The whole work is a cohesive journey about change, directed by your own choices, not to meet someone else needs. It's a self-discovery record that captures a transformative year for her, revelatory to its author and now its audience. Beginning with "Spring Cleaning," with guitar driven verses leading to a slow building pre-chorus, NERIAH leads us into a full power pop expulsion of bad energy – an eye-opening start to a record cementing its dynamic purpose. Followed by a song NERIAH admits was boundary pushing for her, "Rocket Science" preludes even more evolution in her love of dark ballads. "Illiterate" touches on country, rhythmically pacing with lighter, airy verses contesting the feeling of being misunderstood.  That feeling is continued on "Good Enough," but bottled into a very NERIAH-sounding piano lead ballad.

On the EP namesake, "Reason to Hate You," the depth and equilibrium becomes pressurized with swirling rhythms and synths, a fresh start before shifting to the lead single, "Gone Girl." This one is a big pop tune about owning feelings when someone is disowning you: a blow your hair back in the wind song about finding relief in embracing mischief. Ending on a song that nails the moment, "Perfect Goodbye" is a suspenseful, guitar strumming wave to the past, a way to end bad vibes and leave the audience on a high note.

Confirming that she only hates three people IRL, this EP is a full purge, a smart artist wrestling and winning over those mistakes, and welcoming in a cast of new characters and feelings into her repertoire. On Reason to Hate You NERIAH has crafted a wondrous work that will only deepen with repeat spins, and frankly gives us more reasons to love her.