Ever since Joshua Baraka caught mainstream attention with 2023’s “NANA,” the singer has become an avatar for a new generation of East African musicians working through their knotty emotions over iridescent R&B and Afropop-inspired instrumentals. Born and raised in Kampala’s famous Bwaise slum, Baraka has a lifetime of feelings to confront and make peace with, as he displayed across previous EPs including 2023’s Growing Pains and Recess (2024). Baraka’s debut album Juvie—an ambitious narration of his journey to young manhood—stays faithful to the Ugandan star’s heartfelt approach, adding to his quest to understand how seemingly innocuous experiences can shape the tenor of life. “You might never believe the things I’ve seen/I’ve never felt like I fit in/One of one there’ll never be another me,” Baraka soulfully sings on “One of One,” a gospel-inflected opener that sets the stage for an album filled with the singer’s ponderous thoughts on hope, desire, and heartbreak. Across Juvie, Baraka remains candid, whether reveling in youthful exuberance on “Still Young” or working through the motions of coming to terms with his fame on “Morocco.” When he approaches matters of the heart, he does so with a heightened level of sensitivity, requesting a lover to meet him on common ground on the Bien-assisted “State of My Heart” before gently letting her down due to his inadequacies on “Sorry.” Executive produced by British Ghanaian producer JAE5, Juvie is an expansive listen hinged on rolling percussions and thinned-out reverbs that allow Baraka to dig deep into himself to ask all the questions that need answering. “Who can you love if you don’t love yourself?” he wonders on “Wrong Places,” before taking stock of how easily he finds himself falling for different people on “So Low.”