The Crux of Djo’s Recent Album
By Catherine Murphy
Whether you know how to pronounce his stage name or not, actor and musician Joe Keery, Djo (it's just Joe, by the way), was all the internet could talk about in the summer of 2024. Post Animals band member turned Stranger Things star turned breakout artist Keery has had a wildly successful career. Although he had long gained acting fame, it wasn't until TikTok got hold of his 2022 song "End of Beginning" that Djo's music hit the mainstream. This nostalgic song about returning to Chicago came from his sophomore album, and seemingly all at once, it was everywhere: the background to edits for The Bear, Shameless, and even Keery's own show. Whatever your Chicago was, you knew that feeling of being back in the home where a different version of yourself once existed.
With all this popularity, every indie music fan was waiting to see where he’d go next. Moving away from the synth and electronic pulse of his 2022 album Decide, The Crux brings a mellow 70s feel with sonic references to modern bands like LCD Soundsystem and The Strokes.
Starting with "Lonesome Is A State of Mind," Djo begins the album with an honest chronicling of life after a heartbreak. Straight out of the gate, he's admitting this person he thought was a life partner is far from it. His life is changing day by day, and it's not turning out the way he expected. The all too familiar feeling of trying to override your sadness as he declares lonesome is nothing more than a state of mind. A state he’s trying to leave in the past.
This breakup ballad flows into the album's first single, "Being Basic," where Djo explores the paradox of putting all your efforts into staying relevant while trying to exude effortlessness. He's long expressed his qualms with social media in songs like "Runner," and his contempt continues into his newest album. He pokes fun at the “cheugy-phobe” trend seekers so desperate to differentiate themselves, yet they still end up like everyone else.
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Track four from the album "Potion" is reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac. Keery himself referred to the song as "your favorite pair of blue jeans"; "it's kind of like if Harry Nilsson and Lindsey Buckingham had a baby." It catches you right away with this jangle and easy guitar picking. The heavily acoustic performance is the perfect vehicle for Djo to share that he's looking for love everywhere he goes, in his alphabet soup cup, and under his thumb, and he’s still coming up short.
The second single release, "Delete Ya," evokes an Eternal Sunshine desire to forget. Despite his best attempts, the memory of a former love stays at the forefront of his mind, and nothing can quite compare. Realizing this deletion is never coming, the song ends abruptly with the line, "one heart could bleed for the future us if we were young, but this is us." Maybe if he could rewind the clock, things would work out, but he knows he can't.
The album's standout comes in the form of track six. Although in "Being Basic," Djo addresses the irony in everyone trying not to be like everyone else, "Egg" opens up on his own insecurities about being un-special. He realizes that there's a certain way he's "supposed" to be. But "Egg" is about more than that. It's cracking out of the shell you're supposed to be and becoming who you are.
If "Potion" draws inspiration from the early Beatles, "Charlie's Garden" evokes their later psychedelic catalog. Referencing and even featuring Stranger Things costar Charlie Heaton, track eight is the most playful from the album and fittingly so. Djo sings about avoiding his responsibilities, pushing them off for one more day in Charlie's garden.
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The album couldn't ask for a better final and titular song than "Crux." Djo ends by repeatedly encouraging you to "get back to your heart, but only if you give it back again." He's spent the last eleven tracks being honest about heartbreak and doubts, but he still feels a need to start anew, to keep trying.
It's obvious that despite finding such success on the internet, Djo has no interest in creating the next soundbite. He doesn't rely on meaningless hooks or catchy one-liners. He investigates the role of social media in his career, and there's a sliver of resentment about it. The album continues to dive into Djo's feelings on modern life, popular culture, and fame. The Crux is honest without fear of embarrassment or judgment. There's always been a confessional quality in Keery's music, but it becomes even more apparent stripped back from the electric instruments of Twenty Twenty and Decide.
