Aquaria (styled as AQUΛRIA) is the debut studio album by American record producer, singer-songwriter, rapper and musician Boots. In the United States, the album has charted at number 14 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart.

Boots came to worldwide attention in December 2013 when Beyoncé released her highly successful fifth studio album Beyoncé, for which BOOTS had written and produced several songs, including "Haunted", "Heaven" and "Blue".^[1] In May 2014, he released a mixtape titled WinterSpringSummerFall. In early 2015, he released a five-song EP Motorcycle Jesus, which served as a soundtrack album for a short film of the same title, directed by BOOTS.^[2]^[1] The release of his debut studio album Aquaria was announced by Columbia Records in a press release on August 20, 2015.^[2]

Aquaria has received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 17 reviews.^[3]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100^[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[4]
The Wall Street Journal	80/100 ^[5]
The Guardian	^[6]
The New York Times	80/100^[7]^[3]
NME	3/5^[8]
Clash	8/10^[9]
Pitchfork	5.9/10^[10]
Rolling Stone	^[11]

All tracks are written by Jordan Asher, except where noted

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Brooklyn Gamma"	3:20
2.	"C.U.R.E."	2:55
3.	"Oraclies"	3:55
4.	"Bombs Away"	3:26
5.	"I Run Roulette"	3:48
6.	"Gallows"	1:41
7.	"Aquaria" (featuring Deradoorian) (written by Asher, Angel Deradoorian and Kirby Lauryen)	5:00
8.	"Earthquake"	3:01
9.	"Only"	4:16
10.	"Dead Come Running"	4:10
11.	"Still"	2:57

Credits adapted from AllMusic^[12]

Musicians

Boots – vocals, bass, clapping, drums, farfisa organ, guitar, juno, Korg M1, mouth bass, piano, timpani, toms
Carla Azar – drums
Matt Barrick – claves, djembe, drums, juno, toms
Nick Brown – drums
Anthony Coleman – horn
Haley Dekle – vocals, background vocals
Deradoorian – vocals
Jason Disu – horn
El-P – drums, synthesizer
Kirby Lauryen – background vocals
Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – Jupiter
Gabe Wax – electronics, guitar, moog synthesizer, synthesizer

Technical personnel

Boots – drum programming, engineering, mixing, production
Carla Azar – additional production
Matt Barrick – additional production
Mario Borgatta – mixing assistant
Martin Cook – assistant engineer
Rich Costey – mixing
El-P – additional production, engineering, production
Florian Etien – engineering
Nicolas Fournier – assistant engineer
Elliot Lee Hazel – photography
Joe LaPorta – mastering
Gabe Wax – additional production, production
Stuart White – additional production, mixing

^ ^a ^b Pareles, Jon (February 14, 2015). "After His Coup With Beyoncé, Boots Strides Out of the Shadows". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ ^a ^b "BOOTS TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM AQUARIA ON NOVEMBER 13th, 2015 VIA COLUMBIA RECORDS". Columbia Records. August 20, 2015. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Critic Reviews for Aquaria". Metacritic. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Yeung, Neil Z. (November 13, 2015). "Aquaria - Boots". AllMusic. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
^ Fusilli, Jim (November 11, 2015). "'Aquaria' by Boots Review". Wall Street Journal.
^ Gibsone, Harriet (November 12, 2015). "Boots: AQUΛRIA review – former Beyoncé producer goes doomy rap-rock". The Guardian. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Pareles, Jon (November 11, 2015). "Aquaria a Dark Debut Album by Boots". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Bassett, Jordan (November 11, 2015). "NME Reviews - Boots – 'Aquaria'". NME. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Rivers, Joe (October 28, 2015). "BOOTS - AQUΛRIA". Clash. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Tolentino, Jia (November 3, 2015). "Boots: AQUARIA | Album Reviews". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Dolan, Jon (December 2, 2015). "Boots Aquaria Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ "Aquaria - Boots | Credits". AllMusic.
^ "Boots – Chart history". Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums for Boots. Retrieved March 17, 2016.